The presidential election is due in July and the poll to the post of the vice president is scheduled for August.
Top military officers, including Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat, had been summoned to make presentations on military uniforms.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday asserted it has not given up its demand for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's resignation but would allow Parliament to function only if all the coal block allocations made during the United Progressive Alliance rule are cancelled and a fair, impartial probe is ordered.
The rebel legislators have been maintaining that they were forced to go against Thackeray as he kept ignoring their plea to snap ties with the MVA allies despite being told that these constituents were trying to 'finish off' the Sena.
Elections in Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan will see the BJP and Congress in direct contest.
In the Upper House of Parliament, Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu did not allow adjournment notices moved by opposition members on the issue of price rise, prompting members of the Congress, the Trinamool Congress, the Left parties, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, the Aam Aadmi Party, the Nationalist Congress Party, the Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Shiv Sena to create an uproar.
In the absence of the over-arching 'Jaya charisma', EPS has to convince the AIADMK's traditional constituencies, including those in his western districts, that his leadership would stand up against the BJP-led Centre even in a post-poll scenario, a la Jayalalithaa, and would not yield as much as party founder MGR had done, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Congress said the BJP should ask Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje to step down as it can no longer "continue to defend the indefensible".
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Friday asserted that he attached 'no importance'to his administration's uncharitable assessment by Prashant Kishor.
'I would like to see Kharge include Shashi in the Congress Working Committee.' 'The other alternative is that the Congress will marginalise him.'
The Congress used Raj Bhavans to topple legally elected governments. The BJP is letting governors get away with all manner of impropriety, notes Aditi Phadnis.
The Sikhs love a good fight, and that's what the Modi government has given them.
Senior Janata Dal-United leader Nitish Kumar on Sunday said he had parted ways with Rashtriya Janata Dal supremo Lalu Prasad 20 years ago due to differences on certain issues but this time he will stick together to keep "resurgent" BJP away from power in Bihar.
Road and rail traffic was partially affected in some regions on Monday during a 'Bharat bandh' called against the Agnipath military recruitment scheme, while protests appeared to taper off in many states, with authorities stepping up security and imposing curbs after days of unrest.
It appears that the party has some kind of political death wish, observe Sunil Gatade and Venkatesh Kesari.
Narendra Modi's ministry expansion makes disdain clear for others who are supposedly allies, quite unlike the Vajpayee-led National Democratic Alliance.
'The BJP is so keen to use this opportunity to make its foray in a state where it hardly exists, says Amulya Ganguli, that it has silenced the vociferous animal rights activist in its ranks -- Maneka Gandhi.'
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was questioned for over eight hours by the Enforcement Directorate for the second consecutive day in the National Herald money-laundering probe and was again summoned on Wednesday, even as the opposition party continued its protests and sparred with the BJP, accusing it of conspiring to defame the Gandhi family through the ''false'' case.
The video clips showed some terrorists being killed, besides destruction of bunkers and other military constructions.
Shinde, Thackeray can't use party name and its symbol in the Andheri East assembly bypoll.
The Madras high court bench in Madurai on Monday directed transferring the probe into the death by suicide of a 17-year-old girl, allegedly coerced to convert to Christianity, to the Central Bureau of Investigation.
'There is a sustainable level of residual terrorism that will be difficult to handle as long as Pakistani support and safe havens are available.'
With the announcement of list of candidates for the December 1 assembly elections, rebellion is out in the open among Bharatiya Janata Party rank and file in Rajasthan's Hadoti region, once a stronghold of the opposition party.
"The charge that the two ministers were pro-rapist is absolutely wrong. It was sheer indiscretion on their part," Madhav said.
The Shiv Sena passed a resolution not to align with the Bharatiya Janata Party.
The international media on hailed Narendra Modi as a "no-nonsense, can-do leader" after Bharatiya Janata Party secured a stunning win in the Lok Sabha polls, but cautioned that many challenges are in store for the "steely style" politician.
None of the major political parties in Karnataka have announced their list of candidates despite the elections being barely a month away. The two major parties -- Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party are both facing dissidence within their ranks. This has delayed the process of finalizing candidates for the polls.
In the given scenario, Doiwala MLA Trivendra Singh Rawat and Pithoragarh MLA Prakash Pant emerge as the two most favourites.
Analysts have their doubts how much independence she has as finance minister. As Amit Mitra advises the chief minister, day-to-day work is done by the finance secretary and the chief secretary.
Trains were set afire and blocked, and public vehicles attacked as protests over 'Agnipath' swept across several places in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi and Jammu on Thursday amid partisan political voices in favour and against the new recruitment scheme for the defence forces that has set off a firestorm.
'The people of Uttar Pradesh have already made up their mind to puncture the Samajwadi Party's cycle, kick away the Bahujan Samaj Party's elephant, and remove shadows of the already-vanished hand of the Congress.'
Sri Ram Sene chief Pramod Muthalik has said that he would try to join Bharatiya Janata Party, from where he was unceremoniously removed only a few hours after his inclusion in Karnataka.
The winter session of Parliament is set to be stormy with Opposition parties closing ranks to target the government on issues including 'intolerance' even as the ruling dispensation expressed its readiness to discuss all issues.
On such things as the meat ban and hijab ban, we are finding that elements that comprise the system are enthusiastic about denying people their rights. It says something awful about us as a society, asserts Aakar Patel.
Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi on Saturday asked the party rank and file to concentrate on running a grounded election campaign focusing on booths and households as he said polls are not won through rallies and TV debates.
Wednesday's expansion shows that Modi still has a keen eye on Bengal. The BJP is gearing up for the panchayat elections in Bengal next May and the Lok Sabha elections in 2024.
A girl who was set on fire by a person after she did not reciprocate his proposal in Jharkhand's Dumka district succumbed to her burn injuries on Sunday.
'The BJP suddenly seems vulnerable. This is not entirely surprising. In the past too, governments and leaders who won a thumping Lok Sabha majority lost popularity in a matter of months... The by-polls results shows that a degree of disenchantment with the Modi government is setting in,' says Praful Bidwai.
The BJP has begun identifying officers who can 'rid' the administration of SP-BSP 'hangover'.
'The non-vegetarian share of the population fell from 75 to 71 per cent between 2004 and 2014, no doubt in anticipation of the lotus blooming.' 'Three years of saffron authoritarianism may have thinned the non-vegetarian ranks even more,' says Sunanda K Datta-Ray.
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