AS MANY as twenty-eight new Ministers took oath of office during a ceremony held at Madhya Pradesh Raj Bhawan in the State capital on Thursday. Out of 28 ministers, 20 are Cabinet rank ministers and 8 are Ministers of State. In this Cabinet expansion of the Shivraj Singh Chouhan Government, the stamp of Jyotiraditya Scindia’s influence is clearly visible as dozen of his loyalists among the new inducts. Of the new ministers, 16 are BJP legislators, while 12 are former Congress MLAs -- most of them ..

THE ruling YSR Congress bagged all the four Rajya Sabha seats in Andhra Pradesh and seasoned campaigners like Digvijaya Singh, Jyotiraditya Scindia and Shibu Soren had an easy sailing as the results of the polls to the Upper House were on expected lines barring Gujarat and Manipur which are set for a cliffhanger. Voting was held for 19 seats spread across eight States amid all precautionary measures in view of the COVID-19 pandemic which led to two legislators in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan who were ..

BHARATIYA Janata Party leader Sonali Phogat has been booked for rioting, obstructing public servant in discharge of duty and other charges on the complaint of an agricultural market committee in Hisar who accused her of slapping and hitting him with a slipper. A case has also been registered against Market Committee Secretary Sultan Singh whom Phogat ..

BJP national spokesperson Sambit Patra was admitted to a private hospital in Gurgaon on Thursday after he showed symptoms of COVID-19, sources said. A source at Medanta hospital in Gurgaon said Patra was “admitted in the morning and is stable”. BJP leaders and many others posted their wishes for a speedy recovery of the articulate party spokesperson, who is one of the more widely followed Indian politicians on Twitter. Patra is also among the most visible BJP fac..

MAHARASHTRA Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has declared the highest figure of assets - Rs 143.26 crore - making him the richest among the nine Members of Legislative Council elected unopposed last week, according to an analysis by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) released here on Wednesday. Out of the 9 MLCs elected, 8 figure in the crore-pati bracket, while one - Bharatiya Janata Party’s Gopichand Padalkar - is in the lower lakh-pati bracket wi..

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President J P Nadda on Sunday said the additional allocation of Rs 40,000 crore for the rural employment guarantee scheme (MGNREGS) will provide adequate work and earning opportunities to migrant families returning home, as he hailed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his “concern and timely initiative”...

PAVING the way for Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray to enter the State legislature as a member, the Election Commission on Friday announced holding polls to nine seats of the State legislative council on May 21. The polls were deferred on April 3 due to the coronavirus outbreak. Thackeray, who was sworn in on November 28 las..

Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan went ahead to form a small-sized Cabinet with just five ministers. The five Cabinet members took oath of office and secrecy in a simple ceremony held at Raj Bhawan on Tuesday afternoon. The distribution of portfolioes among ministers was yet to take place till the time this report was filed. Governor Lalji Tandon administered oath to five Cabinet ministers in presence of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, former Union minister Uma Bharti, State BJP President ..

THE Maharashtra Cabinet on Thursday decided to recommend Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray’s name for being nominated as member of the State Legislative Council from the Governor’s quota. Thackeray, who is currently not a member of either of the Houses of State Legislature, was not present at the Cabinet meeting where the decision was taken...

FORMER Union Finance Minister and Congress leader P Chidambaram on Wednesday described the lockdown announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a “watershed moment” in the battle against COVID-19 and called Modi as the commander and the people as “foot soldiers”. In a statement, Chidambaram also ..

After getting elected as BJP MLAs squad leader, Shivraj Singh Chouhan took oath as new Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh in Raj Bhawan at 9 pm on Monday. Governor Lalji Tandon administrated the oath of office and secrecy to him in a simple programme. This is for the fourth time that Shivraj Singh Chouhan took the oath of Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh...

Mar 20 A day after the Supreme Court ordered Kamal Nath Government to go for floor test to prove majority by 5 pm on Friday, Chief Minister Kamal Nath resigned on Friday afternoon. The Kamal Nath Government shied away from floor test as it did not have adequate number of MLAs to prove majority in House. With this, now the BJP has started preparations to stake claim to form Government. Addressing the press conference to announce..

A SHIV SENA member in Lok Sabha on Wednesday accused the Congress, its ally in Maharashtra, of being a “silent spectator” when jawans were killed by terrorists and the national tricolour was burnt in Jammu and Kashmir. Participating in a debate on the budgetary proposals and demand for grants for the union territories of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh, Arvind Sawant of the Shiv Sena said the party was thankful to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for taking the “bold step” of abrogating Article 370 provisions, ..

