India Politics

By IANS,

By IANS, New Delhi : Threatening to launch a nationwide agitation against "unbearable" increase in prices of essential commodities, Left parties Saturday said the "callous decision" of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government of hiking fuel prices has led to the sky-rocketing of prices in the country. In joint statement by its top leaders, the communists urged the government to revoke the petrol and diesel price increase and prohibit futures trading in all food related items.

By Prasanto K. Roy, On May 20, four days after the Congress party and its ruling alliance conceded the mother of all mandates in three decades to the Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party, the Twitter handle of the Prime Minister's Office, @PMOIndia, vanished mysteriously.

By IANS, Ranchi : Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi Monday said that the Gujarat development formula would be implemented in the country if the party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) is voted to power at the centre. Modi, who addressed four election rallies in favour of party candidates in Jharkhand, enumerated the work done by him in Gujarat and assured that the same development plank would be implemented in the country if the NDA wins.

By IANS,

By IANS,

By IANS New Delhi : Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee is known to many as a fighter. But her colleague in the Lok Sabha, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Maneka Gandhi, has discovered the finer side of the feisty Banerjee - her beautiful sketches.

By IANS, Tiruchirappalli (Tamil Nadu): Citing revenue shortfall in the Union budget as justification for increase in excise duty on petroleum products, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi is nevertheless confident that the increase in diesel prices will be rolled back. "We will demand a rollback of increase in the price of diesel in the budget debate. We will not participate in actions that would stall the activities of parliament," Karunanidhi Wednesday told reporters here, around 330 km from Chennai.

By IANS, Lucknow: Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) president and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati Tuesday urged party MPs to raise issues related to price rise and ill-treatment of Bhopal gas tragedy victims in the coming monsoon session of parliament. Addressing a specially convened meeting of party MPs here, she said: "Faulty policies of the Congress-led UPA (United Progressive Alliance) government are responsible for the unprecedented rise in inflation, which has led to acute economic oppression of the common man."

Mumbai : An assortment of candidates ranging from a union minister to an IIM graduate, a celebrity hotelier and 'Spiderman' Friday filed their nominations...

By IANS, Shimla : The 24-hour shutdown Wednesday called by Left trade unions against the central government's policies evoked a poor response in the Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled Himachal Pradesh. Markets, business establishments, schools and colleges were open across the state. Inspector General of Police S.R. Mardi said the situation was peaceful.

By IANS, Jammu : Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister and National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah has challenged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's vision and package for the return of Kashmiri Hindus to their homes in the valley. "It cannot happen, whatever be the package, unless there is a resolution of Kashmir crisis," Abdullah told a gathering of prominent citizens, most of them Kashmiri Pandits or Hindus, in Jammu late Friday evening. The Prime Minister's package, he said, would not work. "That is for sure."

By IANS, New Delhi : Aiming to wrest power in Delhi, the Bharatiya Janata Partry (BJP) has turned to its general secretary Arun Jaitley, who helped the party win in Gujarat and Karnataka, for conducting its election campaign in the capital. Jaitley arrived at the Delhi BJP headquarters Thursday morning and took stock of the preparations for polls. Party sources said he was closely monitoring the party's position in every assembly seat. Jaitley, known for his hands-on approach and acumen for strategy with an eye on the ground realty, met a score of party leaders.

By IANS, New Delhi : The Rajya Sabha would not meet Wednesday and Thursday and was likely to be adjourned Tuesday itself for a recess till April 12. Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman K. Rahman Khan said a meeting of leaders of various political parties had decided that the house will not meet on March 17 and 18. The Rajya Sabha was scheduled to go into recess from March 16 but the house decided earlier this month to extend the sittings by two days to discuss private member bills and other government business.

By IANS Bangalore : The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) Monday paraded 126 supporting legislators in front of Karnataka Governor Rameshwar Thakur to convince him to invite the combine to form a new ministry, but a rebel JD-S leader and the Congress tried to block their moves. Hours before the legislators' parade, senior JD-S leader and former home minister M.P. Prakash met Thakur and urged him to reject their claim as his party's support to the BJP was "illegal and invalid".

