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Inflicting a shock defeat on BJP, the Congress today ousted the Vasundhara Raje government from power, emerging the single largest party with 96 seats falling short of a majority by just 5 seats.
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.
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.
Within days of the shocking blasts, Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje Scindia did something that none of the chief ministers of terror-hit states had done before.
The chief minister has recommended 4 to 6 per cent additional quota under nomadic cateogry to certain castes including Gurjars, and 10 to 20 per cent to Rajputs, Brahmins, and Vaishyas under EBC, BJP national treasurer Ramdas Agarwal, who is also the Chairman of Gurjar special package committee, told reporters after a party meeting.
The Rajasthan government on Thursday invited Gujjar community leader Kirori Singh Bainsla for talks, who said he would send his representatives after consulting prominent Gujjar leaders.
Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje's decision to stay away from the Bharatiya Janata Party national executive in New Delhi took away glamour from the meet. Newsmen who were looking for an opportunity to quiz her in the wake of her confrontation with the Gujjar leader Col Bhainsla were disappointed.
Accusing Raje of lacking 'courage of conviction', Bainsla said "it is the responsibility of the head of an elected government to come and listen to the grievances of the people." Contesting Raje's claim that she tried to contact him on Sunday from Bayana, the Gujjar leader said "no efforts were made from the CM's side to contact me".
The Rajasthan government has suspended Indian Administrative Service officer B B Mohanty in the alleged rape and exploitation case of a 23-year-old girl.
India and Pakistan share a 3,323 km-long border, including the Line of Control in Jammu & Kashmir. But the only 2289.66km of it is properly demarcated as the international border.
The Criminal Laws (Rajasthan Amendment) Bill was tabled in the assembly on Monday.
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.
The MEA has also asked the Rajasthan government to provide all assistance to the foreign tourists.
Vice President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat met United Progressive Alliance-Left presidential candidate Pratibha Patil on Saturday.
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.
Malaika Arora Khan wowed the audience as she walked for designer Mandira Wirk, and Aditi Rao Hydari looked stunning in a Shruti Sancheti outfit.
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.
The Additional Judicial Magistrate acquitted the six men, giving them benefit of the doubt, according to a lawyer.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday hinted at "welcoming" former external affairs minister Natwar Singh into its fold after he quit the Congress.
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.
Besides Joseph, one of the lawyers defending Michel is a member of the Congress' youth wing while the father of another is a party member, Patra claimed at a press conference.
An agitating Congress member in Lok Sabha on Monday banged his placard on the table of the Speaker, prompting the angry Sumitra Mahajan to abruptly adjourned the House for an hour.
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.
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.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday promised loans to farmers and unemployed youth, creation of 15 lakh jobs and quota for Gujjar and other backward communities if voted to power in Rajasthan in next month's assembly election.
The mahapanchayat comes less than a month after a violent agitation by the Gujjars, demanding ST status, rocked Rajasthan.
Shahnawaz Akhtar spoke to Diya Kumari at the iconic City Palace, which doubles up as her residence and office, where the princess opened up about her joining hands with the saffron brigade, being addressed by name and to a lot more.
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.
"It seems the BJP has opened a Lalit Kala Academy to train its spokespersons in how to defend Lalit Modi," party spokesman Tom Vadakkan told media persons.
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.
The Vasundhara Raje government's initiatives mark a critical step forward in labour law reforms.
Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje claimed the deputy chairperson of planning commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia was very pleased with the performance of the state.
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.
Rajasthan Food and Supply Minister Kirorilal Meena on Wednesday refused to withdraw his resignation, which he had submitted to Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje last Sunday, on the Gujjar issue. Breaking his silence over the matter, Meena told a press conference in Jaipur that even if the chief minister requested him to take back his resignation, he would not do so.
'...that it takes fantasy seriously as a part of real life'... A fascinating excerpt from Jonathan Gil Harris's book, Masala Shakespeare: How A Firangi Writer Became Indian.
A local court has issued a non-bailable arrest warrant against absconding Indian Administrative Service officer B B Mohanty, accused of raping a 23-year-old woman, the police said on Friday.
"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.
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