NEWS

New Delhi: BJP president Amit Shah completes his three years in office today. The BJP leader is considered Prime Minister Narendra Modi's alter ego, and the two have together given the BJP political sinews it could hardly even imagine before the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

A blend of Modi's mass appeal and Shah's organisational skills and sagacity has resulted in BJP having 13 states under its belt and it is in power in five more with alliance partners. 

Under Shah's watch, the BJP and its allies won a thumping victory in Uttar Pradesh, pocketing 73 of the state's 80 LokSabha seats. The wily Gujarat leader, a five-term MLA, was then in-charge of the BJP's campaign in the key cow belt state.

New Delhi: Several people were killed and others injured in an earthquake in china last night. According to media reports, a seven magnitude earthquake jolted a remote but popular tourist destination in China's southwest in which 100 people are feared dead and thousands injured. The condition of 30 hospitalized injured were stated to be serious. 

Xinhua news agency said citing a China Earthquake Networks Center (CENC) statement that five among the dead were visitors to the popular tourist destination of Jiuzhaigou national park. The massive earthquake struck at 9:19 PM, local time, yesterday and the epicenter was monitored at a depth of 20 km, it said. Jiuzhaigou, or Jiuzhai Valley, is a national park known for spectacular waterfalls and karst formations. 

New Delhi: Nation is celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Quit India Movement today. A number of events are being planned at organisational and local levels to mark the occasion. This year's theme is “SANKALP SE SIDDHI- the Attainment Through Resolve. Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his recent Mann Ki Baat programme on All India Radio had called for launching the mega campaign Sankalp Se Siddhi from today. He suggested youth, student organisations and NGOs to organise group discussions to bring forth new ideas.

Mr Modi, termed the month of August as a month of revolution as the non-cooperation movement was launched on 1st of August 1920, Quit-India movement on 9th of August 1942 and on 15th August 1947 India became independent.

New Delhi: The much-talked Rajya Sabha election will be held in Gujarat today with BJP president Amit Shah, himself one of the four contestants for the three vacant seats is pitted against Sonia Gandhi's political secretary Ahmed Patel.

With six Congress MLAs having resigned from the 182-member state assembly, a candidate fetching 45 votes would ensure victory. This number could come down as there is a distinct possibility of some MLAs belonging to the Shankersinh Vaghela camp abstaining or exercising the NOTA option.