SRINAGAR: Actor-politician Urmila Matondkar on Tuesday joined the Congress’s Bharat Jodo Yatra in Jammu and Kashmir. Rahul Gandhi is leading the foot march, which is now in its last phase.
“When stars join, the journey becomes brighter,” the grand old party tweeted in Hindi.
Ever since the party’s march started in September, many prominent faces – outside of the Congress – have been a part of the grand old party’s foot march. Actors, including Pooja Bhatt, former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan, veteran army officers have walked alongside Rahul Gandhi. In Delhi, Kamal Haasan joined the foot march last month.
Urmila Matondar also posted a video on social media that showed her walking with Gandhi. “Walk for Unity, Affinity, Equality and Fraternity (sic),” she tweeted.
Before the march, she posted a video message, where she can be heard saying: “In this winter chill, I am addressing you from Jammu. In a short while from now, I will be joining the Yatra. Indian unity is the spirit that has been carried along during this Yatra. All of us have created this India and we have to help it grow. For me, this Yatra is more for the society than politics. The world is functional with love, not hate,” she can be heard saying in the clip.
Throughout the Kanyakumari to Kashmir Yatra, Rahul Gandhi has been saying that his party aims to counter the hatred spread by the ruling party in an attack on the BJP and the RSS. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, however, on Sunday had said that “India is not broken that it needs Congress to unite it”.
On Monday, Rahul Gandhi met Kashmiri Pandits and also raised the issue of statehood during one of the addresses.
Mumbai: The Congress on Monday demanded Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari, who has expressed the desire to quit, be sacked by the President and not allowed to quit while the Shiv Sena (UBT) faction took a dig saying “better late than never”.
The Congress and NCP, both members of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) along with Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) faction, also said Koshyari should have written to the President to discharge him of all responsibilities if he believed the position of the governor is Constitutional and not political one.
Koshyari, who has been in the line of Opposition fire over his remarks on Chhatrapati Shivaji and shared a tumultuous relationship with the Opposition, on Monday said he has expressed a desire before Prime Minister Narendra Modi to quit the post.
Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole alleged when MVA was in power (from November 2019 to June 2022), Koshyari’s conduct and mentality as the governor was to break the Constitutional order.
“Instead of writing a letter to the President to whom the position of governor is connected, Koshyari wrote a letter to the Prime Minister. He should not be relieved of his responsibilities but sacked from the post,” Patole told reporters.
He alleged Koshyari made objectionable statements against icons like Chhatrapati Shivaji, Savitribai Phule, Jyotiba Phule and Babasaheb Ambedkar and has turned the Raj Bhavan into a Bharatiya Janata Party office.
He said the Congress has been insisting on the removal of the governor over his controversial statements but the BJP was in agreement with the governor’s opinion.
“We request the President that the governor should be expelled. Do not let him go voluntarily,” he added.
Shiv Sena (UBT) leader and spokesperson Arvind Sawant said Koshyari cannot be absolved of his extra-Constitutional acts.
Sawant questioned the basis on which the governor had administered the oath to an “extra-Constitutional” chief minister, a reference to CM Eknath Shinde, last June.
“It is better late than never,” Sawant said.
NCP spokesperson Clyde Crasto tweeted, “Hon’ble Governor of Maharashtra Mr. Bhagat Singh Koshyari ji surely knows that the position of a Governor is constitutional and not political. If he believed so, he would have written to the Hon’ble President of India to discharge him of all his constitutional responsibilities”.
SRINAGAR: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday said his party will put all its force into the restoration of Jammu and Kashmir’s (J&K) statehood.
“There is no bigger issue than your statehood. Your right has been snatched by the Centre and Congress will use all its might to restore it,” said Gandhi while addressing a gathering in the Satwari area of Jammu.
Jammu and Kashmir lost its statehood on August 5, 2019, when the Centre scrapped its special status under Article 370 of the Constitution and split the state into two Union Territories.
Gandhi also accused the government of doing injustice to Kashmiri Pandits in the Union Territory and asked Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha to apologise to the community for alms remarks.
“Today I met a delegation of Kashmiri Pandits who briefed me about various issues. They told me that when they went to meet LG, they were told not to seek alms. LG must realise, these people are seeking their rights, and apologise to the community,” Gandhi stated.
Many Kashmiri Pandit employees working under the prime minister’s package announced in 2008 are on strike in Jammu, demanding their relocation out of the Valley against the backdrop of targeted killings.
The former Congress president also said that during his Yatra in Jammu region, he met many people who told him that outsiders are being benefited by the government and locals have been deprived.
“Jammu and Kashmir is facing the highest percentage of unemployment in India. Educated people don’t have employment opportunities. Earlier, they had the option of joining the Indian Army, but now the BJP has brought the Agniveer scheme,” said Rahul Gandhi.
He said that the Agniveer scheme is weakening the Indian Army and Army personnel are against it.
“The unemployment is rising because the government is working only to benefit 2-3 industrialists,” he alleged.
On January 23, Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra started from Samba district’s Vijaypur and reached Jammu district in the afternoon where he was received by senior party leaders.
The Bharat Jodo Yatra will culminate in the Valley on January 30 with a mega public rally.
SRINAGAR: The Congress on Sunday said the ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ will follow the directions of the security agencies as the security of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is of topmost concern. The statement comes as Jammu witnessed twin blasts on Saturday that left many civilians injured.
“We are in touch with the security agency. Any suggestions from them will be followed. There can be no compromise when it comes to the security of Rahul Gandhi. His security is of topmost concern for us,” Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said in Kathua.
He said the party’s stand is clear on terrorism. “There should be no compromise in dealing with either the perpetrators or sponsors of terrorism,” Ramesh said.
Several Congress leaders on Sunday said they were concerned about the safety and security of Gandhi after the twin explosions in Jammu “as it raises a question mark on the security arrangements”.
“We accept that the security agencies are fully alert and are doing their job satisfactorily, but claims of the government that terrorism has been finished falls flat in the wake of such incidents,” a Jammu-based Congress leader said.
Gandhi’s ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ is arriving in Jammu on Monday. Jammu has been put on high alert following twin blasts in the city.
In response to statements made by the BJP where they asked the Congress to clarify its stand on the issue of Article 370, Ramesh said, “Article 370 is a very serious issue. As of now, the bigger issue is restoration of democratic processes in J&K, when elections will be held and Statehood restored. J&K has become an attached office of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).”
He said there is an “undeclared emergency in the country”. “An undeclared emergency is more dangerous than a declared emergency. The BJP has ended the spirit of democracy in the country,” he added.
Gandhi will address a rally in Jammu on Monday. He will celebrate Republic Day with locals in J&K’s Banihal area before heading for the Kashmir Valley. His Bharat Jodo campaign will conclude on January 30 in Srinagar. Several regional leaders have joined the yatra and more leaders from Kashmir are likely to join the yatra in the Valley.
New Delhi: The Congress alleged on Sunday that debt, unemployment and inequality have risen in the country under the Narendra Modi government and the debt on every Indian has increased by 2.53 times in the last nine years.
Congress spokesperson Gourav Vallabh said the astronomical increase in the government’s debt due to “Modinomics” has crushed the common people as the debt per Indian has increased from Rs 43,124 to Rs 1,09,373 since 2014.
Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi alleged that the “friends” of Prime Minister Modi kept “picking pockets” as the media diverted public attention.
“How did the wealth of the prime minister’s ‘favourite friend’ increase by eight times during the pandemic? How did the wealth of the prime minister’s ‘favourite friend’ increase by 46 per cent in one year? “The media kept diverting the attention of the public, while the ‘friends’ of the prime minister kept picking pockets. The earnings of the poor were stolen by ‘friends’,” Gandhi said in a tweet in Hindi.
Vallabh alleged that the economy has witnessed a K-shaped recovery under the BJP-led regime and asked why the debt per Indian saw a 2.53-time jump in the last nine years.
“From 1947 till March 31, 2014, the total debt of the Indian government increased to Rs 55.87 lakh crore. Why, in the last nine years, it grew to Rs 155.31 lakh crore, a jump of 2.77 times? “Why is the money borrowed just helping in a K-shaped recovery, with 50 per cent of the population owning three per cent of the country’s total wealth and ending up paying 64 per cent of the GST collected?” he asked at a press conference here.
“The Modi government is burying our future generations in debt. The debt per Indian increased from Rs 43,124 to Rs 1,09,373 in the last nine years. The debt per Indian has become 2.53 times higher than what it was in 2014, in the last nine years of the Modi government,” Vallabh alleged.
He said in absolute terms, the debt per Indian has increased by Rs 66,249 in the last nine years.
According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), for 2022, India’s debt to GDP was 83 per cent, far above other emerging markets and developing economies that have an average debt of 64.5 per cent, the Congress leader said.
He cited figures of the outstanding internal and external debt and other liabilities of the Indian government.
Vallabh said according to the Oxfam report, the wealthiest five per cent in India own more than 60 per cent of the country’s wealth, while the bottom half of the population (50 per cent) together share just three per cent of the wealth.
On the other side, 64 per cent of the Rs 14.83 lakh crore collected in Goods and Services Tax (GST) came from the bottom 50 per cent of the population, with only three per cent of the amount coming from the top 10 per cent.
“The above borrowing is just helping in a K-shaped recovery, with some sectors doing well but not others. The (COVID-19) pandemic hit the middle-and-low-income groups and small and medium industries harder. As a result, the growth in consumption (Private Final Consumption Expenditure or PFCE) fell from 25.9 per cent in the first quarter (Q1) of financial year 2022-23 to 9.7 per cent in the second quarter (Q2).
To a question on the government blocking access to a BBC documentary on the 2002 Godhra riots, Vallabh said, “There is a scheme of the government of India called ‘Block in India’, like ‘Make in India’, ‘Startup India’. The government does not want difficult questions to be asked. If the BBC headquarters were in Delhi, the ED (Enforcement Directorate) might have been at their doorsteps by now.”
Chandigarh: Chandigarh Youth Congress on Friday took out a candle march at Sukhna Lake in Chandigarh to support the wrestler’s protest at Jantar Mantar. They demanded immediate action on the matter.
Youth Congress leader Manoj Lubana said, “Prime Minister Narendra Modi must say something on this matter.”
“Whenever these players bring medals for the country, the Prime Minister congratulates them by tweeting, and today when they are demanding justice, the Prime Minister is silent,” added Lubana.
“Why is there no investigation team till now?” said one of the Youth Congress members during the candle march.
The protesters claimed the government should immediately dismiss the head of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) from his position.
Chandigarh Mahila Congress President Deepa Dubey while talking to ANI questioned the silence of the Central government and the Haryana government on the entire issue.
She claimed, “This means that the daughters are not safe anywhere. It doesn’t matter what they do or where they go.”
Wrestlers in Jantar Mantar have been protesting against the sexual harassment inflicted upon majorly women wrestlers by the members of the federation.
JAMMU: Senior BJP leader Devender Singh Rana said the Congress has become the B-team of soft separatist, Kashmir centric and communal Peoples’ Alliance for Gupkar Delegation (PAGD) with Rahul Gandhi furthering its cause as a foot-soldier.
“The Congress does not seem to have learned any lesson from its repeated follies as the fourth generation Nehru-Gandhi scion is now hobnobbing with soft-separatists, known for their divisive, communal and separatist politics ,” Rana said while interacting with delegations that called on him here this afternoon.
He held the Congress responsible for decades long mess in Jammu and Kashmir, saying the party and its new found allies are destined to fail, as the BJP is committed to clear the mess and put Jammu and Kashmir on the path of political stability and prosperity.
Devender Rana said the beginning of undoing the wrongs commenced on August 5, 2019 when Parliament repealed the Article 370, granting special status to this part of the country, and making it integral with the nation emotionally and in totality. He said the onus now lies on the Congress to clear its stand on this historic milestone, especially in the wake of its alliance with the PAGD, which has made known its opposition to total integration of J&K with the Dominium of India.
Devender Rana said, as if the follies and erroneous political moves of Jawaharlal Nehru in respect of Jammu and Kashmir were not enough, Rahul Gandhi has embarked upon the ‘Mission Break India’ under the garb of “Bharat Jodo Yatra” , which is reflected by his controversial alliances with elements inimical to peace and tranquility. By joining hands with the PAGD, the Congress has allowed itself to get consumed by their politics of deceit and deception, he added.
“It is because of the policy paralysis and wrong decision from time to time that the Congress is on the verge of its extinction in the entire country,” Devender Rana said, adding that the plight of the so-called grand old party is that it is losing its ground in the length and breadth of the country.
Rana said the people of Jammu and Kashmir can see through the political opportunism of the trio—the Congress, the NC and the PDP, who are desperate to grab power by hook and crook. The trauma with the three parties is that they are no more relevant in the political arena of Jammu and Kashmir, given their trail of misgovernance and anti-people policies. On the contrary, the BJP has created a niche for itself due to path breaking initiatives taken for welfare of the people and progress of the both regions of Kashmir and Jammu. He said the Union Territory is close to the heart of the Prime Minister, who has a vision for Naya J&K, where opportunities of progress are available to all, irrespective of region or religion, and without any discrimination or appeasement.
Rana referred to the initiatives taken for holistic development being undertaken across Jammu and Kashmir with focus on investments for growth and job generation. He said the time is not far when the gains of investment will be discernible in terms of infrastructural development and avenues of jobs to professionals, educated unemployed besides skilled and unskilled workforce.
Democratic Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez was a stunning winner in the 2022 midterms. The millennial auto shop owner flipped a Washington district that both the state and national Democratic parties considered unwinnable.But then incumbent Jamie Herrera Beutler, who had voted to impeach Donald Trump, came in third in the state’s open primary. Suddenly, Gluesenkamp Perez, 34, was facing off against a Donald Trump-backed Republican in the solidly red district. Despite the long odds that national pundits and pollsters gave her throughout the campaign, she beat Joe Kent, an election-denier and regular guest on Tucker Carlson, by less than one point.Her district stretches more than 230 miles across (about the distance from D.C. to New York) — from remote beach communities on the Pacific Coast to timber towns in the Cascade mountains, and south past dairy and berry farms to the rapidly growing city of Vancouver. It’s a middle-class district where about a quarter of residents are college graduates, and the median income is just under the national median household income of $70,784.
I met up with Gluesenkamp Perez for lunch at Charlie Palmer Steakhouse in D.C. — its white tablecloths and suit-clad patrons casting a stark contrast with the antler-forward decor and outdoor gear of the other Washington’s eateries. I wanted to learn more about how she plans to represent her largely middle-class district (where I had grown up) and what Democrats could learn from her unexpected win. Over a steak salad — rare — Gluesenkamp Perez gave a bracing critique of her party’s deeply out-of-touch approach to the middle class, why the party’s leaders seem to be making that problem worse, not better, and how closing the widening gap between the party’s brain trust and its blue-collar roots can be accomplished by reconnecting Americans with our lost ability to “fix your own shit.”
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Natalie Fertig: You’re part of a 200-plus person Democratic caucus. How do you see yourself creating an understanding of the middle class in that caucus and getting middle-class laws passed?
Marie Gluesenkamp Perez: It feels like the Democratic Party, especially wealthy leadership in the Democratic Party, has taken it upon themselves to be champions of the poorest of the poor. And I think that’s great, but I think that it has left a lot of people in the middle class feeling like people don’t understand the issues we’re facing. I think it’s left unaddressed a lot of really critical things that are not glamorous, lionized issues, but that beat the hell out of people’s will to persist. The indignity of supply chain problems. Catalytic converter theft. Bad infrastructure. Shit roads.
Fertig: I’m laughing at the catalytic converter theft, because I feel like that’s like all my dad was talking about when I was home over the summer.
Gluesenkamp Perez: Oh, yeah. I replaced hundreds of catalytic converters last year. It’s like $40 worth of platinum, and it’s a $1,300 repair. That just eviscerated so many people’s emergency funds all across the district.
Fertig: Crime was something that so many people [in District 3] talked about, and is something that you talked about. Why do you think that was an important issue in this election?
Gluesenkamp Perez: It’s relevant to our lives. I had my [shop] windows broken four times last year. So yeah, I’m pissed off. I’m going to talk about it, you know? It’s a grind, and it gets expensive and demoralizing. I think that for a lot of people that sort of live in these silos, they are not as cognizant of it. And I think maybe that’s why it was not more of a campaign issue for more people.
Fertig: What do you mean by people living in silos?
Gluesenkamp Perez: A lot of candidates are self-funded people with trust funds.
Fertig: I see that, too. Like, what is it like to pay student loans? Even amongst my colleagues here in D.C. — not everyone has the same experiences.
Gluesenkamp Perez: Yeah. Like, “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nl_Qyk9DSUw&ab_channel=heyitsadriann" target="_blank" link-data="{"linkText":"It‘s a banana, Michael","link":{"target":"NEW","attributes":[],"url":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nl_Qyk9DSUw&ab_channel=heyitsadriann","_id":"00000185-d1ed-d674-abbd-d9ff40d20000","_type":"33ac701a-72c1-316a-a3a5-13918cf384df"},"_id":"00000185-d1ed-d674-abbd-d9ff40d20001","_type":"02ec1f82-5e56-3b8c-af6e-6fc7c8772266"}”>It’s a banana, Michael, what could it cost? $20?”
Fertig: So, we talk a lot about the great relocation of Democrats to cities and Republicans to rural areas, but you just flipped a district that is majority rural. Carolyn Long tried this twice [in 2018 and 2020] and failed. What was different this time around?
Gluesenkamp Perez: I think I look more like the district. I live like the district. [And] obviously not running against Jamie [Herrera Beutler] was a huge part of it, you know?
I don’t think that your traditional pedigreed Democrats are the solution to Trump extremism. I think that a lot of these traditional Democrats, the m.o. is to go into a community and start explaining shit. Nobody likes that. I’ve heard that so often: I’ll go to an urban community, and people will be like, “Oh, like this candidate was amazing. They are so smart.” And then I’ll go to a rural community and talk to them about the same candidate. And they’ll say: “Yeah, they’re pedantic and they don’t understand. They didn’t listen to us.”
Fertig: Do you feel like the things that made success in your district are very specific to you and your district, or do you think there’s a model there that Democrats could use in other rural districts?
Gluesenkamp Perez: We need more and more normal people to run for Congress. We need more people that work in the trades.
When I was thinking about running, I interviewed some jackass, fancy consultant. I told him about myself, and he was like, “Well, I’ve worked with worse.” When I said I had a son, he chortled, and was like, “Hope you don’t want to see your kid again.”
He told me to talk to the governor and see if I could get appointed to some committee on aging and disability, or something like that, and build up a resume that would allow me to run successfully later on.
I’m just like, “How many other women has that happened to, you know these jackass men telling them not to run?” And I’m like, “Well, I guess you’re the expert, you’re wearing the suit.”
Fertig: I know that the DCCC didn’t give you any money. I know that the state party basically didn’t notice [you] until after the primary. What are they missing — besides normal candidates — what are they missing about those voters who are in those districts?
Gluesenkamp Perez: Frankly, I think there’s a lot of lip service to wanting people in the trades, rural Democrats. They say it because it sounds good, but I’m not sure that there is an actual commitment to it.
Fertig: What would that look like? Would that be going out and recruiting candidates like that?
Gluesenkamp Perez: Recruitment is certainly part of it, but the things that would get you on the radar are not the same things that make you relevant to voters.
Fertig: What do you think are the things that get someone on the radar?
Gluesenkamp Perez: Being a good fundraiser. Being from the right family. Living in the right city. I think self-recruitment is important.
Fertig: Why did you decide to run?
Gluesenkamp Perez: I saw Jamie not making it through. When I thought I was gonna have to run against Jamie for a few days after the primary, I was moping around the house. I got in this race to stop a fascist. And because I believe in public service. It’s not that I think I’m God’s gift to politics. I just think I had the community resources to run. I think I have a compelling narrative, a good perspective.
I just want more tradespeople in Congress. I run into people here, I’m like, “Oh, your bio says you’re a small business owner. What’s your business?” They’re like “Oh, we have a family real estate brokerage firm.” Oh, okay. Sure. Yeah, technically, you have less than 500 employees. So you are a small business.
Fertig: You mentioned that you really were not excited about the premise of running against [Herrera Beutler]. Why?
Gluesenkamp Perez: Because I was not going to win that race, and it would be a huge investment of time and energy pointed at someone that I don’t think was the problem.
Fertig: Obviously, you and [Herrera Beutler] have different perspectives on things like abortion. Even despite that, why do you not think she was the problem?
Gluesenkamp Perez: Well, because Jamie and I share a basic reality of facts. Which increasingly is hard to find.
Fertig: Which facts?
Gluesenkamp Perez: Who our elected president is. What it means to be a traitor.
Fertig: What are those issues that you see being the key ones that people are responding to that Congress can do?
Gluesenkamp Perez: We have to start rebuilding the American workforce. We’re all part of the generation where the best trade schools got turned into computer programming schools. Now we’re all on waitlists to see an electrician, plumber or carpenter. Those are the jobs that can’t get offshored — that’s the long-term economic health of our country. So, support for career and technical education programs is key. Ensuring that you can use Pell Grants not just for two- and four-year colleges, but also for apprenticeship programs.
That is one of the key elements of “right to repair” [laws]. You have to have stuff to fix. I think this is actually one of the most critical things you can do right now. Because you nip this in the bud, and you can prevent decades of work [erosion].
Fertig: Tell me a little bit more about “right to repair” laws and how they affect District 3 specifically.
Gluesenkamp Perez: Auto manufacturers have started installing, almost like governor chips on their tractors. So if you don’t have the digital key to unlock it, and you mess with the engine, they can lock you out. And there was a specific model of tractor that all had this, and it was a relatively new technology at the time, and all these tractors broke down at the same time. And the problem, specifically in agriculture, is that you only have a couple of days to cut hay when it’s maximally nutritive. Then the seed head starts falling off of it and the hay is worthless at that point. So these tractors all break down, there are not enough dealerships to service these tractors, and millions of dollars in hay are lost. And understandably, these farmers come out with pitchforks.
Fertig: Literally and metaphorically.
Gluesenkamp Perez: Correct. And so that’s kind of the genesis of “right to repair.” But it’s not just ag equipment. It’s also like your iPhone. You should be able to replace the battery in your phone without breaking the whole thing. I think it’s a much broader cultural issue of like, “Are Americans gonna be disempowered from understanding the technology they rely on?” We’re more and more surrounded by these black boxes that we have no influence over.
I think it’s the American ethos that we know how to fix shit. DIY is part of our DNA.
