The Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday declared 13 candidates from Uttar Pradesh for the Lok Sabha polls including actor Arun Govil, who played Lord Ram in popular TV serial Ramayan, from Meerut, while replacing sitting MP Varun Gandhi from Pilibhit with state minister Jitin Prasada.
Close aides say Rawat does not give in easily and uses all political tools to marginalise his adversaries.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday named 72 more candidates for the Lok Sabha elections, including Union ministers Nitin Gadkari, Piyush Goyal and Anurag Singh Thakur, and former chief ministers Manohar Lal Khattar, Trivendra Singh Rawat and Basavaraj Bommai.
The Padma Bhushan was conferred on 17 personalities including N Chandrasekharan, chairman of Tata Sons, Krishna and Suchita Ella of Bharat Biotech, Cyrus Poonawalla, Satya Nadella, chairman of Microsoft, Sunder Pichai, chairman of Google.
Nine ministers also take oath. Satpal Maharaj, Harak Singh Rawat, Madan Kaushik, Arvind Pandey, Subodh Uniyal,Yashpal Arya and Prakash Pant have been made Cabinet ministers.
'But, then are we saying that armed forces must prepare for war? No'
Rawat has been called by the CBI to join the probe on Monday, sources said.
Three personnel, including two of major-rank and one naib subedar, have been conferred the Kirti Chakra, the ministry said.
Gen Rawat is due for retirement on December 31 and top government sources said, if everything goes according to plan, then the government would name him as the country's first CDS before he hangs up his boots.
Rawat, who thanked Congress President Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and other party leader for lending support, said the state would need active support of the central government and that he would meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.
Rawat said India was looking forward to procuring Kamov helicopters and other weapon systems and technology from Russia.
CM Harish Rawat condemned the imposition of President's rule in the state as a "murder" of democracy and said PM Narendra Modi's hands were dipped in the "blood".
The suspense over whether Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will contest the polls from Amethi and Raebareli respectively continued.
'It is crucial today to realise where we have reached in this 15 year-period in order to fully and properly assess the profundity of what General Rawat has said,' points out Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
The defence ministry employees have been given an option of donating one-day salary every month for the next one year and this would be done voluntarily.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday claimed that the Congress and Samajwadi Party will run a bulldozer over the Ram temple if elected to power, and asked them to take 'tuition' from Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath 'where to run bulldozers'.
Chief Minister Mohan Yadav on Sunday night ordered the removal of the Sagar district collector, superintendent of police and sub-divisional magistrate following the deaths of nine children on Sunday, an official said.
On Khan's statement as to why India and Pakistan could not be friends when Germany and France could be good neighbours, he said the neighbouring country first needed to see its internal condition. "They have turned Pakistan into an Islamic country. If they want cordial relations with India, they will have to develop themselves as a secular state," Rawat said.
The Bharatiya Janata Party replaced at least 25 sitting MPs with new faces as the party released its second list of 72 candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls on Wednesday.
It's being touted as the baap of all face-swaps.
Uttarakhand Governor Krishna Kant Paul on Saturday asked Chief Minister Harish Rawat to prove his majority on the floor of the state assembly by March 28 as the political crisis escalated with the Bharatiya Janata Party, claiming the support of rebel Congress MLAs, stepped up efforts to form its government.
The army chief said that radicalisation in Kashmir was being addressed with a "lot of seriousness"
Rubbishing the allegations, the Uttarakhand CM said that the CD presented was totally fake, adding that efforts were being made to tarnish the image of the Congress-led state government.
Former Union Minister and Congress candidate from Chhota Udepur, Naranbhai Rathwa, has approached the Election Commission taking objection to the shooting of Gujarat Tourism Development Corporation's campaign involving megastar Amitabh Bachchan.
Rajasthan Royals will face a stern test of character as they look to arrest a shocking slide in a do-or-die IPL Eliminator against an in-form RCB.
All schemes from Ladli Laxmi' to others being run by the previous government will continue and funds will be transferred to beneficiaries' accounts on the due date, Yadav said.
Describing the Harish Rawat government in Uttarakhand as "one steeped in corruption", Bharatiya Janata Party president Amit Shah on Saturday asked the people to dislodge it from power and help the lotus "bloom" in the state.
The BJP had registered a one-sided victory on all the 17 SC-reserved seats in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. But in 2019, out of these 17 seats, it lost Nagina and Lalganj seats to the Bahujan Samaj Party.
'Rama is Lord God of maryada. Today's maryada is the Constitution.'
Though electoral verdicts have historically been accepted, even though grudgingly, by all parties, there has been a sharper edge to the questions being raised by Opposition parties this time over the polling process, including the Election Commission.
The brother of the 17-year-old girl, who was slapped by an assistant commissioner of Delhi police while protesting here against the rape of a minor, on Friday submitted a petition to the home ministry seeking dismissal of the suspended officer.
The Union government on Wednesday told the Supreme Court that former chief minister and Congress leader Harish Rawat had won the floor test in the Uttarakhand assembly following which it will revoke President's rule in the hill state.
The party also decided to field Narpat Singh Rajvi from Chittorgarh after its earlier decision to deny the five-term MLA, who is the son-in-law of its stalwart leader Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, renomination from his Vidhyadhar Nagar seat. This triggered a backlash from a section of party workers.
Mishra lost from Datia seat by a margin of 7,742 votes to Congress candidate Rajendra Bharti.
Rashtriya Janata Dal president Lalu Prasad Yadav had thrown barbs at the prime minister over his having no family.
The pilot ejected safely and a court of inquiry has been ordered to ascertain the cause of the accident, the IAF said in a brief statement.
As India inches closer towards the general elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi has emerged as the most searched chief minister on search giant Google.
Though the MLAs termed it a courtesy meeting, they said they will support Raje if the party leadership chooses her for the post in the state.
The person had on Facebook posted derogatory comments about Rawat and the crash and also linked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to it, which went viral, police said.
As India's international role expands, so must our capabilities, says Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal (retd).
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