The Odisha assembly has a strength of 147 MLAs while there are 21 Lok Sabha MP seats in the state.
After West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee stated that the truth would not emerge through existing mechanisms and called for a probe, several opposition leaders including Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge backed her demand.
Nayak had earlier resigned from the BJD and joined the BJP and got a nomination from the saffron party.
Biju Janata Dal founding member and six-time Cuttack Lok Sabha MP Bhartruhari Mahtab joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in New Delhi on Thursday, dealing a big blow to the Odisha's ruling party ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.
Talks on pre-poll alliance were being held between the ruling Biju Janata Dal and the opposition BJP for the past few days.
Ruling Biju Janata Dal vice-president Soumya Ranjan Patnaik was removed from his post on Tuesday, months before the simultaneous assembly and Lok Sabha polls in Odisha for allegedly writing critical editorials in his Odia daily.
Samal also claimed that the Odisha BJP was confident of winning both the polls.
'The Odisha government has changed the image of the state by making it a sporting hub of the country with high performance centres, state-of-the-art training facilities and hosting big tournaments. The sports loving people of Sundergarh and Odisha will not forget this while voting.'
Tension grips Malkangiri district in Odisha after a tribal woman was beheaded, leading to clashes and property damage. Internet services are suspended as authorities work to restore peace.
Results and trends from recent bypolls across eight assembly seats in India show wins for MNF in Mizoram, BJP in Jammu and Kashmir, and Congress leading in Telangana and Rajasthan.
Opposition parties in India are demanding a discussion on the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and national security in the upcoming Winter Session of Parliament. They raised concerns about federalism, national security, and the purity of voter lists during an all-party meeting.
A 15-year-old girl, severely burned in an attack in Odisha, has been airlifted to AIIMS Delhi for specialized treatment. The incident is under police investigation.
The incident took place this afternoon after the woman student met the Principal of Fakir Mohan (Autonomous) College, Balasore, Dilip Kumar Ghose. She had earlier lodged a sexual harassment complaint against Samira Kumar Sahu, Assistant Professor (Stage-l) in Educational Studies, who is also the head of the department and demanded action against him.
In Jharsuguda, Dipali Das secured a total of 1,07,198 votes receiving 60.93 per cent of the votes polled, while Tripathy bagged 58,477 votes (33.24 per cent).
A 15-year-old girl in Odisha, India, has died after allegedly being set on fire by unidentified assailants. The incident has sparked outrage and prompted investigations by local authorities.
The Biju Janata Dal will support the bill replacing the Delhi services ordinance and oppose the no-confidence motion proposed by various opposition parties against the government, the party's Rajya Sabha member Sasmit Patra said on Tuesday.
Two investigations were ordered after six patients died due to alleged negligence at the state-run Saheed Laxman Nayak Medical College and Hospital in Odisha's Koraput, officials said on Wednesday.
Odisha Police are investigating the purchase of petrol by a woman matching the description of a student who died by self-immolation after alleging sexual harassment. CCTV footage is being analyzed, and filling stations have stopped selling petrol in bottles. A UGC fact-finding team is also investigating the incident.
In his three-page-long resignation letter to party president and Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik, he wrote, "It is with deep anguish, hurt and sorrow that I have decided to quit the kind of politics into which our BJD has descended."
The announcement came on a day that marks the third anniversary of the Naveen Patnaik-led government's fifth tenure in the state.
The present strength of the electoral college is 781 as six seats are vacant in the Rajya Sabha and one in the Lok Sabha. This puts the majority mark at 391. The NDA has 425 MPs, while the opposition camp has the backing of 324.
Patnaik, who met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi earlier in the day to discuss developmental issues related to his state, also ruled out joining any third front, a plan floated by some regional parties earlier.
The latest trend issued by the State Election Commission showed the BJD had already won or was leading in 762 Zilla Parishad seats, as compared to BJP's 46 and Congress's 36 seats.
The principal of a college in Odisha was arrested after a student set herself ablaze following alleged sexual harassment. The incident has sparked protests and political tensions in the state.
An Odisha college student who set herself ablaze following alleged sexual harassment by a professor has died at AIIMS Bhubaneswar. The incident has sparked outrage, with the Chief Minister promising strict action against the culprits.
The stage is set for a direct contest between NDA nominee C P Radhakrishnan and joint opposition candidate B Sudershan Reddy for the vice-presidential election. The BJP-led alliance has a clear edge in the poll necessitated due to the sudden resignation of Jagdeep Dhankhar.
The Biju Janata Dal on Tuesday opposed the no-confidence motion against the government on the Manipur violence, saying what happened in the state is due to "legacy issues" running back several decades.
The BJD's candidate selection was based on several permutation and combination, a party leader said adding that apart from being a green horn and a woman, Barsha will get sympathy vote.
In 2021, the Centre renamed the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna as Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award. But many wonder, why despite the public sentiment the country's highest civilian honour continues to elude the man who put Indian hockey on the world map.
A major controversy has erupted in Odisha after Chinese e-commerce platform AliExpress was found selling doormats featuring the image of Lord Jagannath, sparking outrage and prompting police complaints and demands for an apology.
Four-time Odisha MP Pinaki Misra's wedding to firebrand TMC MP Mahua Moitra in a quiet, intimate ceremony that chose privacy and tradition over fanfare, was a reflection of his personal style.
With numbers on its side -- the ruling NDA has about half the votes of the electoral college -- and the possible support of fence-sitters like the BJD, the AIADMK and the YSRCP, the NDA candidate will likely sail through the contest.
In what analysts are terming as a political masterstroke, the ruling Biju Janata Dal President Naveen Patnaik Friday decided that his party will field candidates from Other Backward Castes (OBC) for 27 per cent of seats in the forthcoming three-tier panchayat elections in Odisha.
The National Sports Governance Bill was on Tuesday passed by the Parliament with Rajya Sabha giving its nod a mere 24 hours after Lok Sabha.
India succeeded in busting the Pakistani narrative on Operation Sindoor, particularly among the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) member nations, where Islamabad sought succour after carrying out terror activities across the border, Shiv Sena leader Shrikant Shinde said.
Bijayant Panda, the suave Biju Janata Dal MP from Kendrapara, said he was "shocked" at the news.
The chief minister's statement is significant as several non-Bharatiya Janata Party parties are trying to forge unity in a bid to form a grand alliance to take on the ruling party in the Lok Sabha elections this year.
The Indian government briefed an all-party meeting on Thursday on the success of "Operation Sindoor", the retaliatory airstrikes against Pakistan following the Pahalgam terror attack. Top government functionaries and opposition leaders met for a second time in a fortnight amid rising tensions between India and Pakistan. The meeting was chaired by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and attended by several prominent leaders from various political parties. The government highlighted the strikes on nine terror targets in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, including the Jaish-e-Mohammad stronghold of Bahawalpur and Lashkar-e-Taiba's base Muridke.
The incident took place around 4 am when hundreds of devotees gathered near the temple to witness Rath Yatra festivities, Puri district collector Siddharth S Swain said.
A 39-member parliamentary panel has been constituted to examine the two bills proposing simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and state assemblies. The panel, chaired by BJP leader Bhratruhari Mahtab, will include prominent members from various political parties, including the BJP, Congress, SP, TMC, and DMK. The panel is expected to submit its report to the Lok Sabha by the first day of the last week of the next session. The government has decided to increase the committee's strength to include more political parties, highlighting the significance of this proposal to reform the election process in India.
