State BJP in-charge Dinesh Sharma and party treasurer Surendra Patel met Shah on Thursday morning upon his arrival. The other top state leaders and ministers are expected to meet him in the evening.
Sources in various parties suggest that two lakh votes of the Patel community, locally known as OBC kurmi, for which mother-daughter led Apna Dal (S) and Apna Dal (K) are competing and over one lakh of OBC Rajbhars would be crucial in deciding the outcome of the assembly seats in Varanasi.
What some of our leaders were up to on the weekend.
Bharatiya Janata Party president Amit Shah along with Chief Minister Vijay Rupani and other party leaders were booed off stage as the members of Hardik Patel's Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti created ruckus and vanadalised furniture at a programme to felicitate Patel leaders in Surat.
Union Minister Praful Patel and Maharashtra minister Chhagan Bhujbal, who is the Nationalist Congress Party's OBC face, are among 18 candidates announced by the party on Thursday for the Lok Sabha polls in Maharashtra.
Yoga was the mantra and asanas the discipline on Wednesday as millions across the globe and distant corners of India stretched for the skies and dived for their toes, breathed in and out -- mindfully -- and twisted and turned to celebrate the International Day of Yoga.
While Nationalist Congress Party chief and Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar today reiterated that he would not be contesting the Lok Sabha election this time, some senior party leaders would have to brace up for moving out of the state.
Bhima Koregaon represents what the government can do in India against well meaning people who speak up against atrocities, who stand up for the weak and the dispossessed and for this reason alone as seen as enemies of the State and kept in prison for as long as the government can manage. So long as the rest of us do not speak up against this misbehaviour by the State, so long as we forget about those who have been made its victims, this behaviour will continue, asserts Aakar Patel.
Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Wednesday said he aspired to become the CM of the state and also took a jibe at his 83-year-old uncle asking when will the Maratha strongman retire from active politics, as he appeared to be ahead in the numbers game for control of the Nationalist Congress Party after its vertical split.
The BJP has nominated Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal as its candidate from Maharashtra for Rajya Sabha election.
BJP president J P Nadda on Wednesday announced an alliance with Apna Dal and Nishad Party, two parties that draw their support primarily from sections of backward castes, for the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls.
During a cabinet meeting earlier in the day, Modi lauded both Naqvi and Singh for their contributions to the country during their ministerial tenure, sources said.
As the man raised a finger at Patel while talking, an irked minister gestured him to lower his finger, and said, "If you spoke in this manner, you will get two slaps. (Aisa bolega to do khayega)."
Modi, attired in traditional dhoti and gamcha (stole), entered the sanctum sanctorum of the Lord Mahakal temple at around 6 pm.
'The war of 1962 exposed the hollow intellectual foundations of Nehruvian foreign policy, especially vis-a-vis China and that is why it was such a shock.'
Patel, whose name is doing the rounds for the top post in the state, told reporters in Gandhinagar that he will not speak about any individual's name at this stage and the BJP's central leadership will decide on the new chief minister.
Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president Sharad Pawar on Thursday said his decision to step down from the post was taken for the future of the party and to create a new leadership.
AAP could make its presence felt. But Gadhvi may have to wait for a chance to get the top job.
The Bharatiya Janata Party will not contest the November 3 bypoll to Andheri East assembly seat in Mumbai, Maharashtra party chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule said on Monday.
'In the long run, I don't foresee major ramifications [about Trudeau's allegations].' 'There's just enough hypocrisy among Western nations for India to douse the outrage.'
If only the Congress could rebuild on its strengths and develop a modern enough ideology, we could again be moving towards a clearer two-party political landscape, asserts Shekhar Gupta.
Seventy two years ago, a newly independent India ventured to hold the the first Asian Games in Delhi with meager resources.
A total 2.51 crore voters are eligible to exercise their franchise for the second phase of elections, including 1.29 crore men and 1.22 crore women.
Sharad Pawar on Friday evening announced that he was not stepping down as the president of the Nationalist Congress Party.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday dedicated to the nation the Mahakal Lok corridor at Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh.
Particularly the small and independent Web sites that have developed a following in the recent past because the mainstream is seen as totally aligned with the government, points out Aakar Patel.
Sharing Yadav's tweet, Giriraj Singh, who has often been critical of Kumar, on Wednesday said, "The snake has entered your home."
Some of the prominent United Progressive Alliance ministers on Sunday came under fire from Team Anna at the fast venue of Anna Hazare with the activist's close aide Arvind Kejriwal claiming that cases could have been registered against 14 ministers if there was a Lokpal.
Dominic Xavier offers his take on Lakshadweep Administrator Praful Khoda Patel's policies which have angered and upset the majority Muslim population of the Union Territory.
A special court in Gujarat on Thursday acquitted all the 67 accused, including former Bharatiya Janata Party minister Maya Kodnani, in the 2002 Naroda Gam riots case in which 11 people were killed.
The BJP-led NDA's nominee Droupadi Murmu on Friday filed her nomination papers for the July 18 presidential election, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi handing over the set of papers to Returning Officer P C Mody.
A joint venture of the Indian conglomerate Vedanta and Taiwanese electronics manufacturing giant Foxconn signed a memorandum of understanding with the Gujarat government on Tuesday to set up a semiconductor and display manufacturing unit in the state.
India's sportsperson could not perform well in the past due to nepotism and corruption but his government cleaned up the system, he said.
When was the last time we heard this government speaking of the disaster in primary education, rather than Ganga cruises and cheetahs? Less money -- Rs 88,000 crore -- was spent by the Union government on education in its last Budget than has been allocated to the Bullet train, notes Aakar Patel.
The party rank and file seemed bewildered at the sudden turn of events which has taken the spotlight away from the "Har Ghar Tiranga" programme which the BJP was planning to hold with much fanfare.
'The bad dream can turn into a ghoulish nightmare for the BJP if the Gujjars in Rajasthan and the Patels in Gujarat, both BJP-ruled states, were to fish in troubled waters and relaunch their respective agitations for quotas in government jobs,' warns Rajeev Sharma.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday urged bureaucrats to make national interest the sole basis of their every decision, saying the country has put its faith in them and they must uphold that trust.
'Number two' in the cabinet Nitin Patel has emerged as a strong contender.
The Global Indian Award is given to a person who has had an impact on and contributed in some way to the growth of the Indian and global economy.
The Sharad Pawar and Ajit Pawar factions of the NCP will hold their meetings in Yashwantrao Chavan Centre in south Mumbai and Bhujbal Knowledge City in suburban Bandra, respectively.
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