Opium has joined the list of conventional electoral issues such as roads, water supply and health. PB Chandra reports how the supply of opium will play a decisive factor in the elections
In a setback to the Bharatiya Janata Party days ahead of the April 10 elections in Gautam Budh Nagar, former Union minister and senior leader Ashok Pradhan on Tuesday joined the Samajwadi Party, claiming that there was "trade" of Lok Sabha tickets in the saffron party.
The case pertains to alleged corruption in Manesar land deals worth over Rs 1,500 crore, in which around 200 farmers were cheated.
Many in the Bharatiya Janata Party feel that internal democracy in the party is being stifled
Forget about interim Budgets, one cannot easily recall even a full Budget of any government in recent times having rolled out benefits of this order to such a large number of people, says A K Bhattacharya.
Every party had been asked to give in their suggestions during the meeting.
Seema Punia would once again be one of India's strongest bets for a medal when she hurls the discus one last time at the Commonwealth Games next month.
India's new high commissioner in Islamabad goes to Pakistan at a time when the country is set to face much internal tumult.
Gurung is worth his weight in gold to the BJP which is trying hard to make inroads in West Bengal
Rahul Gandhi on Thursday joined his sister Priyanka Gandhi in attacking Narendra Modi over snoopgate controversy, saying the Gujarat government has no regard for women as it gets their phones tapped.
He was always opposed to the idea of Narendra Modi as the prime minister and today he has out in the open once again to speak about it.
Known to be close and loyal to Bharatiya Janata Party veteran and former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, senior BJP leader and four time MP Lal Muni Choubey on Monday announced that he would contest as an independent from Buxar.
'The Modi Model we see now is still the old Gujarat Model.' 'But with an acknowledgement that governing India is more challenging than governing Gujarat,' notes Shekhar Gupta.
Senior BJP leaders had offered the veteran politician the Lok Sabha Speaker's post after he went into a sulk over displeasure to contest from the Gandhinagar seat. However, it is yet to be known whether he has accepted the offer or not, reports Anita Katyal.
Upping the ante ahead of Monday's all-party meeting convened by the government, Congress on Saturday insisted that the issue of action against three top Bharatiya Janata Party leaders should be on the agenda if the deadlock in Parliament is to be broken.
Former RA&W chief A S Dulat, who served as Atalji's adviser on Kashmir, gives us an insider's glimpse of a prime minister he has hailed as the 'greatest after Nehru'.
The MPs from Uttar Pradesh who may be given ministerial portfolios are: Anupriya Patel, leader of Bharataiya Janta Paty's ally Apna Dal; Shahjahanpur MP Krishna Raj and Chandauli MP Mahendra Pandey.
'Modi took to the dais and said he would like to step down as chief minister over the riots.' 'Immediately, people from several sides got up and said there was no need to do so.' 'Whether it was orchestrated or not, Shourie wasn't sure.' 'But, according to him, Vajpayee felt that it was a coup.'
'As far as acquisition of Russian equipment is concerned, with about 70% of Indian military equipment being of Russian origin, a sudden decision to abandon imports from Russia is not feasible,' points out Brigadier S K Chatterji (retd).
The centuries-old Takhat Shri Harmandir Saheb Gurdwara at Patna Saheb, the most revered shrine for Sikhs after the Golden Temple in Amritsar, gets a much-needed facelift just before lakhs of devotees arrive to take part in the 350th birth anniversary celebrations of Guru Gobind Singh.
If Sinha's criticism gives credence to the view within the party that its members are afraid to speak up, it can do long-term damage.
Taking West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee head on, the Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi accused her of playing vote bank politics and said no real 'parivartan' (change) has taken place in the state during the Trinamool Congress' rule.
Congress Vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday raked up "snoopgate" controversy to lash out at BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi saying the BJP's PM nominee is so desperate for power that he can even "divide the nation" to achieve his goal.
Did we miss the DeepState's Brazil Model in action in India in 2004 and 2009, asks Rajeev Srinivasan.
Truth is stranger than fiction, as far as Muslim politics in Rajasthan is concerned. The community which comprises more than 11 per cent of the state's total population, only one leader from the community has became a member of Parliament in the last 62 years. Shahnawaz Akhtar reports
The dates of general elections in 2019 and the presentation of the final Budget of the Modi government are so far removed from each other that Jaitley is not under any pressure to present a populist Budget. Instead, he could well unveil an array of schemes and proposals that he believes are necessary for the economy, even if a few of them could be unpopular, says A K Bhattacharya.
'When you start delving deeper into these disappearances, you have to face the question: Was it a policy at the State level?' 'It surely couldn't have been random officers acting on their own.' 'Was it planned? What does it mean if the State allows its police to become lawless and act with impunity?' 'Perhaps the NHRC, for the 21 years that it has been seized of the matter, avoided these questions.'
Pakistan made a tactical error in not investing enough in L K Advani, former R&AW chief A S Dulat tells Sheela Bhatt/Rediff.com
What the railways need to do is to establish a clear link between higher fares and better service, says T N Ninan.
It was a changed scenario in the new Lok Sabha with the churning brought out by the elections throwing in contrasts.
Defectors getting tickets is causing tremendous heartburn in the BJP, says Aditi Phadnis
At places in the border districts of Barmer and Jaisalmer, people walked miles through the desert to cast their votes.
'In India foreign policy is generally handled by the prime minister.' 'One can clearly see the Vajpayee stamp on all this.' 'Only a person with poetic imagination can weave such a complex web,' says Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
'Till today, we don't know what PM Modi discussed with Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin, but we have been told that the relations have been reset.' 'We have no evidence from China to show that anything has changed, even though India had made several gestures in preparation for Wuhan,' says Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
The former Haryana chief minister is facing a court case over land deals in Manesar.
The cardinal rule for Mughal princes was 'Ya Takht, Ya Takhta' (the throne or the funeral pyre). They often went to battle against their brothers, even their father, to become emperor, points out Syed Firdaus Ashraf. Nothing bloodless about it.
The battle on creating jobs is virtually lost. If the battle for achieving higher growth too is lost, then its political consequences could become difficult to manage, says A K Bhattacharya.
The family of the teenage girl, who was killed after being molested and thrown off a moving bus belonging to the ruling Badal family in Punjab, has refused to cremate her till the administration fulfils their demands for compensation and cancellation of the transport firm's permit.
Telangana and Rajasthan are the last states to go to the polls in the current round of assembly elections, which also covered Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Mizoram.
"(Former PM) Atal Bihari Vajpayee said 'raj dharma' was not followed in Gujarat (during the 2002 riots). Now, 'raj dharma' is not being followed in case of Andhra Pradesh. We have been denied what was rightfully ours," he claimed.
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