RSS link worked for Shettar - Times of India
BANGALORE: What made BJP veteran LK Advani delay his decision on making RDPR minister Jagadish Shettar the CM, in spite of his RSS roots?
According to sources close to Shettar, his being identified with former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa, and his resignation for a change in leadership had upset Advani. In fact, Advani had also declined to meet him during the recent crisis. But he relented following negotiations by senior leaders -- both at the central and state levels.
Sources said Shettar's lineage of being a hardcore RSS man favoured him. "Advani knows Shettar's family well, and their commitment to the RSS and the party. Hence, he had a change of heart," they added.
BJP a party with unending differences - The Hindu
NEWS ANALYSIS Factionalism, defiance of high command by regional satraps make things worse
‘Party with a difference’ is the tag line of the BJP and as the political arm of the RSS it prided itself as one. Thanks to the unbridled factionalism at all levels and brazen defiance of the central leadership by the regional satraps, the slogan makes no sense. An appropriate label to reflect the changed character of the BJP could be: a ‘party with unending differences.’
The central leadership bowing down to pressures from the former Karnataka Chief Minister, B.S. Yeddyurappa, and shunting out Chief Minister Sadananda Gowda best reflect the state of drift and helplessness of the high command.
No political logic
Ironically, it is for the third time in a span of less than one year that the central leadership has been forced to effect a chief ministerial change and that too in a State where Assembly elections are due in less than nine months. What makes it even more bizarre is that there is no political logic to the appointment of Jagadish Shettar, a choice of Mr. Yeddyurappa, as the new Chief Minister.
Mr. Yeddyurappa, a powerful leader from the influential Lingayat community, was at loggerheads with Mr. Shettar (also from the same caste) as long as he was Chief Minister. That is the reason he backed Mr. Gowda as his successor. As Mr. Gowda began to acquire clout and status, Mr. Yeddyurappa was left with no option but to join hands with his political foe.
The story of the party in Gujarat is ditto. Narendra Modi, considered the star campaigner and Hindutva mascot of the party, treats Gujarat as his fiefdom. Since the re-induction of his arch-rival and hardcore RSS faithful Sanjay Joshi into the party in July last year (he was forced to quit from the primary membership of the BJP a few weeks ago) Mr. Modi had left no stone unturned to humiliate party president Nitin Gadkari.
All from the RSS ranks
Incidentally, all the three — Mr. Gadkari, Mr. Modi and Mr. Joshi — are from the RSS rank and file but the affiliation made no difference to their public feud. Signalling that he would not let the central leadership get away with any decision against his wishes, Mr. Modi stayed away from the 2011 October national executive meeting.
He upped the ante by refusing to campaign for the party in the five Assembly elections in February-March despite repeated appeals from several quarters. To buy peace with Mr. Modi, hours before the recent Mumbai national executive, the BJP chief sacked Mr. Joshi from the executive.
Thrown out
The Gujarat Chief Minister turned up on the last day of the session only after the central leadership went public on the sacking of Mr. Joshi. Mr. Modi was not content with the huge embarrassment to the central leadership and made sure, within three weeks of the Mumbai meeting, that Mr. Joshi was thrown out of the party.
Mr. Yeddyurappa, who had vowed to stay away from the Mumbai meeting in protest against the “management of the party affairs” by the leadership, took the first available flight to Mumbai after Mr. Modi announced his intention to participate.
Even in Rajasthan, where the party is not in power, the writ of the national leadership does not run. In April, the former Chief Minister and senior leader, Vasundhara Raje, threatened to walk out of the BJP with all her followers if the RSS-backed senior leader Gulab Chand Kataria was not restrained from going ahead with a State-wide yatra. The party bought peace with her by persuading Mr. Kataria to call off the yatra. The faction led by Ms. Raje has already tied the hands of the central leadership by making it known that when the State goes to the polls next year, she should be projected as the chief ministerial candidate!
In Uttarakhand, the party lost the race for a second term in the recent Assembly elections only due to the failure of the leadership to curb factionalism.
The state of affairs at the national level is no different and come the 2014 general election, things are bound to get worse with too many leaders considering themselves the prime ministerial candidates. The botch-up by the party on the Presidential election, at the expense of antagonising some of the constituents in the National Democratic Alliance, is an indication of things to come.
Keywords: BJP politics
Nathaniel fends off Farhh for Eclipse glory - ESPN.co.uk
Nathaniel made a scintillating return to action with a gallant victory in the Coral-Eclipse Stakes at Sandown.
A winner of last season's King George VI Stakes, Nathaniel's seasonal bow was delayed by a setback. The vibes were not positive, with trainer John Gosden expecting his charge to need to race. If that's the case, he has the world at his feet as Nathaniel hit the front some way from home and powered on superbly to land the Group One contest from Farhh.
William Buick seemed confident that Nathaniel, a winner over two furlongs further last season, would not struggle at the business end as he was on the sharp end throughout. Nathaniel tracked City Style for much of the race before striking on at the top of the straight.
Nathaniel was tracked through by Cityscape but soon fought off the challenge of Roger Charlton's charge. A sterner challenge came from Farhh who came down the outside with what looked a winning run. Frankie Dettori got to within a neck of Nathaniel, but the winner pulled out more once asked and Nathaniel powered away for a three-quarters of a length success.
Trade Commissioner came into the Coral Challenge with the look of a well-handicapped horse and that proved to be the case as Gosden's charge ran out an impressive winner in the hands of Buick. Dettori attempted to take the race by the scruff of the neck aboard by Con Artist by setting sail for home a long way out. Trade Commissioner took a bit of time to pick up, but once hitting top gear he powered up the Sandown hill.