By IANS Thiruvananthapuram : A shutdown called by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Thursday to protest the alleged callous attitude of the central government towards railway development in Kerala affected normal business on the occasion of the state's 51st formation day. Justifying the call for a shutdown on the day of President Pratibha Patil's visit to the state, BJP's state unit president P.K. Krishnadas Wednesday said his party had announced plans for the shutdown a month ago.

By IANS, New Delhi : The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Monday continued its efforts to solve the leadership tussle in Karnataka where a faction led by the Reddy brothers is gunning for Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa. The party leadership is likely to meet in the evening to discuss the Karnataka problem, a source said here. "Every legislator and MP has put forward their viewpoints," general secretary Arun Jaitley told reporters here.

By IANS, New Delhi : Amidst a clamour from all political parties for a caste-based census, prominent OBC (other backward classes) leaders from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Janata Dal-United (JD-U) Friday met Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on the issue.

By IANS Kollam (Kerala) : Former Kerala minister and Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) leader Baby John passed away here Tuesday morning. He was 87. The veteran leader, who died of his respiratory ailments at a private hospital here, is survived by his wife, two sons and a daughter. John began his political career as a member of the Congress and was a minister under five different chief ministers - C. Achutha Menon, K. Karunakaran, A.K. Antony, P.K. Vasudevan Nair and E.K. Nayanar.

Mushawarat delved on the prevailing situation in the country and took notice, in particular, of the growing fascism and communalism. By TCN News, New Delhi:...

By IANS, Ranchi : A delegation of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and the Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (JVM) Monday met Jharkhand Governor Syed Sibte Razi and demanded the dismissal of the Madhu Koda government and fresh elections in the state. The governor has summoned Koda Monday afternoon.

By IANS Bhubaneswar : A suspended woman marshal of the Orissa legislative assembly, who accused the house speaker of sexual harassment last month, Wednesday filed a Rs.50 million defamation suit against an Oriya newspaper for publishing an allegedly objectionable report. Gayatri Panda filed a suit against Pabitra Mohan Samantaray, editor of Oriya daily Paryabeskyak and its printer and publisher Budhadev Mohapatra, in the Court of Civil Judge (senior division), Bhubaneswar, her lawyer Arup Chand told IANS.

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By IANS Bangalore : Caste-dominated Karnataka politics is set to hit its nadir as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) severed its ties with the ruling coalition partner Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) Saturday, leading to charges and counter-charges. Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy of JD-S, who refused to honour his word to vacate his seat for BJP on Oct 3 as agreed 20 months back, Saturday launched a campaign to discredit Deputy Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa of BJP. "Yediyurappa wanted to join JD-S and he was satisfied with a ministership," he told Kannada TV channels.

Agartala : The strength of women members of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) in Tripura rose to a record 26 percent against 12...

By TwoCircles.net Staff Reporter, Hyderabad: United Muslim Forum of Andhra Pradesh, an umbrella group of religious leaders, has backtracked from its controversial decision to support Lok Satta party chief Jayparakash Narayan from Malkajgiri Lok Sabha seat.

By IANS, Kolkata : The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) will be rejuvenated after the ongoing rectification campaign, West Bengal Chief Minister Buddahdeb Bhattacharjee said here Sunday. "Only the communists can carry out such campaigns in the party. The party has suffered because of some (non-communist) trends (among party members). We are identifying these," Bhattacharjee, who is also a member of the party politburo, told media persons.

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By Sahil Makkar, IANS Bayana (Rajasthan) : The decaying bodies of 37 Gujjars, who died last week, are still lying at four places awaiting autopsy and cremation on the sixth day Wednesday of the largely rural community's agitation for affirmative action. Life also remained crippled in several towns across this western Indian state of Rajasthan with highways and roads blocked.

By IANS,

By IANS, New Delhi : Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP from Bharatpur in Rajasthan Vishwendra Singh resigned Thursday alleging that big money had changed hands in distribution of party tickets for the state assembly elections. In a press release issued from Delhi, Singh asserted: "The party tickets were virtually sold for huge money, at the cost of sincere party workers. The party's central leadership was aware of all this, but it remained a mute spectator."

