A proposed polling booth reconfiguration in West Bengal has ignited a political battle, with the TMC, BJP, Congress, and CPI(M) raising concerns about bias, partisanship, and flawed processes.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi accused the BJP of rigging the Maharashtra assembly elections and expressed concerns about similar tactics being used in the upcoming Bihar polls. He alleged that the special intensive revision of electoral rolls in Bihar is an attempt to manipulate the election process.
Corporate donations to political parties are to be welcomed only if they are subject to full disclosure.
The Kerala High Court questioned the suspension of a university registrar who cancelled a program where a 'Bharat Mata' portrait was displayed, sparking a debate over religious symbols and law and order.
All the major parties contesting the forthcoming elections in West Bengal have fielded candidates with criminal cases pending against them.Of the 253 candidates scrutinised by the West Bengal Election Watch so far, 49 are facing criminal charges. As many as 27 candidates have serious charges pending including murder, attempt to murder, theft and extortion. Ten Congress candidates face criminal charges. Both CPI-M and Bharatiya Janata Party have filed 8 such candidates.
The total income of national and regional parties from unknown sources for 2020-21 stands at Rs 690.67 crore.
The Election Commission will publish the draft electoral rolls for Bihar assembly polls, triggering a period for claims and objections amid fears of voter exclusion.
After they were suspended from the State Assembly for disrupting the Question Hour, 46 opposition members, led by Leader of the Opposition N T Rama Rao, took out a rally from the Assembly premises to the state Raj Bhavan.
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued a note to its state units on the draft political resolution for the upcoming party congress. The note says the party does not consider the Narendra Modi government or the Indian State as "neo-fascist", even as there are manifestations of "neo-fascist characteristics". The note clarifies that the party is not calling the Modi government "neo-fascist", but is concerned about the dangers of the BJP-RSS consolidating power and pushing a Hindutva-corporate agenda. The CPI(M) distinguishes between "neo-fascism", which it describes as a global phenomenon rooted in the crisis of neoliberalism, and classical fascism.
The government has moved to increase the strength of the joint committee of Parliament that will scrutinise the two bills proposing simultaneous elections from 31 MPs to 39, giving representation to more parties.
The Association for Democratic Reforms has complained against six major political parties for not appointing Public Information Officers.
On the eve of the counting of votes in Rajasthan, both the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress have started reaching out to independent candidates, including rebels, and smaller parties.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee accused the BJP of 'linguistic terror' and plotting to delete Bengali voters from electoral rolls, vowing to protect voting rights.
The Communist Party of India-Marxist general secretary Prakash Karat on Friday said the Left parties were making efforts to form a Third Front as an alternative to both the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party although he did not spell out a time frame.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) distanced itself from the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) on Friday, saying it is not part of the opposition alliance anymore and questioning the Congress party's role in leading it.
'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.
INDIA bloc parties are set to raise issues such as the Pahalgam attack, US President Trump's claims of brokering a ceasefire, and concerns over electoral roll revisions in Bihar during the Parliament's Monsoon session.
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.
During 2023-24, while the BJP received over Rs 723 crore worth of donations from Prudent Electoral Trust, it also got over Rs 127 crore from Triumph Electoral Trust and over Rs 17 lakh from Einzigartig Electoral Trust.
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has said the attack by the Bharatiya Janata Party workers and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh on the party headquarters in New Delhi will be raised in Parliament on Monday. Addressing a press conference in New Delhi, party general secretary Prakash Karat said, "What is worse is that the local leaders of BJP and RSS were leading the mob which threw boulders and stones on our national party headquarters in New Delhi."
The Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) could have performed better in the recently-held Lok Sabha polls and perhaps, too much time was spent in reaching seat-sharing agreements, Communist Party of India-Marxist-Leninist Liberation general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya has said.
Counting of votes for the 81-member Jharkhand assembly will be taken up on Wednesday to decide the fate of 1,489 candidates who contested the five phase elections from November 25 to December 18.
While it is evident that the INDIA bloc has not shut its doors on Nitish Kumar, those within the NDA are hopeful that the JD-U's support base would benefit them as well
Election Commission data shows 15.88 crore (158.8 million) voters are eligible to exercise their franchise in the second phase on Friday.
Sonam Wangchuk is under tight surveillance within the three-tiered prison, with CCTV cameras monitored around the clock.
The Left parties hit out at the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Centre on Monday over a religious ceremony performed at an event to unveil a cast of the national emblem on the new Parliament building premises, saying such installations should not be linked to religion.
A total of 517 candidates have withdrawn their candidature till on Monday, even as parties faced "rebel trouble" in several segments.
Exit polls, which had given a clear majority to the Congress in Haryana and an edge to National Conference in Jammu and Kashmir, appear to have failed to feel the pulse of the voters once again.
After the Congress' shock defeat in Haryana, the opposition Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) parties flexed their muscles on Wednesday, accusing the grand old party of ignoring them.
The Bharatiya Janata Party, Communist Party of India-Marxist, Communist Party of India, Samajwadi Party, Shiromani Akali Dal have decided to join forces to oppose the government's move to hike the diesel prices every month for the next one year and also increase the price of gas cylinders by Rs 50 to cut down the cost of subsidy.
Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Rahul Narwekar was on Monday elected unopposed as the speaker of the 15th Maharashtra legislative assembly.
Even the United Progressive Alliance constituent Nationalist Congress Party on Wednesday rubbished the Planning Panel's claim that the number of poor people had declined to 21.9 per cent.
Earlier in the day, rich tributes were paid to Yechury at the Communist Party of India (Marxist) headquarters at the AKG Bhavan here, where his mortal remains were brought from his residence in the morning.
Climate activist Sonam Wangchuk was arrested Friday by a police party in Leh, two days after violent protests by supporters of the movement for statehood and extension of Sixth Schedule of Constitution left four persons dead and 90 others injured, officials said.
CPI-M General Secretary Prakash Karat discuss his party's future, the coming battles in Bengal and Kerala, and the Maoists in an exclusive interview with rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt.
The ruling BJP's income forms 76.73 percent of the total income of the six national parties during FY 2022-23, it said.
A massive controversy is raging in Jammu and Kashmir after a plaque with the Ashoka emblem was vandalised in the Hazratbal shrine as parties on Saturday accused Waqf Board chief Darakshan Andrabi of hurting religious sentiments by using the national emblem in the mosque and demanded registration of a criminal case and her immediate removal.
Pandian said his only intention to join politics was to assist Patnaik and that is why he did not contest the elections.
The preferred format would be for the top BJP leadership in the government to reach out to the alliance leaders on a case-to-case basis.