The Shiv Sena leader is scheduled to meet Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari on Monday at 5 pm.

MUMBAI: Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut along with other senior party leaders is scheduled to meet Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari on Monday at 5 pm.

“Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut, along with other senior party leaders, is scheduled to meet Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari at 5 pm tomorrow,” the office of Maharashtra Governor told ANI on Sunday.

Raut has also said that he will meet the Governor tomorrow and request him to invite the single largest party to form the government in Maharashtra.

The development comes at a time when the BJP and the Shiv Sena are engaged in a bitter tug-of-war over the equal distribution of Cabinet portfolios and the term of chief minister’s post for 2.5 years each.

While the BJP is firm on their stand that Devendra Fadnavis will become the next Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Shiv Sena is seeking an equal term for chief minister’s post.

Earlier today, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ajit Pawar said that Raut dropped a text message to him.

“This is the first time after elections that he has contacted me. I do not know why he messaged me. His message reads ‘Jai Maharashtra Saheb, I am Sanjay Raut’. I will call him in a while to know about it,” Pawar had said.

The BJP has emerged as the single largest party by winning 105 seats in Maharashtra polls while the Shiv Sena has got 56 seats in the 288-member assembly. 

However, on Wednesday and Thursday, light to moderate rainfall may occur in isolated parts across the districts.

CHENNAI: Light to moderate rain is likely to occur at isolated places over Tamil Nadu and Puducherry over the next four days, according to the weekly bulletin issued by the Regional Meteorological Department on Sunday.

While the northern districts including Chennai are likely to stay dry until Tuesday, southern districts will continue to receive light to moderate rainfall, according to the forecast. Isolated parts of Madurai and other neighbouring districts in south Tamil Nadu received heavy rainfall on Sunday.

However, on Wednesday and Thursday, light to moderate rainfall may occur in isolated parts across the districts.

The sky condition in Chennai is likely to be partly cloudy during forenoon and generally cloudy thereafter on Monday, the bulletin said, adding that light to moderate rain is likely to occur in some areas during evening or night. “Maximum and minimum temperatures are likely to be around 33 and 26 deg celsius respectively,” it said.

Referring to Mamata’s claim, Dhankar, in an event organised by Marwari Mahila Samity in Kolkata, said only she knows what evidence she has to substantiate her claims.

KOLKATA: Hitting out at West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Governor Jagdeep Dhankar on Sunday claimed businessman, officials, politicians among others in the state have approached him claiming their privacy is being compromised. Dhankar’s attack came after Mamata claimed her phone was being tapped as part of surveillance by the Centre.

The conflict between the state government and the constitutional head of the state, that observed a brief ceasefire, emerged after WhatsApp, the Facebook-owned messaging platform, said it had earlier informed Indian authorities about a privacy breach.

Referring to Mamata’s claim, Dhankar, in an event organised by Marwari Mahila Samity in Kolkata, said only she knows what evidence she has to substantiate her claims. “CM Mamata Banerjee knows what evidence she has and on what basis she made the comment on tapping. I can say that several people including businessmen, officials and politicians met me and told me that their privacy is being compromised in Bengal,’’ the Governor said.

Reacting to it, Trinamool secretary-general Partha Chatterjee accused Dhankar of acting like a spokesperson of a political party. “Let him release the list of people whom he met. You will see these people belong to the BJP. Why does he always react to the statements made by our chief minister? Why doesn’t he comment on BJP president Dilip Ghosh statements? General people in Bengal are intelligent enough to understand why he is making such comments,” Chatterjee said.

In an apparent reference to Trinamool’s stand on the abrogation of Article 370 in the valley, Dhankar said, “A prolonged illness was cured after 70 years in Kashmir. I would like to tell them if you want to do politics, then look at yourself also. I am pained when I see violence in Bengal and violence executed with political motives.’’

When Dhankar condemned the Murshidabad triple murder in which on of the victims was claimed to be a RSS worker, Trinamool said the Governor was crossing his constitutional limits

A 5-year-old girl fell in the borewell belonging to her family while playing in the fields on Sunday.

CHANDIGARH: A 5-year-old girl fell into a 50-feet-deep borewell in Harsinghpura village in Haryana’s Karnal district and a rescue operation was on to pull her out, police said on Monday.

