Bracing for the opposition onslaught in Parliament, government and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday decided to aggressively counter the attack on its leaders like Sushma Swaraj, Vasundhara Raje and Shivraj Singh Chouhan and rake up controversies related to Congress leaders.
Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu was sworn in as the first chief minister of new Andhra Pradesh at a function at Nagarjuna Nagar, 18 kms from Vijaywada on Sunday.
"There was 90 percent blockage in one of his coronary arteries and one stent was placed successfully. He is absolutely fine," Dr Sudhir Bhandari, principal of the SMS medical college, told reporters.
Their leaders go abroad and abuse India, while BJP workers sacrifice everything for the sake of the nation, Modi said.
A day after his release on interim bail, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal launched a blistering attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, alleging he was on a 'One nation, One leader' mission to impose 'dictatorship' by putting all leaders from opposition behind bars and 'politically finishing off' those in the Bharatiya Janata Party.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday snubbed senior leader Jaswant Singh by denying him a ticket in the Lok Sabha elections in Rajasthan and instead decided to field Col Sonaram Choudhary in Barmer, which Singh was seeking.
The monsoon session of Parliament beginning Tuesday is set to be stormy as Congress and several other Opposition parties appeared to be closing ranks to corner the government on a range of issues including Vyapam scam and Lalit Modi controversy.
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.
Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday lashed out at opposition Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) parties over Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader Udhayanidhi Stalin's remarks against 'Sanatan Dharma', accusing them of insulting 'Sanatan Dharma' for votebank and appeasement politics.
'The biggest change that the BJP can initiate in the run-up to 2024 is appointing new faces as chief ministers.' 'In doing so, it will send a message well beyond 2024.'
'The BJP had won elections when the Akhlaq issue and award wapsi happened and the party will win this time too,' he said.
Singh's strong comments are the first public criticism by a ruling party MP against the help extended to Lalit Modi by Swaraj and Rajasthan Chief Minister Raje
The monsoon session of parliament is all set to begin on July 21, but it will be a truncated three-week affair.
He also targeted the Congress government in Rajasthan, saying that had it set up a special court in the Kanhaiya Lal murder case, which happened in Udaipur last year, the accused would have been hanged by now.
Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Friday announced his government's decision to form 19 new districts and three new divisions in the state, earmarking Rs 2,000 crore for development of infrastructure for them.
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.
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.
A senior official said that Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje gave the direction in this regard to the home department yesterday following which remarks of the director general of police were sought on Wednesday.
Vadra, in his Facebook post on July 21, had taken a dig at the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government.
The Chief Minister's Free Medicine Scheme in Rajasthan is probably the most successful scheme introduced by the Ashok Gehlot government in the state. Now poll politics has cast a shadow over the scheme
The Maharashtra government has given a clean chit to Mumbai Police Commissioner Rakesh Maria after finding 'satisfactory' his explanation
Upping the ante ahead of Monday's all-party meeting convened by the government, Congress on Saturday insisted that the issue of action against three top Bharatiya Janata Party leaders should be on the agenda if the deadlock in Parliament is to be broken.
Vociferous protests by Opposition members led by the Congress continued in the Lok Sabha.
Gajendra Singh, who committed suicide at an Aam Aadmi Party rally in Delhi, was cremated at his native village on Thursday in the district, with a large number of people including politicians converging.
Celebrations broke out outside the Rajasthan BJP headquarters in Jaipur and the party workers burst firecrackers and distributed sweets as Murmu emerged victorious in the presidential poll.
Lalit Modi transferred his 2,000 shares worth Rs 114,000,0 (as of Friday) in his name to son Ruchir Kumar Modi.
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 waiver would cost Rs 18,000 crore to the state government.
Will the Monsoon Session of Parliament be adjourned sine die on Monday? That's the buzz in the Central Hall of Parliament on Friday, with many members of Parliament from both the Bhartiya Janata Party and the Congress, privately saying that the situation was getting out of control with the continued stalemate in the first week of the session.
Political exchanges between Congress and BJP today hit a low with the latter asking Rahul Gandhi to "grow out of diapers" after he took jibes at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying people will reduce his 56-inch chest to 5.6 inches.
What are the political equations, the challenges, and the threats?
The Congress president alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party deceived people and siphoned off hard-earned money of farmers, poor, small businessmen to fill the pockets of the country's 15-20 big industrialists.
In one state, the BJP sweeps in Modi's name -- and only because of Modi's name. In the other state, Modi's name did not work. Himachal underlines the limitations of Modi's magic, observes Shekhar Gupta.
How many more years, how many more states, how many more campaigns, how many more candidates can he ask votes for, before he or the voters or both tire?, asks Krishna Prasad.
Parliament on Wednesday saw a washout as the Opposition aggressively pressed for ouster of Sushma Swaraj, Vasundhara Raje and Shivraj Singh Chouhan, rejecting the government's offer for a debate.
'The 2024 election results will lead to much intense targeting of Modi, more intense debates, many more breakdowns in Parliament and many more movements on the streets.' 'The results have hit Modi's standing, and the politics of the Opposition parties will be sharply focused to ensure that Modi doesn't get back his charisma of being 'invincible' with help of State power.' Sheela Bhatt looks at the political situation through the prism of 2024 Lok Sabha election results.
At its Jaipur meeting, the BJP will focus on this year's assembly elections in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh while the Congress's Chintan Shivir in Udaipur will discuss how it can resurrect itself.
'Lalit Modi repeatedly kept requesting for Mumbai police's intervention against the underworld. I reiterated to Modi and his lawyer that it was imperative for Lalit Modi to return to Mumbai for the Mumbai police to initiate any inquiry. Thereafter, the meeting lasted barely for 15/20 minutes,' the police commissioner said.
With the general election campaign less than six months away, the BJP has more to think about than it had on the eve of 2019. It's the states that will be robbing BJP strategists of their sleep at this point, not the Lok Sabha, asserts Shekhar Gupta.
'He only promotes those leaders who will never show any resistance to him in future.'
