Amid a controversy over a Telangana Bharatiya Janata Party leader describing tennis star Sania Mirza as a "non-local" and "daughter-in-law" of Pakistan, Union Minister Prakash Javadekar on Thursday said the tennis ace is a pride and brand ambassador of India.
The Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance was surging ahead in two southern states -- Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka -- while the respective blocs led by the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam in Tamil Nadu and Congress in Kerala were on their way for another excellent show, going by the latest trends emerging from the counting of voted polled in the just concluded Lok Sabha polls.
The development comes days ahead of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the state to inaugurate various projects.
In his post, Gandhi urged people to elect the Congress and said, "Rajasthan will choose free treatment. Rajasthan will choose cheaper gas cylinder. Rajasthan will choose interest-free agricultural loan. Rajasthan will choose English education. Rajasthan will choose OPS. Rajasthan will choose caste census."
Notwithstanding exit polls giving a clear mandate to the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance the Telangana Rashtra Samithi on Friday said the party still prefers to support a Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government at the Centre.
Rejecting the charge that his party was trying to poach Telangana Rashtra Samiti MLAs, Telangana Bharatiya Janata Party chief Bandi Sanjay Kumar on Wednesday said that Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao has scripted the raids at a farmhouse and demanded a probe by a sitting judge.
The attack took place after the BJP MP was heard in a video targeting the state's ruling party by making alleged disparaging remarks against Kavitha, also a ruling party MLC.
The BJP, which rules the Centre, is in power in Uttarakhand, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Goa, Assam, Tripura, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, and is all set to get Madhya Pradesh back and snatch Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh from the Congress after today's vote count.
'That was my mistake.' 'Gautam Adani was not involved in forming the Maharashtra government.' 'Adani was not there in the meeting.' 'The meeting was at his guest house and we were sitting in his guest house.'
Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister and Nationalist Congress Party head Ajit Pawar on Monday said discussions were underway among the Mahayuti partners to finalise a formula for the new government formation in the state.
B Naresh, was accused of making the remarks on Ayyappa and hurting the religious sentiments of the devotees and Hindus at large, while addressing a meeting in Vikarabad district on December 19, the police said.
A day after Parliament gave its nod to Telangana to become the 29th state, Mamata Banerjee on Friday attacked the "Congress-BJP syndicate" for clearing the bill to serve their respective political agendas describing the "unholy nexus" as an "alarming signal" for the country.
The Bharatiya Janata Party returned to power in Rajasthan on Sunday, winning 115 seats out of the 199 where assembly elections were held last week.
Chandigarh Commission for Protection of Child Rights (CCPCR) has advised singer-actor Diljit Dosanjh, set to perform in Chandigarh on Saturday, to refrain from singing alcohol-themed songs during his live show, citing their adverse impact on children of impressionable age.
According to BJP insiders, every Union minister has been given 3-4 seats to mentor and has been told to work hard on these constituencies in the next 20 months to ensure the party's victory.
The MPs who win assembly polls will have to quit one of their seats in the next 14 days.
There is no one in Telangana to match KCR's stature and he believes he has outgrown the state, observes Aditi Phadnis.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday decided that it will contest the elections in Andhra Pradesh by itself without a tie up with the Telugu Desam Party. The decision comes after the two parties almost came to a conclusion on a seat sharing agreement two days ago.
The BJP leadership revoked the suspension of Raja Singh, MLA from Goshamahal in Hyderabad in the outgoing Telangana Legislative Assembly, considering his explanation in response to the show cause notice served by the party earlier, Telangana BJP chief G Kishan Reddy said in a statement on Sunday.
"Crores of rupees were approved for temples and he (Amit Shah) says the steering is in my hand. If the steering is in my hand, then why do you feel the pain?," he said.
At places in the border districts of Barmer and Jaisalmer, people walked miles through the desert to cast their votes.
The colourful rally galvanised the BRS workers who shouted slogans hailing the party-led regime's welfare schemes in Telangana and peppy political songs praised Rao's 'national' emergence.
Lakshman Prasad Acharya has been made the governor of Assam with the additional charge of Manipur while Gulab Chand Kataria has replaced Banwarilal Purohit as the governor of Punjab under major gubernatorial appointments, the Rashtrapati Bhavan has announced.
The winning momentum is important for the BJP as the crucial state of Karnataka is next headed for assembly polls, expected in May, followed by Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Telangana and Mizoram later this year.
Surat police commissioner Anupam Singh Gehlot identified the arrested accused as Maulvi Sohel Abubakr Timol (27), who worked at a thread factory as a manager and offered private tuition on Islam to Muslim children.
An all party-meeting to discuss legislative business in Parliament's monsoon session on Thursday saw a fierce debate on the issue of Telangana with the Bharatiya Janata Party demanding that a bill be brought on it in this session and some other parties fearing repercussions of the decision in other states.
Amid continued disruption of Parliament, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has invited top Bharatiya Janata Party leaders for dinner on February 12 to seek their support for the passage of the crucial Telangana bill and other anti-corruption legislations in Parliament.
"The government has made a U-turn. There is no divide among political parties. My party is not divided and we are very clear that the state of Telangana should be formed," BJP spokesman Prakash Javedakar said.
This will pave the way for emergence of 24,000 new panchayat-level leaders in Telangana, he said.
The party's decision to announce the first list of candidates so early underlines the significance it has attached to five state elections, the last round of assembly contest before the all-important Lok Sabha polls.
Arun Beereddy (37), a native of Telangana's Hyderabad, was arrested from Delhi. He handles the 'Spirit of Congress' account on X, the official said.
BJP leaders Manohar Lal Khattar, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Bandi Sanjay Kumar and Ravneet Singh Bittu may be among the new faces in the Union council of ministers which will be sworn on Sunday evening along with Prime Minister-designate Narendra Modi.
'We bow to the Janta Janardan. The results in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan indicate that the people of India are firmly with politics of good governance and development'
Shah is a fatherly figure and a big issue has been made out of service to him, Bandi Sanjay Kumar said.
The 1987-batch IPS officer, who retired in DGP rank in 2020, is currently running an NGO, which aims to bring cheers to the marginal sections of the society.
There is a rise in the number of women elected to the state legislatures in 2023 compared to 2018, except in Rajasthan.
Rai also asserted that the Congress will win the upcoming Assembly elections in all five states.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday did not appear before the Enforcement Directorate for questioning in a case linked to the now scrapped Delhi excise policy and wrote to the central agency demanding the "recall" of its summons to him, calling it "vague, motivated and unsustainable in law".
'The BJP think they are running an ideology machine in this country, and they have to convert everyone, from people to parties to party leaders.'
While Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao has made his national ambitions amply clear, even rechristening his party to aid the process, his Tamil Nadu counterpart M K Stalin insists he is already in the national scene and used his birthday rally on March 1 to not only strongly pitch for the Congress as a force to reckon with in the efforts to dislodge the Narendra Modi-led dispensation at the Centre, but also sought to shoot down the prospects of a Third Front.
