Peeved over the alleged failure of the Vasundhara Raje government in getting them Scheduled Tribe status, an influential Gujjar organisation on Monday said that it would boycott the ruling BJP in the coming Rajasthan assembly elections. "The BJP government has not only ditched us but also broken its promises made to Gujjars, for recommending the Centre to accord ST status," said president of Rajasthan Gujjar Arakshan Sangarsh Samiti Kirorisingh Bainsla.
Rajasthan's chief minister Vasundhara Raje on Wednesday laid the foundation stone for setting up an IT/ITES SEZ by Somani Worsted Ltd and manufacturing facilities of Jaquar Ltd and Orient Craft Ltd in Bhiwadi. Digamber Singh, Rajasthan's minister of industries, was also present on the occasion.
The chief ministers of five mineral-rich states on Wednesday urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for local value addition in the National Mineral Policy (NMP). They also argued that foreign firms must not be allowed to grab control of prized natural resources. The team consisted of Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, Chhatishgarh CM Raman Singh, Jharkhand CM Madhu Koda, Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chauhan and Rajasthan's Vasundhara Raje.
It was alleged that Singh welcomed the guests by offering them opium diluted in water, a charge denied by him. A local resident Om Prakash Vishnoi, through his counsel Malam Singh Choudhary, filed the complaint before the special judge, Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act cases, under various sections of the law.
Union minister and the BJP's election in-charge for Rajasthan Pralhad Joshi, co-in-charge Nitin Patel, the party's in-charge for Rajasthan Arun Singh, state president C P Joshi, Union ministers Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Arjun Ram Meghwal and Kailash Chaudhary, Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly Rajendra Rathore, Deputy Leader of Opposition and former state president Satish Poonia and other leaders were present at the meeting, which is likely to continue till late, the sources said.
Indian Premier League commissioner Lalit Modi on Sunday blamed the Rajasthan government for his defeat in the state's cricket association election.
The PIL has alleged that large scale violence last month over the Gujjar's demand for inclusion in the Scheduled Tribe category was a fallout of the 'infighting' within the state Bharatiya Janata Party.
The Rajasthan government recently made recitation of bhojan mantra in hostels compulsory.
The decision was taken in a BJP legislature party meeting held here on Thursday. After the meeting, Kataria told reporters that the motion of no confidence will be moved in the assembly session beginning Friday. He said the proposal was being finalised.
Pilot said he is not backing down from the stand he has taken against the state Congress government saying he is "politely requesting" it to take action in corruption cases from the previous dispensation.
With all eyes on the Congress's next step in Rajasthan after Sachin Pilot's fast in Jaipur on Tuesday, AICC in-charge of state Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa on Wednesday said he agrees with the issue of corruption taken up by Pilot but the manner in which it was raised was not right.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday hinted at "welcoming" former external affairs minister Natwar Singh into its fold after he quit the Congress.
The four-year-old Vasundhara Raje council of ministers in Rajasthan was on Monday expanded with induction of five ministers.
The Rajasthan government on Tuesday decided to forward the report of the Justice Jasraj Chopra Committee to the Centre. The committee had looked into the demands of the Gujjar community in the state, who want to be shifted to the Scheduled Caste category from the Other Backward Caste.
"In all the 24 deaths, the bullets hit the Gujjars on their back. This indicated that they were running for their lives and there was no question of someone resorting to violence."
Suspending Attar Singh Bhadana and Prahalad Gunjal, state BJP president Mahesh Sharma asked the duo to file their reply to the show cause notice-cum-suspension order within seven days, a party spokesman said.
A three-member high-power committee headed by a retired High Court judge to examine the community's demand for ST status.
The state government wanted to sort out the matter but due to Friday's clash in Lalsot between Gujjars and Meenas, in which four persons were killed, the meeting was delayed.
Apart from the two major parties (Cong: 98; BJP: 67) the Bahujan Samaj Party is leading in four seats, while the Janata Dal-United and the Communist Party of India-Marxist are ahead in one each.
Rajasthan's BJP Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje and Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia on Monday differed on which Union government was behind the expressway project in the state.
In Karnataka, the BJP lost the elections because of multiple poles of power, a problem the central leadership could not sort out in time. Could the same happen to the Congress in Rajasthan? asks Aditi Phadnis.
There are reports that Sachin Pilot, who is engaged in a tussle for power in Rajasthan ever since the Congress won the state in 2018, may announce his own party.
The 26-day-old agitation by Gujjars demanding Scheduled Tribe status is set to be called off on Wednesday as the community on Tuesday night reached an agreement with Rajasthan government in the final rounds of talks in Jaipur. The agreement will be signed on Wednesday by Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje and Gujjar leader Kirori Singh Bainsla, spearheading the stir, in Jaipur on Wednesday.
Elections in four assembly seats, Nasirabad in Ajmer, Kota South and Weir in Bharatpur and Surajgarh in Jhunjhunu, are scheduled for Saturday. Results will be declared three days later on September 16
Scores of wounded people were ferried to several hospitals soon after the low-intensity blasts hit at Tripolia Bazaar, where large number of devotees turned up at a Hanuman temple, Johari Bazaar, Manak Chowk, Badi Choupal and Choti Choupal in the walled part of the city. Police sources said the attack was meticulously planned and the first blast occurred around 1940 hours IST and the remaining blasts were set off in quick succession.
Former External Affairs Minister K Natwar Singh, who had to resign from the government in the wake of the Iraqi food-for-oil scam, on Wednesday announced his resignation from the Congress. Natwar made the announcement in the presence of Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje Scindia at a Bharatiya Janata Party-sponsored Jat rally in Vidyadhar Nagar. He also launched a blistering attack on Sonia Gandhi.
"I am Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje's friend; no police can act against me." This is what some harassers told the family of the Sikar gang rape victim, who has just undergone her 20th operation in 17 months.
Congress in-charge for Rajasthan Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa on Wednesday started one-to-one meetings with state ministers and MLAs amid attempts by the party's central leadership to broker peace between Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and dissident leader Sachin Pilot ahead of assembly polls due later this year.
Congress candidate Manvendra Singh, who recently crossed over from the BJP, will be facing off the Rajasthan chief minister in her political fortress of Jhalrapatan.
Speaking exclusively to rediff.com he said that the Gujjars did not fulfill any of the conditions that are necessary to get ST status.
Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje is participating in the negotiations for the first time.
For voters in this part of Rajasthan, it is water and farmers' issues which seem to be on the top of their minds as they ponder over whom to elect in the December 4 Assembly polls.
Infighting between Ashok Gehlot and Sachin Pilot has been out in the open throughout the Congress term.
The move by Pilot to open a new front against Gehlot amid the factional fighting is seen as an attempt to pressure the party high command to resolve the leadership issue ahead of the year-end polls.
The Russian president, who flew in from China, was received at the airport by Minister of State Vasundhara Raje and Foreign Secretary Kanwal Sibal.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
'Once elected, you have to act like people's representative for the full five years or else people show you your place.'
She said the state government had written numerous letters to the Centre from time to time on the issue of deportation of Bangladeshi nationals who were finding their way into Rajasthan. "We wrote to them in June 2007 to say, look we need to do something about this. We got a reply back from them (Centre) saying, well why don't you just collect them and put them into a transit camp somewhere," Raje told 'Walk the Talk' programme on NDTV.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) held the core group meeting of five states on Saturday at the party headquarters in New Delhi.
