Chandigarh: The Congress party on Thursday released its third list of candidates for the Haryana Assembly elections.

Among the candidates announced in the third list are Chander Mohan from Panchkula, Nirmal Singh from Ambala, Pooja Chaudhary from Maulana, Akram Khan from Jagadhri, Rahul Makkar from Hansi, Manisha Sangwan from Dadri, Jagdish Yadav from Kosli and Lakhan Kumar Singhla from Faridabad.

Party Releases Its 2nd List Of Candidates

Earlier on September 9, the party released its second list of candidates.

The party fielded Ashok Arora from Thanesar, Kuldeep Sharma from Ganaur, Brijendra Singh from Uchana Kalan, and Paramvir Singh from Tohana.

Anirudh Chaudhary will contest from Tosham, Balram Dangi from Meham, Manju Choudhary from Nangal Chaudhary, Vardhan Yadav from Badshahpur, and Mohit Grover from Gurugram.

Notably, the Congress party has fielded newly inducted former athlete Vinesh Phogat from Julana.

Former Wrestler Vinesh Phogat Files Nomination For Haryana Assembly Elections 2024

Earlier on Wednesday, former wrestler and Congress candidate from Julana Assembly constituency, Vinesh Phogat, filed nomination for the upcoming Assembly elections in Haryana.

Phogat filed her nomination in the presence of Congress MP Deepender Hooda and other state leaders of the party.

She expressed her gratitude to the people of the constituency for their love and emphasised the party’s commitment to work for the welfare of every section.

“It is a matter of good fortune for me that I am entering politics. We are working hard for the welfare of every section. I am grateful for the love the people of Jualana are giving me,” Phogat said while speaking to reporters after filing her nomination.

Vinesh Phogat Joins Congress

Phogat joined the Congress party on September 6 along with olympian wrestler Bajrang Punia, providing a big boost to the party in the run-up to the upcoming Haryana Assembly elections.

Phogat is pitted against BJP candidate Captain Yogesh Bairagi in Julana for the upcoming Haryana Assembly elections. Bairagi also filed his nomination earlier in the day.

About Haryana Assembly Elections 2024

Voting for the 90-member legislative assembly in Haryana will be held on October 5, and the last date for filing nominations is September 12. The counting of votes will be held on October 8.

In the 2019 assembly polls, the BJP became the single-largest party with 40 seats and Congress won 30 seats.

Washington DC [US], September 11/ Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi came out heavily against the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Centre over the border standoff with China and said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has not handled the situation well.

The Congress leader was speaking at an interaction with media at the National Press Club in Washington DC on Tuesday (local time).

“We’ve got Chinese troops occupying land the size of Delhi in Ladakh, and I think that’s a disaster. The media doesn’t like to write about it. How would America react if a neighbour occupied 4,000 square kilometers of its territory? Would any president be able to get away with saying he’s handled that well? So, I don’t think Mr Modi has handled China well at all. I see no reason why Chinese troops should be sitting in our territory,” Rahul Gandhi said.

Notably, in 2020, the Indian and Chinese troops clashed at Galwan, the same year the pandemic started.

Since May 2020, when the Chinese troops tried to aggressively change the status quo on LAC in eastern Ladakh, both sides have been deployed in forward positions near Patrolling Point 15, which emerged as a friction point in the wake of the Galwan clash.

Over 50,000 Indian soldiers have been stationed since 2020 at forward posts along the LAC, with advanced weapons to prevent any attempts to change the status quo unilaterally on the LAC.

Terming the Chinese vision of production as “non-democratic”, the Raebareli MP stressed on the idea of US and India placing a production vision in a democratic and free society.

“We don’t want to do it like the Chinese are doing it. We don’t want to do it in an environment which is non-democratic, which is not liberal. So the real question for the 21st century, the Chinese have placed a production vision on the table. It’s a non-democratic production vision. Can the United States and India answer that by placing a vision for production in a democratic free society? And I think that’s where a lot of answers lie,” he said.

Rahul, also opened on his new role and responsibilities as the Leader of Opposition, and said there is an ideological war taking place between the INDIA bloc and the BJP-RSS. He further vowed that the Opposition wants to ‘defend’ India’s institutions and provide a broader vision for the country.

