Page 1267 - Politics
Mayawati gets facial daily, colours hair to look young at 60: BJP MLA
Passing a misogynistic remark against the BSP supremo Mayawati, BJP MLA Surendra Narayan Singh on Tuesday said that the former chief minister is a hedonist who 'takes facial everyday' and 'colours her hair" to look young."She takes facial every day. The person who herself takes facial daily is telling our leader that he is 'shaukeen'. Wearing clothes is not being 'shaukeen'. Colouring hair at the age of 60 to look young is 'shaukeen'. Her hair have turned grey but she colours it black," said Singh who represents the Rohaniya constituency of Uttar Pradesh.The MLA's comment came following Mayawati's tweet in which she targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi alleging that he lives a 'royal' life."The person who lives life in a royal manner, against the principle of simple living and high thinking, advertised himself as a 'chaiwallah' in the last Lok Sabha elections for the sake of the vote. Now he is declaring himself as chowkidar with pomp and show for votes in the elections. The country .
Miffed Thomas is 'happy' after meeting Sonia
Congress leader K.V. Thomas, who was miffed after being denied a Lok Sabha berth, on Tuesday said he was "a happy person" after meeting UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi.
Telangana leader Nageswara Rao quits TDP
In a major blow to the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) in Telangana, its senior leader and former MP Nama Nageswara Rao resigned from the party on Tuesday.
Congress will restore special category status to Arunachal and other NE states: Rahul
Congress chief Rahul Gandhi said Tuesday his party will restore the special category status to Arunachal Pradesh and other states in the northeast if elected to power. There are some states in the country which require special status because of their "unique problems and difficulties" such as connectivity, terrain, infrastructure, Gandhi said at an election rally here. During the Congress rule at the Centre, he said, Arunachal Pradesh and other NE states used to enjoy special category status. Arunachal Pradesh has a special place in the heart of the Congress party and "we would like to have a 'dil ka rishta' with the people of the state", he said. Gandhi said the Congress will not allow the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill to be passed in Rajya Sabha because the bill is "detrimental" to the people of the northeast. "We will not allow the suppression of the people of northeast," Gandhi said. The Congress party will never attack the language, culture, customs and tradition of Arunachal ...
Three Tripura BJP leaders join Congress
Ahead of Lok Sabha polls, Tripura BJP leader Subal Bhowmik along with two other senior party leaders on Tuesday joined the Congress.
India may not have elections if Modi re-elected, may go China way: Ashok Gehlot
India may not see another election if Narendra Modi is re-elected as prime minister, Rajasthan Chief Minister and senior Congress leader Ashok Gehlot has claimed, suggesting that the country may go the way of China and Russia. Gehlot also said both democracy and the country were in danger under Modi, who he said would do anything to get back to power. People felt he could even go to war with Pakistan to achieve this goal, the Congress leader said. Dubbing Modi a good actor, Gehlot said he could do much better in Bollywood and would have left his indelible mark in acting. He also alleged that he was a "master in marketing false promises". "If people re-elect Modi, then there is no surety on whether elections will be held in the country or not. 'Chunav honge bhi, aur nahin bhi honge...jaise China, Russia mein hota hai' (Elections will be held in the country and yet not be held, like what happens in China, Russia)," Gehlot said during an interaction with PTI. He was suggesting that polls
Oppn dig at BJP's 'Main Bhi Chowkidar' campaign; Mayawati says 'Bravo!'
Opposition parties in Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday had a dig at BJP's 'Main Bhi Chowkidar' campaign, with BSP chief Mayawati saying the "chaiwala" prime minister has now turned "chowkidar" and this shows the "change" India witnessed under this government. Leading the opposition attack, Mayawati said on Twitter, "After BJP launched 'Mai Bhi Chowkidar' campaign, PM Modi & others added the prefix 'Chowkidar' to their Twitter handles. So now Narendra Modi is Chowkidar & no more 'Chaiwala' which he was at the time of last LS election. What a change India is witnessing under the BJP rule. Bravo!" Her ally Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav tweeted in Hindi, "Is there any chowkidar to check the theft of fertiliser?" In another tweet, Yadav appeared to be referring to the controversial Rafale jet deal. "Has the chowkidar responsible for the theft of file from the ministry been punished. He prefixed his tweets on Tuesday with "Vikas puch reha hai" (Vikas is asking), playing on the word ..
