Bharatiya Janata Party

As the Centre pushes VB-G RAM G to replace MGNREGA, the BJP and Congress lock horns over federalism, funding burdens and the future of rural jobs

The BJP has suspended 58 functionaries from Mumbai and Nagpur for a period of six years for breach of party discipline in the run up to the January 15 polls to 29 municipal corporations, the action coming amid dissent marking the campaign of almost all major outfits and alliances in the state. The suspended leaders include former mayors, corporators and key workers, who are accused of rebellion against official candidates, attempts to tarnish the party's image and failure to cooperate with Mahayuti contestants, Bharatiya Janata Party sources said on Saturday. The 58 comprise 26 in the metropolis, including Divya Dhole (Ward 60, Versova), Nehal Amar Shah (Ward 177, Matunga), Janhavi Rane (Ward 205, Abhyudayanagar), Asawari Patil (Ward 2, Borivli, currently contesting from Shiv Sena UBT), Mohan Ambekar (Ward 166, Kurla), Dhanashree Baghel (Ward 131, Pantnagar), they added. The 32 persons suspended in Nagpur include Vinayak Dehankar, husband of former mayor Archana Dehankar, as well as

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday dubbed the BJP 'Bhrast Janata Party' and claimed that its double-engine governments in various states have ruined the lives of the people through corruption, abuse of power and the poison of arrogance. Gandhi cited the murder of Ankita Bhandari in Uttarakhand, the Unnao rape case in Uttar Pradesh, deaths from drinking contaminated water in Indore, among others, to attack the BJP. Across the country, the Bhrasht' Janata Party's double-engine governments have ruined the lives of the people. Corruption, abuse of power, and the poison of arrogance have spread throughout the BJP's politics, from top to bottom, the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha said in a post in Hindi. In their system, the lives of the poor, the helpless, labourers, and the middle class are merely statistics, and a system of extortion is operating in the name of "development", Gandhi alleged. "The brutal murder of Ankita Bhandari in Uttarakhand shook the entire nation but th

The second day of Delhi Assembly's Winter Session was disrupted with ruling BJP leaders seeking an apology from AAP leaders for spreading "lies" that government school teachers have been engaged for counting stray dogs. Speaker Vijender Gupta on Tuesday had a hard time controlling the protesting BJP and AAP legislators. He adjourned the House for 30 minutes soon after the sitting started around 11 AM. When the House reconvened, the ruling party MLAs again raised slogans against AAP leaders, including their national convener Arvind Kejriwal, seeking an apology. Gupta tried to bring the House under order as the Opposition members too raised their voice in protest; however, he finally had to adjourn the House till 1 PM. Delhi Education Minister Ashish Sood earlier wrote a letter to former chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, accusing him of making "wrong and misleading statements" regarding the deployment of government school teachers for the counting of stray dogs. In the letter, Sood sa

Ruling allies BJP and Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena will contest 137 and 90 seats, respectively, in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation polls. A seat-sharing pact was revealed by Mumbai BJP president Amit Satam on Monday, following hectic parleys a day before the deadline for filing nomination papers closes on December 30. Both parties will allocate some seats from their respective quotas to alliance partners, Satam added. Candidates of both parties will file their nomination papers on Tuesday. Another constituent of Mahayuti, the NCP, headed by Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, is contesting the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation polls separately. The NCP has so far announced 64 candidates for the BMC polls. Elections to 29 municipal corporations in Maharashtra, including the high-stakes Mumbai, will be held on January 15, and votes will be counted the next day. In the BMC elections held in 2017 for 227 seats, the BJP made giant strides in the Shiv Sena citadel of Mumbai, winn

The run comprised two races for men and women, two for under-16, and the highlight, the Atal Run

Maharashtra BJP president Ravindra Chavan said the saffron party's grassroots outreach across the state and development-oriented vision helped it emerge victorious in the local bodies elections. The Mahayuti alliance of the BJP, Shiv Sena, and NCP on Sunday swept the elections to 288 municipal councils and nagar panchayats, winning 207 posts of presidents in the local bodies. The Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi was restricted to a collective tally of 44. The BJP won 117 posts of municipal presidents, Shiv Sena won 53, and the NCP won 37 posts. The Congress bagged 28, the NCP (SP) seven, and Shiv Sena (UBT) nine. Addressing a party meeting in Kalyan town of Thane district on Sunday night, Chavan said, "Once the elections were announced, BJP workers went door to door, informing citizens about the welfare schemes of the Central and state governments. They earned people's trust, and this dedication has resulted in a decisive victory." People endorsed the development-oriented vision of Pri

Supporters of BJP and right-wing outfits on Saturday staged protests across the city and its outskirts against incidents of arson, loot and killing of minority Hindu community members in Bangladesh. In Kolkata's northern outskirts Sodepur, Trinamool Congress Dumdum MP Saugata Roy had to get down from his vehicle and walk around 1km before boarding an auto-rickshaw as BJP supporters continued to block the Sodepur-Madhyamgram Road. Similar protests were reported in the CIT Road-Beckbagan area of the city, as well as in Howrah and other parts of the state, with saffron-clad youths blocking traffic for around half an hour, demanding protection for Hindus in Bangladesh. In Sodepur, Roy, who was heading towards the Panihati Utsav winter carnival to inaugurate the festival, was stranded in his car for about half an hour as protestors refused to lift the blockade and allow his vehicle to pass. Around 100 BJP youth wing activists of North 24 Parganas district burnt tyres on the road and ...

Addressing a rally in West Bengal, PM Modi accused the TMC of shielding infiltrators, alleging appeasement politics; he also promised to end 'maha jungle raj' in the state

Bihar minister Nitin Nabin, 45, has been appointed BJP national working president. The party may start the process to elect J P Nadda's successor in mid-January, with Nabin as frontrunner

The BJP's historic civic poll win in Kerala's capital has put the spotlight on R Sreelekha, the retired DGP who delivered a big ward victory and is now seen as a frontrunner for mayor

With the nomination phase formally beginning Saturday, the BJP is poised to unveil its new Uttar Pradesh chief on Sunday

BJP defends EVMs, cites Rajiv Gandhi's pilot project, accuses Opposition of double standards

Leader of Opposition in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly, Mata Prasad Pandey, on Saturday claimed that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) may oust Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar from power in the near future. The senior Samajwadi Party (SP) leader also charged that by focusing all its attention on the Hindutva agenda, the BJP wants to transform India into a nation where there is no equality. Speaking to reporters at a programme organised on the occasion of the birth anniversary of SP patriarch and former chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav, Pandey targeted the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh. "The government's policies are not aimed at eliminating unemployment. Their only slogan is Hindutva. They want to run the government in the name of Hindutva and mislead the people by performing religious rituals," he said Responding to a question about BJP's Samrat Chaudhary (Deputy Chief Minister) getting the Home portfolio in Bihar, Pandey claimed that the BJP would dislodge its ally and JD(U) chi

Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday urged voters in Bihar to press the EVM button with the BJP's poll symbol lotus to prevent the return of 'jungle raj' during the RJD rule that had "devastated" the state. He promised that if the NDA returns to power, the government will spend Rs 26,000 crore to harness Koshi water for irrigation and to prevent floods. "Press 'lotus' button to prevent return of 'jungle raj' that devastated Bihar during the Lalu-Rabri's 15-year rule," Shah alleged, addressing a poll rally at Darbhanga. He said the NDA under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's leadership could only lead Bihar to all-around development. "Altogether, Rs 26,000 crore will be spent to harness Koshi river water to irrigate 'Mithilanchal' and prevent floods in the area if the NDA is voted to power in Bihar...Water of the Ganga, Koshi and Gandak rivers will be utilised for irrigation and to prevent deluge in Bihar," the former BJP president said. If the NDA retains power in Bihar, people from ..

People's Conference chief Sajad Lone on Saturday accused the ruling National Conference in Jammu and Kashmir of "gifting" seven votes to the BJP to ensure the saffron party's victory on one seat in the Rajya Sabha polls held on Friday, calling the elections a fixed match between the two parties. The National Conference (NC) won three seats, while the BJP managed one in the first Rajya Sabha elections held in Jammu and Kashmir after it became a Union territory in 2019. You (NC) have clearly gifted seven members to the BJP. It was a fixed match, Lone claimed at a press conference. The Rajya Sabha elections for four seats were divided into three notifications. In the third notification, elections were held for two seats. While NC's Chowdhry Mohammed Ramzan won the first seat, its candidate Sajjad Kitchloo won the second. For the third notification, the NC fielded two candidates -- G S Oberoi, also known as Shammi Oberoi, and Imran Nabi Dar. The BJP, on the other hand, fielded its Jam

Bihar BJP president Dilip Jaiswal on Saturday urged the Election Commission to conduct the upcoming assembly polls in one or two phases and ensure that faces of women turning up at booths in burqas were tallied with voter cards. Jaiswal, who led a BJP delegation that met the visiting EC team headed by Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, also requested adequate deployment of paramilitary forces in areas that were vulnerable to booth capture and intimidation of voters. "We have urged the EC to conduct the elections in one or two phases. The election process need not be staggered. Also, tallying of faces of voters, especially burqa-clad women, must be ensured with respective EPIC cards so that only genuine voters get to exercise their franchise," he told reporters after the meeting. "We have also requested that paramilitary forces be deployed in villages with a heavy population of weaker sections like extremely backward classes, a few days in advance and a flag march-like exerci

The PM Modi was scheduled to host a dinner for National Democratic Alliance (NDA) MPs on September 8, a day before the Vice-Presidential election on September 9

Scuttling rumours of leadership change in the state, Uttarakhand BJP president Mahendra Bhatt on Friday asserted that Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami would be the face of 2027 Assembly election. Bhatt said Dhami has won the trust of the people with his decisions in his tenure of more than four years (including six months of the previous tenure) and the party's central leadership knows that political instability affects development. "The cabinet will be expanded by Diwali The assembly elections of 2027 will be 100 per cent under the leadership of Dhami ji and BJP will make a hat-trick of victory," Bhatt said in an exclusive conversation with PTI Bhasha here. He claimed that after Narayan Dutt Tiwari, Dhami would be the first chief minister of Uttarakhand to complete his five-year term. Bhatt said that the introduction of Uniform Civil Code, anti-forced conversion law, strict enforcement of land law and anti-copying law, horizontal reservation to women, and promotion of religious

The BJP has maintained that the Centre's recent order to grant residential status to non-Muslim with invalid travel documents from neighbouring countries couldn't have been better timed, even as the opposition perceived it to be a strategy to prevent the party's apple cart from getting upset in poll-bound states of the east. Interpretations of the order across the political spectrum ranged from being the first step towards granting citizenship to persecuted Hindus who crossed over from Bangladesh in recent times to a recipe for a civil war among communities. As per the exemption order, persons belonging to minority communities in Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians who sought shelter in India on grounds of religious persecution on or before December 31, 2024 without valid travel documents, would not be prosecuted under the Immigration and Foreigners Act, 2025. Enforced on September 1, the law mandates creation of a Bureau of