The Evening Wrap: Had warned Shinde of BJP’s use and throw policy, Uddhav tells Sena workers

Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Friday revealed that he had warned rebel party leader Eknath Shinde months ago to beware of any alignment with the BJP as it follows the policy of ‘use and throw.’ Thackeray also dared the rebel MLAs to survive politically without the name of late Bal Thackeray and party. The party, which faced one of the biggest ever threat to its existence following revolt by its MLAs under the leadership of second-in-command Eknath Shinde, is on the one hand fighting to keep its coalition government afloat and on the other is also focused on tightening its organisation and not let it slip away from the control of the Thackeray family. Under this, a worker outreach program will be initiated from Saturday by State’s Environment Minister Aaditya Thackeray. “I was aware of growing closeness between him [Shinde] and the BJP and I had even once called him to ask about the same. He wasn’t forthcoming then, but said that few MLAs want to ally with the BJP. I asked him whether he is happy to join hands with the party which attacked my family. I told him that they [BJP] have a policy of use and throw and same will happen to you,” he said, addressing a meeting of party’s district level office bearers across the State. Thackeray said that by leaving Varsha (official residence) he has dropped the greed of power but his determination remains intact. Three days ago following the revolt, Thackeray had announced that he is ready to quit from the Chief Ministerial post if a rebel MLA tells this to him face-to-face. He then left Varsha and went to Matoshri (personal residence). Thackeray said that he had told Shinde about how the BJP uses outsiders on ‘rent’ like the Ranes. “BJP remains safe and rented attackers face the action,” he said. Using stern words against the rebels and attempts to capture the party, Thackeray challenged them to survive politically without using the picture of Sena founder and his father Bal Thackeray and party’s name. “I dare you to run the party by separating two, Sena and Thackeray,” he said. “One can pluck the flower and a fruit from a tree but not its roots. Leaves detach from a tree and grow again. Moreover, rotten leaves must get detached. This is that season. But don’t forget, trees flourish again. Those who left me, never belonged to me,” he added. Slamming Shinde for saying that they belonged to the Shiv Sena of Balasaheb Thackeray, the Chief Minister said he was tired of hearing it. “In that case, why did you accept Ministerial position post his [Bal Thackeray] death in 2014 government? He was given everything and there was no complaint. The problem began after he developed monstrous ambitions,” Thackeray claimed. Earlier, the State’s Environment minister Aaditya Thackeray clarified that it was time to fight and win the battle. “Those who put a price tag on themselves and left us, should they be given any value?” he asked. Aaditya Thackeray will be addressing party workers in an open forum in south Mumbai and similar programs will be organised across 12 zones of the party in Mumbai. “We are with the party, we believe in the leadership of the Thackerays. A common party worker stands with Thackerays and that will be demonstrated through these programs,” said Sena’s south zone chief Pandurang Sakpal. Meanwhile, NCP president Sharad Pawar on Friday evening met Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray at the latter’s residence. State NCP president Jayant Patil and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar accompanied M. Pawar as he arrived at ‘Matoshree’. A day before, Ajit Pawar had said the NCP will do all it can to save the ruling alliance of the Sena, NCP and Congress. Sharad Pawar had made it clear that the fate of the coalition government will be decided on the floor of the Maharashtra Assembly and not at a hotel in Guwahati where Eknath Shinde and his supporters are camping. Supreme Court dismisses Zakia Jafri’s plea of ‘larger conspiracy’ behind Gujarat riots The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed allegations of “larger conspiracy” levelled by Zakia Jafri, widow of Congress leader Ehsan Jafri who was killed in the 2002 Gujarat riots, against former Chief Minister Narendra Modi and over 60 senior state officials. Inaction or failure of “some officials of one section of the State administration” cannot be the basis to infer a pre-planned criminal conspiracy by the State government, the court held. The failure of certain officials cannot be inferred as a “State-sponsored crime (violence) against the minority community”, the Supreme Court said. Allegations