NEWS

New Delhi: The Goa Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said that chief minister Manohar Parrikar is likely to resume duty next month. Parrikar’s extended absence from office due to bad health has sparked demands of temporary replacement.

The state unit Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) president Vinay Tendulkar, however, conceded the pace of administration in the coastal state has “slowed down” in absence of the chief minister.

Earlier in the day, Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) president Dipak Dhavlikar demanded that Parrikar hand over his charge to “any of the senior ministers” till he recovered from illness. He also said the people of Goa were complaining about the “collapse” of administration in absence of Parrikar.

New Delhi: Congress President Rahul Gandhi plans to visit Malwa-Nimar region of Madhya Pradesh that has been the stronghold of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. But in his two-day visit, the Congress president will not only be offering prayer to Mahakaleshwar temple in Ujjain on October 29 before hitting the election campaign in the region but he would also visit B R Ambedkar’s birthplace Mhow. Rahul Gandhi is likely to visit Janapav the birthplace of Lord Parasuram to woo Brahmins.

Gandhi will begin his two-day tour of the Malwa-Nimar region after worshipping the famous Jyotirlinga of Lord Shiva in Ujjain on October 29, a party leader said here Wednesday.

New Delhi: In the election year, Kumbh mela promises to be religion, politics, business, tourism and global branding rolled into one. Mela in Allahabad starting on January 15, 2019 will not just be the traditional, religious mega congregation on the banks of the Sangam.

Plans are on to promote the event in prominent cities across the world. The Uttar Pradesh tourism department will hold road shows next month in Berlin, Amsterdam, Lisbon, Dublin and Copenhagen, says regional tourism officer Anupam Srivastava.

This, in itself, is a departure from the past, going beyond the all too familiar images of khadau (traditional wooden slippers), kamandal (water pot carried by Hindu holy men), kalpvas (a month-long observance of spiritual austerity on the riverbank) and moksha (salvation).

New Delhi: The Congress is now holding talks with Jai Adivasi Yuva Shakti (JAYS), a fledgling tribal political outfit, to take on the ruling BJP in the next month’s Assembly polls after it failed to sew up a pre-poll alliance with the BSP in Madhya Pradesh.

JAYS convenor, Dr Hiralal Alawa, told PTI that his outfit has sought 40 seats from the Congress as part of the pre-poll alliance in the state, which has 230 assembly constituencies.

“The Congress is in talks with us for a pre-poll alliance. Our focus is 28 seats in Malwa-Nimar region of western MP that has 66 assembly constituencies. Of these 28 seats, 22 are reserved for tribals,” he said.