WHETHER the Kamal Nath Government in Madhya Pradesh will survive or not will be decided via floor test to be held on first day of Assembly’s Budget Session starting on Monday. Past midnight of Saturday, Governor Lalji Tandon passed the order to the State Government that after his speech, floor test will be conducted because State Government has run into minority following resignations of 22 MLAs. Now, eyes are set on Monday when..

A DAY after switching from Congress to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Jyotiraditya Scindia on Thursday met Union Minister Amit Shah here in the national capital. Taking to Twitter, Shah said that Scindia’s induction into the party will further strengthen BJP’s resolve to serve the people of Madhya Pradesh. “I am sure his induction into the party will further strengthen BJP’s resolve to serve the people of Madhya Pradesh,” he tweeted. Earlier in the day, Scindia also met Defence Minister Rajnath ..

PUTTING the ball in the court of the 22 rebel Congress MLAs in Madhya Pradesh, the Assembly Speaker has asked them to appear before him by Friday and clarify whether their resignations that pushed the 15-month-old Kamal Nath Government to the brink of collapse was voluntary or under pressure. The move by Speaker N P Prajapati came amid high drama when a MP Minister Jitu Patwari was allegedly detained and stopped by the police from entering a resort near Bengaluru in BJP-ruled Karnataka where 19 of ..

LONG-TIME Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia crossed over to the BJP on Wednesday, leaving the Madhya Pradesh Government tottering precariously and both parties scrambling to send their legislators far away from the State capital -- and from the machinations of each other. While Madhya Pradesh’s ruling Congress, pushed to the brink of collapse after the resignation of 22 legislators close to Scindia, herded about 90 of its legislators to resorts near Jaipur, the State’s Opposition BJP sent its MLAs ..

A DAY after quitting the Congress, Jyotiraditya Scindia joined the BJP on Wednesday in the presence of its President J P Nadda and slammed his former party for “denying reality” and “not acknowledging” new thoughts and new leadership. Scindia, who was also named as its Rajya Sabha candidate from Madhya Pradesh by the BJP, hailed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his “competence and complete dedication” to serving India and asserted that the country’s future is fully secure in his hands. He vented his ..

IN A major political development which was simmering from last few days, Cabinet Ministers tendered their resignations to Chief Minister Kamal Nath during the Cabinet meeting held late on Monday night. This means that CM Kamal Nath will be forming his new Cabinet soon to adjust the disgruntled MLAs of party apart from independent MLAs, two BSP and one SP MLA as well. Many also see that mass resignation of ministers is the countdown of Congress Government in Madhya Pradesh. After handing over resignations, ..

FORMER PDP leader Altaf Bukhari on Sunday launched the Jammu and Kashmir Apni Party (JKAP) here as he vowed to work towards restoring J&K’s statehood and ensure domicile rights of people in jobs and education, while saying demoting the State to a Union Territory was “unpleasant and bitter”. The 60-year-old, who is a graduate in agriculture science, announced the formation of the JKAP at his residence and was flanked by former MLAs and senior leaders of political parties like the National Conference ..

EVEN as speculations are rife that Congress Government in Madhya Pradesh headed by Kamal Nath will survive or not, the Congress has asserted that its Government is safe and all of its MLAs are united. Meanwhile, BJP has strongly denied the charges levelled by Congress that it wants to destablise the State Government. As the political atmosphere of State got charged after the news that some Congress MLAs were reportedly lodging in Delhi-based hotel and BJP is behind the happenings, senior Congress ..

THERE is no proposal on Muslim Reservation before Maharashtra Government, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray said here on Tuesday. Thackeray’s remarks came days after Minority Affairs Minister Nawab Malik informed the Legislative Council that the State Government will provide five per cent quota to Muslims in education. The NCP Minister had also said the State Government will ensure that a legislation to this effect is passed soon...

MAHARASHTRA Deputy Chief Minister and senior NCP leader Ajit Pawar on Sunday said the citizens of Maharashtra need not worry about the new citizenship law, the proposed NRC and the NPR, and flagged “misinformation” on the issue. Addressing the convention of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) here, he also ruled out any need to bring a resolution against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Population Register (NPR) in the State Legislative Assembly...