of criminal conspiracy at the “highest level” cannot be inferred by simply linking the State’s failures, it noted. A conspiracy can be alleged only if there is clear proof of “meeting of minds” to commit a crime. A three-judge Bench led by Justice A.M. Khanwilkar upheld the closure report filed by the Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) in Jafri’s complaint in February 2012. The SIT had found no material evidence against Modi and the other higher-ups in the State. The Gujarat High Court too, in October 2017, had refused to entertain Jafri. “No fault can be found with the approach of the SIT in submitting final report dated February 8, 2012, which is backed by firm logic, expositing analytical mind and dealing with all aspects objectively for discarding the allegations regarding larger criminal conspiracy (at the highest level) for causing and precipitating mass violence across the State against the minority community during the relevant period,” Justice Khanwilkar, who authored the 452-page judgment for the Bench, observed. The court observed that the SIT had operated under the strict scrutiny of the Supreme Court’s own amicus curiae. Upholding the Gujarat Magistrate court’s decision to accept the SIT’s closure report which was a product of “indefatigable work”, the apex court said a breakdown of law and order in a State, even caused by inaction of the State officials, leading to spontaneous mass violence does not necessarily mean there was a conspiracy afoot. “The breakdown of law-and-order situation in the State including attributable to the alleged inaction of the (State) duty holders, owing to spontaneous mass violence cannot be a safe measure to infer as being a part of the criminal conspiracy at the highest level of political dispensation unless there is clear evidence to so conclude regarding meeting of the minds of all concerned and their concerted efforts to commit or promote commission of such crime,” Justice Khanwilkar, accompanied by Justices Dinesh Maheshwari and C.T. Ravikumar, held. In a snub to petitioners like Teesta Setalvad, who had fought the case on the behalf of Jafri for decades, the court said the “protagonists of quest for justice sitting in a comfortable environment in their air-conditioned office may succeed in connecting failures of the State administration at different levels during such horrendous situation, little knowing or even referring to the ground realities and the continual effort put in by the duty holders in controlling the spontaneous evolving situation unfolding aftermath mass violence across the State”. The court said allegations were made against Modi and the others by Jafri solely on the basis of the “ultra-sensational revelation” projected by senior police officers R.B. Sreekumar, Sanjiv Bhatt, and Haren Pandya, a former Gujarat Minister who was killed in 2003, that certain utterances were made by the then Chief Minister and other senior officials in a meeting held on February 27, 2002 “to give vent to the Hindu anger on the minorities in the wake of the Godhra incident” in which kar sevaks travelling in Sabarmati Express train, returning from Ayodhya, were allegedly attacked and coaches of the train were set on fire at Godhra Railway Station. Fifty-nine people died in the incident. This incident preceded the riots in the state. “The testimony of Sanjiv Bhatt, Haren Pandya and also of R.B. Sreekumar was only to sensationalise and politicise the matters in issue, although, replete with falsehood,” the court concluded. “Besides exposing the falsity of the claims of these persons, the SIT has been able to collate materials indicative of the amount of hard work and planning of the State functionaries in their attempt to control the spontaneous evolving situation of mass violence across Gujarat,” the court observed. Rahul Gandhi’s office in Wayanad attacked, Kerala CM assures stern action A set of alleged Students Federation of India (SFI) activists vandalised Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s MP office at Kalpettah in Wayanad on Friday afternoon. According to the police, the SFI had taken out a march in Kalpettah town to protest the local MP’s alleged apathy towards the plight of Wayanad residents threatened by the Supreme Court’s (SC) direction to impose a buffer zone within a one km radius of ecologically sensitive national parks and bird and wildlife sanctuaries. The march turned violent in front of Gandhi’s office. The likely imposition of the buffer zone had precipitated a palpable sense of uneasiness in Wayanad, given that forests accounted for 74.19% of its geographical area. Moreover, residents, a large section of them settler farmers, feared the proposed buffer zone would stymie development and upend their livelihood. Idukki, which has a 72.33% forest cover, followed by Wayanad, had, of late, emerged as the hotspots of angry resistance against the SC’s order. The Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) released videos that ostensibly showed “SFI activists” clambering to the office’s second floor, attacking the MP’s staff and vandalising property. The attack prompted Congress and Youth Congress protests across Kerala. Congress workers marched to the AKG Centre in protest against the violence. T. Siddique, MLA from Kalpettah, led a sit-in protest in front of the office of the District Police Chief, Wayanad, demanding the immediate arrest of SFI activists. He accused the district police of abetting the attackers. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has condemned the attack. He promised decisive action against the perpetrators. “Political expression should not degenerate into violence”, he said. Strongly condemning the attack allegedly carried out by SFI activists, Vijayan said everyone has the right to protest in a democratic manner but such demonstrations taking a violent turn was a wrong tendency. “Strongly condemn the attack against Congress MP Rahul Gandhi’s office at Wayanad. Everyone has the freedom of speech and right to protest in a democratic manner. But it’s a wrong tendency that such protests turn violent. The government will taken stern action against the culprits,” Vijayan said. AICC general secretary (Organisation), K.C. Venugopal, said the Communist Party of India (Marxist) had paid its customary political tribute to the BJP at the centre by allowing SFI activists into Gandhi’s office. Venugopal said the attack was a tactical gambit to divert attention from the LDF government’s failure to pass legislation to circumvent the SC order. Moreover, the LDF seemed patently reluctant to appeal against the impending imposition of the buffer zone. Leader of Opposition V. D. Satheeshan said Vijayan had ordered the attack on Gandhi’s office to appease his enablers in the BJP national leadership. Vijayan erroneously calculated that the violence would give him a perfect foil to divert public attention from the gold smuggling scandal that dogged him and his family. “SFI activists should march to the CM’s office for not doing enough to circumvent the SC order”, he said. Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president K. Sudhakaran said Vijayan’s words of contrition rang hollow. The CPI(M) should stop testing the limits of the patience of Congress workers. The police should immediately arrest the perpetrators and punish the officers who enabled the attack. Droupadi Murmu files nomination papers for presidential election NDA’s candidate for the post of President of India, Droupadi Murmu, filed her nomination papers on Friday, ahead of the polls to be held on July 18th, flanked by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, BJP president J P Nadda, Home Minister Amit Shah, chief ministers of all BJP ruled states, Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma, and Nagaland Neiphiu Rio as well as ministers of the BJD-government representing their party. Members of other NDA parties including Anupriya Patel of the Apna Dal, Rajiv Ranjan Singh of the Janata Dal (U) and AIADMK leaders Thambidurai and O Panneerselvam were also present. The nomination papers were submitted with P C Modi, secretary general of the Rajya Sabha who is also the Returning Officer as per the notification by the Election Commission of India. Interestingly, ahead of filling her nominations on Friday, Murmu spoke to leaders of Opposition parties including Congress, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), and Trinamool Congress (TMC) seeking their party’s support for her candidature, said sources. Murmu spoke with Congress interim-President Sonia Gandhi, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and NCP chief Sharad Pawar. According to the sources, Banerjee did not make any commitment to Murmu but wished her all the best for the election. Modi proposed her name as nominee in the first set, out of four, of nomination papers filed by Murmu. The second set of proposers were the chief ministers of BJP-ruled states, the third proposers were MLAs and MPs from Himachal and Haryana and the fourth set were MLAs and MPs from Gujarat. Ms Murmu will be facing off against former finance minister in the Vajpayee government, Yashwant Sinha in the polls to elect the next President of India and is expected to win as she has garnered the support of not just the NDA grouping but several other parties like the YSRCP, and the BJD. YSRCP leader Vijay Sai Reddy was also present at the