He termed Gandhi's resignation from the Lok Sabha and Chairperson of the National Advisory Council as steps taken due to "compulsion", saying she was left with no option in the wake of the office of profit controversy.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Jaswant Singh, whose book eulogising Mohd Ali Jinnah has come under attack from BJP and the Sangh parivar, was on Wednesday expelled from the BJP.
India's Parliament is set to begin its Budget session on Friday, with opposition parties poised to demand a discussion on the alleged mismanagement of the Maha Kumbh festival in Prayagraj, where 30 pilgrims died in a stampede. The opposition also accused the government of politicising parliamentary committees and pushing its agenda through its majority. The session will start with President Droupadi Murmu addressing both houses of Parliament. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the Union Budget on Saturday for the eighth consecutive time.
Singh's comments that the nuclear option should not be resorted to is a message to Russia as well as Western powers backing Ukraine, people familiar with the matter said. Ukraine does not have any nuclear arsenal.
Upset over denial of Lok Sabha ticket, senior BJP leader Jaswant Singh on Monday filed his nomination papers from Barmer as an Independent, leaving the central leadership sulking over his decision.
Uttar Pradesh and Bihar appear to have got the maximum representation in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's new council of ministers, while assembly poll-bound Maharashtra also found a significant presence.
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Scores of Bharatiya Janata Party workers and supporters of riot-accused Member of Legislative Assembly Sangit Som burnt effigy of party president Rajnath Singh Muzaffarnagar in protest against denial of Lok Sabha ticket to the legislator.
Criticising the state government, she said it was only interested in "amassing wealth and shielding criminals."
Debutant legislator Rekha Gupta was sworn in as Delhi chief minister along with six ministers on Thursday in a grand show of strength full of colour and spectacle to mark the Bharatiya Janata Party's return to power in the city after more than 26 years.
Scindia has been named as the BJP's Rajya Sabha candidate from Madhya Pradesh.
'If there is a military standoff eyeball to eyeball on the western border, the Chinese could create problems by making movements in the north, in our northeast, which could involve us tying down some forces there so that could stretch our military actions.'
Defence minister Rajnath Singh virtually conducted the final breakthrough blast of the Sela tunnel in Arunachal Pradesh and flagged of a 20,000-km-long motorcycle expedition of the BRO on Thursday.
Over the years, there has been a significant change in every field -- from society, politics to economy. Security challenges have also witnessed that change, Singh said.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday held talks with his Chinese counterpart Li Shangfu and is learnt to have discussed the lingering border row in eastern Ladakh.
The opposition on Sunday asked the Centre to allow discussions in the Parliament on the United States prosecutors' bribery charges against the Adani Group even as Union minister Kiren Rijiju made it clear that the matters to be taken up in the two Houses will be decided by their authorised committees with the consent of the respective Chair.
The meeting, which began around 10:30 pm on Thursday, lasted for more than four hours and was held at the party's headquarters in New Delhi.
Bharatiya Janata Party President Rajnath Singh was on Saturday denied permission to visit riot-hit Muzaffarnagar even as he accused the Samajwadi Party government of selectively targeting his party leaders.
With two phases of voting already completed, political parties are busy with filing nominations, addressing roadshows and undertaking hectic campaigns for the constituencies that will vote this month.
The ceremony was attended by Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Home Minister Amit Shah and the family members of Advani, the Rashtrapati Bhavan said in a post on X.
Bharatiya Janata Party president Rajnath Singh on Friday appeared to bat for Gujrat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as the party's prime ministerial candidate and said it is now Congress' turn to make clear its choice of its candidate for the top post.
Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi raised the issue of irregularities in NEET soon after the Lok Sabha assembled for the day, prompting Defence Minister Rajnath Singh to assert that a separate discussion cannot be held till the House finishes with the motion of thanks on the president's address.
BJP's open support to Kalam, if he chooses to contest again, may queer the pitch for the ruling United Progressive Alliance.
The meeting with Naidu is significant as the BJP parliamentary board is meeting later on Tuesday to discuss the BJP-led NDA's choices for the new president.
We are sure that when talks take place, some way or the other will come out, Singh said.
The immediate challenge for the Centre and the home ministry is to ensure the conduct of assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir and restoration of its statehood.
While there are some new faces in the cabinet, leaders such as BJP president JP Nadda and Jual Oram have returned as ministers.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah asked the opposition on Monday to allow a debate on the Manipur issue to begin in Parliament but the deadlock persisted in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha as both sides refused to budge from their stand, with Congress and its allies insisting on a statement from Prime Minister Narendra Modi first.
The death toll in the overnight stampede at the New Delhi Railway Station climbed to 18 on Sunday, with a senior railway official saying the incident occurred after some passengers slipped and fell on others while coming down from a footover bridge.
On Wednesday, July 13, 2022, the President -- who is the supreme commander of Indian's armed forces -- attended a farewell banquet hosted in his honour by the Chiefs of Staff Committee in New Delhi.
Defence sources stated that the disengagement involves removing infrastructure and withdrawing troops from both sides. The process is expected to be completed by Tuesday.
Congress General Secretary Digvijaya Singh on Saturday took potshots at the Bharatiya Janata Party over the latter's decision to nominate Narendra Modi as its prime ministerial candidate, saying the party has succumbed to threats from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, and wondered if the Sangh could still call itself a "cultural organisation".
Modi paired his dress with black shoes for the swearing-in ceremony at the forecourts of the Rashtrapati Bhavan.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Saturday credited the breakthrough agreement with China on patrolling along the Line of Actual Control to the military which worked in 'very very unimaginable' conditions and deft diplomacy.
Call it a charismatic show by the power couple -- Hemant Soren and Kalpana Soren -- whom the Bharatiya Janata Party had dubbed as 'Bunty aur Babli', Jharkhand's Jharkhand Mukti Morcha is on track to secure a second consecutive term as part of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA).
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.
Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said in a tweet that he had spoken to the director of AIIMS to enquire about President Kovind's health.
The BJP's strategy seem to be to wean away allies from the Congress, in Dravidian Tamil Nadu, and maybe later in UP, Bihar and elsewhere, though in slow doses, but without wooing them into a new alliance. The idea seems to be only to weaken the INDIA bloc from within -- and leaving it at that, notes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Congress General Secretary Shakeel Ahmed on Sunday sought to ridicule Bharatiya Janata Party president Rajnath Singh over the issue of a United States visa for Narendra Modi
After Modi is elected the leader of NDA MPs, senior members of the alliance like Telugu Desam Party's N Chandrababu Naidu, Janata Dal-United's Nitish Kumar and Shiv Sena's Eknath Shinde will join the prime minister for a meeting with President Droupadi Murmu to present her the list of parliamentarians supporting him, some alliance members said.
Sharat Pradhan chronicles Rajnath Singh's political journey -- from a farmer's family to chief, for the second time, of Bharatiya Janata Party.
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