Electorally, the yatra seems to have paid dividends in the south, but the march does not seem to be helping the Congress in stopping the BJP's surge in the Hindi-heartland states.
After a steady surge, prices of pulses, except those of urad and masoor to some extent, are showing signs of stabilising amid a revival of monsoon rains over major growing areas of Maharashtra and Karnataka, and on expectations of a rise in imports. Chana prices, which too had moved up in recent months, have dropped by almost 3 per cent since the end of August due to increased liquidation of government stocks, official data shows. Monsoon rains seem to have benefitted the standing soybean crop as well.
'The water crisis is so obvious that people see no point begging for it from politicians.'
The BJP has played the social engineering card in Rajasthan with an eye on the Lok Sabha election where the party will try and retain all the 25 seats that it had won in the 2014 and 2019 elections.
These are the 15 seats to watch out for in Rajasthan where assembly elections will be held on November 23. The state has 200 constituencies.
Rahul Gandhi is marching with a positive thought, it is a positive yatra. There is no violence, no hatred. If you are not showing this yatra, you are not fulfilling your dut
Never before has the BJP faced such a crisis over the nomination of the Chief Minister as it is facing now, discovers Prakash Bhandari, veteran observer of Rajasthan politics.
Gogamedi, the chief of Rashtriya Rajput Karni Sena, was shot dead in Jaipur on Tuesday by unidentified bike-borne criminals.
Amid his power tussle with Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, Pilot has announced that he will be among the people and Congress workers in various districts of Rajasthan between January 16 and 20.
A day after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said both Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and his former deputy Sachin Pilot were "assets to the party", the CM on Tuesday suggested that the matter rests there.
Intense monsoon rains brought normal life to a standstill in several parts of eastern and central Rajasthan, flooding out roads, rail tracks, low-lying residential areas and hospitals and claiming seven lives since Sunday night.
There they were, showing the world that there are still people motivated not by religious structures, not by past glories, not by hatreds deliberately stoked. These were ordinary folks doing something extraordinary purely because they think that effort might shake a nation out of a spiralling miasma of division, mistrust, cynicism, sophistry and violence.
The presence of the virus is confirmed in the dead birds in Madhya Pradesh and Kerala while Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan and Gujarat, too, have a strong suspicion of avian influenza in dead birds.
'If Mr Rahul Gandhi is coming to Rajasthan he should also know how his own chief minister is throttling the voices of the people belonging to the most backward classes.'
Incessant rains unleashed more death and destruction on Monday in parts of north India, with 37 people killed in landslides and other rain-related incidents in the last two days even as the Army and NDRF teams stepped in to intensify the relief and rescue operations.
Manvendra Singh will take on the Rajasthan CM from Jhalrapatan constituency.
In the wake of 73 confirmed cases of coronavirus in India so far, the Union health ministry has made functional 52 laboratories for testing samples while 57 labs have been designated for helping in sample collection for Covid-19 to enhance capacity for diagnosis and detection of the disease. "Following the increase in load of screening samples from suspected cases with symptoms and travel history to the affected countries, the department of health research/ICMR has commissioned 52 laboratories for COVID-19 testing in India," an official said.
Himachal Pradesh on Monday became the fourth state to report cases of bird flu after Rajasthan, Kerala and Madhya Pradesh, with officials confirming that migratory birds found dead at Pong Dam Lake in Kangra district have tested positive for the dreaded avian influenza.
What provoked Ashok Gehlot's belligerence was Sachin Pilot's participation in the Bharat Jodo Yatra with Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi in Madhya Pradesh. Gehlot was also aware that Rajasthan assembly Speaker C P Joshi had met Rahul in Maharashtra.
The BJP hopes that any vote AAP gets should only be from the Congress. At the same time, it does not want AAP to get too much of it. Because, a declining old opponent is a blessing as much as a rising new rival is a threat, points out Shekhar Gupta.
The Central government has approved a Rs 350 crore relief package for the flood-hit state even as an inter-ministerial team will visit the state to assess the damage.
The call for the agitation was given by the Gurjar Aarakshan Sangharsh Samiti. According to police, youths in large numbers blocked a rail track in Bharatpur's Bayana.
In Jhalawar, which her only child Dushyant Singh represents in the Lok Sabha, Vasundhara Raje, the BJP's chief ministerial candidate, told reporters, 'I thought we would win 120, 125 seats, but it is going to be more than that.' Shahnawaz Akthar reports.
The Congress may stand a better chance in the assembly polls if it followed the 'Himachal model', suggests N Sathiya Moorthy.
The Centre on Wednesday said Avian Influenza, or the bird flu outbreak, has been reported at 12 epicentres in four states -- Kerala, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh -- and advisories have been issued to contain further spread of the infection in poultry ducks, crows and migratory birds.
Rediff.com takes a look at the new entrants on the World Heritage List.
In a neck-and-neck electoral race, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party won 1,443 out of the total of 3,351 wards while opposition parties including Congress and Independents won 1,908 wards in the Rajasthan civic body polls, results for which were announced on Thursday.
This was her second term as chief minister and, in keeping with the tradition of voters choosing the Congress and the BJP alternately, the ruling party looks set to lose power.
Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot is determined to implement the Eastern Rajasthan Canal Project despite the Centre's indifference.
The BJP bagged 1,989 of the 4,371 panchayat samiti seats while the Congress won 1,852 with almost all results of the four-phase local government polls being declared.
18 buses carrying students from Assam and 31 with students from Haryana were scheduled to leave Kota on Friday, Additional District Magistrate (administration), Kota Narendra Gupta, who is monitoring the task, said.
Accompanied by five party workers, Raje filed the papers at collectorate of Jhalawar, Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) Gaurav Bajaj told PTI on phone.
With the announcement of list of candidates for the December 1 assembly elections, rebellion is out in the open among Bharatiya Janata Party rank and file in Rajasthan's Hadoti region, once a stronghold of the opposition party.
The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) will adopt 15 Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) to convert them into centres of excellence.
Suspending Attar Singh Bhadana and Prahalad Gunjal, state BJP president Mahesh Sharma asked the duo to file their reply to the show cause notice-cum-suspension order within seven days, a party spokesman said.
The aerial survey was conducted in Bharatpur, Dholpur, Alwar, Dausa, Karauli, Sawai Madhopur, Jaipur rural, Kota and Tonk.
After a disappointing performance against Maharashtra last week, Mumbai slumped to another low against Rajasthan in the Ranji Trophy Super League match at Jhalawar on Sunday.
In Jodhpur district, the Army was alerted and IAF helicopters were kept on stand by as cracks developed in in the main wall of 118-year-old Jaswant Sagar dam following heavy rains in its catchment areas.
Mumbai scraped through to a two-run win over Rajasthan in the Ranji Trophy Super League Group A tie in Jhalawar on Wednesday.
Mumbai were in a strong position on the penultimate day of their Ranji Trophy Super League encounter against Rajasthan in Jhalawar on Tuesday.