[We’re] becoming increasingly disenfranchised from the technology we rely on, being pointed more and more towards a permanent class of renters and not ownership. And it’s really terrible for the middle class. I’ve never bought a new car in my life. I rely on people having maintained their cars. And the new BMWs, for instance, don’t even have a dipstick. It’s like “Don’t worry about it, just buy a new one,” and it’s terrible for the planet. It’s terrible for the middle class. And I think it’s bad for our identity.
Fertig: Energy is obviously a big issue [with the] Columbia River, hydro-power and climate change. But how does that boil down for the district and middle-class people?
Gluesenkamp Perez: We’ve turned environmentalism into another brand of consumerism. Go buy a Tesla, you’re an environmentalist. I think being an environmentalist is being able to fix your own shit, like stopping an oil leak from going in the river, getting 500,000 miles out of your Honda Civic. The middle class has kind of been made to feel like [environmentalism is] a luxury good. That if you’re wealthy, you can have good air quality, and you can afford to breastfeed your baby instead of using formula.
One of the things that I’m really concerned about, that I think is relevant to my district, is microplastics. They’re everywhere. Literally, they’re finding them in placentas. And I believe that the solution to microplastics in many cases is cardboard and paper. We have to start replacing plastic products with cardboard, paper, wood — especially with packaging. We happen to make a lot of paper and cardboard in southwest Washington. The woods are a hot mess, we need to thin out the woods. That is not lumber, that is what you make paper out of.
Fertig: Right. My parents were in the evacuation zone [for the Nakia Creek fire] for a hot second in October, and that was really freaky.
Gluesenkamp Perez: I was over in Pacific County, which is as far as I can get from my house and still be in the district. I gave a speech, and I get an emergency alert on my phone: “It’s time to leave.” So I was like, “Oh, fuck!” and everyone just looks at me.
Fertig: Did you end up evacuating?
Gluesenkamp Perez: We packed up, but we didn’t end up leaving. You could see the glow. My husband — who’s very chill — was like, “It’s a ridge away, we don’t need to evacuate.” I’m like, “I don’t want to evacuate the baby at two o’clock in the morning.”
Fertig: I enjoyed your campaign ads when you were putting firewood [in the stove]. That was very relatable.
Gluesenkamp Perez: For our district. But for so many people — it’s like, you feel like a spectacle all the time. “Look at this rural woman with her baby, chopping.”
Fertig: I know you are surprised that people are focusing on your district. Do you think there’s a big takeaway for the Democratic Party?
Gluesenkamp Perez: Support normal people. People are hungry for a Congress that looks like America. It’s not rocket science. It’s about listening to your district. It’s a rebuke of facile allegiance to statistics. Numbers on their own represent nothing without an understanding of the landscape.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
Several state and local Congress leaders, including Dharampal Thakur Khand, the former general secretary of the Pradesh Congress Committee, joined the BJP on Monday, just days before the Himachal Pradesh assembly elections.
With four days left before the vote, a total of 26 leaders of the opposition Congress party defected and joined the governing BJP, news agency ANI reported.
With less than a week till voting, this comes as a huge shock to the Congress party.
The leaders left the boat in front of Chief Minister Jairam Thakur and the BJP’s Sudhan Singh, who was in charge of the party’s state elections. Sanjay Sood, a Shimla-based BJP candidate, was also present.
All BJP members were cordially welcomed by Chief Minister Jairam Thakur.
Let’s cooperate to ensure the BJP’s historic win, he urged.
Prior to the Himachal assembly elections, BJP national president JP Nadda professed confidence in the party’s victory and said that the state’s residents have faith in Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
He praised Chief Minister Jairam Thakur for leading the election-bound state and said that he put policies into practise.
In his comments to the media in Solan, Himachal Pradesh, he said, “In Solan, we’re running a public outreach programme. People are enthusiastic and trust PM Modi. State policies have been put into practise by CM Jairam Thakur.”
Voting in Himachal will take place on November 12; the results will be tallied on December 8.
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