MLA Khopde offers to quit for Gadkari; Phadanvis tight-lipped

October 22, 2014

Nagpur, Oct 22: Amid talk that BJP Maharashtra unit chief Devendra Fadnavis could be party's chief ministerial choice, Nagpur-East MLA Krishna Khopde today offered to quit and vacate his seat to pave way for his mentor Nitin Gadkari, after voices grew louder on bringing back the Union Minister to the state to don the mantle.gadkari

Khopde, a second term MLA, told media persons that he was willing to resign for Gadkari from his constituency.When contacted over the turn of events, Phadanvis however, remained tight-lipped and made no comments.

Gadkari had last night said that he is ready to accept any responsibility given to him by the party's central leadership.About 39 BJP MLAs all from Vidarbha region had met Gadkari at his residence here yesterday and demanded that he be made the state's Chief Minister.

The senior BJP leader had later told the electronic media that the MLAs who met him "have a lot of respect for me and they are requesting me to be the Chief Minister.

"I have already clarified my stand not to return to state politics. Its for the party's central leadership to decide and I will accept any responsibility given to me," said the former chief of BJP which has emerged as the single largest part in Assembly elections with 123 MLAs, 22 short of majority in the 288-member Assembly.

The newly-elected MLAs, who were flown to Mumbai by a chartered flight to attend the Legislative Party Meeting which was eventually postponed to another date, had returned in the evening and drove straight to Gadkari's residence.

In the October 15 state Assembly elections, Khopde who is also president of Nagpur city unit of BJP, had defeated advocate Abhijit Wanjari of the Congress by over 40,000 votes.

In 2009, Khopde had turned to be giant killer defeating then Congress stalwart and then Textile Minister Satish Chaturvedi by over 38,000 votes. Vidarbha had overwhelmingly come out in support of BJP, which won 44 out of 62 seats in the region.

Yesterday, in Mumbai, senior BJP leader Sudhir Mungantiwar pitched for Gadkari as the Chief Minister."State BJP leaders feel that Nitin Gadkariji should come back to the state politics and take up the position of the CM of Maharashtra. He has a lot of administrative experience behind him which makes him an ideal candidate," Mungantiwar, also a member of the state BJP core committee had said.

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Agencies
August 2,2020

Lucknow, Aug 2: Uttar Pradesh's cabinet minister for Technical Education Kamal Rani Varun succumbed to COVID-19 on Sunday at the Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences.

Kamal Rani is the first minister in Uttar Pradesh to die after contracting coronavirus. She was 62.

On 18 July, the minister tested positive for coronavirus and was admitted to the Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Hospital.

She was later shifted to the Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences.

Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath has expressed grief over the minister's death.

In a condolence message issued on Sunday, Adityanath said, "Kamal Rani Varun died on Sunday at around 9.30 am. She was an experienced and capable leader. She discharged her responsibilities with competence. She was a dedicated public representative, who was always working for the welfare of deprived and oppressed sections of the society."

Kamal Rani was the MLA from Ghatampur in Kanpur. She was also twice a Member of Parliament in the Lok Sabha.

Meanwhile, Adityanath has cancelled his visit to Ayodhya scheduled for the day, Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Awanish Awasthi said on Sunday.

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News Network
June 20,2020

Jun 20: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his remark that neither is anyone inside India's territory nor has any of its posts been captured, alleging that the PM has "surrendered" Indian territory to Chinese aggression.

In a statement on the all-party meeting called by Modi on Friday to discuss the situation at the India-China border, the government said, "At the outset, prime minister clarified that neither is anyone inside our territory nor is any of our post captured."

Tagging PM's remarks with his tweet, Gandhi said, "PM has surrendered Indian territory to Chinese aggression."

"If the land was Chinese: 1. Why were our soldiers killed? 2. Where were they killed?" Gandhi said.

The categorical statement by the prime minister came in the wake of reports that Chinese military has transgressed into the Indian side of the Line of Actual Control, the de-facto border, in several areas of eastern Ladakh including Pangong Tso and Galwan Valley.

Soon after Gandhi's tweet, Union Home Minister Amit Shah posted video of father of a soldier, who was injured in Galwan face-off, and hit out at the Congress leader, accusing him of indulging in "petty politics".

"A brave armyman’s father speaks and he has a very clear message for Mr. Rahul Gandhi. At a time when the entire nation is united, Mr. Rahul Gandhi should also rise above petty politics and stand in solidarity with national interest," Shah wrote.

The prime minister's assertion came even as Congress president Sonia Gandhi, at the all-party meet, questioned the government's handling of the situation, asking if there was any intelligence failure, and seeking assurance that China will "revert" to its original position.

Rahul Gandhi on Friday accused senior ministers in the government of "lying" to protect the prime minister and that the Centre was "fast asleep" while martyred jawans paid the price in Ladakh.

The former Congress chief also tagged a one-minute video of a jawan's father saying the Indian soldiers were unarmed when they were attacked by Chinese troops.

He has been questioning the government on the LAC standoff and asking how the Chinese occupied Indian territory and why Indian soldiers were sent "unarmed to martyrdom" in Ladakh.

Twenty Indian Army personnel, including a colonel, were killed in a clash with Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh on Monday night, the biggest military confrontation in over five decades that has significantly escalated the already volatile border standoff in the region.

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Agencies
January 7,2020

New Delhi, Jan 7: Services at various bank branches and ATMs are likely to be affected as hundreds of employees will go on a bank strike across the country on Wednesday.

The bank strike is part of the Bharat Bandh call given by trade unions to protest against the labour reforms and economic policies of the Central government, according to reports.

The protestors' main demand during the Bharat Bandh is that the Centre should drop the proposed labour reforms.

A Bill in this regard was passed and proposes to merge 44 labour laws into four codes -- wages, industrial relations, social security, and safe working conditions.

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