The arrest of two Catholic nuns from Kerala in Chhattisgarh on charges of human trafficking and forced religious conversion has ignited a political controversy, with opposition parties criticizing the arrest and the Chief Minister defending the police action.
The Congress on Saturday made a stunning comeback in Karnataka ousting the Bharatiya Janata Party from its lone southern citadel with a comfortable majority in a morale booster win that will be key for reviving its electoral fortunes ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
With challenges such as raising the legal age of marriage for women, combating malnutrition among women and children, and addressing women's safety issues, the new ministers face a formidable agenda.
Janata Dal-Secular leader and former Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy on Wednesday hinted that his party was interested in the agriculture portfolio in the new National Democratic Alliance government.
'We made a mistake. We misunderstood. Now all is well.'
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday said his party's alliance with the Congress is 'off to a good start' with 11 'strong' Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh.
Amid deepening fissures in Kumar's ties with the Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Congress, BJP leaders have indicated that they are open to tying up with him again.
Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) parties on Saturday announced that they will participate in the exit poll debates on television on Saturday evening after the grouping's top leaders met and deliberated on the issue at Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge's residence.
Union ministers Ravneet Singh Bittu and George Kurian were elected unopposed to Rajya Sabha Tuesday along with senior Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi and former minister Upendra Kushwaha.
While BJD leaders held a marathon meeting at Naveen Niwas, the residence of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, in Bhubaneswar on Wednesday, the BJP leaders had a similar meeting in the national capital, discussing election matters, including a potential alliance.
There are states that could swing either way and change the results of the 2024 general election.
The land pooling policy aims to kick-start a new wave of urbanisation in the predominantly rural state.
The Janata Dal-United state unit in Manipur has withdrawn support to the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Biren Singh government and the party has informed its decision to governor Ajay Kumar Bhalla.
RJD chief Lalu Prasad announced in Patna on Sunday that the merger of the six parties of the erstwhile Janata Parivar was certain and necessary to stop and defeat the communally inclined BJP.
The Congress on Sunday said it was not stopping anyone from being part of diplomatic delegations to be sent to various countries following Operation Sindoor and that its leaders who have been named at the instance of the government must listen to their conscience and contribute to the exercise.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the Union Budget on Tuesday as the Monsoon Session of Parliament gets underway next week with the united opposition set to corner the National Democratic Alliance government on issues ranging from the NEET paper leak case and railway safety.
On Tuesday, BJP President Amit Shah had mocked the alliance saying 'zero plus zero remains a zero'.
Congress leader Ghulam Ahmad Mir on Thursday promised that LPG cylinders will be provided in Jharkhand at a subsidised rate of Rs 450 even for 'infiltrators', sparking a political row in the midst of assembly elections in the eastern state.
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.
The increased numbers of the Opposition bloc would mean that their MPs are likely to head several more panels than the four that they did by the end of the term of the 17th Lok Sabha.
'Prashant Kishor is a businessman before he is a politician, and given that the expected average turnout for JSP candidates is 5,000 to 6,000 votes and since Bihar has a significant number of seats where the margin between the winner and runner-up falls within that range he will capitalise on exactly that to showcase his presence.'
'When voting clause by clause on Waqf came up in the JPC, the TDP and JD-U supported the BJP on each and every clause.'
Bharatiya Janata Party leader and advocate G Devaraje Gowda, arrested for alleged molestation and rape, was on Saturday remanded to 14 days judicial custody.
After a marathon polling process to elect the 18th Lok Sabha that lasted for a month and a half, the results were declared on Tuesday.
In separate petitions submitted to the Odisha police, both parties alleged that the victim approached multiple police stations -- Puri Ghat, Sadar, and Barang --before her FIR was accepted by the Badambadi police station.
With the RLD part of the NDA now, Sanjeev Kumar Balyan would expect an easier contest than five years back when the RLD, SP and BSP had an alliance.
Bihar Deputy CM Samrat Choudhary on Thursday said that the Bharatiya Janata Party has not given up its resolve to form its own government in the state by accepting Janata Dal-United president Nitish Kumar as the chief minister.
Prashant Kishor declares the 2025 Bihar assembly election will be a contest between his Jan Suraaj Party and the BJP-led NDA.
Kartik Kumar, a Rashtriya Janata Dal MLC, who became the state's law minister in the new Nitish Kumar government, resigned hours after being moved to a lesser significant Sugarcane Department on Wednesday night.
Senior BJP leader Tarkishore Prasad told PTI-Video that "most certainly" Choudhary and Sinha will be the party's choice for the post of deputy CMs.
The MP who is seeking re-election from Hassan on a JD-S ticket, shared a letter by his lawyer Arun G to the Deputy Superintendent of Police of the SIT, in which he has sought seven days' time to appear before the official because he is abroad.
Assisted by his personal staff and gunmen, Gowda, with a cannula on his right hand, attended multiple election meetings on Tuesday and addressed people sitting in his chair as he cited knee pain.
"Word of the day! Definition of *snollygoster* US dialect: a shrewd, unprincipled politician. First Known Use: 1845. Most recent use: 26/7/17," Tharoor had tweeted in 2017.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal-United on Saturday maintained that 'there is no confusion' among the 'Mahagathbandhan' (grand alliance) partners in Bihar.
"Sometimes Sachin Tendular scored a century, sometimes he got out for Zero," Biswa said while reacting to party's loss in Karnataka.
Tyagi, the JD-U's political advisor and spokesperson, was replying to queries about the suggestion that followed Kumar's speech at a party rally in Patna on Wednesday.
Accompanied by his son Santosh Suman, Manjhi met Shah at his residence in New Delhi.
A united opposition is set to corner the NDA government on issues ranging from the NEET paper leak case to railway safety.
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.
However, the national party count has gone down to six from 14 in over seven decades.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances