LK Advani resigns from all posts in BJP

New Delhi: Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader LK Advani on Monday resigned from all party posts just a day after party President Rajnath Singh made Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi the chief of Central Election Committee for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

The resignation of Advani, who was reportedly sick and ignored by the party top leadership at the two-day National Executive meet in Goa, brings the split within the party out in the open. Advani's resignation has stunned the BJP leaders to silence, who are refusing to speak on the issue. BJP leader Venkaiah Naidu met Rajnath Singh a few minutes after Advani's resignation.

Will give development to Muslims instead of skull caps: BJP

Patna: Senior BJP leader CP Thakur on Sunday said the party wants to win the hearts of Muslims through development in the party-ruled states, and does not want to "mislead them by providing skull caps". "The BJP neither intends to mislead Muslims by providing skull caps for them in the party-ruled states nor wants to advertise their photographs with the minority people in the newspapers.... all the BJP wants is carry out development and welfare works for the minorities and win their hearts in the process," Thakur, BJP national vice-president said at the meeting of the party's minority front in Patna.

Salman Khurshid arrives in China on two-day visit

BEIJING: External affairs minister Salman Khurshid arrived here on Thursday on a two-day visit for talks with Chinese leaders, just days after the resolution of a row over Depsang Valley in Ladakh where the troops of People's Liberation Army intruded recently.Besides talks with his counterpart Wang Yi, Khurshid is expected to meet new Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, who is planning to visit India later this month, making it the first stop of his maiden foreign tour.