New Goa CM takes charge, floor test on Wednesday
Newly appointed Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant took charge on Tuesday morning, after paying a courtesy visit to the family of his predecessor late Manohar Parrikar.
Iran denies joint raid with Turkey against Kurd rebels
Iran has denied a claim by the Turkish interior minister that it took part in a joint operation on Monday targeting Kurdish rebels in the border area. In recent weeks, Ankara has talked up the prospects of joint military action with Tehran against the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and its allies but Monday marked the first time it had spoken of a joint operation being carried out. "Iran's armed forces have no role in this operation," the official IRNA news agency quoted an "informed source" in the general staff as saying on Monday evening. However Iran "will forcefully confront any group that seeks to create unrest on our country's soil," the source added. Earlier on Monday, Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said: "We started staging a joint operation with Iran against the PKK on our eastern border as of 8 am (0500 GMT)". Soylu did not specify where the joint operation was taking place but President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said previously that joint military action would ...
China calls 2008 Mumbai terror attack 'notorious'
China has described as "one of the most notorious terror attacks" the 2008 Mumbai killings for which Pakistan was blamed.
UK Speaker rules out 3rd vote on PM May's Brexit deal
In a fresh blow to embattled Prime Minister Theresa May on Brexit, House of Commons Speaker John Bercow, in a surprise move, disallowed any attempt to hold a third vote on her withdrawal deal with the EU which has already been rejected by MPs twice. Prime Minister May will meet her Cabinet later as she considers her next steps on quitting the European Union, after her plans were thrown into doubt by Speaker Bercow. May had been considering a third vote on her Brexit deal, which has already been rejected twice in the House. Bercow, in a surprise move, ruled on Monday that he would not allow another vote on the government motion if it remained "substantially the same" after it was defeated by a huge 230-vote margin in January and a smaller 149-vote margin last week. He said parliamentary conventions dating back to 1604 meant MPs could not be asked to vote on precisely the same subject twice, indicating that he had allowed the second vote as the government had claimed some changes to the
Notification issued for phase 2 of Lok Sabha polls on April 18
The Election Commission Tuesday issued a notification kick starting the poll process in 97 constituencies spread across 13 states where phase two of the Lok Sabha elections will be held on April 18. The process of nomination began with the issuance of this notification and will continue till March 26. Scrutiny of the nomination papers will be held on March 27 and the last day of withdrawing nomination is March 29. By the evening of March 29, a clear picture on the number of candidates in each of the 97 constituencies will emerge. All parliamentary constituencies in Tamil Nadu (39 seats) and Puducherry (one seat) will go for polling in the second phase. Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal will see polling in all the seven phases. In the second phase, eight UP constituencies including Agra, Aligarh and Mathura, three in West Bengal, including Darjeeling and five in Bihar will go for polls. UP has 80 seats, while West Bengal and Bihar have 42 and 40 Lok Sabha seats respectively. The ...
Extend reservation to converts: AIADMK manifesto
In a move to woo the minorities, Tamil Nadu's ruling AIADMK on Tuesday said it will urge the Centre to pass laws to extend job quotas to those who covert to Christianity and Islam.
Muraleedharan to be fielded from Vadakara
Former Kerala Chief Minister K. Karunakaran's son K. Muraleedharan will be fielded from the Vadakara Lok Sabha constituency, Congress state unit chief Mullapally Ramachandran said on Tuesday.
Will carry forward Parrikar's legacy of good governance:Goa CM
Newly-appointed Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant Tuesday met family members of his deceased predecessor Manohar Parrikar before assuming charge of office, hours after he took oath of the post at around 2 AM. Sawant visited the family members of Parrikar at their private residence at Dona Paula near here around 12 noon, before heading to the CM's Office at state Secretariat, Porvorim. Speaking to reporters, the new chief minister said his priority would be to reach out to every person, and carry forward the "glorious legacy" of good governance left behind by Parrikar. Sawant, a BJP MLA, was sworn in as new Chief Minister just before 2 am Tuesday, hours after cremation of Parrikar, as the BJP moved swiftly to snuff out Congress' attempts to wrest power in Goa. Sawant, a protege of Parrikar, was Speaker of the Legislative Assembly when he was picked to be the successor of Parrikar. "Manohar Parrikar is a father-like figure for me. He was my inspiration...every thing. I am .
