A delegation of Bharatiya Janata Party leaders from Uttarakhand on Monday met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and demanded the imposition of President's Rule in the flood-ravaged state on the grounds that the Congress government there had failed to deliver. The delegation, led by former Uttarakhand Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank and comprising Tehri Garhwal Member of Parliament Mala Rajya Lakshmi Shah among others met, Dr Singh for 30 minutes.
'Where is the remote control in the BJP? When I become president, the remote control will stay with me'
The decision was taken to ensure the betterment of the state and the party in the days to come, senior leader Ratan Lal Nath told reporters shortly after Saha, the state BJP president, took oath as the new chief minister.
In Uttarakhand, where the campaigning is reaching a fever pitch for the January 30 assembly elections, several politicians are facing the tag of "outsider" due to the change in their constituencies post delimitation.
No matter how smug they sound on the surface about the potential of the dissenters to disturb the proverbial applecart, the Congress and the BJP know that their electoral calculations are precariously hinged in a seemingly tight contest.
Who else do we know who meditated so with such impeccable timing (much of the Lok Sabha elections over and with only the last phase to go) and hordes for unsolicited defence of the grand meditation at public expense? asks Shyam G Menon.
Speculation is rife that Neelam had not committed suicide but had been murdered since she had started blackmailing some politicians
Congress leader Vaibhav Walia said Rawat's remarks were not just an insult to the father of the nation but also an insult to the country.
"There are clearly two sides. On one side, there is an organisation of patriots in the form of BJP and on the other side, tukde-tukde gang have come together under the leadership of the Congress. It is for the people of Karnataka to decide now whether they are with the patriots or those who support people who want to divide this country," he added.
Rediff Labs analysed the 2012 Uttrakhand assembly election results merged with 2014 Lok sabha election result are to develop a Sentiment Meter for the 2017 electoral battle.
High voter turnout was recorded in most of the seven assembly constituencies in six states where by-elections were held on Tuesday.
Chaudhary's jibe comes in the wake of his allegations the BJP has been trying to woo RLD leaders as well as the party chief into the saffron fold ahead of Uttar Pradesh assembly polls.
People in these villages routinely encounter big cats that stray into their farms from the adjoining Pilibhit Tiger Reserve, a bustling habitat for the Bengal Tiger (Panthera tigris).
The Congress continues to decline and BJP's regional rivals are making their presence felt, even in Uttar Pradesh where Samajwadi Party consolidated anti-BJP votes to a large extent.
"The voting percentage is likely to go upwards when reports from all polling stations are obtained as polling is scheduled till 6 pm in many constituencies. Final figures will be known on Saturday after the scrutiny of form 17A," the EC said.
'From April 25, 2021, Modi disappeared. He made no public appearance for 20 days.' 'The prime minister of India fled the field when his people needed the government most,' points out Aakar Patel.
For the first time, non-upper castes are in a majority in the board, as the party continues with its outreach to traditionally weaker and backward sections of society.
It also assured that the amount of medical insurance coverage under the Ayushman Bharat scheme would be doubled from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 10 lakh.
Bihar Bharatiya Janata Party leader Ashwani Choubey and his family, who were stranded in a temple in Kedarnath, have been rescued and brought to Dehradun by a helicopter on Thursday.
Why did Modi single out the Congress and its leaders for the most pugnacious verbal assault while sparing other regional adversaries? If he is trying to get some parties to break the Opposition ranks, it means that the BJP's present bravado is for effect. Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, author of Narendra Modi: The Man, The Times, begins a new column for Rediff.com.
By March 17 it would be clear on who will be anointed to the post.
The AAP, which is the only party to declare its chief ministerial candidate before the polls, is trying hard to make the contest triangular.
"Why did Congress oppose creation of Uttarakhand as a state? Those who cannot think well of the people here, how can they govern?" Prime Minister Modi said while addressing an election rally.
The IMD has warned of heatwave to severe heatwave conditions in parts of West Bengal, Odisha, Bihar, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh during the next five days.
The meeting, which lasted for over four hours, was attended by chief ministers and deputy chief ministers of 18 states.
'Both Modi and Yogi are contesting this election together.' 'Both bring their individual strengths to BJP in UP.'
'Modigate is snowballing into a huge thing with the electorate. The BJP is in for huge punishment by the electorate.'
Authorities in New Delhi intensified security arrangements on Tuesday to stop the farmers' march from entering Delhi as the Singhu and Tikri borders were shut while the Red Fort complex was closed temporarily after peasants on their way to the national capital clashed with the police at the Shambhu border between Haryana and Punjab.
As the new year arrives, the Bharatiya Janata Party's finds itself on the cusp of the most consequential cycle of state polls since the 2019 Lok Sabha elections as the results will tell if the road ahead in its bid for a third straight term at the Centre is getting any bumpier or a strong opposition challenge remains elusive.
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna on Wednesday won the Sitarganj assembly seat by a record margin of 39,954 votes over his nearest Bharatiya Janata Party rival to retain the top post. The victory margin is the highest in all the assembly elections in Uttarakhand so far, officials said
Political temperatures shot up in Dehradun on Friday abruptly after the arrest of Bharatiya Janata Party MLA from Mussoorie, Ganesh Joshi in the Shaktiman case, with the entire place agog with rumours that the BJP was trying to woo disgruntled Congress legislators to prove that the party had been reduced to a minority.
The Congress had governments in eight states in 2014, but now, the number might come down to five.
Kejriwal asked whether the BJP-led central government was waiting for the Lok Sabha elections to make a move in this direction.
The decision will be taken by the trust in consultation with Shankaracharya Vijayendra Saraswati and other seers, trust functionaries said.
Senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha has made a veiled attack on Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on the issue of rescuing Uttarakhand victims from his state alone, saying no politician should be parochial in his approach while saving lives of the stranded people.
'The BJP while being in government in Gujarat continues to campaign like an Opposition party whereas the Opposition does the opposite.'
Harish Rawat's political one-upmanship weakened the party; nine MLAs who left won on BJP tickets.
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.
The tragedy took a political hue with CM Yogi Adityanath suggesting the involvement of SP in 'such mischievous acts'.
This is the first time that the House is meeting after the BJP's overwhelming victory in the recent series of assembly elections held in February-March.
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