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Tag: plays

  • Trump plays the inside game to stave off ’16-like convention chaos

    Trump plays the inside game to stave off ’16-like convention chaos

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    Cruz ended up performing better than expected in the state’s delegate fight. And after the imbroglio, Trump brought in veteran Republican strategist Paul Manafort as part of an effort to bring a level of professionalism to his delegate operation. In the years since, he has told advisers: “I won the primary but lost the delegates.” And when he sat down with the Louisiana Republican Party leaders, the story of that delegate fight with Cruz was among the topics discussed, according to a person familiar with the conversation.

    Now engaged in another delegate battle, Trump has been aggressively courting party leaders — in Louisiana and elsewhere — who are expected to be delegates at the party’s 2024 convention in Milwaukee. He’s been dining with them at Mar-a-Lago, chatting them up at party events and offering them endorsements. The effort will intensify in the weeks to come, with Trump expected to make appearances at state party events that will be filled with future national delegates.

    The courtship illustrates Trump’s transformation as a presidential candidate — from the political newcomer of 2016 who oversaw a chaotic operation, to the experienced campaigner now playing the inside game.

    “They’re very organized very early. They’ve been in touch with us a number of times,” said Rhett Davis, a consultant to the Louisiana GOP. “President Trump is in a much better position in Louisiana than he was in 2016. He’s extremely strong here.”

    “No other presidential campaign or potential campaign has reached out to us,” Davis added.

    Presidential primaries and caucuses don’t elect candidates, they elect delegates. Whichever candidate wins a simple majority of those delegates at the national convention next year will become the nominee.

    While those delegates are bound to specific candidates at the beginning of the convention process, they can become unbound in the event of a contested convention or if their candidate releases them. That, in turn, makes them targets of wooing. State party leaders and others who are active in Republican politics typically become delegates — and Trump has lavished attention on them since leaving the White House.

    During Trump-hosted rallies ahead of the 2022 midterm election, local Republican Party chairs were frequently given speaking time, and last year the former president spoke remotely to a meeting of the South Carolina GOP executive committee. He also has placed full-page ads in Iowa Republican Party publications. And when Trump launched his 2024 bid, his first campaign stop was at a meeting of the New Hampshire Republican Party.

    Trump is also using the trappings of his gilded Mar-a-Lago estate to woo would-be delegates. In early March, the former president hosted roughly a dozen Nevada Republican Party leaders for a three-hour dinner. Over steaks and ice cream, Trump talked about the political landscape in the state, which traditionally hosts an early nominating contest.

    When Trump isn’t with future delegates in-person, he is finding other ways to reach them. When the Missouri Republican Party met in February, Trump called the state party chair, Nick Myers, who put the former president on speakerphone so he could address the audience.

    In Michigan, he has worked to ensure he is on smooth footing with Kristina Karamo, the state’s newly elected party chair. Trump had earlier endorsed a rival candidate in the February contest for Michigan Republican Party chair, but he personally congratulated Karamo when he saw her at the Conservative Political Action Conference in early March, according to a person familiar with the exchange.

    Trump has used his much-coveted endorsement as a tool to win over would-be delegates. Early this year, the former president provided his support to Caleb Heimlich during his successful race for reelection as Washington State GOP chair. And, last month, the former president dove into a more local race — endorsing Bruce Parks in his ultimately successful bid for the chairmanship of Nevada’s Washoe County GOP.

    Guiding Trump’s strategy is a team of advisers who are veterans of delegate fights. The group includes Brian Jack, Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita — all of whom played key roles in the 2016 national convention. Also on the team is Clayton Henson, who served in the Trump White House and on the former president’s 2020 reelection campaign. Much of Trump’s team was present at the Republican National Committee gathering in Dana Point, Calif. earlier this year, where they met with party officials from a number of states.

    Trump advisers believe their early outreach will give them a head start over rival candidates, who lack Trump’s long-standing connections to party officials.

