A day after total shutdown in Assam to protest against the CAB, fresh protests erupted in the state and neighbouring Tripura and other parts of the nation.
'It is difficult to replace him because if he is replaced, it will lead to a sense of defeat among the Meiteis, rightly or wrongly, and more chaos.'
Even if the Congress is unable to defeat the political appeal of Narendra Modi, the resources and talent of the BJP and its managers, it is relying on issues like the Citizenship Amendment Act and the perceived threat to Assamese identity, along with the future threat of the National People's Register to ensure it continues to be a force in the state. Aditi Phadnis reports.
In the wake of recent violence in Assam and the subsequent exodus of panic-gripped northeast people from some other states, Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi convened a meeting with the editors of newspapers to elicit their views to bring about normalcy in the affected areas and to rehabilitate inmates in relief camps.
Worsening the crisis in Assam, State Education and Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma quit on Monday demanding the immediate ouster of Tarun Gogoi as chief minister.
Sarma's eyes, according to those close to him, were always set on the top job in Assam. However, the leader who owed his early rise to two former chief ministers from the Congress had to toil for many years with dogged determination to achieve his goal.
81 per cent voter turnout recorded in West Bengal, 80 per cent in Assam.
The All India Congress Committee has barred all ministers and MLAs in Assam from speaking to the media about dissidence in the Assam Congress Legislature Party headed by Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi.
The public protest had erupted over the demand for rehabilitation of nearly 800 families evicted from the land they were living on for decades.
A total of 165 persons have lost their lives in Assam due to Japanese Encephalitis and Acute Encephalitis Syndrome, prompting Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi to call an emergency meeting with health officials on Wednesday.
Assam has taken up with the Central and Nagaland governments the issue of safety of the people of Assam residing in Nagaland
As the counting begins on Friday the public focus in Assam will be mainly on how helpful the 'Modi Wave' has been for the Bharatiya Janata Party to challenge a confident Congress in Assam. Both the parties have contested in 13 out of 14 parliamentary seats.
While Himanta Biswa Sarma scotched rumours that he would be the king this time, political sources in Guwahati maintained that he, and not Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, had a bigger say in choosing candidates, reports Radhika Ramaseshan.
Mudslinging and verbal attacks will definitely surge once the poll dates are announced, but as with any state, there are some crucial issues which will play a significant role in influencing voters in Assam too, says Devanik Saha.
As India inches closer towards the general elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi has emerged as the most searched chief minister on search giant Google.
The accident occurred when the private boat 'Ma Kamala' was headed to Majuli from Nimati Ghat and the government-owned ferry 'Tripkai' was coming from the riverine island.
The agitators belonging to 70 organisations, led by KMSS and Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuba Chatra Parishad, gathered at the secretariat to protest against the passing of the bill in the Lower House of Parliament.
Himanta Biswa Sarma on Thursday said people of the state have voted for development and protection of their identity.
The Assam assembly on Friday passed a bill to regulate the slaughter, consumption and transportation of cattle, notwithstanding the walkout staged by the opposition parties in protest against the government's refusal to forward the legislation to a select committee.
In an unprecedented incident, a protestor from the Krishak Mukti Sangram Samity, a peasants' group led by Right To Information activist Akhil Gogoi, died after setting himself ablaze in front of the high-security state secretariat complex in Guwahati on Monday.
As BJP leaders went all out to project the event as a moment of national pride, some leaders were directly critical of the ceremony with Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, belonging to the Communist Party of India-Marxist, slamming the state's role in the Ram Temple consecration, saying the line that demarcates religion and state seems to be 'getting thinner and thinner'.
In view of rising incidence of crime against women, Assam chief minister Tarun Kumar Gogoi has set one-month deadline for the State's Home and Political Department to prepare a detail action plan to prevent and control such incidents.
Former chief minister Tarun Gogoi demanded a CBI inquiry into the episode
Sarma, while responding to reporters' questions on high price of veggies in Guwahati, had said, "Vegetables are not priced so high in villages. Here the Miya vendors charge us more. Had it been Assamese vendors selling vegetables, they wouldn't have fleeced their own people."
' These youngsters don't have patience, which is a key trait in politics'
For the chief minister and Assam alike, the road ahead is full of challenges, notes Aditi Phadnis.
With 32 people being killed in Assam, the Centre on Sunday said it is determined to curb attacks on minorities as the violence there was aimed at starting a "full-fledged communal conflagration".
Amid the political crisis in Maharashtra, the Congress on Thursday said it does not want to interfere in Shiv Sena's 'internal matter" but asserted confidence in Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray.
The BJP, on the other hand, learnt from past mistakes to clinch power.
A day after it was reported that a teenager was killed at the hands of National Democratic Front of Bodoland (Songbijit faction) cadres, other organisations have slammed the state for failing to resolve the militancy along the border. Anurag Kashyap reports
'One reason given for the failure of the Congress in Assam was due to the alliance with the AIUDF.'
'There have been more than 70 cases of extra-judicial killings in Assam.' 'In some cases, people have been taken away from their homes by the police and then shot.'
Responses quickly poured in from all quarters of the Opposition hailing the Supreme Court verdict on Arunachal Pradesh.
Chief Justice of India P Sathasivam on Saturday urged the judiciary to ensure easy access of the common people to court as well as "early finality of dispensation of justice" to uphold its credibility.
Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on Friday agreed that presence of sufficient forces in time would have prevented the ethnic violence raging in the state from assuming such menacing proportions.
Nine months after he stepped down, JD-U leader Nitish Kumar was on Sunday sworn-in as the Bihar chief minister
As West Bengal, Kerala, Assam, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry prepare for new administrations, one is reminded of the disparity that runs through the veins of the Indian states, notes Mihir S Sharma.
Even if they score administratively, state governments ruled by the party suffer from an inability to communicate positively, say observers.
The Congress has been reduced to a C player in national politics thanks to its inability to read the pulse of the people, says Rashme Sehgal.
Here's what leaders from different political parties had to say as results were being announced from Assam, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry.
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