NEWS

New Delhi: The Shiv Sena on Monday rebuffed BharatiyaJanata Party national President Amit Shah’s rapprochement efforts by saying that 'the Modi floods' may have swept away snakes and mongooses, but "the tiger cannot be tamed." The bickering ally, which has declared its intention of going alone in the next polls, made strong comments against the BJP, saying the party was "still living in the golden era of 2014" while "the picture of 2019 will be completely different."
In a hard-hitting editorial in its mouthpiece 'Saamna', the Sena said the BJP had forgotten "humility" after coming to power in 2014 but has started getting "some thoughts" after the LokSabhabypoll results of Gorakhpur and Phulpur in Uttar Pradesh, where the party suffered serious setback last month. The BJP lost both the seats which had been won by UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath and deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya respectively in the 2014 LokSabha polls.

New Delhi: The Uttar Pradesh government announced a magisterial investigation after the alleged rape victim said her father had been murdered in prison. The victim had on Sunday attempted suicide in front of chief minister Yogi Adityanath’s residence, alleging inaction on the part of police in filing a case against the BJP member. The father of an 18-year-old woman allegedly raped by a BharatiyaJanata Party lawmaker in Uttar Pradesh died on Monday, hours after he collapsed in prison where he had been detained after being assaulted by men purportedly connected to the MLA.
“He was killed at the behest of the BJP MLA inside the jail,” the woman told reporters on Monday. “We were getting threats and they killed my father”.

New Delhi: Taking cur from Bhutan, the Andhra Pradesh government will soon constitute a Happiness Commission that will take up a series of programmes to promote “happiness” in the state. Bhutan’s happiness index is highest in the world.
The commission, which will work under the department of planning, will be headed by chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu. “The proposal is in the final stages and very soon, we shall issue an order constituting the commission,” said Sanjay Gupta, chief executive officer of the AP state development planning society (APSDPS) and vice-chairman of the proposed commission.
Andhra Pradesh became the second state in the country to introduce an exclusive ministry for happiness in April 2017. Madhya Pradesh is the first.
According to Gupta, the objective of the commission is to ensure all-round development of people, including their psychological well-being, health, usage of their time, education etc, besides gauging their satisfaction over implementation of the government programmes.

New Delhi: A forum of Lingayat seers gave a call in a shuttle way to the community to support the Congress in the upcoming assembly elections. The state government's decision to seek minority religion status for the politically influential Veerashaiva-Lingayat community of Karnataka from the Centre has proved to be a shot in the arm to the Congress.
"Ours is an apolitical forum and we don’t want to get involve in electoral politics. But, we have decided to support those who supported us," ShivamurthyMurughaRajendra Swami of ChitradurgaMurugha mutt said after a meeting of the forum in Bengaluru.
Around 50 pontiffs of Lingayat mutts attended the meeting and agreed to continue their fight till the Centre accords minority status to the community. Lingayats constitute 17 percent of Karnataka's population.