NEWS

Two years after parting ways with the ruling BJP, Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party (SBSP) chief Om Prakash Rajbhar met with Uttar Pradesh BJP chief Swatantra Dev Singh and vice-president Dayashankar Singh in Lucknow, hinting at the possibility of an alliance between the two parties ahead of the Assembly election in UP due early next year.

Threatening to break ties with the SBSP if Rajbhar joined the BJP, AIMIM leader Shaukat Ali said that Rajbhar's visit to meet the UP BJP president was unexpected.

"We are astonished since we had placed our trust in Rajbhar. Though Rajbhar has described it as a 'courtesy call', we can never be sure in politics," said Shaukat Ali.

The Maharashtra cabinet Tuesday announced a Rs 11,500-crore financial package for rain and flood-affected people, for repair works and other long-term flood mitigation measures.

Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray said the relief amount has been calculated at a higher rate than the prescribed norms as the damage in the deluge last month was huge. More than 200 people lost their lives in the recent rain-related incidents.

Sources said that while the cabinet has given its approval for more assistance than the prescribed norms for many categories of damage, it has not , as of now, increased the compensation for damages to perennial crops and horticulture farms. For these, the compensation will be given as per the prescribed norms.

In the run-up to the cabinet formation in Karnataka, the state's new Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai had made it clear that all MLAs won't be able to become ministers in the new government. He said he would instead focus on having a "balanced cabinet".

On Wednesday, 29 MLAs were inducted into the Council of Ministers but the ones who were left out have started crying foul over the decision.

Supporters of MLAs who failed to find a place in the cabinet and those who were ministers in the previous BS Yediyurappa government but have been left out now, have started expressing their displeasure.

A division bench of the Calcutta high court was “dismayed” over the arrest of BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari’s aide Rakhal Bera in a case on Tuesday, a day after it had directed his release on bail in another case. The arrest came despite a directive to all police stations by the HC on Monday that the state would require the leave of the court before taking the accused in custody.

Bera was given bail on Monday in a job racket case. Asking Bera to cooperate with the investigating agency, Justice Rajasekhar Mantha had observed that a writ court was required to intervene “even at a suggestion of any plan or attempt to take away the liberty of a person”, with “ulterior motive” or “for doubtful reason”. Justice Mantha observed that there were “repeated attempts by persons to lodge one complaint after the other” against Bera in a “planned and systematic manner”.