Gosden combined with Trade Commissioner's and Nathaniel's owner Lady Rothschild to land the Lancashire Oaks with Great Heavens. The three-year-old, unbeaten in two starts this season, took the step up from Listed class to Group Two company in her stride with a hugely impressive success.
Robert Havlin set out to make all and he did not see another rival as Great Heavens, the 11/4 favourite, ground her rivals into submission up the Haydock straight to score in the manner of a filly who looks destined for the top of the tree.
Frankie Dettori produced another vintage ride to land the Coral Distaff aboard Falls Of Lora. Mahmood Al Zarooni's charge was forced to give weight away all round in the Listed contest, but it did not stop her as Dettori poked her through a narrow gap with over a furlong to run and Falls Of Lora stuck on admirably to deny Ladys First and Bana Wu. The disappointment of the race was Coronation Stakes second Starscope, who stuck her head in the air once brought under pressure and failed to run on.
Hayley Turner brought Caledonia Lady with a superb late challenge to bag the Coral Charge. The filly was wrapped up with nowhere to go inside the final two furlongs and looked to be fighting a losing battle, but Turner waited for the gap to arrive and once it did Caledonia Lady sprouted wings to cut down Confessional in the shadow of the post and prevail by a nose in the Group Three contest at odds of 10/1.
Number Theory continued his love affair with Haydock by bagging the Old Newton Cup. All three of the four-year-old's previous wins had been at the track and he made it four with a gutsy display under Russ Kennimore, fending off Quiz Mistress and Tepmokea.
© ESPN EMEA Ltd
Extreme heat persists in US but relief arriving Monday - Reuters
(Reuters) - Another day of scorching temperatures blanketed the United States from Iowa to the East Coast on Saturday, but forecasters said some of the areas hit hardest by the prolonged heat wave would soon get relief.
More than two dozen people have died, including a four-month old Indiana girl who police say was left in a car outside her home in Greenfield, about 25 miles east of Indianapolis, for an extended period of time when temperatures were above 100 Fahrenheit.
The National Weather Service issued excessive heat warnings for cities including Washington, where temperatures reached 103 Fahrenheit (39 Celsius) by 1 p.m., New York and Philadelphia, where temperatures hovered near or at triple digits.
"It's hotter than hell," said John Ghio, a tourist from St. Louis after visiting the White House. "We're going to get a cold drink, catch the subway and go back to our hotel to cool down."
Nearby, a family from China posed for photos in front of the U.S. Treasury. They were debating whether to go on to the Washington Monument or wait until the sun went down.
"Too hot," said Xiao Duan, 30, of Beijing. "My father says it's like we're being burned by flames."
A cold front from Canada was expected to move south and break the record-setting heat and drop temperatures to below average levels over much of the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic states by Monday, the weather service said.
Severe weather, including thunderstorms and damaging winds, was likely to accompany the cooler temperatures, forecasters said.
COOLER TEMPS ON THE WAY?
Areas around Midwestern cities Minneapolis, Chicago, Detroit and St. Louis will start to experience less-extreme heat this weekend, said Alex Sosnowski, senior meteorologist for AccuWeather.com.
But Sosnowski said Saturday would likely be the worst day of the heat for people in the East and the central Appalachians.
"As the cooler air from the northwest begins to make its move, the air will get compressed in the region," he said on AccuWeather.com. "When air is compressed, it heats up."
The weather service's excessive heat warning stretched from Iowa to Pennsylvania, and from New York state down to southern Virginia, capping a week during which more than 3,500 daily temperature records fell across the country.
The number of deaths attributed to the extreme heat and violent storms during the past week continued to rise.
Three people died this week from heat-related illnesses in Ohio, where a late-June storm knocked out power to more than 600,000 people.
Authorities discovered the bodies of two women, one in her late 60s and the other in her mid-80s, and a man in his 70s, in homes without electricity, said Dr. Jeff Lee, deputy coroner in Licking County, Ohio.
"They were all found inside homes that were closed up and not ventilated," Lee said on Saturday. "The extra heat along with the cardiovascular and pulmonary problems (they suffered from) caused their deaths."
Approximately 62,000 AEP Ohio customers remained without power on Saturday morning in that state, where the temperature was expected to pass the 100-degree mark.
In West Virginia, where some people have been without power since violent storms hit a week ago, Appalachian Power said nearly 80,000 customers still had no electricity. MonPower reported about 42,000 outages in the state as of Saturday evening.
(Reporting by Colleen Jenkins, Kim Palmer and Lily Kuo; Editing by Dan Whitcomb and Philip Barbara)
Bigrimana keen to link up with Tiote - Football
Published: 07 Jul 2012 - 08:47:09
Newcastle new boy Gael Bigirimana is hoping to learn from one of the best in the business as he prepares to join forces with Cheick Tiote.
The 18-year-old midfielder completed his dream move from Coventry to Tyneside on Friday when he put pen to paper on a five-year contract. He is likely to go straight into the development squad, but cannot wait for the moment he gets to work along side Ivory Coast international Tiote.
The Burundi-born teenager told NUFC TV: "Right now, he is one of the best holding midfielders in the world and I can't wait to be under his wing. I just hope that I will learn every day and become close to him as a friend and as a person."
Bigirimana, who is understood to have cost the Magpies around £1milllion, came through the ranks at Coventry after asking for a trial as an 11-year-old and made 28 first-team appearances last season.
However, having watched Newcastle surge into fifth place in the Barclays Premier League from afar, he had little hesitation in accepting their offer of employment when it came along.
He said: "Their style of play is on another level now. For them to beat Manchester United and Chelsea 3-0 and 2-0, it just shows that Newcastle's football has gone to a new level.
"It's a challenge for me to think, 'Wow, they are on fire right at the moment and I am just coming in'.
"But hopefully, I will learn from good players."
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