The next general elections would be held in multiple phases next year and be completed in time to constitute the 16th Lok Sabha by June 1, Chief Election Commissioner V S Sampath has said.
'In Kairana, the grand coalition was able to transfer its votes to a Muslim candidate in supposedly an era of anti-Muslim ambience.' 'Given this perspective, the Kairana result seems more significant than that of Gorakhpur and Phulpur a few months ago,' says Mohammad Sajjad.
The Rajya Sabha on Wednesday approved the biggest tax reform since Independence.
This was the most expensive Lok Sabha elections entailing a cost of Rs 3426 crore to the national exchequer, a substantial jump of 131 per cent over the expenses incurred in 2009.
Narendra Modi's new team includes a former cabinet colleague from his days as Gujarat CM, an academic and a sadhvi.
Cassandras and Congressis may sneer at the findings, but the Times Now poll indicated that the Modi government was very much on its way to a second term.
Journalist Anita Saluja was one of the last persons to meet Sushma Swaraj on August 6. She spent nearly an hour chatting with the late leader, which is why her sudden death later in the evening came as an unexpected shock for her. She talks to Savera R Someshwar/Rediff.com about her association with Sushma Swaraj over the last few decades.
'Although the Congress party ethos resembles a court with courtiers, Sonia Gandhi's style was to be consensual.'
'Friday's parliamentary confrontation obviously was a precursor, or a trailer, to use a pop culture reference, to the real show awaiting the nation,' says Saisuresh Sivaswamy.
Armed with a list of issues to target the Narendra Modi government in the forthcoming Budget session of Parliament, the Congress is making one last attempt to gain the leader of opposition status.
Bonhomie prevailed on day two of the 16th Lok Sabha, but one veteran leader was left out in the cold.
It was a changed scenario in the new Lok Sabha with the churning brought out by the elections throwing in contrasts.
The OBC face of the Bharatiya Janata Party in Maharashtra and former deputy chief minister, Gopinath Munde, who had joined the Union Cabinet for the first time a week back, was all set to spearhead the party's campaign in the upcoming assembly polls in the state to wrest power from the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party combine.
Banks on mobilising support from Dalit and Muslim voters. Sanjay Jog reports.
Defectors getting tickets is causing tremendous heartburn in the BJP, says Aditi Phadnis
The opposition parties snatched the high-profile Kairana LS seat in from BJP with a united force.
The collegium system of appointment of judges is likely to stay for the time being as Parliament could not pass a constitutional amendment bill in the last session of the Lok Sabha to put in place a new mechanism giving the Executive a say in the matter.
A spirited turn at the mic by Mahua Moitra, first-time MP from Trinamool Congress, in which she listed the "signs of early fascism", has been hailed as the "speech of the year" on social media.
'People feel concerned about the future, whether it is the land or the jobs.' 'The BJP came to power in Assam with promises of maati, bheti (home, hearth and identity), land, jobs and culture.' 'Are these going to taken care of? I think those are real concerns.' 'The Assam chief minister (Sarbananda Sonowal) was one of the leaders of the All Assam Students Union which fought for and is one of the signatories to the Assam Accord.' 'Today, his comrade-in-arms (Samujjal Bhattacharya, chief advisor, AASU) is leading the opposition in the streets.'
With consensus eluding it, the land bill is unlikely to be presented in Parliament during the Monsoon Session beginning Tuesday and the related ordinance would be promulgated for an unprecedented fourth time, government sources said.
Displaying earnest, government will seek the views of jurists and former judges on the proposed Judicial Appointments Commission bill it plans to bring in Parliament to replace the present collegium system where judges appoint judges.
Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan came down heavily on Congress leaders for "persistently and willfully obstructing the House" and suspended them for 5 days. The members who have been punished include a president's son, ex-chief ministers' sons and an ex-CM's grandson. Rediff.com brings you the complete list.
The BJP is the clear front-runner, the Congress is set for major introspection and the regional satraps' national aspirations may takes a beating.
Here's the full text of President Ram Nath Kovind's address on the eve of 70th Republic Day of India.
With exit polls forecasting the National Democratic Alliance staging a comeback to power, senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh on Wednesday said his party could not be written off and it would fight for "politics of secularism" whether it forms the government or sits in the opposition.
The Modi government could steer through Parliament 59 out of 75 Bills.
'My heart weeps for Vajpayee, the prince among poets, the king among politicians and the emperor among statesmen,' says Sudhir Bisht.
For firebrand Bharatiya Janata Party leader Yogi Adityanath, Hindutva and development complement each other and the sitting MP from Gorakhpur is harping on this ideology of political Hinduism, which he says is a "symbol of our nationalism", as he eyes a fifth straight term.
Let there be a rule that if the Budget is not passed and funds cannot be drawn from the Consolidated Fund of India, there will be a government shutdown as it happens in the United States, says A K Bhattacharya.
A glance through the declared assets of candidates contesting the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections reveals that future lawmakers of the country are rich, but not as much as their spouses.
A mix of industrialists and businessmen, who have inherited riches or rose from humble backgrounds and even endured boom and bust cycles, the top five MPs are illustrative of how the political stock of the wealthy is increasing rapidly.
The last session of Parliament started off on a noisy note as pro and anti-Telangana MPs sparred with each other on the floor of the two houses.
Social media is the new advertising tool for today's politicians and political parties, says Viveat Susan Pinto
'Balakot and Pulwama will definitely help the BJP, but it will still not help them to create a 2014 like situation or go beyond that.'
Bharatiya Janata Party Rajya Sabha MP Nitin Gadkari, late BJP leader Pramod Mahajan's daughter Poonam, former Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Vijaysinh Mohite Patil are a few of the 29 new entrants to the 16th Lok Sabha among the 48 MPs from Maharashtra.
Faced with one of the worst showing in Lok Sabha elections in which her party failed to open its account, BSP chief Mayawati on Saturday said the parties which had supported the UPA at the Centre faced the anger of the people towards the Congress-led alliance.
In view of the Andhra CM's resignation from the post and the Congress, party president Sonia Gandhi has requested Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to grant special category status to the Seema-Andhra for five years. Renu Mittal reports
After having gone out on a limb over the creation of Telangana, the UPA government is expected to go for the kill and do whatever it takes to pass the bill in Lok Sabha. But the question remains whether the Congress would really be able to push the bill in the noise and confusion. Renu Mittal reports.
The bill on separate Telangana could rock the last session of the 15th Lok Sabha beginning Wednesday with several parties asking the government to first get the Vote on Account passed before taking up any other legislation.
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