By IANS,

By IANS,

New Delhi, Aug 19 (IANS) Crisis managers were at work Sunday to find a way to resolve the political deadlock over the India-US nuclear deal as the Left parties appeared ready to give Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government time to work out a mechanism to address their concerns. Senior Left leader Sitaram Yechury Sunday met Congress leader Pranab Mukherjee who, along with senior leaders A.K. Antony and Ahmed Patel, is trying to hammer out a compromise formula.

By IANS, Patna : The opposition created an uproar in the Bihar assembly Tuesday over the demand for a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the multi-crore excise scam. The opposition, on the second day of the month-long budget session of the Bihar assembly, raised slogans for a CBI probe into the scam that forced assembly speaker Udai Narayan Choudhry to adjourn the state assembly till noon. Some opposition members neared the speker's podium and raised slogans against the state government led by Nitish Kumar.

By IANS, Jammu : The Congress party Tuesday demanded from its MP Madan Lal Sharma an explanation about his "false and unwarranted" remarks that Congress president Sonia Gandhi had been asked to pardon Jammu and Kashmir Speaker Tara Chand and former state party unit chief Peerzada Mohammad Sayeed for their alleged involvement in a sex scandal. The Congress high command refused to accept Sharma's verbal denial that he had not mentioned the name of Sonia Gandhi, and asked him to give in writing what he had said and the context in which he had spoken.

By TwoCircles.net Staff Correspondent,

By IANS,

By Sharat Pradhan, IANS Lucknow : The rout of the Bahujan Samaj Party's (BSP) Brahmin nominee against the Samajwadi Party rival in the Ballia Lok Sabha by-poll has given a severe jolt to the much hyped "social engineering" that put BSP chief Mayawati in power in India's most populous state Uttar Pradesh last year. Brahmins, who live in large numbers in Uttar Pradesh compared to other states, gave Mayawati's essentially Dalit outfit a boost in the May 2006 assembly elections, helping the BSP to ride to power on its own strength.

By IANS, New Delhi : The Congress Friday constituted screening committees for shortlisting the candidates for assembly elections in three states scheduled to be held in October. "The Congress president has constituted the screening committees for the ensuing assembly elections," a statement issued by Congress media department here said. The committees will have four members each and the chairperson.

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By IANS New Delhi : Chief electoral officers (CEO) of all states reviewed poll preparations and revision of electoral rolls at a meeting Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) N. Gopalaswamy called here Thursday. Election Commission sources said the CEOs discussed the revision of electoral rolls in the states. Gopalaswamy has shown his concern over faulty preparations of electoral rolls and failure in revising them from time to time.

By IANS New Delhi : With the Congress competing with its allies to claim credit for the Rs.600 billion farm loan waiver, party president Sonia Gandhi will address a series of farmer rallies in Maharashtra Monday. She is expected to address public rallies in Osmanabad in Marathwada region and Sangli in western Maharashtra.

New Delhi: The Congress released its fourth list, of 50 candidates, for the Lok Sabha polls, fielding Ghulam Nabi Azad from Udhampur in Jammu...

By IANS, Jalalabad (Punjab) : Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Saturday launched a scathing attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for making "directionless allegations" on the Congress party and accused it of lying on issues concerning farmers in the country.

By IANS, Kolkata : West Bengal minister Ashok Bhattacharya Thursday called Gorkha leader Bimal Gurung "incompetent" after the latter vowed to work for a Darjeeling state come what may. Urban Development, Municipal and Hill Affairs Minister Bhattacharya criticised the way Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM) president Gurung attacked him and the West Bengal government. "GJM is exploiting the emotions of the Gorkha community to achieve political power," the minister told IANS. "As for Bimal Gurung, he is an incompetent leader and knows nothing.

By IANS, Kolkata : West Bengal opposition leader Surya Kanta Mishra Monday demanded a probe into the farmer suicides in the state and compensation to the families of such farmers.

By IRNA New Delhi : Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI-M) General Secretary Prakash Karat has warned the United Progressive Alliance government against going ahead with the Military Collaboration Agreement with the United States and losing the country's stature of a non-aligned nation.

