It has been a turnaround for Javadekar, who was earlier stripped of the charge of two key departments of Information and Broadcasting and Parliamentary Affairs as a minister of state.
With organisations like the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, which is a front of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, telling Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman they want OPS back, the government is in a bind, report Shiva Rajora and Aditi Phadnis.
Nearly 4,800 elected MPs and MLAs will vote on Monday to elect the 15th President of India, with National Democratic Alliance candidate Droupadi Murmu having a clear edge over Opposition's Yashwant Sinha as over 60 per cent votes are expected to be cast in her favour.
Four BJP leaders and former Supreme Court judge S Abdul Nazeer, who was part of the Constitution bench that upheld the archaeological report on Ayodhya, were among six new faces appointed as Governors on Sunday.
Amid political turmoil in Maharashtra following a revolt by Shiv Sena minister Eknath Shinde, six members of legislative assembly (MLAs) and a member of legislative council (MLC) from the neighbouring state arrived in Gujarat's Surat city on Thursday and were later flown to Guwahati in Assam, where party rebels are camping, in two chartered flights, sources said.
The 25-year-old saffron alliance in Maharashtra is hurtling towards a break up with the Bharatiya Janata Party leaders walking out of a meeting with their Shiv Sena interlocutors that was called to discuss seat-sharing for Maharashtra assembly polls.
High-profile figures Eknath Khadse and Vindo Tawde are missing from it.
'The message the BJP is sending is that they are in no way responsible for Uddhav's downfall and it was only Shinde who is to be blamed.'
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi must apologise and take back all his remarks against late Hindutva ideologue V D Savarkar before entering Maharashtra, Bharatiya Janata Party state chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule said in Nagpur on Friday.
BJP made inroads into the Congress and NCP strongholds, winning 851 seats. Shiv Sena won 514, NCP 638, Congress 643, MNS 16, BSP 9, unrecognised parties 119, local coalitions 384, CPM 12 and Independents 324 seats.
Members of the Legislative Council asked how some former legislators could enter the Vidhan Bhavan premises amid COVID-19-related restrictions and sought a report on the matter.
In his letter to Ajit Pawar, who too is a deputy CM, Fadnavis said Malik has the right to attend the assembly as an MLA and added that "we (the BJP) do not harbour any personal animosity or grudge" against him.
'Who else will solve these issues if not the chief minister?' 'Who else shall we take our complaints to?'
While the BJP and the Congress have always supported the bill, opposition by other parties and demands from some for quota for backward classes within the women's quota have been key sticking points.
So worried is Shiv Sena rebel leader Eknath Shinde of desertions that he is asking rebel MLAs in Guwahati to sign affidavits affirming that they won't go back on supporting the 'cause of Hindutva' after reaching Mumbai.
'BJP and RSS may have differences over minor issues but their hearts long for one common aim -- that of A Hindu Rashtra.' 'And this time to prove this point the RSS has prepared to help BJP win this election with all its might.'
As the campaign for the Lok Sabha elections gathers momentum, Sharad Pawar and Uddhav Thackeray, the leaders of two prominent regional parties in Maharashtra, are fighting a battle for political survival.
The MES and some political outfits in Maharashtra have been pressing for this demand on the ground that the district and a few other neighbouring areas of Karnataka have a substantial Marathi speaking population.
Narvekar, who polled 164 votes, defeated Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena candidate Rajan Salvi who got 107 votes.
Normalcy returned to the city, recently renamed as 'Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar', even as the government deployed five companies of the State Reserve Police Force as a precaution.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Sunday ordered a probe into a road accident on the Samruddhi Expressway which claimed 12 lives.
Amid speculation that he has been asked to come to the national capital by the high command, he said: "I have not received any call yet. Let's see."
Even as the two parties appeared confident that they have reached out to every voter and publicised their new symbols, experts suggested varying impact of the split and the symbols on the vote bank.
The appointments of five governors, including for Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya, and Lt Governor of Andaman and Nicobar Islands by President Ram Nath Kovind were announced on Saturday.
If Uddhav Thackeray is fazed by the BJP's attempts to build a narrative against his government in order to bring it down, he is not showing it. He has fought against all odds to remain in the CM's chair and faced difficulties with a smile, reports Syed Firdaus Ashraf.
Some have been cherry-picked to assert the BJP's supremacy over its allies or, significantly, its leaders who charted an independent course in the recent past.
Several Rashtriya Janata Dal Members of Parliament, Legislative Assembly and Legislative Council submitted their resignations to party supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav on Tuesday to protest the campaign against north Indians initiated by the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena and the Shiv Sena in Mumbai.
Uddhav Thackeray would do well to remember: Once he decides on a course of action, Bhagat Singh Koshyari never gives up, notes Aditi Phadnis.
'It is a well-thought-out decision. I feel it is difficult for him now to step back.'
Only after its recommendations will the central GST, integrated GST and state GST Bills be taken up
'The timing of the current episode involving Ajit Pawar is important. The episode has elements of deceit, betrayal and falsehood intertwined'
The Maharashtra government has decided to transfer Pune Police Commissioner Satyapal Singh in the wake of rising crime graph in the city, the Legislative Council was informed on Tuesday.
The letter was posted by Shinde on his Twitter handle, claiming these were the sentiments of the Sena MLAs.
Amid the Bharatiya Janata Party's criticism over the duration of his visit to cyclone-hit Konkan region of Maharashtra, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has said that he was at least taking stock of the situation on the ground and not conducting an aerial survey in a helicopter.
A Maharashtra MLC lost his cool and heckled Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan for allegedly delaying his departure to the coastal town of Alibaug in neighbouring Raigad district.
AAP is quite keen to repeat party chief Arvind Kejriwal's sterling victory against Delhi's former chief minister Sheila Dikshit by pitting Damania against Gadkari in the proposed high-profile contest.
The youth were demanding right to quality education, provision of trained interpreters for deaf students and preventing fraudulent distribution of disability certificates to able-bodied individuals among others.
On instructions from the central leadership, Maharashtra BJP leaders have retreated behind a veil of silence, the senior leader said.
NCP chief Sharad Pawar had reportedly expressed his displeasure to state Home Minister Dilip Walse-Patil, who is from the NCP, about the escape of Sena MLAs
Maharashtra Home Minister R R Patil said that he supports the demand to award capital punishment to rapists. Replying to a debate on atrocities against women, Patil termed the Delhi gangrape incident as deplorable, and sought the highest possible punishment to the accused. The view was earlier expressed by women legislators in the Legislative Council on Thursday.
