The founder of KIIT, Achyuta Samanta, and other top officials of the private engineering college were questioned by a government committee about the alleged suicide of a Nepalese girl in her hostel and the assault on students of her country. The incident sparked outrage in the Odisha Assembly, with opposition members demanding a judicial inquiry. Samanta was questioned for two hours, along with the institute's Vice-Chancellor, Registrar, Dean, and two suspended women officials. The committee is investigating the circumstances surrounding the student's suicide, the alleged high-handedness of the institute's administration, and the decision to suspend specific students and shut down the institute for them. The Odisha government has assured Nepalese students that it will cover their travel expenses, arrange remedial classes, and reschedule their mid-semester examinations if necessary.
The Odisha Assembly Speaker, Surama Padhy, suspended 12 Congress MLAs for seven days for indiscipline in the House. The suspension followed a motion moved by the government Chief Whip, Saroj Pradhan. The suspended MLAs include the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader, Rama Chandra Kadam, and other prominent figures. The Congress members protested the decision, playing gongs and demonstrating in the assembly. The opposition BJD condemned the move, calling it motivated to suppress the voice of opposition. The Congress party demanded the withdrawal of the suspension order and criticized the government's actions. The House was adjourned multiple times amid the pandemonium.
P C Padhi became headlines in Odisha after a media expose on funds received by the BJD became known.
'It is not as if Hindus are not being touched at all, and only Muslims are.'
'The tide started to turn against the BJD when V K Pandian toured the districts gathering people's grievances last year.'
The incident happened on Sunday night when the woman, an undergraduate student at a private college, went to the beach along with her boyfriend, who is a classmate, on the occasion of the Raja festival, they said.
What may work for the BJP is the growing resentment against V K Pandian, a bureaucrat-turned-politician who Jay Panda alleges has hijacked the Odisha government.
The Naveen Patnaik-led party bagged 112 of the 146 assembly seats despite the Modi wave in the country.
Their shared brief: To assert India's case with clarity, rebut hostile narratives, and secure enduring partnerships for global counter-terror cooperation.
Panda met BJP chief Amit Shah and joined the party at its office in the national capital.
The JD-U has five members in the Rajya Sabha, including deputy chairman Harivansh whose fate now hangs in the balance as he may have to resign since his party has moved out of the ruling alliance.
Out of the 20 candidates announced by the BJD for the 21 Lok Sabha seats, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik's party has nominated at least seven leaders who came from either the Bharatiya Janata Party or the Congress.
Patnaik's decision would mean that the ruling BJD will field women candidates for at least seven out of the 21 Lok Sabha seats in the state.
The Shiromani Akali Dal skipped the meeting, besides the Aam Aadmi Party, the TRS and the BJD.
The diplomatic exercise aimed at presenting India's stance against Pakistan on terror comes in the wake of Operation Sindoor -- the Indian offensive against terror camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir following the April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam in which 26 people, mostly tourists, were killed.
Will Andhra Pradesh follow the Odisha model, voting differently in Lok Sabha and assembly elections? Or will Odisha follow Andhra Pradesh, voting in new faces in both?
The BJP won 74 seats in the 147-member Odisha assembly and was leading in four more seats, the Election Commission of India.
The BJP's vote share in Cuttack went up from 9 per cent in 2009 to 38 per cent in 2019.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh told an all-party meeting that at least 100 terrorists were killed in the Indian strikes on terror sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir under 'Operation Sindoor'. Leaders from various parties showed maturity and extended all support to the government and armed forces.
The results for the Andhra Pradesh and Odisha assembly elections were declared on Tuesday.
The delegations led by Baijayant Panda, Ravi Shankar Prasad (both Bharatiya Janata Party), Sanjay Kumar Jha (Janata Dal-United), Shrikant Shinde (Shiv Sena), Shashi Tharoor (Congress), Kanimozhi (Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam) and Supriya Sule (Nationalist Congress Party-Sharad Pawar) will visit a total of 32 countries and the EU headquarters in Brussels, Belgium.
The Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2025 was passed in the Lok Sabha early Thursday, with 288 members supporting it and 232 against it.
The ruling Biju Janata Dal in Odisha on Wednesday appeared to be sending signals to the Bharatiya Janata Party over its possible outside support to a National Democratic Alliance government at the Centre.
'The BJP is not as mighty a political force in Odisha as it is made out to be.'
The Biju Janata Dal on Wednesday announced its support for the candidature of Bharatiya Janata Party's Ashwini Vaishnaw in the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections in Odisha
A day after snapping ties with the Bharatiya Janata Party at the state level, the Biju Janata Dal on Monday sent mixed signals on its strategy for the Lok Sabha polls, saying it is 'still part of the National Democratic Alliance'. "The BJD is misleading all by saying it is part of the NDA. How can a party be a member of the NDA while forging pre-poll alliance with the Left parties and the Nationalist Congress Party," asked BJP's youth wing leader Dharmendra Pradhan.
"There is a need for a name change. What did Ravenshaw, after whom the university is named, do during the famine," the minister had asked,
Parliament's approval of the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, a contentious piece of legislation aimed at reforming Waqf bodies, has sparked strong reactions from the opposition, who allege that the bill was "bulldozed" through Parliament. The bill, considered the government's most consequential legislation in its third term, was passed with comfortable majorities in both the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha despite opposition claims of a lack of consultation and an intrusion into religious affairs. Other notable bills approved during the session included the Finance Bill, Appropriation Bill, Immigration and Foreigners Bill, and Tribhuvan Sahkari University Bill. The session, which saw high productivity, also witnessed debates on issues such as economic distress, delimitation, and the three-language policy. While the government touted its achievements, the opposition criticized the government's approach and vowed to challenge the Waqf bill in court.
The 78-year-old Naveen is on the cusp of creating history. He must win the forthcoming Assembly polls to become India's longest-serving chief minister, a record held by Sikkim's Pawan Kumar Chamling.
KV Singh Deo and Pravati Parida were made deputy chief ministers of the state, he said.
According to an order issued by the director general of police YB Khurania on Wednesday the five police personnel have been suspended on charge of gross misconduct.
In a major blow to the National Democratic Alliance, the Biju Janata Dal announced on Saturday that it had split from the Bharatiya Janata Dal, over failure to reach a seat sharing deal for the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls."The BJP-BJD will contest separately," Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik told reporters, adding that 'winnability' was the reason behind the break up in the decade-old alliance.
The CPI-M is upbeat in its quest to form a Third Front and struck a pre-poll alliance with the BJD in Orissa within a day after the ruling state party snapped ties with longtime ally BJP.
Pandian said his only intention to join politics was to assist Patnaik and that is why he did not contest the elections.
While Dilip Tirkey is the ruling Biju Janata Dal candidate for the Sundergarh (ST) Lok Sabha constituency, his junior and former India hockey captain, Prabodh Tirkey is the Congress candidate from the Talsara (ST) assembly segment also in Sundergarh district.
The parties which gave chief ministers and sent scores of MPs to Parliament, drew a blank this time.
Hinting that it was open to aligning with the Third Front after the Lok Sabha polls, the BJD has said that it will not support either a Congress-led or a Bharatiya Janata Party-led government at the Centre.
India's Parliament is set to begin its Budget session on Friday, with opposition parties poised to demand a discussion on the alleged mismanagement of the Maha Kumbh festival in Prayagraj, where 30 pilgrims died in a stampede. The opposition also accused the government of politicising parliamentary committees and pushing its agenda through its majority. The session will start with President Droupadi Murmu addressing both houses of Parliament. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the Union Budget on Saturday for the eighth consecutive time.
'Forget stones & eggs, they can't cow me down even if they use bullet,' Panda tweeted.
Secretary general of the Biju Janata Dal Damodar Rout talks to Dilip Satapathy on why his party snapped the decade-old ties with the Bharatiya Janata Party and the politicial options before the BJD.
