The defence minister said: "People can say whatever they want. I did what I thought was right and I will continue to do so."
Narendra Modi will take oath as the prime minister for a third consecutive term on Sunday evening as President Droupadi Murmu has invited him to form the government.
Sensing an impending storm at its crucial meeting on June 20 to discuss its poor show in the recent Lok Sabha elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party has decided to set up an in-house committee to analyse the reasons for its electoral defeat.The decision to set up the committee is expected to be finalised at the party's 'core committee' meeting in New Delhi on Wednesday. Besides party President Rajnath Singh and Opposition leader L K Advani, senior leaders will also attend.
Sunil Gatade and Venkatesh Kesari reveal that Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar's name is now doing the rounds as President Kovind's likely successor.
Slamming Pakistan for failing to check terror groups operating from its soil against India, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday demanded that organisations like Pakistan's Inter State Intelligence be put under "international watch" and the US government be asked to stop extending financial aid to it as it was being misused.
The Bharatiya Janata Party, if voted to power, will create an atmosphere of "mutual goodwill and trust" with the United States, party president Rajnath Singh said in Washington, DC, asking America to look at India as a long-term strategic partner and "not merely as a transactional" relationship.
The issue of whether he was still in the race for Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate figured on Tuesday at the 85th birthday celebrations of L K Advani who turned emotional as party colleagues praised him for his leadership.
As her parting shot, Vasundhara Raje, who quit as leader of the opposition in Rajasthan, on Friday shot off a controversial letter to all Bharatiya Janata Party Parliamentary Board members accusing the party central leadership of mishandling her resignation issue.
There are signs of trouble between the film actor Chiranjeevi's Praja Rajyam Party and the Nava Telangana Party over the issue of an alliance or understanding with the Bharatiya Janata Party. Even as the NTP president T Devender Goud is scheduled to meet BJP's the prime ministerial candidate L K Advani and the party president Rajnath Singh in New Delhi on Thursday, Chiranjeevi has ruled out the possibility of a tie up with the saffron party.
It is a double century with a difference for the cricketer turned politician, who is the lead campaigner for the Opposition Mahagathbandhan in the state.
Party leaders have been flocking Advani's residence since morning to garland him and present bouquets.
With the judgment in the Ayodhya court case just round the corner, the Bhartiya Janata Party is striving to raise the pitch on the controversial issue. This was amply demonstrated at the party's two-day long state executive meet that concluded in Lucknow on Sunday.Spelling it out in the valedictory address, amidst reverberating cries of Jai Shree Ram, former national BJP president Rajnath Singh declared, "The Ayodhya temple is bound to be a reality -- come what may."
However, in 950 booths, voting will end at 4 pm, though people standing in the queue at that time will be able to exercise their franchise.
As TDP maintains a distance from the BJP ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, the saffron party may get a new alliance partner in the form of Telangana Rashtra Samiti. Vicky Nanjappa reports on the changing political scenarios in the newly-formed regions of Telangana and Seema-Andhra in this election season.
"By such pronouncements, the BJP leader was undermining the very reconciliation process pioneered by the then Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and carried forward by Dr Manmohan Singh," Mufti said while addressing party workers in Jammu.
Kumaraswamy reiterated his desire to be the Agriculture Minister.
Amongst those who attended the meeting included former president L K Advani, current party president Rajnath Singh were prominent leaders who attended the meet.
India today appeared to be on the brink of what might be a protracted recession, BJP president Rajnath Singh told a press conference in Bangalore.
The Karnataka state executive meeting of the Bharatiya Janata Party held on Friday in Bangalore spent a considerable amount of time discussing the election strategy, and more importantly, the return of Karnataka Janata Paksha chief B S Yeddyurappa into the party.
While giving a clean chit to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi for the 2002 communal riots in that state, Bhartiya Janata Party president Rajnath Singh on Thursday dropped a bombshell by virtually blaming former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi for the anti-Sikh riots that followed the assassination of his mother, the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1984.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leaders L K Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi will not participate in the discussion on the Liberhan Commission findings in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday following a decision by the party against fielding those indicted in the report. "We have taken a conscious decision that leaders whose names appear in the accused list will not speak during the discussions," a senior party leader said on Monday.
Former Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje finally resigned as the leader of the Opposition in the state assembly on Friday.Raje, who initially refused to resign, has been dodging the Bharatiya Janata Party leadership for over two months on the issue.However, she did not hand over her resignation letter to party president Rajnath Singh. Raje met Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha L K Advani in Delhi on Friday and handed over her resignation letter.
Bharatiya Janata Party president Rajnath Singh is learnt to have sought an explanation from former Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje for delaying her resignation as Opposition leader in the Assembly in defiance of the party's parliamentary board decision.
The suspense over the possible composition of the National Democratic Alliance cabinet seems to be nearing climax as sources informed that a list of names is being finalised to be sent to President Pranab Mukherjee on the sidelines of Narendra Modi's swearing-in ceremony.
President Pranab Mukherjee hosted the season's first big Iftar party at Rashtrapati Bhawan on Monday evening, but conspicuously absent was Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and the event was in turn attended by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Minorities Affairs Minister Najma Heptullah with Union Minister and Lok Janashakti Party leader Ram Vilas Paswan. Renu Mittal reports
Bharatiya Janata Party leader Yashwant Sinha, who is in charge of party affairs in Karnataka, briefed the top party leadership about the crisis in the state following the suspension of talks between the BJP and JD (S) abt the impending power transfer
This year, the proceedings at Kushabhau Sthal will be monitored by the leader of Opposition in Parliament L K Advani.
India celebrates December 16 as Vijay Diwas to commemorate the military victory over Pakistan in 1971.
The crisis in Bharatiya Janata Party over a defiant Vasundhara Raje's refusal to resign as Leader of Opposition in Rajasthan assembly appeared to be showing signs of easing, after she made a conciliatory statement but the party insisted she should quit, for which no deadline was set.
Sixteen Bharatiya Janata Party corporators of Pune civic body have sent their resignations to party president Rajnath Singh to express solidarity with party general secretary Gopinath Munde, who resigned from all organisational posts. The corporators, who met late on Sunday night to discuss Munde's resignation, said their loyalties would remain with the BJP leader and they would follow the "path" shown by him in future.
Along with Sharma, Diya Kumari and Prem Chand Bairwa, who were named as deputy chief ministers in the recently held Bharatiya Janata Party legislature party meeting, will take oath.
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 names of Minister for Tourism and Parliamentary Affairs Prakash Pant and Health Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal are doing the rounds as possible front-runners to replace Khanduri.
Strong demands for accountability for the Lok Sabha debacle were voiced on Saturday at the Bharatiya Janata Party National Executive meeting in which party President Rajnath Singh acknowledged a qualified responsibility on his part and announced a Committee to go into the defeat.