“It’s an extension of what I did earlier. There’s an ideological war taking place in India between the Congress and our partners and the BJP and the RSS. They are two completely different visions of India. We believe in a plural vision, a vision where everybody has a right to thrive… an India where you’re not persecuted because of what religion you believe in or what community you come from or which language you speak, versus a much harsher, centralizing vision. So that’s the landscape. And then we fight on that landscape,” the Congress leader further said.

“[We want to] defend India’s institutions, defend the weaker sections in India, defend the lower caste, tribals, minorities, poor people. After the yatra, I try to become the voice of as many people as I can. So for that…you have to go deeper, deep into the agricultural world, the conflicts that are taking place there, into the financial system, into the tax system. So you have to, in a sense, go deep into it, talk to people and then get, understand deeply what they’re saying and then transmit it and at a broader level, provide a vision, INDIA alliance vision for the country, which is obviously going to be fundamentally different than the centralizing, monopolized vision that the BJP is presenting,” he added.

The Congress leader further said that at one time the West used to be the producer of the world, but slowly China took over the responsibility.

He said that not manufacturing enough means, not enough employment can be generated. Rahul further added that there is a huge opportunity for both India and the US to regain the ability to produce.

I am more interested in the act of production: Rahul

“Here in the United States that the West, America, Europe, and India, the West used to be the producer of the world. If you wanted to buy a car, in the 60s, you bought an American car, washing machine, refrigerator…You guys were at the forefront of that. And then somewhere along the line, America decided, India decided, and the West decided that we’re just going to stop. And we handed the whole thing to the Chinese. Now for a country like India, to simply say that we’re going to ignore manufacturing, and only run a services-based economy, it means you cannot give employment to people,” Rahul Gandhi “I am more interested in the act of production- also called manufacturing. Look at what most American, Indian and European countries do. They organize consumption. Uber organizes consumption. Organizing consumption is easy. Organizing production is a completely different ballgame, much more complicated. You have to deal with things when you organize production that you simply don’t have to deal with when you organize production. So to me, there’s a huge opportunity for India and the United States to regain that ability to produce,” he further added.

Speaking on the unemployment situation, the LoP in Lok Sabha said he wants to support small and medium-small businesses and promote a decentralised production system.

“We have a government in Karnataka and Telangana. Each area in India has its own specialty of production. If you go to pretty much any district, Ballari in Karnataka has a very deep textile industry which has been destroyed. So we are looking at these pockets of excellence and then trying to bring modern technology, financial support to build them. So the vision would be more of a decentralized production system. Unlike China, which is huge factories, we would be thinking about smaller and small medium businesses and embedding modern technology into that. We’re testing some of these ideas in Karnataka and Telangana,” he said.

Rahul Gandhi is on a three-day visit to the United States. During this, he has interacted with Indian diaspora besides students and faculty at universities and also met US lawmakers.

This is Rahul Gandhi first visit to the US after he became Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha.

In a tragic incident, one worker died and four others were injured after a stack of wheat sacks fell on them while they were working inside a warehouse in Gujarat’s Amreli on Tuesday.

A purported video of the incident has now surfaced on social media showing labourers unloading wheat sacks when the whole lot suddenly collapsed, burying them underneath. 

The footage has since gone viral on social media, raising concerns about the safety conditions for workers in such environments.

Injured workers’ condition remains critical

As per reports, fellow workers immediately rushed to rescue those trapped, but one worker had already succumbed to his injuries by the time they were pulled out. 

The injured were quickly taken to a nearby hospital, where they are currently receiving treatment.

According to initial police investigations, the accident occurred due to improper handling of the wheat sacks and a lack of adequate safety measures in the warehouse.

Five workers were present at the time, attempting to unload the sacks when one at the bottom slipped, triggering the collapse. 

Body of the deceased sent for post-mortem

The police have sent the body of the deceased worker for post-mortem and are conducting a thorough investigation. 

Authorities have stated that necessary action will be taken based on their findings, with a focus on addressing the absence of proper safety protocols at the site.