Sarbananda Sonowal was on Tuesday sworn in as the 14th chief minister of Assam in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Bharatiya Janata Party president Amit Shah and other dignitaries at a huge public function at Khanapara field.
'The Godse controversy may have helped Kamal Haasan reach out to a larger audience, both inside the state and outside, coming as it does when the main campaign for elections 19 is over and only those in the four assembly bypoll constituencies are drudging along,' says N Sathiya Moorthy.
With Andhra Pradesh on the verge of a division, the "government" in the state exists only on paper after a notification issued by the Governor and is non-existent for practical purposes.
Monday's surprise meeting is an admission by the Bharatiya Janata Party that their purported strategy of hoping to ride the popular 'Modi wave' in a Tamil Nadu without Jaya and a bed-ridden Karunanidhi does not have much chance of success, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
"BJP leaders are playing the game at the behest of central leaders. MLAs were offered money... Rs 10 crore in advance and Rs 15 crore after the government is toppled," the chief minister alleged and added that the BJP wants to convert the state's politics into a goat market, 'bakra mandi'.
Family feuds, in what are essentially family-run outfits, have cast a shadow over the reunification efforts of Janata Party.
Earlier, KCR had met West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee as part of efforts to build a non-Congress, non-BJP third front ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
Besides the SAD, the SP, the AIADMK and the TRS supported the idea; while the AAP, the TDP, the JD-S, the AIFB, the DMK, the TMC, the GFP and Left parties opposed it.
'Just last month alone, 28 Indians have been killed in lynchings'
The Odisha government stepped up relief and restoration activities as cyclone Hudhud passed to neighbouring Chhattisgarh on Monday after claiming three lives, damaging about 50,000 thatched houses, electrical infrastructure and roads in four districts.
States are apprehensive of losing their rights to raise revenue during emergencies.
In an exclusive interaction with Rediff.com's Vicky Nanjappa, Congress MP Goud says that he is certain that the Telangana sentiment will work for him in Nizamabad. As he prepares for hectic campaigning, the leader says that the BJP, which was initially expecting to make some gains in the newly-formed state, has wasted its chances after it aligned with the Telugu Desam Party.
Three guys stood out at the swearing-in ceremony of Deve Gowda's son, says Sudhir Bisht.
Besides reviving investor sentiments, Vasundhara Raje's regime has brought reforms in the social sector.
Four personnel were also injured in the Naxal attack and two of them were stated to be critical.
Any official-level talks between India and Sri Lanka, without any clear-cut understanding on the livelihood issues, could end up in India having to acknowledge bilaterally even more than what it had no hesitation in accepting in Parliament and outside, says N Sathiya Moorthy
The cases reported on Wednesday include a couple and their two-year-old daughter in Rajasthan who had recently returned from Italy. The patients belong to Rajasthan's Jhunjhunu and had returned from Italy on March 8.
After snapping his political alliance with the ruling National Democratic Alliance at the Centre, N Chandrababu Naidu, chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, speaks to B Dasarath Reddy on what he now has in mind.
Adopting an aggressive stance and seeking to push the Centre on the defencive, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy on Saturday questioned the very validity of AP Reorganisation Bill-2013 saying it was violative not only of parliamentary procedures but also the Constitution of India.
The weather office on Monday forecast heavy to very heavy rainfall over the next three days over some parts of Uttarakhand, which is still recovering from a deluge last week that is feared to have taken over 1,000 lives.
CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury was in Chennai on Saturday and AIADMK sources said Tamil Nadu CM J Jayalalithaa could be sounded as convenor for the proposed Third Front. Aditi Phadnis reports
A tweet by the Press Information Bureau said the states which have imposed lockdown in all districts include Chandigarh, Delhi, Goa, Jammu and Kashmir and Nagaland. The other states are: Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, West Bengal, Ladakh, Tripura, Telangana, Chhattisgarh, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Meghalaya, Jharkhand, Bihar, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Haryana, Daman Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Karnataka and Assam.
'It is the regional parties and their leaders who are the ones we have to watch.'
'The Modi-Shah duo won't leave the war zone without putting up a tough fight.' 'Modi's slogan for 2019 could well be, "I have done much. Give me one more chance to do even more".' '2019 will be tough for the BJP.' 'But it will be even tougher for the Opposition -- united or otherwise,' says R Rajagopalan.
Opposition parties have expressed solidarity with West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee.
While the start may have been rocky, with renewed syllabus and coaching, students and teachers are largely in favour of the exam.
Here's an analysis of the style and strategy of the man who did the magic for Narendra Modi and then Nitish Kumar and whom the Congress has now hired.
Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, vice president Rahul Gandhi, Left parties and CMs of various states congratulated Kovind.
Jaitley, the first Union minister to meet Jaya since her conviction, manages to secure the AIADMK's conditional support to the government's crucial legislations in the Rajya Sabha.
If Nitish Kumar did not make his choice now, he could not re-enter the NDA later on and hope to be counted in as a prime ministerial possibility whenever the chance arises, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
The Telangana government's decision to organise its first Independence Day celebrations at Golconda Fort instead of the Secunderabad Parade Grounds has sparked off a political controversy with opposition parties questioning the motive behind the move.
In a television interview, Union minister Jairam Ramesh claimed that a state of UP's size was ungovernable
"Any fight with the Congress will remain in the state. At the national level, we will fight together, this I am saying from the heart..." she said.
The quantum of sentence for the convicted Indian Mujahideen operatives, Aneeq Shafique Sayeed and Mohammed Akbar Ismail, will be announced next Monday.
By annoying potential allies ahead of the polls, the Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate is playing a dangerous game but if he wins, he gets it all, says Aditi Phadnis
Now that an elected chief minister is at the helm, it is high time the Centre initiate discussions to appoint a full-time governor at the earliest, given that the state is set to face some challenging times, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
A round-up of Ranji matches played across India on Friday.
O Panneerselvam is the first chai-wallah to become chief minister in the country. Gujarat's Narendra Modi, the better-known chai-wallah to become chief minister, followed Paneerselvam around a fortnight later in 2001. The parallel should end there, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
On Tuesday night, the Tamil Nadu chief minister decides that enough is enough, and throws a challenge to Chinnamma.
Round-up of the Ranji Trophy matches being played in different part of the country
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