'For the BJP, development is nothing more than a jumla,' says Tejaswi Yadav.
Western UP contributes nearly 70 seats to the 402-member UP assembly. In 2017, the BJP had swept the region. Every pre-2022 poll survey had suggested the party would face its biggest attrition from this region because of the farmers' groups.
Instead of announcing new schemes, focus will be on those already announced and key sectors.
The development came a day after the protesting farmers rejected the Centre's offer to start talks as soon as they move to Burari and continued to stay put Singhu and Tikri borders of the national capital.
Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray will visit Ayodhya on Saturday amid a clamour among Hindu outfits for bringing an ordinance to build Ram Temple.
A weak presence in the Rajya Sabha has forced the NDA to try and rope in 'weak links' in the Opposition ranks to pass key legislation in the Upper House.
Already facing severe criticism over its poor show in the elections and now fighting for the Leader of Opposition's post in Lok Sabha, the Gandhis, the first family of Indian politics, is now facing new battles with the BJP in the form of notices being served to the family in the National Herald case. Rediff.com contributor Anita Katyal reports on the growing confrontations between the government and the shaken up family.
Devanik Saha wonders if saffronisation of India is on the rise
'Nitish's claims of development are false. He has only helped corrupt officials.' 'I want to remind Lalu that this is not the 1990s. This is 2015.' 'I am a bahubali for those looting society.'
Rahul Bedi explains how 'miscellaneous' factors have posed a major hurdle in negotiating the Rafale deal.
In Maharashtra, where the 'Mahayuti' alliance of BJP, Shiv Sena and smaller parties is against the 'Maha-agadhi' led by the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party whereas the ruling BJP is locked in a contest with the opposition Congress and the fledgling Jannayak Janata Party for the 90 assembly seats in Haryana.
BJP-led govt will need regional parties' support in Upper House to get legislation cleared. Archis Mohan reports
He challenged the Congress to select someone 'capable' as its president, who did not belong to 'that one family'.
A 7-hr debate was held over the contentious bill. Oppn amendments rejected.
Ravi Kishan, the BJP's candidate, is an outsider. The BSP-SP candidate is from the powerful Nishad community. Yogi faces a tough task in ensuring that the Gorakhpur seat, which he represented from 1998 to 2017, stays with the BJP.
Rediff.com contributor Anita Katyal explains why the Congress is ill-equipped to battle the Narendra Modi government in the forthcoming Budget session of Parliament.
From April 1 next year, over 600 state-run Madrassas will be converted into upper primary, high and higher secondary schools with no change of status, pay, allowances and service conditions of the teaching and non-teaching staff.
The Budget may see new rural schemes and stepping up of funding towards existing programmes like MNREGA, rural housing, irrigation projects and crop insurance.
Noting that oil prices had gone down after the BJP-led government came to power in May 2014, before they went up, Prasad said it is a problem whose solution is not in its hands.
Jammu and Kashmir's mainstream political parties, including the National Conference and the PDP, formed the Gupkar alliance on October 15 for restoration of special status of the erstwhile state and also to initiate a dialogue between all the stakeholders on the issue.
'I told him when I started my political career seven decades ago he was not even born. His political activities, the protests he organises and the way he fights the biggest corporate of India, the Ambanis, give hope to all people who are progressive. My desire is that such a party must grow, and I wished him all success for its growth.' V S Achuthanandan, the senior-most Communist in India, tells Rediff.com's Shobha Warrier why he turned down Arvind Kejriwal's invitation to join the Aam Aadmi Party.
The Left rewrote history in Kerala on Sunday by becoming the first government to get a second term in four decades but its fortunes fell to a historic low in West Bengal where it failed to bag even one seat, resulting in its complete decimation in a state it once ruled for over three decades.
BJP chief Amit Shah said that the government has brought the country out of policy paralysis.
The National Investigation Agency has accused the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad of planting evidence and coercing witnesses, but its own investigation is incomplete and leaves many questions unanswered.
While the widespread feeling is that employment growth has been sluggish, some argue that, since sabka vikas slogan will most probably not deliver, Mr Modi and the BJP are going in for an unambiguous strategy of Hindu consolidation, says Subir Roy.
Though he did not name anyone, the prime minister's attack appeared to be directed against Congress and its vice president Rahul Gandhi, who recently made two trips to Hyderabad Central University to join protests over the suicide of a Dalit scholar Rohit Vemula.
He also lashed out at the Congress for its opposition to the GST and for dubbing it as 'Gabbar Singh Tax'.
Sinha, a former finance minister, hogged the limelight and started trending high on social media on Wednesday after he criticised his own government for sinking economy in an article.
"They call themselves the champions of speech and expression. But deny the same for the people of Kerala."
Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi attacked the Congress and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday for "failing" to ensure development of Northeast though he represented Assam for the last 23 years in the Rajya Sabha.
Only on Wednesday, in his Independence Day speech, Prime Minister Modi said he wants to resolve the Kashmir issue through Vajpayee's doctrine of "Insaniyat, Kashmiriyat, Jamhooriyat" - a testimony to the former PM's lasting legacy.
'They know everyone and have everyone's horoscope. If they feel Himanta Biswa Sarma is the right man for Assam, they will give it to me, if they feel Sarbananda Sonowal is the right man, they will give it to him, or if they feel both of them are not good, let's bring another person'
The Sangh's leadership has boxed itself into a tight situation. It now needs to wait and see if Modi can deliver in the Lok Sabha polls, says Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
If the AAP wins 20 to 40 Lok Sabha seats, which is conceivable unless it botches up on governance in Delhi, it will become a significant bloc comparable in influence to or even bigger than several major regional parties, feels Praful Bidwai.
Namo, Namo as India's prime minister? Not yet, says Pakistan-based journalist Amir Mateen.
'Two have already sacrificed their lives.' 'How many more shall need to sacrifice before the government listens?' 'Four, five or six? They are ready, waiting.' After Ganga campaigner G D Agrawal's death, a Haridwar ashram's sadhus are on a relay fast unto death.
Polling for three parliamentary seats and 29 assembly constituencies were held on October 30, an exercise being seen as a barometer of the political mood in the country ahead of assembly elections in politically critical Uttar Pradesh as well as other states.
The government on Wednesday came under a blistering attack in Rajya Sabha on the issue of black money, with Congress asking it to apologise before people for 'selling lies' or else fulfill the poll promise made to them.
Shiv Sena's Suresh Prabhu makes predictions ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha polls
Volunteers have been asked to provide details of their core competencies for future projects, says Mayank Mishra
