2 min readMay 16, 2026 05:10 AM IST

During his visit to Maharashtra on Friday, Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan made a surprise visit to the Indian Council of Agricultural Research’s National Research Centre for Grapes in Pune. Sources said Chouhan expressed strong displeasure with the functioning of the Centre and sought an explanation from its senior officials. He is learnt to have remarked that the nursery operations had failed and that the grape varieties developed by the institute were ineffective.

Under Attack

With the BJP units beginning to assess its performance in the just concluded Assembly polls, the core committee meeting of its Kerala unit on Thursday saw P C George and his son Shone George facing the ire of some leaders for their remarks against Church leaders before the counting day. P C George had publicly accused some Catholic Church bishops of trying to influence the Christian voters in favour of the Congress-led UDF. In the meeting, when Shone George suggested that the state BJP should shed the Hindu party image, other leaders pointed out the public remarks of his father. In Delhi, senior leaders familiar with Kerala unit’s functioning have conveyed their displeasure over such statements to the leadership, underlining that the same could hurt BJP interests in the state in future too, sources said.