nomination. She is a former Jharkhand Governor, a two term MLA from Odisha and served as minister in the BJP-BJD coalition government in the state between 2000-2004. Sources in the BJP said following the nomination, an elaborate travel plan will be drawn up for Murmu, for her to travel to various states of the country in order to draw support for her candidature. BJP president J P Nadda had earlier set up a 14-member committee headed by Jal Shakti minister Gajendra Shekhawat to coordinate and assist Murmu during her travels. Murmu has been moved from Odisha Niwas in Chanakya Puri where she was temporarily staying to a bungalow in the Lutyen’s Bungalow Zone for her security. As per norms, she has been accorded Z plus security by the Union home ministry as soon as her candidature was announced by BJP president J P Nadda on Tuesday evening. Polls for the post of President of India will be held on July 18 and results announced on July 21. In Brief The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday took the dramatic step of overturning the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that recognized a woman's constitutional right to an abortion and legalized it nationwide, handing a momentous victory to Republicans and religious conservatives who want to limit or ban the procedure. The court, in a 6-3 ruling powered by its conservative majority, upheld a Republican-backed Mississippi law that bans abortion after 15 weeks. The justices held that the Roe v. Wade decision that allowed abortions performed before a fetus would be viable outside the womb — between 24 and 28 weeks of pregnancy — was wrongly decided because the U.S. Constitution makes no specific mention of abortion rights. A draft version of the ruling indicating the court was likely to overturn Roe was leaked in May, igniting a political firestorm. Mississippi's law had been blocked by lower courts as a violation of Supreme Court precedent on abortion rights. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow [logo] The Evening Wrap 24 JUNE 2022 [The Hindu logo] Welcome to the Evening Wrap newsletter, your guide to the day’s biggest stories with concise analysis from The Hindu. [[Arrow]Open in browser]( [[Mail icon]More newsletters]( Had warned Eknath Shinde of BJP’s use and throw policy, Uddhav tells party workers Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Friday [revealed that he had warned rebel party leader Eknath Shinde]( months ago to beware of any alignment with the BJP as it follows the policy of ‘use and throw.’ Thackeray also dared the rebel MLAs to survive politically without the name of late Bal Thackeray and party. The [party, which faced one of the biggest ever threat to its existence]( following revolt by its MLAs under the leadership of second-in-command Eknath Shinde, is on the one hand fighting to keep its coalition government afloat and on the other is also focused on tightening its organisation and not let it slip away from the control of the Thackeray family. Under this, a worker outreach program will be initiated from Saturday by State’s Environment Minister Aaditya Thackeray. “I was aware of growing closeness between him [Shinde] and the BJP and I had even once called him to ask about the same. He wasn’t forthcoming then, but said that few MLAs want to ally with the BJP. I asked him whether he is happy to join hands with the party which attacked my family. I told him that they [BJP] have a policy of use and throw and same will happen to you,” he said, addressing a meeting of party’s district level office bearers across the State. Thackeray said that by leaving Varsha (official residence) he has dropped the greed of power but his determination remains intact. Three days ago following the revolt, Thackeray had announced that he is ready to quit from the Chief Ministerial post if a rebel MLA tells this to him face-to-face. He then left Varsha and went to Matoshri (personal residence). Thackeray said that he had told Shinde about how the BJP uses outsiders on ‘rent’ like the Ranes. “BJP remains safe and rented attackers face the action,” he said. Using stern words against the rebels and attempts to capture the party, Thackeray challenged them to survive politically without using the picture of Sena founder and his father Bal Thackeray and party’s name. “I dare you to run the party by separating two, Sena and Thackeray,” he said. “One can pluck the flower and a fruit from a tree but not its roots. Leaves detach from a tree and grow again. Moreover, rotten leaves must get detached. This is that season. But don’t forget, trees flourish again. Those who left me, never belonged to me,” he added. Slamming Shinde for saying that they belonged to the Shiv Sena of