Sujay Vikhe Patil, son of senior Congress leader Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, joined the BJP in presence of Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and state BJP chief Raosaheb Danve.
Slamming the Bharatiya Janata Party's silence over its MP Dilip Gandhi's controversial comment supporting tobacco, the Shiv Sena on Tuesday took a jibe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying he has taken a broom to clean dirt from roads, but who will clean the "garbage spilling out from people's mouths".
Tobacco products will henceforth carry larger pictorial warnings covering 85 per cent of the packaging space as a central notification comes into effect from Friday notwithstanding a parliamentary panel's recommendation for a drastic reduction in the size of the visual message.
'Have you seen foreign cigarette packets? They only have words warning us about the use of tobacco. While ours have pictures already covering 40 per cent area. I am just saying wait for our study before increasing it.' 'I repeat that I am aware that gutka and tobacco are harmful. Awareness is what we need. We are creating awareness. We are doing it on radio and television.' BJP MP Dilip Gandhi, who says there is no study in India that links tobacco use with cancer and has stayed the increase in size of pictorial warnings on cigarette packets, speaks to A Ganesh Nadar/Rediff.com
Smriti Irani will reprise her electoral battle with Rahul Gandhi from Amethi.
A controversy broke out over remarks by 'beedi' baron and parliamentary committee member from the Bharatiya Janata Party Shyam Charan Gupta suggesting "nil" effect of smoking, evoking sharp reaction from opposition parties which sought his removal from the panel
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday evening released its first list of 54 candidates for the Lok Sabha elections.
Some questions cited concerns that larger warnings can hurt tobacco farmers and boost illicit trade.
A parliamentary panel termed the government's proposed 85 per cent pictorial warnings on tobacco products as "too harsh" and recommended a drastic reduction in size.
Amidst a raging controversy over remarks on smoking by a Bharatiya Janata Party MP who is a 'beedi' baron, another Member of Parliament from the party Ram Prasad Sarmah on Friday waded into the row, claiming there is no clear proof yet linking cigarette puffing and cancer while wondering whether tobacco contains "herbal medicine"
Union Minister Prakash Javadekar on Tuesday dismissed Bharatiya Janata Party member of Parliament Dilip Gandhi's remarks that all studies linking cancer to tobacco have come from abroad and that there is no Indian survey report to confirm it.
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