    “The Trump campaign … has spent the last eight years fine tuning its unmatched operation,” said Steven Cheung, a Trump campaign spokesperson. “For any other campaign to think they can come even close to what President Trump has built is laughable and delusional.”

    What Trump’s campaign is trying to avoid is a rerun of the 2016 national convention, when Cruz waged a last-ditch effort to stop Trump from winning the nomination. While it ended up being unsuccessful, it was embarrassing to Trump.

    Many of Cruz’s top alum are now serving on a super PAC bolstering Trump’s chief primary rival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. The group includes former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, who in 2016 helped spearhead the anti-Trump push at the convention and at one point threw his credentials on the floor in protest.

    Erin Perrine, a spokesperson for the pro-DeSantis group, Never Back Down, declined to comment directly on the group’s plans to engage in delegate outreach, but accused Trump of taking part in “Washington insider games” that “show he’s become the swamp he once vowed to drain.”

    Still, there is little question, many state party leaders say, that Trump has a massive organizational head start over other candidates when it comes to wooing future delegates.

    Mike Brown, the chair of the Kansas Republican Party, said he has had extensive conversations with Trump advisers about the state’s political landscape.

    “They have done quite a bit in the way of staying in touch,” Brown said of the Trump campaign. “When it comes to the other campaigns, candidly, I haven’t heard from anybody.”



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    ( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

  • Meet Mohammad Rafee, the man with facial hemangioma, spinal injury ‘but’ plays nationals in wheelchair baskets

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    Jahangeer Ganaie

    Srinagar, Apr 17: At a time when most of the handicapped persons become a burden on their families or resort to begging, a man from Srinagar is inspiring hundreds of handicapped persons to stand on their own legs and live a better life.

    Mohammad Rafee (35) a resident of Lawaypora area of Srinagar despite being disabled has reached to national level in wheelchair basketball and started a general store to earn livelihood.

    Rafee while talking to news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO) that he was having facial hemangioma by birth and despite surgeries and other treatments, he wasn’t successful in any way to get relief from hemangioma.

    “I was already facing a lot of problems due to hemangioma and in 2010 during the construction of the house, I fell down from the roof of my house causing severe injuries to my spinal cord and confined my movement to bed only,” he said. “Later I visited Shafqat Rehabilitation Centre for around three years, where a wheelchair was bought for me following which I started using a wheelchair.”

    At rehabilitation centre he was introduced to fun games and later basketball following which he started learning basketball.

    “I started learning basketball and after playing at state level and in 2015, 1 along with 7 others went to chennai for a wheelchair basketball workshop and in the same year we participated for the first time for Nationals in Delhi,” he said.

    “I got an opportunity to play at national level five times that includes first national at Delhi in 2015 followed by Chennai 2016, Hyderabad 2017, Erode Tamil Nadu 2018 and Mohali Punjab 2019.”

    He said: “These tournaments were organised by Wheelchair basketball federation of India where teams won many medals.”

    “Currently I am working at my own general store at Lawaypora Srinagar so as to earn livelihood beside that I am working with an NGO to help and guide all those persons who are facing problems like me,” Rafi said.

    “I have been guiding such patients on how to get rid of bed sore, neurogenic pains and other issues as I have experienced such things,” he said. “I teach and try to help them in the reorientation of life after Disability. I also make them aware of appropriate assistive devices, home modifications, bedsores, and other different and associated problems they face.”

    He said persons having disabilities must accept their disability and they must understand that they too can live a rewarding life.”They must understand the purpose of life and work to fulfill their dreams, though their ways may be different,” he said—(KNO)

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    ( With inputs from : roshankashmir.net )

  • Poland’s Morawiecki plays Europe’s anti-Macron in Washington

    Poland’s Morawiecki plays Europe’s anti-Macron in Washington

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    There’s an Emmanuel Macron-shaped shadow hovering over this week’s U.S. visit by Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki.