Balasaheb Thackeray, the Chief Minister said he was tired of hearing it. “In that case, why did you accept Ministerial position post his [Bal Thackeray] death in 2014 government? He was given everything and there was no complaint. The problem began after he developed monstrous ambitions,” Thackeray claimed. Earlier, the State’s Environment minister Aaditya Thackeray clarified that it was time to fight and win the battle. “Those who put a price tag on themselves and left us, should they be given any value?” he asked. Aaditya Thackeray will be addressing party workers in an open forum in south Mumbai and similar programs will be organised across 12 zones of the party in Mumbai. “We are with the party, we believe in the leadership of the Thackerays. A common party worker stands with Thackerays and that will be demonstrated through these programs,” said Sena’s south zone chief Pandurang Sakpal. Meanwhile, NCP president Sharad Pawar on Friday evening met Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray at the latter’s residence. State NCP president Jayant Patil and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar accompanied M. Pawar as he arrived at ‘Matoshree’. A day before, Ajit Pawar had said the NCP will do all it can to save the ruling alliance of the Sena, NCP and Congress. Sharad Pawar had made it clear that the fate of the coalition government will be decided on the floor of the Maharashtra Assembly and not at a hotel in Guwahati where Eknath Shinde and his supporters are camping. Supreme Court dismisses Zakia Jafri’s plea of ‘larger conspiracy’ behind Gujarat riots The Supreme Court on Friday [dismissed allegations of “larger conspiracy” levelled by Zakia Jafri]( widow of Congress leader Ehsan Jafri who was killed in the 2002 Gujarat riots, against former Chief Minister Narendra Modi and over 60 senior state officials. Inaction or failure of “some officials of one section of the State administration” cannot be the basis to infer a pre-planned criminal conspiracy by the State government, the court held. The failure of certain officials cannot be inferred as a “State-sponsored crime (violence) against the minority community”, the Supreme Court said. Allegations of criminal conspiracy at the “highest level” cannot be inferred by simply linking the State’s failures, it noted. A conspiracy can be alleged only if there is clear proof of “meeting of minds” to commit a crime. A three-judge Bench led by Justice A.M. Khanwilkar upheld the closure report filed by the Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) in Jafri’s complaint in February 2012. The SIT had found no material evidence against Modi and the other higher-ups in the State. The Gujarat High Court too, in October 2017, had refused to entertain Jafri. “No fault can be found with the approach of the SIT in submitting final report dated February 8, 2012, which is backed by firm logic, expositing analytical mind and dealing with all aspects objectively for discarding the allegations regarding larger criminal conspiracy (at the highest level) for causing and precipitating mass violence across the State against the minority community during the relevant period,” Justice Khanwilkar, who authored the 452-page judgment for the Bench, observed. The court observed that the SIT had operated under the strict scrutiny of the Supreme Court’s own amicus curiae. Upholding the Gujarat Magistrate court’s decision to accept the SIT’s closure report which was a product of “indefatigable work”, the apex court said a breakdown of law and order in a State, even caused by inaction of the State officials, leading to spontaneous mass violence does not necessarily mean there was a conspiracy afoot. “The breakdown of law-and-order situation in the State including attributable to the alleged inaction of the (State) duty holders, owing to spontaneous mass violence cannot be a safe measure to infer as being a part of the criminal conspiracy at the highest level of political dispensation unless there is clear evidence to so conclude regarding meeting of the minds of all concerned and their concerted efforts to commit or promote commission of such crime,” Justice Khanwilkar, accompanied by Justices Dinesh Maheshwari and C.T. Ravikumar, held. [In this February 27, 2012 photo, Zakia Jafri sits inside the remains of her former residence which was torched during the 2002 post-Godhra riots in Ahmedabad.] In a snub to petitioners like Teesta Setalvad, who had fought the case on the behalf of Jafri for decades, the court said the “protagonists of quest for justice sitting in a comfortable environment in their air-conditioned office may succeed in connecting failures of the State administration at different levels