PANAJI/PUNE: 

Taking a swipe at the opposition parties’ proposed “grand alliance”, BJP president Amit Shah said if it wins the Lok Sabha polls, every leader of the coalition would take turn to be prime minister for a day on six days of a week and the “country would be on holiday on Sunday”.

Addressing BJP workers near Panaji as part of the party’s ”Atal Booth Karyakarta Sammelan” he asked them to ensure that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is re-elected in the Lok Sabha polls and the party’s government would “flush out infiltrators from Kashmir to Kanyakumari to Kolkata”.

Mr Shah said that the National Register of Citizens (NRC) was aimed at identifying the “infiltrators” and said that he wanted to ask Congress president Rahul Gandhi whether the NRC exercise should be held in Goa as well.

The BJP national president said booth-level workers will help the party win the Lok Sabha polls expected to be held in April.

Taunting the opposition parties for trying to cobble up an alliance to oust the BJP from power, Mr Shah said, “The ”mahagathbandhan” will have Mayawati as PM on Monday, Akhilesh (Yadav) on Tuesday, H D Deve Gowda on Wednesday, (Chandrababu) Naidu on Thursday, (M K) Stalin on Friday and Sharad Pawar on Saturday. The country will be on holiday on Sunday.”

Earlier, speaking at a party workers” meet in Pune, Amit Shah challenged Mr Pawar to share and compare figures of farm produce procured during the UPA rule and Modi government.

Hitting out at West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for denying permission to BJP leaders to hold rallies in the eastern state, the BJP chief claimed that in a sting operation an “intelligence officer” had said meeting were disallowed not because of law and order apprehension but because Ms Banerjee was “scared” of the BJP.

He reiterated that the BJP is committed to building the Ram temple in Ayodhya and down played the apprehensions regarding the impact of the SP-BSP alliance in Uttar Pradesh saying his party would win 74 seats (out of 80) in the country’s most populous state.

MUMBAI:
Mahesh Anand, who essayed negative roles in a number of Bollywood movies, was on Saturday found dead at his home in Mumbai under mysterious circumstances.
The police did not rule out suicide. However, no suicide note has been recovered.
The body of the 57-year-old actor, who was last seen in Govinda’s ‘Rangeela Raja’ released last month, was found in a decomposed state from his residence in Andheri West’s Yari road, the police said.
The body was sent to nearby Cooper Hospital for post-mortem.
Mr Anand reportedly had a drinking problem and was living alone as his wife lives in Moscow, the police added.

While the reason behind the actor’s death is unclear, doctors from the hospital said the body was brought from his residence in a decomposed condition.According to doctors, the reason behind his death can be ascertained only after post-mortem is conducted.

The actor had acted in several hit films including ‘Shahenshah’, ‘Coolie No. 1’, ‘Swarg’, ‘Kurukshetra’ and ‘Vijeta’. He shared screen space with top Bollywood stars like Amitabh Bachchan, Dharmendra, Govinda and Sanjay Dutt.

NAGPUR: 

Union minister Nitin Gadkari was peeved about the absence of the Managing Director of Manganese Ore India Ltd. (MOIL) at a mining-related conclave on Saturday, saying he needs to be “put in his place”.

The MD of MOIL, a public sector company, did not come to ”Min-Con” organised by Maharashtra State Mining Corporation and Vidarbha Economic Development Council despite an invite, the minister noted in his speech at the event.

Talking about huge potential in the manganese ore-based industry, he said, “Manganese Ore India MD has not come here. He is a very big man, he does not come when we invite, he does not come even otherwise.”

“He is big shot, his status is higher than that of President,” Mr Gadkari said in a sarcastic tone.

“Unko theek karna padega ek baar acche se (he needs to be put in his place once),” the Union minister added.

In his speech, Mr Gadkari stressed that ecological balance must be kept in mind while thinking about how to increase the growth rate and boost job creation.

He told Maharashtra industries minister Subhash Desai and Principal Secretary Satish Gavai that there should be a policy for forest-based and mineral-based industries in Vidarbha and tribal areas in the state.COMMENT

The forest-based industry can lead to a lot of development, Mr Gadkari said, adding that jungles of Gadchiroli district can supply raw material for Patanjali Group’s Ayurveda medicine plant coming up near Nagpur.