    In contrast to the French president — who in an interview with POLITICO tried to put some distance between the U.S. and Europe in any future confrontation with China over Taiwan and called for strengthening the Continent’s “strategic autonomy” — the Polish leader is underlining the critical importance of the alliance between America and Europe, not least because his country is one of Kyiv’s strongest allies in the war with Russia.

    “Instead of building strategic autonomy from the United States, I propose a strategic partnership with the United States,” he said before flying to Washington.

    In the U.S. capital, Morawiecki continued with his under-the-table kicks at the French president.

    “I see no alternative, and we are absolutely on the same wavelength here, to building an even closer alliance with the Americans. If countries to the west of Poland understand this less, it is probably because of historical circumstances,” he said on Tuesday in Washington.

    Unlike France, which has spent decades bristling at Europe’s reliance on the U.S. for its security, Poland is one of the Continent’s keenest American allies. Warsaw has pushed hard for years for U.S. troops to be stationed on its territory, and many of its recent arms contracts have gone to American companies. It signed a $1.4 billion deal earlier this year to buy a second batch of Abrams tanks, and has also agreed to spend $4.6 billion on advanced F-35 fighter jets.

    “I am glad that this proposal for an even deeper strategic partnership is something that finds such fertile ground here in the United States, because we know that there are various concepts formulated by others in Europe, concepts that create more threats, more question marks, more unknowns,” Morawiecki said. “Poland is trying to maintain the most commonsense policy based on a close alliance with the United States within the framework of the European Union, and this is the best path for Poland.”

    Fast friends

    Poland has become one of Ukraine’s most important allies, and access to its roads, railways and airports is crucial in funneling weapons, ammunition and other aid to Ukraine.

    That’s helped shift perceptions of Poland — seen before the war as an increasingly marginal member of the Western club thanks to its issues with violating the rule of law, into a key country of the NATO alliance.

    Warsaw also sees the Russian attack on Ukraine as justifying its long-held suspicion of its historical foe, and it hasn’t been shy in pointing the finger at Paris and Berlin for being wrong about the threat posed by the Kremlin.

    “Old Europe believed in an agreement with Russia, and old Europe failed,” Morawiecki said in a joint news conference with U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris. “But there is a new Europe — Europe that remembers what Russian communism was. And Poland is the leader of this new Europe.”

    That’s why Macron’s comments have been seized on by Warsaw.

    GettyImages 1198372344
    According to Poland’s PM Mateusz Morawiecki, Emmanuel Macron’s talks of distancing the EU from America “threatens to break up” the block | Ludovic Marin/AFP via Getty Images

    “I absolutely don’t agree with President Macron. We believe that more America is needed in Europe … We want more cooperation with the U.S. on a partnership basis,” Marcin Przydacz, a foreign policy adviser to Polish President Andrzej Duda, told Poland’s Radio Zet, adding that the strategic autonomy idea pushed by Macron “has the goal of cutting links between Europe and the United States.”

    While Poland is keen on European countries hitting NATO’s goal of spending at least 2 percent of gross domestic product on defense — a target that only seven alliance members, including Poland, but not France and Germany, are meeting — and has no problem with them building up military industries, it doesn’t want to weaken ties with the U.S., said Sławomir Dębski, head of the state-financed Polish Institute of International Affairs.

    He warned that Macron’s talks of distancing Europe from America in the event of a conflict with China “threatens to break up the EU, which is against the interests not only of Poland, but also of most European countries.”



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    ( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )

  • Hungary’s Viktor Orbán plays spoilsport on NATO accession for Finland, Sweden

    Hungary’s Viktor Orbán plays spoilsport on NATO accession for Finland, Sweden

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    hungary viktor orban

    Hungary’s reputation as the troublemaker of Europe will be burnished on Wednesday as its parliament begins debating a contentious issue: whether to give Finland and Sweden the green light to join NATO.