By IANS, New Delhi: The Uttar Pradesh government Tuesday moved the Supreme Court challenging a court panel order nixing the invocation of the stringent National Security Act (NSA) against Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) Varun Gandhi for his hate speeches against Muslims. The state government challenged the May 8 decision of the state advisory board, a judicial forum constituted by the Allahabad High Court to examine the legality of invocation of NSA against Varun Gandhi, contending that "the board ignored various cogent reasons and evidence" for invocation of NSA.

By IANS,

By IANS, New Delhi : Expelled Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh Sunday alleged that party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav's brother and son played a key role in framing him in the Rs.500-crore money laundering case Uttar Pradesh Police filed against him last year. In the latest post on his blog, Amar Singh said he had been provided evidence about the "conspiracy" against him by some of the conspirators.

By IANS,

By Amit Kapoor For decades, Gross Domestic Product has been used to evaluate the economic performance of a nation. It measures the value of final...

By IANS, Mumbai : Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) activists wreaked havoc here Tuesday, setting on fire 38 buses, damaging 350 taxis and injuring several people by pelting stones, to protest the arrest of party chief Raj Thackeray. Police were forced to fire tear gas shells and resorted to baton charge to control the mobs. Thackeray, whose MNS workers Sunday attacked non-Maharashtrians appearing for a railway board recruitment examination, was arrested from Ratnagiri, about 250 km from here, early Tuesday.

By IANS Ranchi : Jharkhand government has welcomed the union cabinet's decision not to implement Delimitation Commission of India's (DCI) recommendation to reduce the number of tribal seats in the assembly and parliamentary constituencies of the state. The union cabinet Thursday decided not to implement the DCI recommendations for five states, including Jharkhand. The DCI had proposed that the number of seats reserved for schedule tribes in the state assembly be reduced from 28 to 21. It also wanted to reduce the number of reserved Lok Sabha seats by one.

By IANS, Chennai : Tamil Nadu's chief electoral officer Thursday objected to senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Jaswant Singh's comparing poor-feeding schemes in temples here with distribution of cash to voters in northern India. "Jaswant Singh's equating distribution of cash in northern India with poor-feeding in temples here, in our opinion, is incorrect," Naresh Gupta, the election officer, said. "We have strictly prohibited use of political poor-feeding beyond the purview of ongoing schemes in Tamil Nadu temples which have been in existence for long.

By IANS, New Delhi : Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi Tuesday urged the members of parliament not to allow fear to lead them as he said energy security was vital in eradicating poverty from India. Participating in the debate over the trust motion moved by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi said nuclear energy was essential to make a country a leading world power.

By Mohd. Ismail Khan, TwoCircles.net

By IANS, New Delhi : Congress president Sonia Gandhi Monday constituted a four-member committee to formulate a strategy for strengthening the organisation and to prepare the party for the upcoming assembly elections and 2009 general elections. External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Defence Minister A.K Antony, senior party leader Ahmed Patel and Janardhan Dwivedi are the members of the committee.

By IANS, Jammu : Emergency polling booths would be set up for about 30 polling stations in two assembly segments of Jammu and Kashmir, which are close to the Line of Control, "if there is any incident of firing from across" the border, an official said Wednesday. Deputy Commissioner of Poonch district Mohammad Afzal Bhat said there were about 30 polling stations in Mendhar and Poonch-Havelli constituencies that "are close to LoC and hence within the firing range".

By IANS, Patna : The Congress may be projecting Manmohan Singh as the next prime minister but United Progressive Alliance (UPA) partner Lalu Prasad Tuesday said the grouping's prime ministerial candidate would be decided only after the elections in consultation with constituent parties. "UPA is a confederation of secular parties and does not belong only to the Congress. We will sit together (after the elections) to chalk out a common minimum programme and in consultation with all our partners select the next PM," Lalu Prasad, head of the Rashtriya Janata Dal, told reporters here.

New Delhi : The Congress Tuesday dismissed the exit polls which predicted the party's worst defeat in the Lok Sabha elections, saying the pollsters...

