Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi on Thursday denied his role in ouster of Assam Jamiat Ulama-e Hind president Badruddin Ajmal.
Clarifying that allegation levelled by the Assam United Democratic Front that the Congress is behind the ouster of Mr Ajmal from the Jamiat was totally baseless and politically motivated, Mr Gogoi told reporters that they have cordial relationship with all the Muslim organisations.

Beleaguered Karnataka chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa reached New Delhi on late Thursday night. He is expected to meet BJP top brass, including BJP parliamentary party chairman, L.K. Advani, party chief Nitin Gadkari and Arun Jaitley. Mr Jaitley has been asked to oversee party’s Karnataka affairs. Sources said Mr Yeddyurappa is also scheduled to meet other senior leaders and the main agenda of this visit is to discuss the JPC issue.

Media managers and spin doctors of the Congress will be meeting here on Friday against the backdrop of various scams which have put the party and the Centre on the defensive for the last few months.

Tempers are rising in Darul Uloom Deoband and factionalism wars are turning ugly as the date for the all-important meeting of Majlis-e-Shoora draws near. The meeting, scheduled to be held on February 23, is expected to decide the fate of Darul Uloom Deoband vice-chancellor, Maulana Ghulam Mohammad Vastanvi who has been facing fire for his statements on Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi.

The Assembly bypoll in Jharkhand’s Kharsawan constituency with BJP chief minister Arjun Munda as the star candidate passed off peacefully with an astounding 73 per cent voting and no violent incident on Thursday. Both the ruling BJP-JMM and the Opposition JVM-Congress alliances claimed victory will be theirs.

There is finally some good news for UP chief minister Mayawati and Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav.
The Congress-led UPA government at the centre is in no mood to “irritate” the two leaders at the moment and this means that both can expect further relief in the disproportionate assets cases pending against them in the Supreme Court.

The Tihar Central jail is the latest government agency ready to join the Facebook bandwagon after the Delhi traffic police and the MCD. Tihar prison PRO and law officer Sunil Gupta told this newspaper that Tihar’s page should be ready by the month end. “We are working on it and want to invite public opinion from all in order to improve

More police stations in the national capital, which were inaugurated with much fanfare as a measure to reduce crime levels before the start of Commonwealth Games last year, are facing prospects of being shut down for the lack of forces and infrastructure, sources said.

The tussle between Delhi and Haryana over Munak canal is likely to be taken by a group of ministers (GoM), headed by Union home minister P. Chidambaram, as Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit plans to apprise the stand of her government on the issue at the GoM.

The Delhi Cabinet in its next meeting is likely to recommend the lieutenant governor to summon the Budget Session of the state Assembly from March 15. As per the Cabinet proposal, the Budget Session will have 14 sittings in all and will end on April 1.