    Along with Turkey, Hungary has yet to ratify the applications of Finland and Sweden to join the transatlantic defense alliance more than eight months after NATO leaders signed off on their membership bid at a summit in Madrid.

    While NATO members are more concerned about the potential of Turkey to stonewall accession for the Nordic countries — President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been blocking Sweden’s application, alleging that Stockholm is harboring Kurdish militants — the government of Viktor Orbán has also been dragging its heels on parliamentary approval for the process.

    Hungary’s ratification process will finally begin on Wednesday, with a debate due to kick off in the parliament in Budapest ahead of a vote — expected in the second half of March.

    But already, there are signs of trouble ahead.

    Máté Kocsis, head of Orbán’s nationalist Fidesz party caucus in parliament, said last week that a “serious debate” had now emerged over the accession of the two countries. Hungary now plans to send a delegation to Sweden and Finland to examine “political disputes” that have arisen.

    Orbán himself echoed such views. The Hungarian leader, who has an iron grip on his Fidesz party, said in an interview on Friday that “while we support Sweden and Finland’s accession to NATO in principle, we first need to have some serious discussions.”

    He pointed to Finland and Sweden’s previous criticism of Hungary’s record on rule-of-law issues, asserting that some in his party are questioning the wisdom of admitting countries that are “spreading blatant lies about Hungary, about the rule of law in Hungary, about democracy, about life here.”

    “How, this argument runs, can anyone want to be our ally in a military system while they’re shamelessly spreading lies about Hungary?”

    Orbán’s comments have confirmed fears in Brussels that the Hungarian leader could try to use his leverage over NATO enlargement to extract concessions on rule-of-law issues. 

    Finland and Sweden have been among the most critical voices around the EU table over rule-of-law concerns in Hungary, with Budapest still locked in a dispute with the European Union over the disbursal of funds due to Brussels’ protests over its democratic standards. 

    European Commission Vice-President Věra Jourová said earlier this month that Hungary must sort out the independence of its judiciary “very soon” if it wants to receive €5.8 billion in grants due from the EU’s COVID-19 recovery fund. 

    Helsinki and Stockholm have kept largely silent on the looming vote in Budapest, reflecting in part a reluctance to stir up controversy ahead of time.

    Sweden, in particular, has been treading a fine line with Turkey, seeking not to alienate Erdoğan even as allies now acknowledge the possibility of the two countries joining at different times — an apparent acceptance that Erdoğan could further hold up Sweden’s bid. 

    NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg visited Helsinki Monday, where Finland’s push to join the alliance topped the agenda. He urged both Turkey and Hungary to confirm the membership bids — and soon. 

    “I hope that they will ratify soon,” Stoltenberg said of the Hungarian parliament’s discussions. Asked if he was in contact with Hungary on the issue, he replied that it was a decision for sovereign national parliaments, adding: “The time has come. Finland meets all the criteria, as does Sweden. So we are working hard, and the aim is to have this in place as soon as possible.”



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    ( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )

  • Cong or Third Front? Nitish plays his cards close to his chest for 2024

    Cong or Third Front? Nitish plays his cards close to his chest for 2024

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    Patna: Despite the success of the Bharat Jodo Yatra, the opposition leaders in Bihar are not revealing their cards to either go with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi or the possible third front that Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekhar Rao is trying to form for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

    Bihar has a coalition government of seven parties headed by chief minister Nitish Kumar including deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav of the RJD and supported by the Congress, the Left, and Hindustani Awam Morcha.

    Nitish Kumar admits that challenging the Bharatiya Janata Party in 2024 would not be possible without Congress. Still, he is not completely sure about the leadership qualities of Rahul Gandhi despite the good response to the Bharat Jodo Yatra.

