Congress leader Manvendra Singh's wife was killed and the former MP and his son were injured when their SUV met with an accident in Alwar on the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway, officials said.
As veteran Bharatiya Janata Party leader Jaswant Singh and former Union minister and vice president of the BJP Kisan Morcha Subhash Maharia have now made the infighting within the saffron party in Rajasthan public, chances of the ruling party touching the mark of 25 seats now seems impossible, say political observers. Shahnawaz Akhtar reports
Barmer, one of the most talked-about Lok Sabha constituencies in the run up to the 2014 general elections, registered 71.60 per cent turn out in the polls held on Thursday, one of the highest in Rajasthan.
Names of BJP veterans like L K Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi also do not figure in the list.
'The possibility of Nitish Babu continuing at least for some time is very much there, but don't rule out the artistic possibility of a leadership change executed very elegantly.'
A day after the Bharatiya Janata Party scored big wins in three assembly polls, talk within the party shifted to the likely chief ministerial picks in these states, with senior leaders holding discussions on Monday.
The BJP stalwart continues to be in the intensive care unit of the Cardio-thoracic Centre at the hospital.
Congress candidate Manvendra Singh, who recently crossed over from the BJP, will be facing off the Rajasthan chief minister in her political fortress of Jhalrapatan.
The RSS which catapulted Jagdeep Dhankar to national prominence after 21 years of hibernation could not come to his rescue when BJP higher ups decided to seek his resignation, points out Prakash Bhandari.
The Criminal Laws (Rajasthan Amendment) Bill was tabled in the assembly on Monday.
With all eyes on the Congress's next step in Rajasthan after Sachin Pilot's fast in Jaipur on Tuesday, AICC in-charge of state Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa on Wednesday said he agrees with the issue of corruption taken up by Pilot but the manner in which it was raised was not right.
According to a complaint lodged by the woman's husband, Shakoor Khan broke into their home on Thursday and raped his wife when she was alone.
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh ideologue Govindacharya said that Sushma Swaraj and Vasundhara Raje should quit on moral grounds in the wake of the Lalit Modi controversy as from common man's perception they are "guilty".
The opinion poll has said that if the assembly polls are held now, the Congress is likely to win 142 seats in Rajasthan against the BJP's 56.
Singh's last rites will be conducted at the Mahatma Gandhi Government School ground in his Ghardana Khurd village and thousands are expected to gather to bid him farewell.
Troubles for the beleaguered Chief Minister of Rajasthan Vasundhara Raje mounted on Friday with the disclosure that she was the beneficiary of investments of over Rs 11 crore made by tainted IPL ex-commissioner Lalit Modi in her son's company at a high premium.
A 14-year-old girl was allegedly murdered and her body was burnt in a coal furnace in Rajasthan's Bhilwara district, the police said on Thursday.
The accident took place around 1 pm near Leela Ki Dhani on the Jhunjhunu-Gudha Godji highway, they added.
Union ministers Rao Inderjit Singh and Prahlad Patel, Subramanian Swamy, known for his strong views on a host of issues, Suresh Prabhu, Dushyant Singh, who is the son of former Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje, Vijay Goel, Vinay Katiyar and S S Ahluwalia are among those who have not found a berth in the new list while Union minister V K Singh is no longer a regular member and has been named as a special invitee.
Rajasthan is all set to vote on Saturday to elect members of a new assembly with the Bharatiya Janata Party aiming to unseat the ruling Congress, which is fighting hard to change the trend of alternate governments in the state.
While Chouhan has emerged as a favourite to remain at the helm in MP despite the presence of some challengers, the leadership race is wide open in Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, two states where the BJP has snatched power from the Congress.
The media is under the pressure of the central government but they should see the interest of the public, Gehlot told reporters.
Why Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi cancelled his campaign at Shahpura at the last minute? Read on...
Hans Raj Bhardwaj has slammed his own party, calling it too weak to fight the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Riding a strong anti-incumbency wave coupled with Narendra Modi factor, BJP on wrested power from Congress decimating it by grabbing a three-fourth majority in the 200-member Rajasthan Assembly.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday said that Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has already 'accepted defeat' by requesting him not to stop schemes initiated by the Congress in Rajasthan, and gave a guarantee that the Bharatiya Janata Party will not stop any scheme but only try to improve it.
The results of bypolls to three Lok Sabha and 29 assembly seats spread across 13 states and a union territory have been a mixed bag for the BJP as its fortunes continue to nosedive in West Bengal against the might of Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee while bad tidings have also come from states like Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan.
The Congress refrained from commenting on any peace formula between Gehlot and Pilot.
'The good governance which the Congress government claims has resulted in a regime where women in Rajasthan are afraid to go out of their homes.'
'These frequent visits show the BJP fears that the Congress will retain power.'
The Congress on Wednesday dismissed as "totally baseless" and "mischievous" reports that it had offered a deal to government under which it was ready to support passage of GST bill in Parliament if it axed External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje in the wake of the Lalitgate controversy.
The move by Pilot to open a new front against Gehlot amid the factional fighting is seen as an attempt to pressure the party high command to resolve the leadership issue ahead of the year-end polls.
The Congress leadership is caught in a peculiar situation and wants to find a middle path to the issue, party sources said.
Dissident Congress leader Sachin Pilot began a 125-km foot march from Ajmer to Jaipur on Thursday, challenging Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and the party's top brass as assembly elections in Rajasthan approach.
The government on Wednesday rejected the Congress demand for resignation of Union ministers Sushma Swaraj and Smriti Irani over 'Lalitgate' and 'fake degree' controversies, saying "our ministers do not do all that their (the United Progress Alliance) ministers used to do".
The 10 who put in their papers include nine Lok Sabha MPs, including Union ministers Narendra Singh Tomar and Prahlad Patel, and the one Rajya Sabha member, officials said.
Congress leader Sachin Pilot on Thursday expressed happiness that the Congress party has taken cognisance of the issues raised by him about welfare of youth and corruption under the previous Vasundhara Raje government in Rajasthan, and asserted the party will contest the assembly polls unitedly to secure a massive victory.
Sources said while the Congress units of Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan will hold separate discussions on May 26 on their preparations and actions to be taken, the party will also hold strategy meets on Chhattisgarh on May 27.
The fact that Gehlot has stayed relevant these five years with his populist schemes is one reason why he may beat incumbency in a state that votes for change every election, observes Ramesh Menon.
The Maharashtra government has given a clean chit to Mumbai Police Commissioner Rakesh Maria after finding 'satisfactory' his explanation
