Parimal A Dabhi

On the sidelines of a kisan mahapanchayat in Ravapar of Morbi district, Hardik Patel spoke to The Indian Express on his role in the Congress, association with the PAAS, and plans to contest election in the future.

Hardik Patel, who rattled the BJP government with the Patidar quota agitation in 2015, feels the Congress is not using him enough. Its leaders "might be wanting to pull me down", he says.

According to Gujarat AAP president Gopal Italia, the key factor of AAP’s victory was that they never allowed their confidence to go down.

Unjha, a predominantly dominated by Patidars and centre for spice trade, especially cumin, is pivotal to the politics of North Gujarat, where BJP’s star campaigner, Union minister Smriti Irani, addressed a rally on Tuesday.

Leuva Patidars are influential in Saurashtra region while Kadva Patidars are influential in North Gujarat. Both the sects follow separate social customs and are known not to get along with each other.

Taking objection to the two orders of the GSIC, former chief minister Suresh Mehta and eight other citizens have submitted a memorandum to the Commission requesting it to ‘re-think’ the orders or to constitute a full-bench to review the same.

On Sunday, 885 people took the inaugural ride through cotton, plantain and castor fields, in the Charotar region of central Gujarat into the forested and tribal district of Narmada, covering 180 kms at a speed of nearly 110kmph, close to the time taken by a road trip.

The acronym “MICE” stands for “Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions”, and is essentially a version of business tourism that draws domestic and international tourists to a destination.

The Kisan Sammellan was part of the BJP’s efforts to reach out to farmers amid the agitation against the new laws.

Currently, most of the municipal corporations have senior bureaucrats appointed as Officers on Special Duty (OSD) under the Epidemic Disease and Disaster Management Acts, in charge of the Covid situation.

“We have been preparing for competitive examinations. But for the past few years, the examinations were riddled with controversies like paper leaks and irregularities," says M Phil student Nimesh Parmar, who is preparing for competitive exams.

The high court judgment has held that it is not mandatory for the trial court to hear the complainant or victim while deciding the bail application of an accused under the Atrocity Act, if the alleged offence is bailable.

With the government banning the organisation of Garba, the traditional folk dance performed on all nine nights of Navratri, citizens across the state have come up with innovative solutions to celebrate the festival.

The Collector now has more powers to ascertain if there is a likelihood of “polarisation” or “improper clustering” of persons belonging to a particular community. The government can review the Collector’s decision.

Gujarat Navaratri 2020 Covid-19 rules: This will be for the first time in the recent history of Gujarat that there will be no garba during the Navratri, which is its essential element and which the state government has branded as the ‘Longest Dance Festival of the World’.

A video to create awareness on the behaviour and habitat of the beast has been created by the Gujarat forest department, signing off with a message by Amitabh Bachchan.

According to Mehta’s family, “The Balvant Bhavan is to be used for the social activities and under no circumstances it can be allowed to be used for any residential purpose or any of the purposes contrary to the conditions laid down in the said gift deed.”

In an exclusive interview to The Indian Express, Zadafia spoke about the threats and the faith he has in the BJP and its leadership.

Zadafia, who was BJP incharge on 22 Lok Sabha constituencies in Uttar Pradesh during the 2019 general elections, spoke about the perceived threat, his regrets on quitting the BJP and his association with the Ram Temple movement as secretary in the Vishva Hindu Parishad, in an exclusive interview to The Indian Express.

Chandrakant Raghunath Paatil is the first “non-Gujarati” to lead the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the state, an appointment that came as a surprise to many within the party as well.

"Gujarat has lowest unemployment rate in the country. There are two ways to look at unemployment — one where a person does not get job at all and second is when a person does not get job as per his qualification," says CR Paatil.

The victim lawyer has been identified as Bilal Kagzi (39), a native of Kosamba village of Mangrol tehsil in Surat district. 

A senior government official said that while the SJED was providing funds to be given to the needy persons through the corporations in the form of loans, the recovery rate of the loan amount was hardly 40-50 per cent.

The decision was taken after independent MLA Jignesh Mevani and social activist Kaushik Parmar wrote to the state govt seeking appeals against the special trial court judgements on the ground that there is no provision in the Atrocity Act to recover compensation already paid to the victims/complainants.