Modi party picks firebrand to head India's biggest state

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's right-wing party Saturday picked a controversial firebrand leader to head India's most populous state, where it won a landslide victory last week.Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party won an absolute majority in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, home to 220 million people and seen as a bellwether of national politics, in a massive vote of confidence for the premier halfway into his first term.After an hours-long meeting with local BJP legislators on Sa