She fell in the borewell belonging to her family while playing in the fields on Sunday in Gharaunda area, a police official said.

After her family realised that she was missing, they launched a search for the child, but then found that she had fallen into the borewell, he said.

The district administration and the police were informed and a rescue operation was launched.

Later, the NDRF was also informed, the official said.

Oxygen was being supplied inside the borewell and the rescuers used a camera to check on the child through which they saw her foot.

An audio recording of her parents’ voice was also played to give her a sense of security, the police said.

Earlier in July, two-year-old Fatehvir Singh, was pulled out dead from a 150-foot deep borewell shaft in Punjab’s Sangrur district after an unsuccessful rescue operation which lasted over four days.

In March, an 18-month old boy was rescued from a borewell in Haryana’s Hisar district, two days after he had fallen into it.

In 2006, a massive operation was launched to rescue five-year-old Prince, who had fallen into a borewell in a village in Kurukshetra.

He was pulled out safely nearly 48 hours later.

India’s first Home Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel is credited with merging all princely states into the Union of India.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi administered the national unity pledge on Thursday at the Statue Of Unity in Gujarat to mark National Unity Day. In an address, the prime minister said that unity in diversity is India’s identity.

Centuries ago, India was united by Chanakya, and after that Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel achieved the same feat by merging princely states with the Union of India, the PM said on India’s first Home Minister and Deputy Prime Minister’s 144th birth anniversary.

“I take this oath for the unity of my country which was made possible by Sardar Patel’s vision and work. I make a solemn promise to contribute to the internal security of my country,” said Modi in his oath.

Those who “cannot win wars against us” are trying to destroy our unity, he said, in an apparent jibe at Pakistan.

The country decided to abrogate Article 370, which had only given “separatism and terrorism” to Jammu and Kashmir, he said. North-East is now moving from separatism to attachment as decades-old problems are nearing resolution, Modi said.

“There was a wall between the state and the rest of the country,” he said, hours after the bifurcation of Jammu and Kashmir. “I would tell Sardar saab, that the dream you had, that wall has been broken, and your dream was fulfilled. Sardar Patel had once said that if the issue of Kashmir had remained with him, it would not have taken so long to resolve it. On his birth anniversary today, I dedicate the decision to remove Article 370, to Sardar Saheb.”

“The new system in Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh is not meant to draw a line on the land (to draw a boundary) but to build a strong link of trust,” the prime minister said, referring to the bifurcation of the state into two Union Territories.

“Over 40,000 people lost their lives in three decades of terrorism,” he said, adding that it was Patel’s inspiration which made him take the decision to abrogate Article 370, and he dedicates the decision “at the feet of” the first home minister of the country.

“Patel had once said that had he handled the Kashmir issue, it would not have taken so long to resolve it,” Modi said, in a veiled swipe at Jawaharlal Nehru, the country’s first prime minister whom the ruling BJP often blames for the Kashmir issue.

Union Home Minister and BJP president Amit Shah credited Narendra Modi for fulfilling Patel’s “dream” of integrating Jammu and Kashmir with the rest of the country by abrogating Article 370 and 35A, which he described as “the gateway of terrorism into Jammu and Kashmir”. He flagged off the ‘Run for Unity‘ event in Delhi to mark the birth anniversary of Sardar Patel.

Since 2014, October 31 is observed as National Unity Day and people from all walks of life participate in a Run for Unity event.

In October last year, Modi had inaugurated ‘Statue of Unity’ on the occasion of Patel’s 143rd birth anniversary. He had announced to build the statue when he was Gujarat’s Chief Minister.

Located on Sadhu-Bet Island, Gujarat, the 182-metre tall statue which occupies over 20,000 square meters is the tallest statue in the world.

In his ‘Mann Ki Baat’ programme on Sunday, Prime Minister Modi had urged people to participate in large numbers in the ‘Run for Unity’.

“Friends, as you know that October 31 every year since 2014 has been celebrated as ‘National Unity Day’. This day imparts the message to protect the unity, integrity and security of our country at any cost. On October 31, this year too ‘Run for Unity’ is being organized like the previous years. ‘Run for Unity’ is a symbol of unison, that the nation being united, is moving in one direction and collectively aims for- One goal! Ek Bharat, Shreshth Bharat,” he said.

At the stroke of the midnight hour on Wednesday, the state of Jammu and Kashmir was bifurcated and converted into two Union Territories (UTs) with Lieutenant Governors (L-Gs) of the two newly-created UTs set to take oath today.

While the Nifty crossed the 11,900-mark, top gainers in the Sensex pack included SBI, Infosys, ITC, Sun Pharma, HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank.

MUMBAI; Market benchmark BSE Sensex surged over 293 points to hit its record intra-day high of 40,344.99 on Thursday led by rally in index heavyweights Infosys, SBI, HDFC Bank and TCS.

After opening on a strong note, the 30-share index was trading 263.69 points, or 0.66 per cent, higher at 40,315.56 in morning session.

The broader NSE Nifty too advanced 71.85 points, or 0.61 per cent, to 11,915.95.

Top gainers in the Sensex pack included SBI, Infosys, Tata Motors, Yes Bank and Sun Pharma, rising up to 4.35 per cent.

On the other hand, M&M, Tata Steel, TechM, PowerGrid and Axis Bank fell up to 1.09 per cent.

According to experts, hopes that the government will cut long term capital gain tax, dividend distribution tax and the securities transaction tax enthused domestic investors.

Massive foreign fund inflow too boosted investor sentiments, traders said.

Foreign institutional investors purchased a whopping Rs 7,192.42 crore in the capital market, on Wednesday, while domestic institutional investors sold shares worth Rs 185.87 crore, data available with stock exchange showed.

Further, the US Federal Reserve’s decision to cut its benchmark interest rate for the third straight time also strengthened market mood, they added.

Improved auto sales growth during the festival sessions, good quarterly results too added fuel on Dalal Street, traders said.

Bourses in Hong Kong, Seoul and Tokyo were trading on a positive note, while those in Shanghai were in the red.

The rupee, meanwhile, appreciated 10 paise against the US dollar to trade at 70.80 in early session.

Brent futures, the global oil benchmark, rose 0.30 per cent to USD 60.42 per barrel.

According to Thomas Zdechovsky, one of the MEPs whose name is part of the team that visited Kashmir on the invite by Indian-origin Madi Sharma, the MEPs were invited by the IINS.

NEW DELHI: The European Parliament members who visited Kashmir in their “unofficial capacity”, were reportedly invited by the International Institute for Non-aligned Studies, which has a Delhi address.

The International Institute for Non-Aligned Studies (IINS), which calls itself a think-tank for the Non-Aligned Movement, cites its head office address on the website as “A-2/59, Safdarjung Enclave, New Delhi 110029, India.”

Its Twitter account is @iinsNAM and its email address is iins@iins.org.

According to Thomas Zdechovsky, one of the MEPs whose name is part of the team that visited Kashmir on the invite by Indian-origin Madi Sharma, the MEPs were invited by the IINS.

Articles tweeted by @iinsNAM are written by its staff, and published by the little-known New Delhi Times, which is a part of the Srivastava Group.

The address of New Delhi Times too is “A-2/59, Safdarjung Enclave, New Delhi 110029, India”.

New Delhi Times says about itself: “New Delhi Times is a part of Srivastava Group, started under the leadership of Dr G.N. Srivastava in 1995, with the purpose of providing real news in Hindi and English from the capital of India to the world.

“Our website provides a glimpse of news updates from all over the world. The website is useful to professionals, students, researchers and the common man. It covers a variety of topics ranging from politics to the economy, foreign policy to investment and sports to culture.”

Zdechovsky, in a statement, said: “My schedule and also flights to India were different from the rest of the delegation and I didn’t visited Kashmir (sic). A crucial part for me was meeting with Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi which I was supposed to have already in August, but the meeting then was cancelled at that time because Mr Modi had to urgently travel to Iran because there was a hijacked boat with many Indians on the board.

“The meetings with other officials now were just held around the same time.

To my knowledge, the other MEPs were invited by the International Institute for Non-aligned Studies but I am not aware about the particular arrangements with the other MEPs.

