A tragic fire in Lucknow that claimed 15 lives occurred in a commercial building that had a demolition order issued in 2016 due to unauthorised construction. The order was controversially revoked less than two months later, raising serious questions about the circumstances surrounding the decision. The building, originally allotted for residential use, was later found to have unauthorised commercial construction.
The focus is not only on governance but also to ensure that the BJP's political considerations are taken care of.
According to an insider, "Winning is all that matters to the BJP. The leaders were warned that he was an undesirable character but they said look at his victory margin."
The new Ministers of State sworn in by President Ram Nath Kovind at a ceremony in the Rashtrapati Bhavan include Virendra Kumar, Anant Kumar Hegde and Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, former IAS officers Alphons Kannanthanam and R K Singh, former diplomat Hardeep Puri and ex-Mumbai police chief Satyapal Singh. Two other new faces are Ashwini Kumar Choubey, a member of the Lok Sabha from Bihar, and Shiv Pratap Shukla from Uttar Pradesh.
Given the controversy over Uttar Pradesh's population control moves, Hemant Shivsaran/Rediff.com digs deep to find out how many children BJP MLAs in UP have.
Portfolios of more than half-a-dozen ministers are expected to be changed.
In the third reshuffle since coming to power, Prime Minister Modi raised the strength of his Council of Ministers from 73 to 76.
'Till the time the MSM and Modi don't trust one another, expect more Nirmala Sitharamans springing out from nowhere,' says Sudhir Bisht.
As the dust finally settles on the outcome of the Lok Sabha elections 2019 and Bharatiya Janata Party along with its NDA allies emerges as the clear winner, here is a list of who won in each of the 7 phases of elections.
