A bastion of Kashmiri pandits, a record 12 displaced pandits of a total 21 candidates are trying their luck from Habba Kadal segment which goes to polls with 20 other constituencies in Jammu, Srinagar and Samba districts in seventh and final phase of elections on December 24.
Heavily armed Taliban on Friday began pulling out from the strategic Buner town and were returning to their bastion in Swat valley after a deal was brokered by hardline cleric Sufi Mohammed, amid intense global pressure on Pakistan over the presence of militants so close to Islamabad.
He also said he does not want any other member of the Gandhi family to succeed him, virtually ruling out Priyanka as well for the top party position.
He said the army has captured the entire Pudukudiriyirippu area that was under the control of the Tamil Tigers, who have lost many of their key leaders in the latest fighting. Important LTTE leaders killed in the clashes included Vidusha, Nagesh, Durga, Deepan and Patabi, Nanayakkara said, adding another senior rebel leader Banu was injured.
Twenty four-year-old Charles, the eldest of the two sons and a daughter of the elusive LTTE chief, was injured in the fighting in the Tiger bastion of Pudhukkudiyiruppu, Defence Ministry officials said.
Addressing a press conference at the party headquarters in New Delhi, Gandhi said the Congress Working Committee will meet soon and decide whether he should resign as the party chief following the electoral debacle.
He is likely to have the support of grand alliance partners Rashtriya Janata Dal, Congress, Nationalist Congress Party and Jitan Ram Manjhi's Hindustani Awami Morcha.
From Bollywood strong men to cricketing greats, celebrities upped the glam quotient this poll season. Some we will see as future MPs, the others just have to get back to business. Rediff.com takes a look at some popular faces, who fought Election 2019 and here's the verdict on them.
The great Indian election is over and now the wait for the results is shrinking with every passing moment. Though exit polls hint at a cakewalk for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his National Democratic Alliance, there are some battles which will be keenly observed on the result day.
However, the BJP is sceptical about the SP-BSP alliance as they believe Mayawati and Akhilesh will "finish off after fighting among themselves."
The Tata Group has decided to defer its plan of setting up a rural business process outsourcing unit near the proposed steel plant at Kalinganagar in Orissa by two years.
The Sri Lankan forces fast closing in on LTTE last bastion in island nation's north have captured one of the command bunkers used by elusive Tamil Tiger supreme Velupillai Prabhakaran in thick forests of Dharmapuram town in Mullaittivu.
As suspense grows about the whereabouts of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran after the capture of the last bastion of the outfit, the Sri Lankan army chief on Monday said he believed the guerrilla leader could be in an underground bunker or in the no-fire zone.It is widely believed that both Prabhakaran and his son Charles Anthony could be in the 20 sq km no-fire zone, where the rebel remnants are said to be holed up after they were pushed out.
After battering the Left in its bastion in the Lok Sabha polls, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday called for an end to "Marxist misrule" in West Bengal, claiming it will come "within a year."
At a crucial meeting on the alliance of the Left Front in Kerala, furious CPI leaders walked out of the discussion as the CPI-M stuck to its position to field an independent candidate from Ponnani in northern Kerala's Mallapuram district. The CPI wants to field its own candidate as the constituency has been traditionally with it according to the seat-sharing agreement between the Left partners.
Take a look at the famous faces who exercised their democratic right.
'It must have stung Devendra Fadnavis to see Modi asking MPs at the BJP parliamentary party meeting to give Yediyurappa a standing ovation for his victory in the by-elections that has resulted in pulling the BJP government in Karnataka off the ventilator,' notes Aditi Phadnis.
The country is all set for the second round of elections on April 18 in the ongoing seven-phase Lok Sabha polls that will elect 543 members to the lower house of Parliament. Going to polls in the second phase will be 95 seats in 12 states and one Union Territory. Here is a look at some of the big names contesting in phase two of Lok Sabha elections.
No one was injured in the incident that came even as Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath during a poll rally in Delhi's northwest Rohini area alleged that those who support terrorists in Kashmir are staging protest at Shaheen Bagh.
With one year left for assembly elections in Karnataka, the last big bastion of the Congress, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has found an emotive issue to counter the Bharatiya Janata Party as the latter prepares the ground for a fight to grab power. Raghu Krishnan and Nikita Puri report.
According to Grant Thornton International, women still hold less than a quarter of senior management positions in privately held businesses globally and 34 per cent of PHBs have no women at the senior management level. In India, there is a rise in percentage of women in senior management level (15 per cent) as compared to previous year (14 per cent) but it still ranks in bottom five globally.
As Sri Lankan troops advance towards the last Tiger bastion of Mullaittivu, Army Chief Sarath Fonseka has said he was not sure whether Velupillai Prabhakaran was on the island nation but felt that it was not possible for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam supremo to find a shelter in India. The Lankan Air Force had destroyed a vessel carrying arms and ammunitions for the LTTE just when it was being offloaded in the rebel coastal area, Fonseka added.
Sharmila, 37, can swiftly pluck nuts by climbing steep coconut trees of any height. She climbs up around 10 to 15 coconut trees a day, charging Rs 10 per a tree as she finds extra income to meet mounting expenses.
Workers of SNCF will be on strike for two days out of five every week for three months.
A M Rathnam's Bheema, directed by Lingusaamy is a dazzling, slick bash-fest. Vikram steals the show.
The mandate which the people of Northeast have given is in itself is a very big change, Modi said.
Here are some of the political leaders' who await their fate.
The unfortunate thing is that the film will leave a poor impression of the IAF's and indeed of the armed forces's ability to handle sensitive social matters within their professional space, observes Lieutenant General Syed Ata Hasnain (retd).
When Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee became chief minister after Jyoti Basu stepped down in 2000, the younger generation could not have been happier. 'Change is about to set in' they thought. But the euphoria was short-lived.
Newly elected mayors will campaign for the party in poll-bound Gujarat.
Priyadarshini Scindia, wife of sitting Guna MP Jyotiraditya Scindia, started campaigning in February, going door-to-door, reaching out to a cross-section of voters, listening to their woes and telling them about the work done by her better half.
The Indian Medical Association has condemned Rashtriya Janata Dal MP Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav's drive against doctors accusing them of charging "exorbitant" fees.
'When bankers are hounded by investigative agencies for credit decisions going wrong and defaulters are treated like outcasts, who will borrow money and who will lend?' asks Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
As the astronaut visits the Sabarmati Ashram, Ahmedabad accords her a rock star-like reception, which also turned out to be a logistical nightmare.
Chabua is a key base of the IAF and it has the latest airplanes including the Sukhoi-30 MKi and Chetak helicopters.
The militant group has a strong bastion in the forest areas along the border areas of Golaghat and Karbi Anglong district of Assam. It has recently spread its tentacles to the tea belt area of the Udalguri district of North Assam.
Women dominate Indian banks's clerical and officer rolls, but few make it to the executive office these days, notes Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Nandigram was Stalinised the same way Stalin had Siberia-ised Soviet Russia.
Decorum reigns supreme at Wimbledon, a bastion of middle class gentility where the stiff upper lip never trembles on the hallowed centre court.
He also hoped that Priyanka Gandhi will campaign outside party bastions of Amethi and Rae Bareli.