Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday termed as "worrisome" attempts by secessionist and militant groups in Jammu and Kashmir to make common cause with "outside elements" to create an impression of turmoil in the state and said such a situation must not be allowed to develop.
"The party cadre in the state felt that the chances of the BJP doing well in the Haryana assembly elections would be much better if the party tried to emerge as an alternative to the Congress. We have reasonably good candidates who can surprise anyone in a multi-corner contest," Goel argued.
Five girls were today killed and 27 other students injured, five of them critically, in a stampede triggered by rumours of a short circuit in a government school flooded with rain water in North East Delhi.
The Jammu and Kashmir government on Tuesday evening formally decided to hand over the Shopian rape and murder case to the Central Bureau of Investigation.The CBI will probe the mysterious deaths of Neelofar Jan, 22, and her sister-in-law Aasiya Jan, 17, whose bodies were found on May 30. The government's decision comes a day after Chief Minister Omar Abdullah made his first public appearance in Shopian and assured the people of the town that the culprits would be punished.
Ravi Shankar Prasad, spokesman of Bhartiya Janata Party, said there were anomolies in the in the orderpassed by the inquiry into the Ishrat Jahan encounter case. "Those who are dealing with the case would move the upper court for a stay," he said while speaking to media-persons in New Delhi.
"I have worked with him for sometime and it would be in the fitness of things if he were to resign. Some of our MP's did not attend the meeting called by him. I request him publicly to quit otherwise we would have to talk to the Speaker," Swaraj said.
Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh has called for speedy implementation of various welfare schemes, which target the weaker sections of society.
Senior Andhra Pradesh minister K Rosaiah is likely to be made the acting chief minister in the wake of Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy's death in a chopper crash. Highly placed Congress sources said the party was not in a hurry to convene the meeting of the Congress Legislature Party, to elect Reddy's successor, and the meeting could take place three or four days later.Rosaiah, 77, is Andhra's finance minister and the number two in the state cabinet.
After sending conciliatory signals over the last few days, former Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhra Raje on Monday skipped a scheduled meeting with senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader M Venkaiah Naidu to discuss the stand-off in the party's state unit, citing ill-health. Instead, Raje, who was expected to discuss her demands at the meeting before she accedes to party president Rajnath Singh's order to resign as leader of Opposition in the Rajasthan assembly, sent her son.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Sushma Swaraj on Monday met expelled party veteran Jaswant Singh and is understood to have demanded that he step down from the post of chairperson of the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee.
Leader of Opposition L K Advani and other leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party did not discuss on a succession plan, as was being projected in the media, said a party spokesman on Saturday.
After meeting Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat along with senior Bharatiya Janata Party leaders Sushma Swaraj and Anant Kumar and later rushing to L K Advani's residence to meet the party president on Friday, party leaders Arun Jaitely left for Mumbai while M Venkaiah Naidu left for Hyderabad.
Senior leaders of Bhartiya Janata Party feel that the Congress is adding fuel to the fire that is devastating the party in last couple of weeks.
The man was carrying explosives in different form that would have killed un-suspecting school going children in the form of a book, or bottles and bicycle bells to be used as bombs were also recovered from him. "These deadly devices would explode on the spot and kill people," an army bomb expert said while explaining the method of operation. The explosives were also used in tiffin boxes and dolls, to target children.
Senior leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party met in New Delhi on Tuesday to discuss Arun Shourie's remarks against the party and the BJP's future course of action.Besides party president Rajnath Singh, vice president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and party general secretaries Vijay Goel and Vinay Katiyar attended the meeting, which was held at the party headquarter. According to sources, the leaders reviewed the situation, but refrained from taking any action against Shourie.
It seems that Jaswant Singh, expelled from the Bharatiya Janata Party for his controversial book on Jinnah, is likely to visit Pakistan for the launch of the book after Ramzan, but sources close to him are yet to confirm the report.
Member of Rajya Sabha from Bharatiya Janata Party, on returning after attending they party's three-day long Chintan Baithak in Shimla, told rediff.com that he was shocked to read former Union minister and recently expelled leader Jaswant Singh's controversial book on Mohammad Ali Jinnah and the way "he degraded the iron man of India Sardar Vallabh bhai Patel."
Bharatiya Janata Party president Rajnath Singh at the end of the three-day long Chintan Baithak blamed the Third Front for playing spoil sport and dividing the vote bank of the opposition parties, thereby helping the Congress to win the elections.
Jaswant Singh maintained that he never expected his book to cause such a furore. When asked why he was expelled without being given a chance to explain his stand, Singh said,"This question should now be addressed to the party, which decided to expel me. I am a member of Parliament and have more then one hunered books to my credit and hence I would like to be remembered both as a parliamentarian and an author."
Bharatiya Janata Party leader Sushma Swaraj declined to comment on the reported suggestion by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh to groom young leaders for the saffron party. "The BJP has to decide about it. This is not a question of what we think they have to manage. This is a universal truth that young generation must replace, but when and where they have to decide," RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat said in an interview.