Bhatt seeks beefed-up security cover as he feels heightened threats to his life By Sayema Sahar,

By TwoCircles.net staff reporter, Mumbai: Thackerays came to Mumbai two generations ago for jobs, and so have no right to assault those coming in search of livelihood in the city, says an article published in the June issue of the Nationalist Congress Party’s mouthpiece Rashtravadi.

By IANS Bangalore : Former president of South India Film Chamber of Commerce (SIFCC) and veteran film producer K.C.N. Chandrashekhar Monday criticised the suspension of all Karnataka members from the chamber for protesting Tamil Nadu's water project and termed the action "illegal". The 180 members from the state were suspended last week during the height of agitation in Karnataka over Tamil Nadu's plans for a water supply project at Hogenakkal waterfall on the border of the two states.

By IANS Bangalore : The Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) Sunday kept its Karnataka coalition partner Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) guessing on whether it will support it in Monday's trust vote in the state assembly. On the eve of the trust vote, JD-S leaders and legislators began a series of meetings among themselves to sort out differences in the party and mount pressure on the BJP to sign the Memorandum of Understanding -- involving a decisive role for the JD-S in running the coalition -- before the trust vote.

Chandigarh : Two days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi mentioned about the acute drug problem in Punjab in his 'Mann ki Baat' programme on...

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By IANS New Delhi : Former finance minister and senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Yashwant Sinha Saturday termed the union budget 2008-09 as "a recipe for long-term economic disaster". "This is a 100 percent political budget. Finance Minister P. Chidambaram announced a loan waiver of Rs.60,000 crore (Rs.600 billion) for farmers but has not stated where this money will come from," Sinha said during a presentation on the budget at the BJP headquarters here.

By Baldev S. Chauhan, IANS Shimla : Political parties in Himachal Pradesh, particularly the ruling Congress, have been taken by surprise over the announcement of assembly elections -- over three months before they were due. With the poll code coming into effect from Wednesday, the announcement has put paid to the ruling party's hopes of announcing sops to woo voters.

By TCN News, Bhopal: The Social Democratic Party of India, (SDPI) has termed the President’s joint address to Parliament which spelled out the BJP’s Narendra Modi led NDA Government’s agenda of priorities as high on rhetoric. It is up to the government to prove that the plans are rather done than promised. The address is more or less a compilation of election slogans and the BJP election manifesto and the party is bound to implement them.

By IANS, New Delhi : Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Rajnath Singh Sunday criticised Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia for advising against sacrificing development to contain inflation.` Referring to the soaring inflation rate, which touched a new high of 8.1 percent for the week ended May 17, Singh told the party's national executive meeting here that the Congress-led government was making "peculiar and painful" statements instead of containing rising prices.

By Zaidul Haque, TwoCircles.net,

New Delhi, (IANS) Known for his professionalism and eye for detail, newly appointed Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi Monday visited the party headquarters to inspect the condition of the offices and see first-hand how it functions. Rahul, who is general secretary in charge of the youth wing of the ruling party, reached the office around 1.40 p.m. and spent almost two hours going through the offices of the Mahila Congress and the Seva Dal. He also supervised the construction work going on in the AICC complex, which is being readied for the new general secretary.

By IANS, Raipur : Life in Chhattisgarh was severely hit Thursday as the shutdown called by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its ally Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) against the cancellation of land allotment to the Amarnath shrine board in Jammu and Kashmir came into effect. Thousands of bus and train commuters were stranded in various parts the state as baton-wielding supporters of the VHP and BJP enforced the strike from early morning in all the 18 districts. The capital Raipur was the worst hit.

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By IANS, Guwahati : Voices of dissent are coming thick and fast even as top leaders of the Assam's main opposition Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) publicly maintain that the seat-sharing agreement between the two parties to fight the parliamentary elections is smooth. There is a bitter tug-of-war going on between the AGP and BJP for at least two parliamentary seats with both parties keen to field candidates.

