Sawant, who took over as chief minister for the first time in March 2019, brought the BJP tantalizingly close to the simple majority mark of 21, defying pre-poll predictions of a hung assembly.
Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, who has drawn criticism over his remark about to the gang-rape of two girls, on Friday said his statement was taken out of context, and added that the safety of minors has to be a "shared responsibility".
The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the proposal for 'one nation, one Election' as recommended by the Kovind panel, Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Wednesday.
The CRPF has raised its first-ever contingent of 32 women commandos in its VIP security wing and they will now be tasked to guard its protectees, based in Delhi, who receive the top Z+ cover.
BJP president J P Nadda on Sunday promised Uniform Civil Code (UCC) and 33 per cent reservation for women in government jobs in Himachal Pradesh while releasing the party's manifesto for the state assembly polls.
Senior BJP leader and Patnagarh MLA KV Singh Deo and debutant from Nimapara assembly segment Pravati Parida took oath as deputy chief ministers.
Addressing BJP workers at the party headquarters, Modi also referred to the next Lok Sabha polls, scheduled for 2024, saying he hopes that political pundits will note that his party's win in the four states has also made clear the verdict for the next general election as they had linked its win in 2019 to its sweep of the Uttar Pradesh elections in 2017.
The CM said that parents have a responsibility to ensure the safety of their children.
The Lok Sabha witnessed a display of linguistic diversity on Monday, with the newly-elected MPs taking their oaths in English and Indian languages, including Sanskrit, Hindi, Dogri, Bengali, Assamese and Odia.
A potpourri of political parties are in the fray in Goa.
They realised that the Portuguese were better prepared to defend Daman than Dadra and Nagar Haveli. If reinforcements from Daman were to reach Silvassa, there was no chance of defeating the Portuguese. They decided that cutting Daman's communication lines would have to be their top priority before attacking Silvassa. A fascinating excerpt from Neelesh Kulkarni's new book, Uprising-The Liberation of Dadra and Nagar Haveli.
But the report also said that early marriage has been declining over time.
'We must not forget who we are and what courage and bravery were shown by our ancestors to bring us closer to the freedom we enjoy today,' says Tarun Vijay after attending the Gudi Padwa in Goa.
'Not just Maharashtra, the Congress has not fielded even one Muslim candidate from Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Goa.'
Besides the national capital, polling for the sixth round of the marathon seven-phase elections will be held Saturday in 14 seats in Uttar Pradesh, all 10 seats of Haryana, eight seats each in Bihar and West Bengal, six seats in Odisha, four seats in Jharkhand and one seat in Jammu and Kashmir.
Twenty-two cases of COVID-19 sub-variant JN.1 have been detected in the country till Thursday, with 21 cases being reported from Goa and another from Kerala, official sources said.
A voter turnout of 60.19 per cent was recorded till 5 pm in the third phase of Lok Sabha elections in 93 constituencies spread over 11 states and Union Territories on Tuesday with sporadic incidents of violence in West Bengal.
The assembly polls are seen as a test of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's popularity, especially in the wake of demonetisation.
Announcing the election schedule with a strong focus on digital and virtual modes of campaigning, Chief Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra said the ban on rallies, roadshows, nukkad sabhas, padayatras and vehicle rallies will be reviewed on January 15.
Goa Tourism Minister Dilip Parulekar has courted controversy after he described the accused in the gang rape as "nave".
The states and union territories where the elections are being held in this phase are Assam (4), Bihar (5), Chhattisgarh (7), Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu (2), Goa (2), Gujarat (25), Karnataka (14), Maharashtra (11), Madhya Pradesh (8), Uttar Pradesh (10) and West Bengal (4). The BJP has bagged the Surat seat unopposed.
Sources said the panel has also recommended that boys and girls will have equal inheritance rights, registration of marriages will be made mandatory and the marriageable age for girls would be increased so that they can become graduates before marriage.
"Goa is currently being run through remote control. Whatever Modi wants, happens in Goa," he said.
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.
In Uttar Pradesh, the saffron party's vote share went up to 41.8 per cent as against 39.67 per cent in the 2017 assembly polls, an increase of 2.13 per cent.
A month after Sudin Dhavalikar, PWD minister in the Manohar Parrikar-led Bharatiya Janata Party government in Goa, asked for a ban on bikinis on beaches, his party member Lavoo Mamledar said that if tourism had to be promoted and is necessary, then there could be a bikini beach with entry fees.
Goa Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar on Wednesday denied having made the alleged remarks on the complexion of nurses protesting in the state and said he was misquoted.
"The people of Goa demand that we should send Parrikar back to the state," Shah said.
Several Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled states in the country, including Gujarat and Assam, have expressed their keenness to follow the Uttarakhand UCC as a model.
Kumari's dope sample, taken out-of-competition by the AIU last year, was found to contain steroids
A condom ad campaign featuring Sunny Leone has offended Goa's politicians.
Among the bigwigs are Union ministers Amit Shah (Gandhinagar), Jyotiraditya Scindia (Guna), Mansukh Mandaviya (Porbandar), Parshottam Rupala (Rajkot), Pralhad Joshi (Dharwad) and SP Singh Baghel (Agra).
In a shift from Goa government's earlier stand, Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar on Tuesday said he would not allow the controversial right wing outfit Sri Ram Sene to work in the state.
Congress leaders and workers continued their protests in several states on Thursday against Rahul Gandhi's questioning by the Enforcement Directorate in the National Herald money-laundering case with many of them taken into preventive custody including former Union minister Renuka Chowdhury in Hyderabad after she allegedly grabbed the collar of a police official.
The decision stems from the recent outrage over the Delhi gang-rape incident.
While the Aam Aadmi Party is contesting on four seats, the Congress has fielded candidates for the remaining three seats.
The 'black paper', titled '10 saal anyay kaal' also alleged that issues such as rising prices, unemployment, subversion of institutions and farmers' 'distress' had plagued the country.
The stakes are significant for the BJP in this round as the party had in 2019 won an overwhelming majority of these seats, including all in Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, that will go to polls on May 7.
The vessel is slated to be the platform for the first Indian all-women global circumnavigation by the Indian Navy to begin in August.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday announced Prime Minister Narendra Modi will fight again from Varanasi in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections as it named 34 Union ministers in the first list of 195 candidates.
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