Sunday, March 31, 2013

NATIONAL TEAM OF BJP ANNOUNCED



Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi appears set for a bigger role at the national level in BJP ahead of the next Lok Sabha polls with the party on Sunday re-inducting him into the Central Parliamentary board, its top decision-making body.

62-year-old Modi is the only serving Chief Minister to be included in the Parliamentary Board by BJP President Rajnath Singh, who announced his new 76-member teamto steer the party into the next general elections.

Modi comes back to the party's top body after a gap of six years after having been removed from the Board by Singh during his previous tenure as party president, ending speculation over the Chief Minister's future role at the national level in BJP.

Modi, who has been projected by a section within BJP as the party's Prime Ministerial candidate, has also been included in BJP's Central Election Committee, headed by Singh.

Singh's new team has 12 Vice Presidents, 10 General Secretaries, 15 Secretaries and seven Spokespersons, besides a 12-member Central Parliamentary Board, a 19-member Central Election Committee and a five-member Central Disciplinary Committee.

Among the new faces in Singh's team are former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Uma Bharti and Modi's confidant Amit Shah who have been made Vice President and General Secretary respectively. Pilibhit MP Varun Gandhi has also been elevated as the party's General Secretary.

Party's senior leader and former Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha has not found a place in Singh's team. Among those who have been dropped include Najma Heptulla, Hema Malini and Shanta Kumar as Vice Presidents and Vasundhara Raje as General Secretary.

Smriti Irani, who is a Rajya Sabha MP from Gujarat and considered close to Modi, has also been promoted as Vice President.

Former Karnataka Chief Minister Sadananda Gowda has been given the post of Vice President while Rajiv Pratap Rudy has been elevated as General Secretary.

Durg MP Saroj Pandey has been made the new president of BJP Mahila Morcha, while Anurag Thakur continues as Yuva Morcha President in the new team.

While Prakash Javadekar, Shahnawaz Hussain and Nirmala Sitharaman will continue as Spokespersons, the new additions are Vijay Sonkar Shashtri, Sudhanshu Trivedi, Meenakshi Lekhi and Capt Abhimanyu.

Ravi Shankar Prasad, who is BJP's Deputy Leader in Rajya Sabha, has been dropped as the Chief Spokesperson of the party.

Poonam Mahajan, daughter of late party leader Pramod Mahajan, has found a place in Singh's team and has been made a Secretary, while Punjab's former Health Minister Laxmi Kanta Chawla is also a new inclusion and has been given the post of Vice President.

S S Ahluwalia, who was earlier BJP's Deputy Leader in Rajya Sabha, will be a Vice President.

The new BJP team, which has adequate representation of women, includes tribal face Jual Urao as Vice President and Luise Marandi from Jharkhand as Secretary.

The 12-member Central Parliamentary Board headed by Singh has top party leaders Atal Behari Vajpayee, L K Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, M Venkaiah Naidu, Nitin Gadkari, Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley, Ananth Kumar, Thawar Chand Gehlot and Ram Lal in it, besides Modi who was inducted today.

All these top leaders alongwith Gopinath Munde, Jual Oran, Shahnawaz Hussain, Vinay Katiyar, J P Nadda and Dr Harshwardhan are part of the party's Central Election Committee. Mahila Morcha chief Saroj Pandey is the ex-officio member of this committee.

The new Vice Presidents also include Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, C P Thakur, Balbir Punj, Satpal Malik, Prabhat Jha, Bijyo Chakravarti and Kiran Maheshwari, while the other General Secretaries are Ananth Kumar, Thawar Chand Gehlot, J P Nadda, Dharmendra Pradhan, Tapir Gao, Murlidhar Rao and Ram Lal, who will continue as Organising Secretary of the party.

V Satish and Soudan Singh will be the new Joint General Secretaries (Organisation), while Shyam Jaju, Bhupendra Yadav, Krishan Das, Anil Jain, Vinod Pandey, Trivendra Rawat, Rameshwar Chaurasiya, Aaarti Mehra, Renu Kushwaha, Sudha Yadav, Sudha Malaiya, Tamil Isai and Vani Tripathi are Secretaries.

Sanjay Paswan has been made President of the BJP SC Morcha and Faggan Singh Kulaste President of the ST Morcha, Abdul Rashid will head the Minority Morcha and Om Prakash Dhankar will head the party's Kisan Morcha.

Rajya Sabha MP Piyush Goyal has been retained as Treasurer and O P Kohli as Headquarter Incharge, while former MP Ramkripal Sinha will be Office Secretary of Parliamentary Party and Shanmuknathan as Joint Office Secretary of the Parliamentary Party.

The party's Central Disciplinary Committee has Radha Mohan Singh as President, Jagdish

NEWS AROUND THE World – 31 March, 2013

Two  killed, thirteen  injured as bus falls into ravine in Mexico
Two people died and 13 have been injured in a car crash in Mexico after a microbus lost control and fell into a ravine, Itar-Tass reported. The accident took place in the state of Hidalgo. The injured passengers were taken to hospitals, some of them by helicopter. Several victims are said to be in grave condition, including one child. Mexico has one of the highest road traffic mortality rates. Police are investigating the cause of the accident.
Five dead in helicopter crash in South Africa
Five air force personnel died in a helicopter crash in South Africa’s Kruger National Park during an anti-poaching operation, according to a statement by the South African military. The team was on a regular patrol of the park, and an investigation is underway to determine the cause of the crash. South Africa is struggling to stem the widespread poaching of rhinos, whose horns are sold to buyers in Asia where it is believed to sure diseases. However, no medical evidence supports these claims.
Egyptian satirist faces arrest warrant
Egypt has issued an arrest warrant for a popular Egyptian satirist for allegedly insulting Islam and the country’s president Mohammed Morsi, raising fears of a crackdown on freedom in the region, Media reports . Earlier, Bassem Youssef faced several complaints against his show ‘El Bernameg.’ The arrest warrant comes following the detention of five prominent pro-democracy activists in an apparently widening campaign against dissent. Last summer, Egyptian authorities arrested a minority Coptic Christian teacher for allegedly posting cartoons on Facebook that insulted Islam – charges that are becoming a common theme in a country ruled by an Islamic government.
One dead, one wounded in Toronto mall shooting
One person is dead,another  wounded at a shooting at the Yorkdale Mall parking lot in Toronto. Multiple shots were fired in the parking lot at around 8:00pm local time on Saturday. Wounded victim given medical treatment after being rushed to hospital, and is reportedly in serious but stable condition. Local media alleged that the shooting was part of a confrontation between two groups of people. Police tape cordoned off the parking lot where the incident took place, and a command post was later set up in the southwest corner of the mall.
Two killed, three wounded in Libya army base attack
Two soldiers have been killed and another three wounded in an attack on a military camp in Libya. Assault took place on the Tamahind base, near the desert town of Sabha, some 800 km south of the capital Tripoli. “They came in cars, shooting. Two officers were killed and three others were injured,” Ali al-Sheikhli, spokesman for the army chief of staff, said. Matter is put under  investigation way.
Media agencies
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