Ambani's Reliance has refineries at Jamnagar in Gujarat.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader and former finance minister Yashwant Sinha has asked newly-appointed party president Rajnath Singh to name Gujarat Chief Minister Narendre Modi as the party's official prime ministerial candidate for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
Arun Jaitley, who is recovering from a kidney ailment, attended the proceedings after a long gap.
Rajeev Chandrasekhar said in a post on X that his 18-year-long stint in public service has come to an end.
According to sources, Preneet Kaur, a Congress MP, is believed to have voted in support of the report.
"Akali Dal is a part of the NDA but it is a separate political outfit. They have taken this decision because of some political reasons. We have an alliance (SAD-BJP) but both are different political outfits. They (SAD) have taken a political decision," said Sharma.
Along with Modi, senior BJP leaders including Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah, Nitin Gadkari, Nirmala Sitharaman and S Jaishankar, all ministers in Modi 2.0 Cabinet, took oath as cabinet ministers at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. In all, 71 ministers were sworn-in along with Modi, taking the strength of the Union council to 72.
'When he was sidelined in the INDIA bloc, it was was the turning point because it badly hurt Nitish's ambition.' 'After that, he decided to damage INDIA by changing sides.'
At the end of Monday's trading session, the market capitalisation of BSE-listed companies stood at Rs 1,51,86,312.05 crore against Rs 1,46,58,709.68 crore on Friday.
Polling began at 1000 hours in Parliament and 30 capitals of states and Union Territories amidst tight security and strict vigil by the Election Commission, which issued a series of stringent instructions for voters.
Markets ended way off their record highs as investors booked profits ahead of NDA's new cabinet and its key policy measures.
Markets ended at record highs for the third straight session as exit polls showed that the BJP-led NDA is set to form a stable government.
On the Opposition's poll promise of statehood restoration, Shah said, "I want to ask Farooq Abdullah and Rahul Gandhi, who is going to restore the statehood. You cannot give it back. Why are you misleading the public?"
As the adjournment of Parliament for an indefinite period with the Rajya Sabha also adjourning sine die kickstarts the final countdown for the general elections, Modi said the last five years were a period of "reform, perform and transform" with the country moving towards "big changes" at a fast pace.
The grand alliance of the JD-U and the RJD have decided a seat sharing program to contest together in the coming Bihar assembly polls to defeat the BJP-led NDA.
The parties which gave chief ministers and sent scores of MPs to Parliament, drew a blank this time.
Party sources are tight-lipped about the fate of Tyagi, who is a trusted aide of Kumar, the party's supreme leader, but has reportedly often left the latter embarrassed by going public on issues without waiting for a nod from the boss.
The bill, which criminalises instant divorce by Muslim men and seeks jail term for the guilty, was the first draft legislation tabled by the Narendra Modi government in this first session after it took oath of office for a second term in May.
Amid deepening fissures in Kumar's ties with the Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Congress, BJP leaders have indicated that they are open to tying up with him again.
The Indian National Lok Dal on Sunday rejoined the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance and announced that it will contest the coming Lok Sabha elections in Haryana in alliance with the BJP.
'Rahul Gandhi is the face of the INDIA alliance. If he contests against a BJP candidate and defeats her/him, it will send a strong message.'
Bhujbal said Sharad Pawar announced support to the BJP in 2014 after it formed government following the Assembly polls without the Shiv Sena's backing.
"The meeting was very fruitful and we all are very happy with the outcome. I could not attend the press conference after the conclave as I had to come back to Patna. My effort is to unite all opposition parties ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, and now things are taking shape," the Janata Dal-United leader said.
The economic slowdown in India preceded global meltdown due to stoppage of reforms by the UPA government, former union disinvestment minister Arun Shourie said.
The Shiromani Akali Dal had on Saturday quit the National Democratic Alliance over the farm bills issue.
In the coming assembly election, negotiations over seat-sharing will be as important as actual outreach to voters.
Pandian joined the Chief Minister's Office (CMO) in 2011, and since then, he has been Patnaik's private secretary.
"I have sent my resignation letter (to BJP)," Mitra, who is a senior journalist, said.
The two parties had fallen out with each other in October last year when the RJD unilaterally decided to contest by-elections for two assembly seats, evoking strong protest from the Congress which vowed to go it alone in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls and the assembly elections which will be held a year later.
'This is what happens to a party when it gets trapped in the vicious circle of nepotism and dynastic politics'
Raising the issue in the Andhra Pradesh assembly, Naidu said, "What Shah wrote is a pack of lies and half-truths. It is not only insulting but also provoking the people of AP. It lacked any dignity."
Skating on thin ice, the government is readying itself to face a possible trial of strength in the Lok Sabha this week with the united opposition planning to corner it on the issue of price rise.
Kishor claimed that Nitish may go for a tie-up with the BJP again if situation demands so.
Top leaders of BJP-led National Democratic Alliance chalked out the strategy for a nation-wide strike call tomorrow against the government's "failure" to control price rise.
While the responses of the candidates were predictable, depending on which side they belonged to, an interesting point slipped through when Rahul Shewale cited the Dharavi Redevelopment Project as a scheme that would add to Mumbai's importance. No big infrastructural project in Mumbai, he said, could be successful without the Centre's nod.
Union Minority Affairs Minister Abdul Rehman Antulay has the last laugh. Neither he was made to apologise and retract his remarks on the doubts he raised over the killing of Mumbai ATS chief Hemant Karkare, nor did he get the boot, much hyped by most of the Media and sought by the BJP-led NDA Opposition.
In UP and Bengal, it is willing to sacrifice its interests to stop the BJP and would work towards ensuring the BJP did not win incremental seats in Odisha and Telangana.
Now, with the INDIA bloc putting up an impressive show in the Lok Sabha polls and managing to stop the BJP juggernaut, opposition leaders will be looking at the senior Pawar for guidance in navigating the political space against the saffron party post-elections.
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