I have always supported an open dialogue with India. Among the topics which I discussed with officials during my visit was economic cooperation, innovations, the situation in healthcare or fighting poverty.”

His spokesperson Jitka Fialova said: “I would add just the fact, that Mr Zdechovsky is a member of centric European peoples party, whose members are also Angela Merkel, J.C. Juncker or Ursula von der Leyen.”

Later, she posted a clarification from the MEP: “Sorry for sending you misleading information, the trip in August was cancelled from another reason, I, unfortunately, mixed more things together. Sorry for this.”

Indira Gandhi served as the first and only woman Prime Minister of India from January 1966 to March 1977 and again from January 1980 until her assassination in October 1984.

NEW DELHI: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday paid tribute to former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on her death anniversary.

“My tributes to my grandmother & former PM, Smt Indira Gandhi Ji on the anniversary of her martyrdom.”

Several Congress leaders including party interim president Sonia Gandhi and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh amongst others also paid homage to Indira Gandhi at the Shakti Sthal in New Delhi.
My tributes to my grandmother & former PM, Smt Indira Gandhi Ji on the anniversary of her martyrdom.

Paying homage to Indira, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee applauded the former Prime Minister’s leadership during the 1971 war.

“Homage to former Prime Minister Indira Ji on her death anniversary. We remember her great contribution to the nation and also her leadership during the 1971 War,” she tweeted.

Homage to former Prime Minister Indira Ji on her death anniversary. We remember her great contribution to the nation and also her leadership during the 1971 War

Mamata was referring to the 1971 war when East Pakistan was liberated and the territory later came to be known as Bangladesh.

Indira Gandhi served as the first and only woman Prime Minister of India from January 1966 to March 1977 and again from January 1980 until her assassination in October 1984.

Indira was assassinated by two of her own bodyguards at her official residence at Akbar Road on October 31, 1984.

On the directives of Imran Khan, PTI Senator Faisal Javed had contacted Sidhu and extended the invitation.

ISLAMABAD: Former Indian cricketer and Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu has accepted Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s invitation to attend the opening ceremony of the Kartarpur Corridor on November 9.

According to a Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) press release, Sidhu thanked the Pak Prime Minister for inviting him to the inauguration.

“I’m grateful to the prime minister for inviting me to the historic inauguration of Kartarpur Corridor,” he was quoted as saying.

On the directives of Imran Khan, PTI Senator Faisal Javed had contacted Sidhu and extended the invitation

Sidhu said the Sikh community all over the world look forward to visit the holy shrine associated with their spiritual leader Baba Guru Nanak.

“The Kartarpur Corridor agreement sends a positive message to millions of Sikhs around the world,” he is quoted as having said by the Pakistani media.

The Sena, which won 56 seats in the October 21 Assembly polls, claimed its tally now stood at 61 with the support of five more MLAs.

MUMBAI: Shankarrao Gadakh, an NCP-backed Independent MLA in Maharashtra, on Monday offered support to the Shiv Sena, which is pushing for an equal share in power with ally BJP in the next government.

The MLA from Nevasa in Ahmednagar district made the announcement after meeting Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray at his residence here. Gadakh’s father Yashwantrao was a former NCP leader.

“I represent a rural area where problems are more complicated. If I have to solve people’s issues, it is better to stay with the party which is going to form the government. Hence, I visited Mumbai today and extended support to the Sena,” he said.

The Sena, which won 56 seats in the October 21 Assembly polls, claimed its tally now stood at 61 with the support of five more MLAs.

The BJP and the Shiv Sena, with 105 and 56 seats respectively in the 288-member House, are busy wooing the 13 Independent MLAs in the state to give themselves an upper hand during discussions for formation of the next government.

In a related development, two Independent MLAs – Ravi Rana (Badnera in Amravati district) and Kishor Jorgewar (Chandrapur) – have declared support to the BJP.

The Sena has demanded a written assurance from the BJP for implementing “equal formula for sharing of power”, which could possibly include equal division of the chief ministerial tenure.

Speaking to a news channel on Monday, Sena leader Sanjay Raut said, “We will see how they do not share the post of Chief Minister. Both the parties agreed on 50:50 power-sharing formula. There is no need to explain it in detail.