With poll surveys indicating increase in seats for the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance under its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi in 2014 polls, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today dismissed such surveys based on small samples and said those were nothing more than "entertainment programmes".
After a dream debut seven years ago when he was sworn in as deputy chief minister after being elected MLA for the first time was followed by a slump in his political fortunes, Tejashwi Yadav has finally come back to center-stage as the kingmaker and deputy to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
A host of United States lawmakers attended an event on Capitol Hill on Friday to hail India's election and the Bharatiya Janata Party's landslide victory, and to also invite Narendra Modi to Washington to discuss issues ranging from counter-terrorism to bilateral economic cooperation and investment.
Political parties in India have received funds to the tune of Rs 4,895.6 crore between 2004 and 2012, and the irony is that 75 per cent of these funds cannot be traced.
Launching a fresh attack on Defence Minister A K Antony, Narendra Modi on Tuesday charged that the country's defence had suffered seriously during his stewardship and said he owed an explanation to the people for this.
The ruling alliance also has some smaller parties like Republican Party of India-Athawale, Asom Gana Parishad, Mizo National Front, National People's Party, Naga People's Front, Pattali Makkal Katchi and Bodoland People's Front, which have one seat each, totalling seven seats.
'Parties which supported me were all threatened. This could hardly have been called a fair election.' 'This is Modi's India.'
Banerjee, who was speaking to reporters at West Bengal's state secretariat, said that her party's name will remain the All India Trinamool Congress.
Shah had launched the high profile 15-day yatra against the alleged 'red and jihadi terrorism' in Kerala.
Banerjee said the two leaders discussed the current political scenario and strategies to oust the BJP in assembly and Lok Sabha elections at the 20-minute meeting at Gandhi's residence.
Why did Modi single out the Congress and its leaders for the most pugnacious verbal assault while sparing other regional adversaries? If he is trying to get some parties to break the Opposition ranks, it means that the BJP's present bravado is for effect. Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, author of Narendra Modi: The Man, The Times, begins a new column for Rediff.com.
The RJD is yet to complete its seat-sharing talks with smaller allies and the Left parties.
The bitter political rivals -- the ruling LDF and the UDF -- close ranks in the state assembly to oppose the ban.
The contentious bill will be tables in RS on Wednesday. The BJP hopes to get up to 130 votes in a 240-member upper house.
Leaders of several opposition parties including the Trinamool Congress, the Samajwadi Party, the Aam Aadmi Party, the Rashtriya Lok Dal and the Left assembled at Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar's residence in New Delhi on Tuesday and discussed various issues facing the country, amid intense speculation about the possibility of a third front against the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.
'An entire operation was running systematically prior to the revoking of Article 370.'
For the chief minister and Assam alike, the road ahead is full of challenges, notes Aditi Phadnis.
'Chief Minister Rio is holding the Naga Peace Accord hostage with his tacit support to the NSCN-IM, egging them to refuse to accept a solution within the Constitution.'
The delegation marched from Andhra Pradesh Bhavan to Rashtrapati Bhavan and presented a memorandum to the President with 18 demands, including the Bifurcation Act promises and special status to the state.
With their high-decibel campaigns so far, the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Samajwadi Party may appear to be locked in a direct fight in Uttar Pradesh.
The BJP and its allies now rule over 70 per cent of the country's population, marking an unprecedented saffron footprint.
Three persons were shot dead and several others were injured as violence and arson marked the conclusion of nomination filing for the three-tier West Bengal panchayat polls slated next month.
Normal life was paralysed in Assam during a 12-hour-long state-wide bandh led by the Bajrang Dal and supported by the Bharatiya Janata Party, Vishwa Hindu Parishad and several other organisations demanding action against the All India United Democratic Front and its leader Badaruddin Ajmal for alleged links with 'jihadi forces in Bangladesh'.
Forced to cross the Nanoi, a channel of the Brahmaputra, over 7,000 people uprooted from their homes and farms in Darrang district of Assam now use the stream's muddy water to drink and cook and defecate in the open as `Swachh Bharat' toilets built in their villages are now guarded by policemen who do not allow them to re-enter any part of the lands they have been thrown out of.
The Opposition has questioned the stringent provisions like criminalisation of a civil wrong in the triple talaq bill.
In renaming TRS and repositioning it as a 'national' party, KCR is also eyeing a pole position in opposition politics ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will chair a high-level meeting on Tuesday to review the situation in Jammu and Kashmir which is witnessing violent clashes between security forces and protesters in the aftermath of killing of Hizbul Mujahideen's poster boy Burhan Wani.
The go-ahead given to prosecute Arundhati Roy would be seen by supporters of freedom of speech as an announcement that the Right-Wing doesn't feel humbled by the results of the elections, argues Shyam G Menon.
The Assam cabinet had on December 13 approved a proposal to close down all Madrassas and Sanskrit Tols (schools) however, the legislation brought in the assembly during the day did not contain anything related to the Sanskrit tols and the education minister also did not mention anything about it.
'When the BJP came into existence no party used to support it. When NDA was formed many leaders who are now holding posts in the present government were not holding any posts then and some of them were not even born,' the editorial said.
The All Assam Students Union on Wednesday launched statewide protests against Assam Congress' decision to field a candidate from outside the state, Sanjay Singh in Rajya Sabha election in Assam bowing to the dictate of party high command.
Murmu's vote share is now likely to go past 61 per cent, while it was earlier estimated to be around 50 per cent at the time of her nomination.
Scripting history, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday stormed to power in Assam bagging a government in the north east for the first time dethroning the Congress which also lost Kerala while Jayalalithaa and Mamata Banerjee retained power in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal with spectacular victories.
'The Kuki-Zo are aware of this rich resource in their areas and feel the Meitei push for ST status is because of this reason'.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan made it clear that the Left government was with the believers.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan came under a scathing attack at a meeting of the All India Congress Committee headed by senior leader A K Antony, with some state leaders telling the high command that the party's fate would be no better in the assembly polls due by October.
Kishor posted a tweet 'thanking' Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi for their 'formal and unequivocal' rejection of the NRC. He also reassured the people of Bihar that the CAA and NRC will not be implemented in the state. However, JD-U's ally BJP got rankled by Kishor's move and made contrary claims.
The colourful rally galvanised the BRS workers who shouted slogans hailing the party-led regime's welfare schemes in Telangana and peppy political songs praised Rao's 'national' emergence.
In yet another sign that not everything is fine between Bihar's ruling partners, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar opposes the BJP's demand for a population control law -- even while seeking a caste-based census, a red flag for the BJP. M I Khan reports.
The TMC also announced it would hold talks with other regional parties in their bid to take on the BJP in the crucial 2024 elections but at the same time denied that it was planning a third front, separate from the Congress-led front.
