The Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday attacked the United Progressive Alliance government at the Centre and accused Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of neglecting and using Assam, which he has been representing since 1991, for his "political advantages".
The Congress party's traditional bastion among the tea workers in Dibrugarh, Jorhat and Tezpur Lok Sabha constituencies holds the key to the party's fortunes in the first phase polling on April 7 in Assam. The BJP has been trying hard to make inroads here.
Congress president and United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi on Saturday appealed to insurgent groups to give up violence and come forward for talks to help accelerate the current pace of socio-economic development in Assam.
He told PTI in an interview that parties that are still thinking of 'being the leader' of a possible united front against the Bharatiya Janata Party in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls have not understood the gravity of the situation at all.
Sangma will go to Raj Bhawan at 11:30 am on Friday and meet the governor to apprise him of the assembly election results, the official said.
The Left has ideologically become irrelevant globally, says the finance minister.
"I don't want to be decided by the prime minister but he knows what he is saying is not true," Singh told reporters after casting his vote at Dispur Government High School in Guwahati.
Given the depleting mass base of the regional Asom Gana Parishad led by former chief minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, a section of senior leaders of the party are waiting in the wings to join the Bharatiya Janata Party, which is gaining ground in Assam.
The competition for the worst or most perilous 10 years has always been between the 1960s and the 1980s, points out Shekhar Gupta.
Following passage of the Constitution Bill, 2014, Dass and Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, who introduced it in the House, exchanged sweets.
On Tuesday, Mandaviya had written to Congress MP Rahul Gandhi and Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot asking them to strictly follow the COVID-19 guidelines during the party's Bharat Jodo Yatra.
Thirty-five per cent of the 64,41,634 voters exercised their franchise till noon on Monday in five Lok Sabha constituencies of Assam where four persons clashed with CRPF personnel demanding that they be allowed to cast their vote first in Kaliabor constituency.
The BJP on Wednesday also named its in-charges for assembly bypolls to four seats in Tripura.
'In Chhattisgarh, MP and Rajasthan, he is far more popular than the defeated chief ministers,' notes Karan Thapar.
Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi on Saturday said Hindu migrants from Bangladesh must be accommodated in the country and detention camps would be done away with once his party comes to power.
81 per cent voter turnout recorded in West Bengal, 80 per cent in Assam.
Justice Ajit Borthakur in his judgement said that the court is of the opinion that the case is not a fit one to grant the privilege of pre-arrest bail to the petitioner and as such it stood rejected.
The exit poll results were released at the end of the polling in Tamil Nadu and Kerala, marking the closure of voting in four states and Puducherry.
Attacking the Congress, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said the country has suffered due to 'backseat driving' and 'remote control' and warned people of Assam against an unstable government in the state.
'The BJP has 106 MLAs and Eknath Shinde claims the support of 40 MLAs. So why are they both not forming the government right now in Mumbai? Why the delay?' Rediff.com's Syed Firdaus Ashraf reports.
Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi's leadership has come under attack. Although the party tried to dismiss the rebellion brewing in Congress-ruled states of Assam in the east and Maharashtra in the west, no one is convinced.
Under attack from the proscribed United Liberation Front of Assam (anti-talks) faction over its failure to punish culprits behind the secret killings of innocent family members of ULFA members that took place in Assam between 1996 and 2001, the Congress government in Assam on Tuesday blamed former Assam chief minister and Asom Gana Parishad leader Prafulla Kumar Mahanta for allowing the gruesome episode to take place in the state.
It added that there was 'no sincerity' on the part of the central government to solve the insurgency problem of the state.
Bodo tribals influence as many as 30 seats. No wonder, national parties are keen to forge alliances with Bodo groups.
The last date of withdrawal of nominations for the second phase is March 24.
Former CM Tarun Gogoi on Wednesday accepted his responsibility for the Congress' debacle in Assam assembly polls.
While members from Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Nagaland and Tripura are retiring on April 2, five members from Punjab are retiring on April 9.
An inchoate anger is brewing within the party against the central leadership after the poor show in the assembly polls.
Thackeray said people should be aware of how religious issues are raked up to distract their attention from core issues.
In a stern message to rebel legislators, the Congress high command on Tuesday night dropped two ministers from Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi's ministry for indulging in anti-party activities.
The age-old ethnic fabric in Assam faces a grave risk of being torn apart as many of the major tribes have either raised or renewed their demand for separate state carved out of Assam.
By comparing I.N.D.IA. with banned terror outfits, Modi has exhibited the kind of nervousness never ever associated with him even at the height of the Gujarat riots, and certainly since his prime ministerial days, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi has assured that youth Congress organisations across the country will be democratised within the next two years to make the party more effective in serving the people.On a visit to the Northeast on Saturday, Rahul said he loved visiting this part of the country, "particularly Assam, as it exposes me to a very beautiful part of the country." Rahul also congratulated the Congress workers in Assam for the hard work they had put in.
'The violence that shook Assam was a direct outcome of the state's ethnic problem... The tension that created a rift between the Bodos and the non-Bodos for years found a blood-spattered expression.' Former NSG chief Ranjit Shekhar Mooshahary, the Trinamool Congress candidate from Kokrajhar, speaks to Indrani Roy/Rediff.com about last week's carnage in Assam.
Conrad Sangma on Friday evening submitted the letter of support to Meghalaya Governor Phagu Chauhan at Raj Bhawan signed by 32 MLAs of NPP, BJP, Hill State People's Democratic Party and two Independents.
While main political parties especially Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party are engaging in high-voltage campaign in Assam, young voters, especially the first timers, sound at a loss about which party or the candidate to choose, as they are hardly convinced about the poll promises and have not been swayed by histrionics of poll candidates.
Asking voters in Assam to reject the Bharatiya Janata Party in the assembly polls, Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said that if it came to power, the state will be run from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh headquarters in Nagpur or the Prime Minister's Office.
The victims, labourers of Salmira tea estate, fell ill after they drank the illicit brew on Thursday night, the police said.
'BJP loses a democratic election, then buys MLAs from the ruling party's flock and rides to power in these states.' 'Do you think Atalji would have tolerated this?'
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