The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday denied that its President Amit Shah had made any statement in a Hyderabad meeting on Ram temple in Ayodhya even as AIMIM chief Asaddudin Owaisi questioned him for speaking on the sensitive issue that is being decided by the Supreme Court.”Yesterday in Telangana, BJP President Amit Shah did not make any statement on the issue of Ram mandir as being claimed in certain sections of the media. No such matter was even on the agenda,” the BJP said in a tweet.

The Babri Masjid-Ram Janambhoomi dispute is in the Supreme Court.

All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen chief Owaisi on Saturday said it was better if the Ayodhya judgment came after the 2019 general elections as it would influence the election outcome.In a tweet he questioned Shah’s speech in Hyderabad, asking him if he was “going to write the judgment when the Supreme Court is deciding the title dispute and whether Masjid is essential feature of Islam”.”It is better if the…judgment (is) given after parliamentary elections for free and fair (polls),” Owaisi said.

Shah on Friday held a meeting of party leaders in Hyderabad after which BJP National Executive member Perala Sekharjee briefed the media about it.Quoting Shah from the meeting, Sekharjee said that steps would be taken to clear the decks for launching construction of the temple before the polls.

“Considering the developments, I believe that construction of Ram temple will begin before the coming general elections,” Sekharjee quoted Shah as saying.The BJP had also released a statement in Telegu about Shah’s meeting indicating he spoke about the Ram temple issue.

Amidst hue and cry that the Centre hasn’t kept the promises it made in AP Reorganization Act 2014 and subsequent ire from the people, Union Government is finally making its slow moves ahead of 2019 polls.After staying mum for the past 4 years, the Centre has now sought 3000 acres of litigation-free land from AP state government in Prakasam district. The Centre said it has prepared a letter to be sent to AP state government seeking the land and it said it would proceed with the work if the state government arranges the land.

Union Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari said that the Centre plans to build a port at Vadarevu in Andhra Pradesh’s Praksam district, even as the state government insists that the port be developed in Nellore district.”I am writing a letter to the chief minister seeking allotment of 3,000 acres of land for the proposed port at Vadarevu. Under the Sagarmala project, this will also contribute to port-led industrial development in the region,” Gadkari told media at a press conference in Visakhapatnam on Friday.

This is not all. Gadkari mooted the idea of forming a special purpose vehicle with the state government to build the new port. The Centre had virtually ruled out developing a port in Dugarajapatnam in Nellore in accordance with the provisions of AP Reorganisation Act, 2014. Following this, the TDP government had hit out at the Centre, alleging that people of the state were betrayed.

After a lot of dilly dallying, at last, the Centre had said it was ready to build a new port at an alternative location but the state government insisted that it be developed in Dugarajapatnam.At the end of a two-day review of the port sector in Vizag, Gadkari came up with the new proposal specifying the location where the Centre intended to build the port.

“Visakhapatnam Port is saturated. We need a new port. We have identified Vadarevu as a prospective location and we require 3,000 acres of land. We will float an SPV with the state government and develop the port, which will also lead to industrial development in the region,” he said.

There was a move to develop a port and industrial corridor between Vadarevu and Nizampatnam when Y S Rajasekhara Reddy was the chief minister of undivided Andhra Pradesh.

That project ran into trouble after its promoters were named as accused in YS Jaganmohan Reddy’s disproportionate assets case. Though the Chandrababu Naidu government sought to reclaim the land after it came to power in June 2014, legal hassles prevented any action.

New trouble for H1B visa holders seems to be on its way with the fresh changes in rules. Many H1 B visa holders may find face deportation if their extension application or change of status has been rejected and their tenure of stay granted by the US authorities also expires. The employee cannot hold the job in this scenario and has to stay in the US for more months to appear before the immigration judge.

NTA (notices to appear)

USCIS can issue the NTA in cases where , the employee/applicant is ‘unlawfully present’ in the US, upon denial of an application or petition. According to an immigration councel, all cases of visa extenion application denials, post expiry of the original issued tenure granted by the US authorities, will be issued an NTA.

If the applicant is issued an NTA, the individual must remain in the US and appear before immigration judge. Failure in appearance before judge carries a five year ban on re entry to the US. Earlier, the case was different as the employee could return to India without the NTA issue.

An H1B visa holder can continue to live and work for 240 days while the extension application was filed prior to expiry of the tenure in his original H1B. According to an attorney at immigration, USCIS takes more than six months to adjudicate a H1B visa. In this present situation with latest rules, applications should be filed before six months of expiry of existing visa tenure. Premium processing must be opted for for shorter processing time.

If there is one thing that has contributed to the success of Amit Shah as a strategist over the years, it is his organizational capabilities right from the grassroot level.

Therefore, when the BJP Chief came down to Hyderabad on Friday to take stock of the situation, he was very displeased with Telangana BJP Chief Laxman and other Telangana BJP leaders for not meeting the party deadline.Shah had earlier asked the Telangana and Odisha wings of the BJP to complete the entire exercise of forming booth-level committees in all constituencies by August in preparation for early-polls.

Odisha completed its target but BJP did not. An incensed Amit Shah then gave the T-BJP leaders an earful and asked them to cancel the second phase of the Jana Chaitanya Yatra and replace the programme with bike rallies in all the 109 constituencies in the State.

Finally, Kiran Kumar Reddy has come back to the Congress fold after a hibernation period of four years.Expressing happiness at joining the Congress again with which his family has an association going back decades, KKR said that justice would be possible for the two Telugu States and Andhra Pradesh in particular, only if the Congress comes to power at the Centre.

The realization of AP Re-Organization Act is possible only with Congress, said KKR. What a cruel irony! What a cruel, cruel irony!It was the Congress Party which did grave injustice to the Andhras by dividing the State. Kiran himself resigned from the Party because of this.Four years later, he says that justice will be done to the State by electing the same Party which did injustice to it in the first place. What kind of justice is this Mr Kiran?

Tomorrow, the Congress will carve out a separate Rayalaseema State and the Congress will lose again.

Will Kiran then quit the Party for a second time only to rejoin it later by saying that justice will be possible for Rayalaseema or AP only by electing Congress again?