By IANS, Patna : After Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, his deputy Sushil Kumar Modi is facing heat on the state government's much-publicised land reforms and Thursday had to clarify that credit cards for farmers would not mean ownership of land for sharecroppers. A day after an open revolt on the issue in his own Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and calls for his removal, Modi said the government is distributing the Kisan Credit Cards under the guidelines laid down by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and NABARD and in no case would the distribution of cards be tantamount to ownership of land.

By IANS, Mumbai : The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) Saturday said it would launch a campaign to counter what it termed as the government’s conspiracy against ‘sadhus, sadhvis and sena’ (mendicants and military) and to express solidarity with those arrested for the Malegaon blast. VHP joint secretary V. Abdeo said here that besides sit-in and demonstrations across the country, the VHP activists would send SMSes and e-mails abroad too to air solidarity with the people nabbed for their suspected involvement in the Sep 29 Malegaon blast that killed six.

By IANS, Ahmedabad : Chief minister Narendra Modi was Tuesday elected unopposed as the president of the Gujarat Cricket Association (GCA). Modi replaced Narhari Amin, who has led the GCA for over a decade. Amin had stepped down from the post of GCA chief on moral grounds a couple of months back after state home minister Amit Shah accused him of being involved in a financial scandal in the state association. Shah was set to take over as the GCA chief but at the last minute the chief minister decided to take control of Gujarat cricket himself.

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By IANS New Delhi : The Supreme Court Wednesday refused to advance the date set by Meghalaya Governor S.S. Sidhu for the new Congress government to prove its majority on the floor of the state assembly. Congress leader D.D. Lapang was Monday sworn-in as chief minister even after a combine of parties led by P.A. Sangma, a former Lok Sabha speaker and leader of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), claimed the support of 31 members in the 60-seat legislature. The governor had given 10 days to Lapang to prove his majority support. The Congress has 25 legislators.

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By IANS, Shimla : The Congress Thursday staged a walkout from the Himachal Pradesh assembly, demanding restoration of the state administrative tribunal that was scrapped by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government. Debating on the bill introduced by the government in the house Tuesday regarding the transfer of pending tribunal cases to other courts, former chief minister Virbhadra Singh said the administrative tribunal had been abolished by the government solely on political lines.

By IANS, Hyderabad : Telangana erupted in joy Friday, hours after the Rajya Sabha approved a bill for separate statehood to the region. Political parties and...

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By IANS, New Delhi : Samajwadi Party general secretary Amar Singh Friday called Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray a "Hitler" for orchestrating attacks on north Indians. Releasing the list of candidates for the Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Jammu and Kashmir assembly elections, Amar Singh said: "What Raj Thackeray has been doing is what Hitler did in Germany." "Both Hitler and Raj Thackeray are mentally ill persons," said the Rajya Sabha MP. "This is terrorism. This can be destructive to the integrity of India."

By IANS, Patna : Bihar's opposition leader Abdul Bari Siddiqui has given up his security personnel and urged the government to deploy them to maintain law and order.

By IANS New Delhi : The Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) Saturday seemed ready to face any eventuality in Karnataka, including possible early elections, after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said it was withdrawing support to its coalition with JD-S.

By IANS, New Delhi/Bhopal: Firebrand Hindutva leader Uma Bharti Thursday resigned as president of the Bharatiya Jan Shakti (BJS), a party she floated four years ago following her expulsion from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). There is talk she may return to her parent party. Though Uma Bharti has said she was quitting on health grounds, her surprise resignation comes amid speculation she may return to the Nitin Gadkari-led BJP. Gadkari, the new BJP chief, had earlier expressed his readiness to take back some popular disgruntled party leaders.

By Faisal Fareed, TwoCircles.net,

By IANS, New Delhi : With a trust vote looming in parliament next week, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who is also a leading political manager of the ruling coalition, has decided to send junior minister Anand Sharma to Singapore to attend a ministerial meeting of the Asean Regional Forum. Mukherjee was slated to attend the crucial ARF meeting in Singapore July 21-24. But with the government battling for survival after the Left parties withdrew their support last week, he decided to send Sharma for it, official sources said.

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Nagpur : The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state unit leadership Friday asked its cadres to be prepared to fight the next Maharashtra assembly elections on their own strength.