Demonetisation was self-goal by Modi govt: Book
Demonetisation was a terrible idea and the government's own economic surveys have indicated that this move contributed to a slowdown in the economy, claims a new book. The Great Disappointment: How Narendra Modi Squandered a Unique Opportunity to Transform the Indian Economy attempts to answer the overarching question of whether or not the Modi government transformed India's economy and what the next government's agenda should look like. Written by economic and political commentator Salman Anees Soz, the book is also a critical assessment of five years of the brand of economics Modi has championed, often referred to as 'Modinomics'. According to Soz, demonetisation was a self-goal by the Modi government. From ordinary people to experts, demonetisation has come in for withering criticism. I believe that if PM Modi's electoral prospects are at all threatened in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, demonetisation's lasting impact will be partly responsible, he claims. He argues for most ...
NCP ex-Maharashtra Deputy CM's son may join BJP
Crisis stared at the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on Tuesday with Ranjitsinh, son of former Deputy Chief Minister Vijaysinh Mohite-Patil, preparing to join the BJP shortly.
TDP releases candidates' list for LS polls
The Telugu Desam Party on Tuesday released its list of 25 candidates for the Lok Sabha election in Andhra Pradesh, retaining a majority of the sitting MPs while nominating the kin of the incumbents in a couple of constituencies. Veteran Congress leader and former Union minister V Kishore Chandra Deo, who had recently joined the TDP, has been given the Lok Sabha ticket from Araku (ST) constituency. Former Union ministers Kotla Suryaprakash Reddy and Panabaka Lakshmi, who, too, quit the Congress in recent days, have been nominated from Kurnool and Tirupati (SC) respectively. Nandamuri Balakrishna's son-in-law, M Bharat, got the Visakhapatnam ticket. Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu, his son Nara Lokesh and Balakrishna are contesting the Assembly elections, while Bharat has now been given the Lok Sabha ticket. Animal Husbandry Minister C Aadinarayana Reddy is being fielded from Kadapa Lok Sabha constituency as part of an intra-party adjustment. Environment and Forests Minister Sidda ...
Taiwan, US plan new talks this year in rebuke to Beijing
Taiwan and the US will hold talks later this year as part of efforts to counter growing pressure from Beijing to force the island into political unification with mainland China. The United States recognises China diplomatically, but under President Donald Trump has stepped up 40 years of informal ties with Taiwan. China and the US are currently enmeshed in a dispute over trade and tariffs. De facto US ambassador to Taipei Brent Christensen told a news conference Tuesday the talks being planned in September in Taipei will include a senior official from Washington. Taiwanese Foreign Minister Joseph Wu said the dialogue would allow the sides to "grow closer and more direct in their cooperation ... to protect regional freedom and legal order.
Pakistan Army violates ceasefire for third consecutive day along LoC in J-K
The Pakistan Army violated ceasefire for the third consecutive day by shelling forward areas and posts along the LoC with mortar bombs in Jammu and Kashmir's Akhnoor and Sunderbani sectors Tuesday, officials said. Pakistani troops have violated ceasefire over 110 times along the Line of Control (LoC) this year. "There was continuous ceasefire violation as the Pakistani troops resorted to heavy firing and mortar shelling in Akhnoor sector in Jammu district Tuesday," the officials said. At 10.45 pm Monday, the Pakistan Army initiated unprovoked ceasefire violation by resorting to shelling with mortar bombs and firing of small arms along the LoC in Akhnoor and Sunderbani Sectors, a defence spokesman said. The Indian Army retaliated strongly and effectively, he said, adding that the firing continued till Tuesday morning. On Monday, an Army jawan was killed and four others were injured when the Pakistan Army violated ceasefire, resorting to heavy mortar shelling and firing along the LoC in