during such horrendous situation, little knowing or even referring to the ground realities and the continual effort put in by the duty holders in controlling the spontaneous evolving situation unfolding aftermath mass violence across the State”. The court said allegations were made against Modi and the others by Jafri solely on the basis of the “ultra-sensational revelation” projected by senior police officers R.B. Sreekumar, Sanjiv Bhatt, and Haren Pandya, a former Gujarat Minister who was killed in 2003, that certain utterances were made by the then Chief Minister and other senior officials in a meeting held on February 27, 2002 “to give vent to the Hindu anger on the minorities in the wake of the Godhra incident” in which kar sevaks travelling in Sabarmati Express train, returning from Ayodhya, were allegedly attacked and coaches of the train were set on fire at Godhra Railway Station. Fifty-nine people died in the incident. This incident preceded the riots in the state. “The testimony of Sanjiv Bhatt, Haren Pandya and also of R.B. Sreekumar was only to sensationalise and politicise the matters in issue, although, replete with falsehood,” the court concluded. “Besides exposing the falsity of the claims of these persons, the SIT has been able to collate materials indicative of the amount of hard work and planning of the State functionaries in their attempt to control the spontaneous evolving situation of mass violence across Gujarat,” the court observed. Rahul Gandhi’s office in Wayanad attacked, Kerala CM assures stern action A set of alleged Students Federation of India (SFI) activists [vandalised Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s MP office at Kalpettah in Wayanad]( on Friday afternoon. According to the police, the SFI had taken out a march in Kalpettah town to protest the local MP’s alleged apathy towards the plight of Wayanad residents threatened by the Supreme Court’s (SC) direction to impose a buffer zone within a one km radius of ecologically sensitive national parks and bird and wildlife sanctuaries. The march turned violent in front of Gandhi’s office. The likely imposition of the buffer zone had precipitated a palpable sense of uneasiness in Wayanad, given that forests accounted for 74.19% of its geographical area. Moreover, residents, a large section of them settler farmers, feared the proposed buffer zone would stymie development and upend their livelihood. Idukki, which has a 72.33% forest cover, followed by Wayanad, had, of late, emerged as the hotspots of angry resistance against the SC’s order. The Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) released videos that ostensibly showed “SFI activists” clambering to the office’s second floor, attacking the MP’s staff and vandalising property. The attack prompted Congress and Youth Congress protests across Kerala. Congress workers marched to the AKG Centre in protest against the violence. T. Siddique, MLA from Kalpettah, led a sit-in protest in front of the office of the District Police Chief, Wayanad, demanding the immediate arrest of SFI activists. He accused the district police of abetting the attackers. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has condemned the attack. He promised decisive action against the perpetrators. “Political expression should not degenerate into violence”, he said. Strongly condemning the attack allegedly carried out by SFI activists, Vijayan said everyone has the right to protest in a democratic manner but such demonstrations taking a violent turn was a wrong tendency. “Strongly condemn the attack against Congress MP Rahul Gandhi’s office at Wayanad. Everyone has the freedom of speech and right to protest in a democratic manner. But it’s a wrong tendency that such protests turn violent. The government will taken stern action against the culprits,” Vijayan said. AICC general secretary (Organisation), K.C. Venugopal, said the Communist Party of India (Marxist) had paid its customary political tribute to the BJP at the centre by allowing SFI activists into Gandhi’s office. Venugopal said the attack was a tactical gambit to divert attention from the LDF government’s failure to pass legislation to circumvent the SC order. Moreover, the LDF seemed patently reluctant to appeal against the impending imposition of the buffer zone. Leader of Opposition V. D. Satheeshan said Vijayan had ordered the attack on Gandhi’s office to appease his enablers in the BJP national leadership. Vijayan erroneously calculated that the violence would give him a perfect foil to divert public attention from the gold smuggling scandal that dogged him and his family. “SFI activists should march to the CM’s office for not doing enough to circumvent the SC order”, he said. Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president K. Sudhakaran said Vijayan’s words of contrition rang hollow. The CPI(M) should stop testing the limits of the patience of Congress workers. The police should immediately arrest the perpetrators and punish the officers who enabled the attack. Droupadi Murmu files nomination papers for presidential election NDA’s candidate for the post of President of India, [Droupadi Murmu, filed her nomination papers]( on Friday, ahead of the polls to be held on July 18th, flanked by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, BJP president J P Nadda, Home Minister Amit Shah, chief ministers of all BJP ruled states, Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma, and Nagaland Neiphiu Rio as well as ministers of the BJD-government representing their party. Members of other NDA parties including Anupriya Patel of the Apna Dal, Rajiv Ranjan Singh of the Janata Dal (U) and AIADMK leaders Thambidurai and O Panneerselvam were also present. The nomination papers were submitted with P C Modi, secretary general of the Rajya Sabha who is also the Returning Officer as per the notification by the Election Commission of India. Interestingly, ahead of filling her nominations on Friday, Murmu spoke to leaders of Opposition parties including Congress, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), and Trinamool Congress (TMC) seeking their party’s support for her candidature, said sources. Murmu spoke with Congress interim-President Sonia Gandhi, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and NCP chief Sharad Pawar. According to the sources, Banerjee did not make any commitment to Murmu but wished her all the best for the election. Modi proposed her name as nominee in the first set, out of four, of nomination papers filed by Murmu. The second set of proposers were the chief ministers of BJP-ruled states, the third proposers were MLAs and MPs from Himachal and Haryana and the fourth set were MLAs and MPs from Gujarat. Ms Murmu will be facing off against former finance minister in the Vajpayee government, Yashwant Sinha in the polls to elect the next President of India and is expected to win as she has garnered the support of not just the NDA grouping but several other parties like the YSRCP, and the BJD. YSRCP leader Vijay Sai Reddy was also present at the nomination. She is a former Jharkhand Governor, a two term MLA from Odisha and served as minister in the BJP-BJD coalition government in the state between 2000-2004. Sources in the BJP said following the nomination, an elaborate travel plan will be drawn up for Murmu, for her to travel to various states of the country in order to draw support for her candidature. BJP president J P Nadda had earlier set up a 14-member committee headed by Jal Shakti minister Gajendra Shekhawat to coordinate and assist Murmu during her travels. Murmu has been moved from Odisha Niwas in Chanakya Puri where she was temporarily staying to a bungalow in the Lutyen’s Bungalow Zone for her security. As per norms, she has been accorded Z plus security by the Union home ministry as soon as her candidature was announced by BJP president J P Nadda on Tuesday evening. Polls for the post of President of India will be held on July 18 and results announced on July 21. In Brief [Pro-choice and pro-life signs are seen outside the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington D.C. on June 24, 2022. The Court on June 24, 2022 ended the right to abortion in a seismic ruling that shreds half a century of constitutional protections on one of the most divisive and bitterly fought issues in American political life.] The [U.S. Supreme Court on Friday took the dramatic step]( of overturning [the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade]( ruling that recognized a woman's constitutional right to an abortion and legalized it nationwide, handing a momentous victory to Republicans and religious conservatives who want to limit or ban the procedure. The court, in a 6-3 ruling powered by its conservative majority, upheld a Republican-backed Mississippi law that bans abortion after 15 weeks. The justices held that the Roe v. Wade decision that allowed abortions performed before a fetus would be viable outside the womb — between 24 and 28 weeks of pregnancy — was wrongly decided because the U.S. Constitution makes no specific mention of abortion rights. A draft version of the ruling indicating the court was likely to [overturn Roe was leaked in May]( igniting a political firestorm. Mississippi's law had been blocked by lower courts as a violation of Supreme Court precedent on abortion rights. 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