Assembly elections coming up in November and December could offer a window of opportunity to the government to make GST attractive through rate cuts.
The BJP president will have to address issues like scrapping Article 370 of the Constitution, an issue dear to the party and the Sangh Parivar for long and a promise included in the manifesto during the last elections.
A public interest litigation was filed in the Bombay high court on Monday against Eknath Shinde, who is leading the group of rebel Shiv Sena MLAs from Maharashtra, for causing a "political turmoil" in the state and instigating an internal disorder in the state government.
Naga splinter groups impatient with stalled talks as well as rebel Manipuri groups who have a stake in disrupting upcoming elections to the state assembly, are believed to be regrouping in the borderlands of China's Yunnan province and Myanmar, taking advantage of the turmoil in the latter by using it as a transit corridor.
Jamat-e-Islami Hind on Friday backed the fatwa issued by the Islamic seminary Darul Uloom Deoband against chanting of "Bharat Mata Ki Jai"
A recap of events that occurred in India in the past 24 hours.
The mood in the tribal heartland in the east and in central India spread over Odisha, Jharkhand, Chattisgarh and parts of West Bengal and Assam, is upbeat.
'Chief Minister Rio is holding the Naga Peace Accord hostage with his tacit support to the NSCN-IM, egging them to refuse to accept a solution within the Constitution.'
Besides law and order, the long standing demand for junking Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, economic woes of the land-locked state which has hardly any industries, are expected to figure high on the agenda of the unfolding electoral battle between the two main parties with smaller local parties such as National People's Party and the Naga People's Front chipping in with their own demands.
The Congress on Monday deferred the election to the post of party president till the COVID-19 situation improves and decided to set up a group to assess losses in the recent assembly polls, with party chief Sonia Gandhi saying it has to put its house in order by facing reality and drawing lessons from the 'serious setbacks'.
As the new year arrives, the Bharatiya Janata Party's finds itself on the cusp of the most consequential cycle of state polls since the 2019 Lok Sabha elections as the results will tell if the road ahead in its bid for a third straight term at the Centre is getting any bumpier or a strong opposition challenge remains elusive.
Labelled as the semi-final before the big Lok Sabha poll, assembly elections in five states will set the tone for summer of 2019.
The 58-day yatra is aimed at seeking people's mandate in the assembly elections scheduled to be held later this year.
Singh, a veteran Congress leader, was a member of the Upper House of Parliament from Assam for almost three decades.
The Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Wednesday demanded the cancellation of the nomination of Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Suvendu Adhikari, who is pitted against West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee from Nandigram, as his name also 'seems to appear' in the electoral roll of Haldia constituency.
Congress workers must feel what their BJP counterparts did in 2009, but that could change.
Electioneering for the third and the final phase of polling in Assam to be held on April 24 in six constituencies - Gauhati, Dhubri, Kokrajhar, Barpeta, Mangaldoi and Nowgong -- came to an end on Tuesday afternoon with the election department expecting a high turn out on the basis of overwhelming response of voters in the last two phases of polling in the state.
Elections 2024 is not as open and shut as has been presumed. There is some life left in it, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
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Indicating his decision to step down from leadership position, Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on Thursday said next year's Lok Sabha election will be the last in the state under his charge of Congress.
According to sources, Gandhi himself is taking stock of poll preparedness by talking to leaders and listening to their views for poll strategy.
Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh on Sunday said the people of his state, including himself, want the withdrawal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act but only after mutual understanding with the Centre as national security is their top priority.
Gearing up for the upcoming state assembly polls, the Bharatiya Janata Partyon Wednesday named its organisational spearheads for the elections, putting Union ministers Dharmendra Pradhan, Pralhad Joshi, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat and Bhupender Yadav in charge for the contest in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab and Manipur respectively.
'The BJP will get the lion's share of the Opposition vote. I would give the Congress-Left around 15 per cent.'
"This is an unparalleled and unprecedented win," he said.
She said she no longer believes that her fast will lead to the repeal of the 'draconian' AFSPA but she will continue the fight.
The Bharatiya Janata Party appeared to cede ground in Uttar Pradesh where Samajwadi Party was leading on six of the 11 Assembly seats where bypolls were held while it was neck and neck with Congress in Gujarat and behind in Rajasthan, exactly four months after it swept the three states in Lok Sabha elections.
'The RSS-BJP fight against TMC excesses seem to have been limited to fighting the assembly poll, not coming to the defence of ordinary Bengalis who are being crushed daily by Trinamool goons,' points out Virendra Kapoor.
The TMC expects to emerge victorious by way of a majority of minority votes and a minority of majority votes, notes Arun Bhatnagar, a retired IAS officer.
The venue holds significance as the announcement of Nagaland's statehood on December 1, 1963 was made from Kohima by the then president Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan.
But his opponents are making a mistake. They shouldn't be smug, argues Vir Sanghvi.
West Pakistan refugees say they are willing to give Prime Minister Modi and Bharatiya Janata Party chief Amit Shah time to come good on their promise.
Stating that at least 16 people of different political parties have lost their lives in the post-poll violence in West Bengal, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party, saying unable to digest defeat in the state elections they were sending central ministers to incite unrest in Kolkata.
The BJP cobbles up the numbers to stake a claim to form a government in Imphal. But ruling the restive state won't be easy, says Chitra Ahanthem.
The main contest is between the CPI-M and the BJP in the February 18 assembly polls for 60 seats.
'Modi-Shah have understood the risks their cynical mixing of domestic political motivations with strategic national interests was soon going to become counterproductive asserts Shekhar Gupta.
More than three years after assuming office, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah will effect a major reshuffle of his ministry on Sunday in a bid to refurbish administration with several ministers facing the axe.
Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi awaits the final approval of Congress party president Sonia Gandhi on the much awaited reshuffle of his ministry.
Among the 17 new AICC secretaries named so far, 10 are below 50 years of age, indicating the generational change in the 132-year-old Congress being brought in by 47-year-old Rahul, reports Amit Agnihotri.
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