    He has also decided to send senior leader Lalan Singh to Telangana for the opening of the new Secretariat building and is trying to keep both options open. Nitish Kumar earlier advocated an all-parties meeting to prepare a common plan to challenge the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

    At present, KCR is giving an impression of a non-BJP, non-Congress regional parties alliance to strengthen their position in their states. The idea is to make their bargaining position stronger with the Congress party post the Lok Sabha polls in 2024. Nitish Kumar probably does not agree with this formula as the chances of a division of votes are strong and the BJP will take advantage of it. Hence, Kumar is taking a balanced approach at present.

    He is sending Lalan Singh as his representative to Hyderabad to keep the option open for a third front and is also waiting for the response of the Congress after the Bharat Jodo Yatra. The Telangana chief minister’s office has also confirmed that Bihar deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav is also coming to Hyderabad on February 17 for the inauguration of the new Secretariat building.

    After the formation of the Mahagathbandhan government in Bihar, Nitish Kumar had taken the initiative to unite the opposition parties. He visited Delhi and met leaders of the opposition parties including Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi. At that time, these two leaders had not given a robust response to Nitish Kumar. Even the photographs of Sonia Gandhi with Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad Yadav were not put in the public domain.

    This could be the reason why Nitish Kumar and Tejashwi Yadav were invited by the Congress party to participate in the flag hoisting ceremony at Lal Chowk in Srinagar after the conclusion of the Bharat Jodo Yatra but these two leaders neither went there nor sent their representatives.

    For the RJD, as it is part of the seven parties alliance, the political interests of Tejashwi Yadav are intertwined with Nitish Kumar. The RJD is considered very close to the Congress party and Sonia Gandhi and it will be interesting to see the developments when Lalu Prasad returns to Patna.

    RJD national vice-president Shivanand Tiwari said: “There is no doubt that the Bharat Jodo Yatra is a big success for Rahul Gandhi as well as the Congress party. They are now thinking that the Congress would become a serious option against the BJP. Rahul Gandhi, through Bharat Jodo Yatra, managed to shed his “Pappu image” foisted by the BJP.”

    Tiwari continued: “The people of the country are considering Rahul Gandhi as a serious leader but he himself and the Congress party are showing arrogance as well. Rahul Gandhi has said the thinking of regional parties would not become national. He has also taken the name of SP chief Akhilesh Yadav. Congress senior leader Jairam Ramesh said that the fulcrum of the opposition parties will be Congress in the 2024 Lok Sabha election. These statements have sent out the wrong signals to the regional parties.”

    The RJD leader noted that the “Congress is a national party in the country but it has to give respect to regional parties as well. If you comment like this, why would regional parties go to Srinagar? You have to respect the regional parties as well and bring them on one platform. The Congress has to understand why regional parties emerged in the states.”

    “There was a provision of reservation for OBCs in the Kelkar committee report in 1953 but the Congress party has not implemented it. Even in 1989, former PM Rajiv Gandhi spoke against the Mandal commission and then Vishwanath Pratap Singh had promised the Mandal commission implementation if he became the PM of the country. Then regional parties emerged in the country.”

    He concluded by saying: “The regional parties are demanding respect in their own state where they are in a strong position. They do not want seats in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh and other states. In the last 2020 assembly election in Bihar, the Congress had contested on 70 seats and won only 19. PM Narendra Modi was doing three rallies in a day and Rahul Gandhi did only two. This was an indication of how serious you were.”

    Ajit Sharma, Congress CLP leader in the Bihar Vidhan Sabha, told IANS: “The Congress party has only one motive and that is to unite the opposition parties in the country. Rahul Gandhi has got success through the Bharat Jodo Yatra. The Congress had invited leaders of the opposition parties to Srinagar but who came and who did not is a different thing. The regional parties may have their own political compulsions and hence they stayed away from it.”

    Sharma added: “The core issue in the country is price rise, unemployment, farmers issues which need to be addressed. The BJP is failing on these. PM Narendra Modi had promised two crore jobs every year and Rs 15 lakh cash in the bank account of every individual, where are those promises. Compare the current inflation with the UPA government. The Congress party believes in people centric policies.”

    Madan Mohan Jha, MLC and former state president of the Congress told IANS: “The party always thinks about uniting the opposition parties and it is doing it. As far as the Bharat Jodo Yatra is concerned, it was not a political Yatra of the Congress party.”

    “The BJP has created differences in the society and the Yatra was to unite the people of the country. So, those who are having an anti-BJP ideology, will come together in the future. The Congress party will also take the initiative as well.”

    Commenting on the matter, RJD national spokesperson Mritunjay Tiwari said: “Nitish Kumar is currently busy in the Samadhan Yatra and he has a pre-scheduled programme. Tejashwi Yadav has loads of work in Bihar. Hence, they did not go to Lal Chowk in Srinagar.”

    “The idea is to unite all opposition parties against the BJP. KCR is making efforts and so is Rahul Gandhi. The actual aim is to stop the BJP from coming back to power in 2024.”

    Nikhil Anand, national general secretary of the BJP’s OBC wing and one of the party’s national spokespersons, said: “Rahul Gandhi has completed his ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ which is basically a ‘Congress Jodo Yatra’, through which he wants to have larger acceptance among his partymen. The key opposition leaders have avoided joining his Yatra because they all know that if he had enough leadership talent and quality, why did he run away from accepting the Congress president’s post?”

    Continuing with his criticism, Anand added: “The other reason is that every opposition leader wants the other to come under their umbrella but no one is ready to follow suit and stand behind the other. The opposition leaders are now like many fused bulbs, who can’t match the magical light of PM Modi even if they are collected together. There is no match to the charismatic leadership of Narendra Modi in India.”

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    ( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

  • MP minister Narottam Mishra plays anchor role in bringing back Katni mayor to BJP

    MP minister Narottam Mishra plays anchor role in bringing back Katni mayor to BJP

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    Bhopal: At the function where Katni’s mayor (independent) joined the Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday, senior BJP leader and Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Narottam Mishra was seen playing the anchor’s role, which was indicative of a new task assigned to him ahead of the Assembly elections.

    Sources told IANS that during the State Working Committee meeting, which concluded last week at the party’s headquarters in Bhopal, Mishra was unofficially assigned the task to bring back the rebels into the BJP. Mishra was also given the role of strengthening the BJP cadres especially in regions where the party had lost in the 2018 Assembly elections.

    Katni’s mayor (Independent) Preeti Suri along with three independent municipal councillors joined the BJP in the presence of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and state BJP president V. D. Sharma on Monday. When Suri and the three councillors entered the BJP’s conference hall, they were guided by Narottam Mishra and Katni’s BJP MLA Sanjay Pathak.

    The strong political friendship between Mishra and Pathak has been a matter of discussion in the state unit of the BJP, especially since the duo had played a prominent role in delivering a setback to the Congress government in March 2020. The presence of both Mishra and Pathak during the Katni mayor’s joining was a clear indication that the duo played a role in bringing back Suri to the party.

    “Mishra’s presence during the independent mayor’s joining is clear evidence that he has started working on the task assigned to him. It is the first step, more such developments will happen soon. Several parties’ rebels will be joining the BJP soon,” said a source in the party.

    Suri, who won the mayoral seat as an independent candidate from Katni in July last year, is an ex-BJP leader. She was suspended from the party for six years due to anti-party activities a few years back. “Even though she (Preeti Suri) was out of the BJP for the last few years, but her heart was always with the party. We welcome her rejoining the party,” Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said.

    With this, the BJP will now have 10 mayors out of the total 16 in Madhya Pradesh. In the mayoral elections held in July last year, the ruling BJP had won seven against the Congress’ five mayoral posts. One mayoral seat (Singrauli) was won by the debutant AAP.

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    ( With inputs from www.siasat.com )