UNION Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday accused Opposition parties of inciting communal riots over the CAA by spreading “misinformation” that Muslims will lose their citizenship because of the new law. He also extolled Prime Minister Narendra Modi for addressing important issues relating to “national security and sensibilities”, including abrogation of provisions of Article 370, CAA and the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute. ..

AN FIR was registered on Thursday against AAP Councillor Tahir Hussain for allegedly being involved in the killing of Intelligence Bureau staffer Ankit Sharma, police said. The complaint was given by Sharma’s father, following which a case was registered under Sections 365 and 302 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), they said. AAP has suspended Tahir Hussain from the primary membership of the party till the police probe is complete, party sources said. Hussain’s house has come under the scanner after ..

AHEAD of the Budget Session of Maharashtra Assembly, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray held a closed door meeting with NCP President Sharad Pawar and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar at his official residence here on Sunday...

THE Supreme Court-appointed interlocutors met Shaheen Bagh protestors on Thursday in their second visit to the site where people have been on a sit-in since the last two months against the amended citizenship act. Advocates Sanjay Hedge and Sadhana Ramachandran, the interlocutors, were not willing to start the discussion in the presence of media...

AFTER the Rahul Gandhi ordinance-trashing episode of 2013, the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asked Montek Singh Ahluwalia whether he thought he should resign, the former deputy chairman of the now-defunct Planning Commission says. Ahluwalia says he told Singh, who was then on a visit to the US, that he did not think a resignation on this issue was appropriate. In a major embarrassment to his own Government, Rahul had denounced the controversial ordinance brought by the UPA dispensation to negate ..

ARVIND Kejriwal on Sunday took oath as Delhi’s Chief Minister for the third time. Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal administered the oath of office to Kejriwal and his six-member Cabinet. “Not my victory. It’s the victory of every Delhi citizen. It has been our endeavour over the past five years to see how we can make a positive change in the lives of every Delhi resident,” said Kejriwal after the swearing-in. Kejriwal said that it’s time to put the bitterness of elections behind and look forward...

UNION Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday said statements like ‘goli maro’ and ‘Indo-Pak match’ should not have been made by BJP leaders while campaigning for the Delhi Assembly elections and that such remarks may have cost the party dearly. He, however, said the BJP does not fight elections just for victory or defeat but believes in expanding its ideology through polls. “Such statements should not have been made. Our party has distanced itself from such remarks,” he told at a Times Now programme. ..

IN A bid to counter the ruling Shiv Sena’s politics of subsidised food, the Opposition BJP in Maharashtra on Tuesday launched its own cheap lunch plate on the occasion of the death anniversary of Jana Sangh leader Deendayal Upadhyaya. Priced at Rs 30, the “Deendayal Thali” will have more items than the Rs 10 “Shiv Bhojan Thali”, which was launched by the Sena-led State Government on January 26 to cater to the poor. The “Deendayal” lunch plate includes three chapatis, a bowl of rice, two vegetables, ..

ARVIND Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) to a stupendous victory yet again in the Delhi Assembly polls, dealing a body blow to the main rival BJP and completely decimating the Congress in a keenly-watched battle in the midst of anti-CAA protests. The 51-year-old bureaucrat-turned-politician almost replicated the AAP’s fairy-tale victory of 2015 by riding on his Government’s development agenda, and in the process emerged as a key leader in the national political landscape. As the AAP cruised to victory, ..

EXIT polls for the Delhi Assembly election on Saturday predicted a big victory for Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party with some indicating that it can even repeat its 2015 landslide when it had bagged 67 seats in the 70-member House. The India Today-Axis poll forecast 59-68 seats for the AAP and 2-11 for the BJP, while the ABP-CVoter put the Delhi’s ruling party’s tally at anywhere between 49 and 63 and that of its main rival between five to 19...

THE Aam Aadmi Party on Tuesday released its manifesto for the February 8 Assembly elections here with 28-points programme. The manifesto said the AAP Government will come out with a ‘Deshbhakti’ curriculum and also speaks about long pending demands of Delhi Jan Lokpal and Delhi Swaraj Bill along with the full Statehood. Doorstep ration delivery, language status to Bhojpuri, appointment of safai karamcharis have also found place in AAP’s election manifesto...

KAPIL Baisala who opened fired at the Shaheen Bagh protest site last week is a member of the Aam Aadmi Party, police said on Tuesday, prompting the BJP to accuse Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal of “playing” with the security of the country. Baisala and his father joined the AAP in early 2019, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime Branch) Rajesh Deo said...