Bhartiya Janata Party secretary Arun Jaitley told media persons on Friday that the government of India was determined not to allow holding of IPL tournament till the last week of May.
"BJP disassociates and disapproves the contents of the speech and the comments attributed to Varun Gandhi. We have not received any notice from the Election commission on the issue," BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad said in New Delhi as the saffron party distanced itself from the controversy.
Communist Party of India-Marxist general secretary Prakash Karat said though All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief J Jayalalitha could not join the meeting of leaders belonging to the Third Front but she was very much in touch with them."In fact she approved of the six point charter that formed the basis of Sunday's discussion," Karat said while addressing a press conference at the release of the first part of party's election manifesto in New Delhi.
Samajvadi Party General Secretary Amar Singh has accepted an offer from Dev Anand to star in the filmmaker's next venture.
Declaring that the Prime Ministerial candidate of the Third Front would be decided after the elections, Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati hosted a dinner for the leaders of the grouping and resolved to defeat the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance and the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Deomocratic Alliance.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Arun Jaitley believes that only politicians should work as the office bearers of the state associations so that they can rescue an important event like Indian Premier League from collapsing due to security concerns.
BJP on Friday announced candidates for 46 more Lok Sabha seats from the states of Kerala, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Punjab and Sikkim. After the breakup of its alliance with the Biju Janata Dal in Orissa, BJP announced the names of seven Lok Sabha candidates from the state. It also announced 43 names for the assembly election scheduled along with the Lok Sabha polls. Five candidates from Kerala were also announced today by the party.
"Now it is a ground zero situation. The people of Orissa would hit back and give a befitting reply to Patnaik and his party for the betrayal. The BJP occupies the non-Congress space in Orissa," Javedekar added.
Under the aegis of Union Home Minister P Chidambaram, the ministry has set up a special cell that would monitor movement of the Talibans. There are reports that Talibans are just 25 kilometers away from the international border in Punjab and could move in towards the border.
The Bhartiya Janata Party would spend Rs 35 crore, sending SMSes to the electorate to woo them. The party described the turn about by Orissa chief minister Naveen Patnaik as "most unfortunate."
The Third Front will be a major force in the next Lok Sabha polls, says Communist Party of India-Marxist leader Niloptal Basu.
Keen to ensure that the five priceless personal belongings of Mahatma Gandhi do not fall into the hands of a foreigner, the government worked on various options, one of which bore fruit as the bid was won through business tycoon Vijay Mallya.
After a marathon meeting of its Central Election Committee, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday announced the names of some senior women leaders, who will contest the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls. The names include Sushma Swaraj from Vidisha in Madhya Pradesh, Yashodhara Raje from Gwalior, Sumitra Mahajan from Indore, Karuna Shukla from Korba, Kamla Patle from Jangir-Champa, J Shanthi from Bellary and Bindu Chaudhary from Nagpur.
Union Home secretary Madhukar Gupta confirmed that the government is in touch with officials of the Indian Premier League to work out a schedule for the upcoming Twenty20 tournament that does not clash with the Lok Sabha elections. Sources said various security agencies have suggested that there should be no IPL matches days before and after polling dates in cities where the franchisees are based.
In a move that surprised most of the media critics, the Congress and the Bhartiya Janata Party launched a stunning attack on the Pakistan government for its failure to provide protection to the players of the visiting Sri Lankan team in Lahore.
Former India captain Bishan Singh Bedi lashed out at former Pakistan captain-turned-politician Imran Khan following Tuesday's terror attack on the Sri Lanka cricket team in Lahore, saying teams should stop visiting Pakistan to play cricket. Imran had accused India of double standards after it decided not to tour Pakistan last year on security grounds but continued with the home series against England despite the terror attacks in Mumbai.
The general elections are to be conducted over 5 phases betweeen 16 April and 13 May.
Outgoing Speaker Somnath Chatterjee expressed concern about the manner in which money was flaunted by some MPs during the Trust Vote on July 23rd last year to save the government.
India reminded Pakistan's Naval Chief Admiral Noman Bashir that Pakistan had already made a formal acknowledgement about the fact that the 10 attackers came to Mumbai from Karachi by vessels. "I am sure somebody (in Pakistan) will deny tomorrow what the Naval chief said. This is part of prevarication," Home Minister P Chidambaram told media-persons in New Delhi when asked to comment on Bashir's statement.
An hour before Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate L K Advani was scheduled to address a press conference on Thursday evening, party leaders informed him that he could face a media boycott as some senior journalists were irked with him, for meeting only a select group of journalists for a news briefing the day before.The BJP quickly went into a damage control mode, with Shahnawaz Hussain and Rajiv Pratap Rudy acting as trouble shooters to appease the scribes.