The Bahujan Samaj Party on Thursday promised to vote in favour of Foreign Direct Investment in Rajya Sabha, giving much relief to the government which is bracing for a crucial vote on Friday, even as the Bharatiya Janata Party and All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam attacked parties which sided with the United Progressive Alliance despite having reservations over the measure.
As the final five phases of polls draw closer, rift among Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) partners, Congress-Left combine and the Trinamool Congress, which are fighting separately has intensified, triggering a fierce contest across half of the remaining 36 constituencies in West Bengal driven by local issues such as Sandeshkhali and the SSC scam.
With the date for the Goa assembly poll results nearing, the Congress has said it is open to a post-poll alliance with parties other than the Bharatiya Janata Party to form the next government, if it does not get a majority on its own.
Aam Aadmi Party leader Somnath Bharti on Saturday vowed to shave his head if Narendra Modi retained the prime minister's post while his party's national convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal asserted that the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) would form a 'strong and stable' government at the Centre.
Several legislators in states on Monday said they have cross-voted in favour of National Democratic Alliance nominee Droupadi Murmu by not following their respective party lines in the presidential election.
'When honest, wealthy people come forward to serve India, people should feel proud and welcome them.'
If Pitroda's blunder cost him his office, what should the BJP's unrepentant attitude cost it?, asks Shyam G Menon.
In the 2017 assembly election, the voter turnout in the first phase covering the same 89 constituencies stood at 66.75 per cent.
In its report, the committee is understood to have suggested that the money trail could be probed by an investigating agency like CBI or the Income Tax Department. The 600-page report carries evidence given by witnesses and verbatim transcriptions of sittings as also the 'dissent' notes by BJP's V K Malhotra, Mohd Salim (CPI-M) and Ramgopal Yadav (SP).
While the coalition will not be unstable because of pressures, the effort from partners will be to constantly remind the central government and the BJP how much it is dependent on them.
Names of Rajya Sabha MPs Harbhajan Singh and Swati Maliwal are missing from the list.
Yoga Guru Baba Ramdev on Wednesday asked people to vote for Bharatiya Janata Party and Communist Party of India in the coming assembly elections in five states and "reject" other parties which have failed to accept "genuine" issues of bringing back black money and corruption.
This demand was put forward by the party delegations, which separately called on Chief Election Commissioner N Gopalaswami, who is in the state capital to review the poll preparations. The two major parties in the state, Communist Party of India-Marxist and the Congress, however, did not make this demand.
As per the complaint, Gandhi had "issued a statement on Twitter asking for votes... today. The time for making appeal for the first phase of polls was over 28 hours earlier".
No government in the past initiated the process of policy making for its next tenure even before going in for elections. Once the Model Code of Conduct is enforced by the Election Commission, should the government of the day refrain from taking an active interest in policy making for the next five years and let that be the function of the new government?, asks A K Bhattacharya.
The former Congress president also tagged a post by Tesla CEO Elon Musk in which he talked about eliminating EVMs.
Despite these challenges, his strong voice for the state's tribal population has been central to his political identity
The BJP will enter this election, as it does every election, as if it is fighting to prevent a 2004-style defeat. This is a party that wins big because it always behaves as if its back is to the wall, predicts Mihir S Sharma.
BJP national secretary Bandaru Dattatreya on Monday said the AIADMK's 'gameplan' of fielding the widow of deceased legislator S S Thirunavukkarassu at Kancheepuram and the son of murdered MLA K Sudarsanam had resulted in the party's victory.
'If you feel that a group of our party members wanted to see Jyoti Basu as prime minister in 1996 and they are now going to go against Karat because we lost the trust vote, you are wrong. Again if you feel that there is a split in the party because we said the Speaker should quit, you are wrong,' says A V Bellarmin, Marxist MP from Tamil Nadu.
"The Sachar Commission's recommendations constitute the most divisive step ever initiated by the government of independent India," the political resolution at the party's National Council meeting stated, giving a call to the people to remove the Congress-led regime at the Centre. "Communal reservations and communal budgeting are a remedy worse than the problem being addressed", the resolution noted.
The Haryana victory will be a morale booster for the Bharatiya Janata Party and increase its bargaining power in the Mahayuti's seat-sharing talks for the upcoming Maharashtra assembly elections, according to political analysts.
The respective Dussehra rallies of Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and and Shiv Sena-Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray chief Uddhav Thackeray were once again about whose version of Hindutva is genuine and who is the true inheritor of party patriarch Bala Thackeray's legacy.
The three AAP councillors switching sides is set to tilt the scales in favour of the BJP whenever fresh mayoral polls are held.
As the Queen star found herself in the middle of a row, with the BJP distancing itself and the Congress attacking it, here's a look at some of the controversies, political and otherwise.
Earlier in the day, BSP supremo Mayawati said her party will make efforts to not field 'bahubali' (strongmen) or mafia candidates in the upcoming polls and announced that Ansari, who is lodged in a jail in Banda, will not be given a ticket from Mau again.
Uddhav Thackeray claimed the new Narendra Modi government at the Centre, which was sworn in on June 9, will collapse and will be replaced by an INDIA bloc dispensation.
'Leave aside the negative fallouts of phraseology like 'urban Naxals' and 'terrorists', both the BJP and the Congress have to re-discover themselves in the context of the 2024 election results, including those of the upcoming ones for Maharashtra and Jharkhand,' observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
The electoral battle in Varanasi, according to locals and political experts, is not about whether the PM will win for a third successive occasion, but if he will increase his share of the votes polled and his win margin.
Apparently aimed at keeping the flock together ahead of the Rajya Sabha polls, all ruling Congress MLAs in Karnataka will stay put together at a hotel in Bengaluru on Monday after the budget session of the state legislature concludes and will later also travel together for voting the next day.
It will be in Modi's interest to reinvent his party, read the writing on the wall that voters wrote, and move ahead. He has little choice now. The country is watching, asserts Ramesh Menon.
Love him or hate him but you cannot ignore the dimpled smile of the young Congress leader. Vote for the best RaGa smile :-)
A bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud directed the Chandigarh administration on Monday to provide security to the judicial officer, to be appointed by the high court, to ensure the safety of the officer and the records.
The Bharatiya Janata Party suffered stunning losses in three Hindi heartland states, partial poll results showed Tuesday, forcing the party to rely on allies to form the government after a bitter and divisive election that was projected as a referendum on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's popularity.
'If this was not tokenism, why is the central government not bringing the UCC, why is a small state like Uttarakhand doing so?'
Much drama is likely to continue in the coming year, within the Sangh Parivar as well as involving the Opposition parties and, of course the BJP's allies, predicts Modi biographer Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday cast his vote at a polling station in Ahmedabad during the second phase of the assembly elections in Gujarat and said the state's people listen to everybody, but it is their nature to accept what is true.
'Sonia did not visit this place once since she won. Who's to say they won't lose this one, too?'
'A one-party State is not possible in a diverse country like India.'
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