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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
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
With the Election Commission planning to add nearly 14,000 new polling booths amid prospective Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of rolls in West Bengal, the BJP faces a shortage of Booth Level Agents (BLAs), exposing a critical organisational gap that could weaken its 2026 poll challenge, while the TMC, with no such issues, exudes confidence. For the Trinamool Congress, the expansion of polling stations from the existing 80,000 to an estimated 94,000, spread across 294 assembly seats, is less a burden than an opportunity to tighten its grip at the grassroots. In contrast, the BJP functionaries acknowledge they are planning to cover only about 70 per cent of booths with BLAs during the SIR exercise, well short of what is needed to ensure an effective presence statewide. In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP could deploy polling agents in around 50,000-55,000 of West Bengal's existing 80,681 booths. The target now stands at 65,000-70,000, but insiders admit the party may struggle to ge
The BJP on Tuesday said the Enforcement Directorate's raids against AAP Delhi unit chief and former health minister Saurabh Bharadwaj have exposed the "medical scam" under the previous Arvind Kejriwal government. The AAP government in Delhi was involved in the "scam" in the construction of hospitals and purchase of medicines and equipment. An investigation into the "scam" in purchase of medicines is already being conducted by the Anti-Corruption Bureau, Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva said in a video statement. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is searching the premises of Bharadwaj and some private contractors as part of a money laundering probe linked to an alleged scam in health infrastructure projects during the previous AAP government in Delhi, official sources said. At least 13 locations in the National Capital Region are being searched under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, they said. "We have said it earlier also that the previous AAP government led by Arvind ..
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Monday chaired a high-level meeting to review preparations for the kanwar yatra, and directed officials to maintain surveillance in sensitive areas, asserting any attempt to disturb the yatra must be met with strict action. Maintaining that the safety and convenience of devotees are the top priorities of the state government, he instructed officials to ensure adequate arrangements along the yatra route, including cleanliness, medical services, drinking water, canteens, and toilets. Emphasising on the safety and comfort of women kanwariyas, he directed effective deployment of women police personnel, an official statement said here. Adityanath directed 24x7 surveillance in sensitive areas using drone cameras and CCTV, and instructed intelligence agencies to maintain heightened vigilance to prevent any disruption. To enhance communication and spiritual ambience, the CM directed the use of public address systems along the route and the ..
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday said that it was more important for the BJP to ensure that its state office here becomes the centre of 'Vikasit Keralam' than having a Chief Minister in the government. Shah made the statement while addressing a massive gathering of party activists and supporters at a ward-level leadership meeting at Putharikandam Maidan here after inaugurating the new BJP state committee office. Shah also launched the logo and motto of the party's 'Vikasit Keralam' mission. He said that the route to 'Vikasit Bharat' goes through 'Vikasit Keralam' only. "Therefore, from now on, the basic aim of the BJP will be a 'Vikasit Keralam'," he said. Shah inaugurated the new BJP state committee office, Mararji Bhavan, here ahead of launching the party's campaign for the upcoming local body polls this year and the assembly elections next year. The Union Home Minister, who arrived in Kerala late Friday night, also paid floral tributes to a bronze half-bust of late fo
The BJP on Tuesday accused Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge of insulting President Droupadi Murmu and her predecessor Ram Nath Kovind by using certain "objectionable" words against them, and demanded a public apology from him and his party. This came a day after Kharge, while speaking at an event in Chhattisgarh, reportedly mispronounced the names of President Murmu and her predecessor Kovind but quickly corrected himself. Addressing a public rally in Raipur on Monday, the Congress president also said that "The BJP always speaks about making (Droupadi) Murmu ji and (Ram Nath) Kovind ji presidents of the country but did the party do all this to snatch our assets, forests, water and land". At a press conference here, BJP national spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia charged that Kharge used "objectionable words for President Droupadi Murmu ji and former President Ram Nath Kovind ji. This shows the "anti-Dalit, anti-Adivasi and anti-Constitution" mindset of the Congress in its DNA, he ...