While the country prepares to commemorate the first anniversary of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack, the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party is worried of the day for its own reasons.
The incumbent party chief Rajnath Singh has ‘threatened to pre-maturely resign’ on Nov 26 before the election of a new president is over. The day marks his election to the post in the year 2005. Although, the party wants him to stay on till the organizational polls in the states are complete he says “he does not want to stretch his tenure”.
“We have our own 26/11 worries too. We are trying to deal with them first,” said a senior leader while mentioning that BJP is pushing for a special mention in Lok Sabha on the status of the investigations into the Mumbai terror attack.
Rajnath Singh had been pursuing for a “timely” goodbye from his post as a part of his move to impress upon the RSS bosses that he was keen to let see the right wing organization’s plan to be implemented in the party. His resignation before the conclusion of the party polls will force the party to appoint a caretaker president before someone (most probably Maharashtra unit chief Nitin Gadkari) takes over as the new president in the end of January.

The government’s new sugarcane pricing policy left it with a bitter taste in its mouth as the first day of the winter session of Parliament began on a tempestuous note with the opposition (joined by some UPA allies) turning the heat on the government over the issue and disrupting proceedings of the House. Read more…

The Delhi government seems to be all set to bring in new traffic rules to crack down on ‘careless’ drivers. According to news reports, the government is likely to notify a rule putting more stringent penalties for talking on the phone while driving. An amendment to the Motor Vehicle Act (MVA) of 1998 could see talking on the phone, texting or even reading text messages while driving resulting in a fine of Rs 2,000, six months imprisonment or both, in addition to suspension of the offenders driving license for six months. ( Fair enough, multi-tasking is not everyone’s cup of tea!) Read more…

Reeling under infighting and after a poor show in the recently concluded assembly polls in the state, the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) has now launched a frontal attack on its Maharashtra ally Shiv Sena.
In the recent edition of the party mouthpiece in the state ‘Manogat’, BJP has said that its oldest ally Shiv Sena has grown weaker and is facing a setback in the state politics.
“The BJP had made a compromise in the assembly elections to keep the alliance intact with the Sena. But the poll results showed which party was stronger,” said the article adding that if MNS was absent, the results could have been much better in favour of BJP.
Taking all this into consideration, it is clear that the Sena’s strength was less than what its leaders proclaimed, the article added.
“The inroads made by the MNS, a huge setback to the Sena,” the article says.
Trouble grew between BJP and Sena after the polls and Shiv Sena was forced to vacate the Leader of the Opposition post for BJP.
While the BJP contested 119 seats as per the pre-poll pact and won 46 seats, the Sena contested 179 and won only 44 seats in the recently concluded polls.

While the Communist Party of India (Marxist) or CPM has faced yet another drubbing at the hustings in the recent by-polls, losing all five seats it contested in its three-decade old bastion West Bengal and drawing a blank in another stronghold Kerala, its top leadership is on a world tour. Read more…