In his first visit to Chennai since becoming prime minister, Narendra Modi was given a rapturous welcome and hosted for lunch by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa.
With Maharashtra and Haryana assembly elections, results for 51 assembly and two Lok Sabha bypolls spread across 18 states were declared on Thursday. Here are state-wise results of the bypolls.
Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh puts it succinctly: "Arun Jaitley was every non-BJP person's favourite BJP-ite."
'Naidu understands electoral calculus, that the regional parties are yet to gain confidence in Rahul as a vote-catcher,' points out R Rajagopalan.
The government is banking on help from regional parties and rejigged numbers in the Rajya Sabha.
M Thambidurai, leader of the All India Anna Dravida Munetra Kazhagam in Parliament, was unanimously elected as Lok Sabha's deputy speaker on Wednesday, making him the first leader to occupy the post twice.
Is Stalin positioning himself as a central figure in the anti-Bharatiya Janata Party, anti-Narendra Modi formation?
'That's the beauty of Naveen.' 'His intermittent support to the NDA and Modi confuses BJP workers in Odisha.' 'It gives an impression that Naveen has a tacit understanding with the NDA and that the BJP will not really challenge him wholeheartedly.'
Portfolios of more than half-a-dozen ministers are expected to be changed.
K C Venugopal (Congress) charged the Modi government with providing little funds for the MGNREGA.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu alleged that it was the Centre which ensured the disruption by provoking All India Anna Dravida MUnnetra Kazhagam over the Cauvery issue.
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.
No sooner had the House paid its respects to the nine persons who laid down their lives 17 years back when terrorist attacked the Parliament House complex and the listed papers presented, members belonging to the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam trooped into the well of the House shouting slogans.
Ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, 11 parties on Tuesday got together with a vow to defeat Congress-led United Progressive Alliances and prevent the Bharatiya Janata Party from coming to power by presenting themselves as an alternative to them.
This is the first time that no-confidence motion notices have been moved against the Modi government in 4 years.
With the Modi government battling propriety issues over the Lalit Modi row and the furore on Vyapam scam, leaders of "like-minded" parties will meet for Congress president Sonia Gandhi's Iftar dinner on Monday where they are likely to deliberate on the strategy for Parliament session beginning July 21.
Its electoral triumphs in assembly polls, particularly in Uttar Pradesh, have made the BJP the single-largest party in the Rajya Sabha.
Jeyanandh Dhivakaran, son of Sasikala's brother, V Dhivaharan, is making headlines in Tamil Nadu politics, reports Gireesh Babu.
A shell shocked opposition are finding it difficult to come to grips with the verdict in the disproportionate assets corruption case against Jayalalithaa.
The Opposition is putting up a symbolic fight for the presidential polls as it knows that the BJP has the numbers to get its candidate elected to the top post.
In Tamil Nadu politics J Jayalalithaa is the queen of all she surveys today, But there are some ground realities that may still dent her high ambition. Rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt's fascinating new column where she reveals the ground realities in the Battle for India.
If the DMK under Stalin is unable to do well in the Lok Sabha elections, his personal and political standing in the party will be threatened. But if the party does well, Stalin is the next kingmaker to watch out for. T E Narasimhan and Aditi Phadnis report.
Opposition party is unlikely to block Bills for GST, insurance and e-auction of coal mines.
'Like it or not, the Congress is still the only party with the potential to challenge the BJP at a pan-Indian level,' says T V R Shenoy.
There is a political vacuum emerging in Tamil Nadu, but can the Superstar, the state's biggest phenomenon since the late MGR, take advantage of it? Does he have what it takes to enter politics, or is he merely ensuring headlines ahead of his film's release, asks N Sathiya Moorthy.
Tamil Nadu has time and again proved that it needs a decisive leader even if corrupt, rather than an indecisive leader, however good-hearted, good-natured and honest he may be, writes N Sathiya Moorthy.
The imapsse continues over issues like bank scams and special status demand for Andhra Pradesh.
Today, when one Kamalahaasan launches a new political outfit, vowing to cleanse Tamil Nadu polity and political administration of corruption, mal-governance and non-governance, he is pitted not only against Rajini with his commitment to 'spiritual politics', he is also pitted against the real 'Lotus' in Tamil Nadu politics, representing the ruling BJP at the Centre, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Various opposition parties like the Congress, the Trinamool Congress, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, the Nationalist Congress Party, the Rashtriya Janata Dal, the Communist Party of India, and the Communist Party of India-Marxist raised vociferous protests in the upper house while opposing the resolution and the bill.
The assembly election results on May 19 altered India's political landscape and with it dented Janata Dal-United leader Nitish Kumar's prime ministerial ambitions.
The S&P BSE Sensex slipped 305 points to end at 25,400 and the Nifty50 dropped 87 points at 7,783.
'Let me stick my neck out and say that Tamil Nadu will keep alive its reputation for landslide election verdicts, with the DMK front winning at least 30 of the 40 Lok Sabha seats going to the polls in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry,' says Saisuresh Sivaswamy.
The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam's celebrations on amma's return are peppered with possibilities, probabilities and problems of one kind or the other, says N Sathiya Moorthy
The Karnataka government is divided over filing an appeal in the Supreme Court against the acquittal of former Tamil Nadu chief minister. N Sathiya Moorthy analyses the possibilities
A day after informing Parliament that the Prime Minister's Office under Manmohan Singh had pushed for extension to a judge facing corruption charges, the government on Wednesday demanded that the former prime minister should make a "categorical" statement on the controversial matter.
'Vajpayee would not have approved either of the way the BJP now functions or of the thoughts that it entertains in its mind,' says T C A Srinivasa-Raghavan.
.jpg)
Union Minister and senior Congress leader Veerappa Moily on Saturday claimed that the Bharatiya Janata Party was turning to be a friendless party after it named Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, who lacked a pan-Indian acceptance, as chairman of its National Campaign Committee.
And in the midst of it all, Jayalalithaa keeps the guessing game going, on her returning as chief minister and on calling for early assembly polls, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
The Congress has reasons to enjoy the BJP's discomfiture. After all, the Insurance Bill was introduced by the UPA government in 2008 but was constantly blocked by the BJP on some pretext or the other which was then in the Opposition.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Investor Information - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances