Amid the ongoing fight for control of the Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party (JKNPP), president Vilakshan Singh was expelled from the party by its London-based chief patron Ankit Love who accused him of being a "secret agent" of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Results and trends from recent bypolls across eight assembly seats in India show wins for MNF in Mizoram, BJP in Jammu and Kashmir, and Congress leading in Telangana and Rajasthan.
He said the RPI-A will also demand tickets to contest at least two Lok Sabha seats (out of the total 48 in Maharashtra) and 10 to 15 assembly segments in the 2024 elections from the NDA quota.
National Conference emerged as the single largest party with 28 seats in the 87-seat House
Gupkar Alliance, which includes mainstream political parties of Jammu and Kashmir, has accepted the invitation of the all-party meeting called by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on June 24.
Members of the legislative assembly from the Bharatiya Janata Party and National Panthers Party staged a protest outside the Jammu and Kashmir assembly on Friday morning against Chief Minister Omar Abdullah's remarks over the state's accession to India
Raising anti-Taliban slogans, Sikhs in Jammu and Kashmir blocked roads for hours and burnt tyres during a bandh on Tuesday to protest the recent killing of two members of the community in Pakistan's restive tribal belt and demanded concrete steps for ensuring the safety of minorities in that country.
The leaders said the list of seats each party will be contesting, as well as the names of the candidates, will be issued later.
The PDP led by former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti has decided to stay away from the delimitation process, saying the body lacks 'constitutional and legal mandate' and is part of the overall process of political disempowerment of people of Jammu and Kashmir.
Omar Abdullah also urged upon the governor to take some confidence building measures and also ensure that there was zero-tolerance towards the human rights violations.
The Congress was fighting the elections in a pre-poll alliance with National Conference and had fielded 32 candidates, mostly in Jammu region, compared to 51 by the regional party.
The political parties have been given time slots for the meeting with the Election Commission.
The BJP has emerged the second largest party by winning 29 constituencies in the maiden assembly polls post abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir, improving its all-time high tally of 25 seats recorded in 2014 elections.
Jammu divisional commissioner Sanjeev Verma said that these leaders were never detained and were free to participate in political activities.
Incidentally, 164 of the total 356 candidates in the fray from the 43 assembly seats of Jammu region got less votes than none of the above, which gives an option to voters to reject all candidates in a constituency.
A peace march was taken out in Doda district, where 19 Hindus were killed, to express solidarity with families of the victims.
The People's Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) swept the maiden District Development Council (DDC) polls by winning 110 seats, while the Bharatiya Janata Party emerged as the single largest party by getting 75 seats after securing the largest vote share in Jammu and Kashmir, officials said on Wednesday.
Most political parties, including the Bharatiya Janata Party, ruling National Conference, People's Democratic Party and Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party are all set to go it alone in the five phased electoral battle for 87 constituencies in Jammu and Kashmir assembly.
The Congress, National Conference and the Peoples Democratic Party have boycotted the first electoral exercise after abrogation of the state's special status.
Speaker of Jammu and Kashmir Assembly Mubarak Gul on Wednesday aid he will summon former Army Chief V K Singh to explain his position on his controversial statement about payoffs to politicians in the state.
In Srinagar, wearing black bands, scores of PDP leaders and activists, led by party president Mehbooba Mufti, took out a protest march from the party's head office near the Sher-e-Kashmir Park.
Dozens of vehicles, with the tricolor hoisted on each of them, were part of the rally which passed through Gupkar Road and the activists raised slogans outside the residences of National Conference president Farooq Abdullah and Peoples Democratic Party president Mehbooba Mufti there.
Nearly two years after the bifurcation of Jammu and Kashmir into two UTs and revocation of its special status, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday held talks with top political leaders from the erstwhile state, and said the Centre's priority is to strengthen grassroots democracy there for which delimitation has to happen quickly so that polls can be held.
The National Conference, the People's Democratic Party and the Congress on Saturday said they will take a call on attending a meeting with the prime minister in Delhi after deliberations within their respective parties, while the Bharatiya Janata Party expressed hope that all invitees will take part in the all-party deliberations.
Nineteen candidates saw an extremely close contest in the maiden District Development Council (DDC) polls in Jammu and Kashmir where the margin of victory was less than 100.
Police has started picking up evidences and recovered an empty shell of AK rifle from Tapal Mohalla, where the duo were killed by suspected militants while they were returning home after closing their stationary shop located outside old DC office complex.
In its attempt to clinch majority in the 87-member Jammu and Kashmir assembly, Opposition Peoples Democratic Party is trying to make inroads in Jammu by raking up "regional discrimination" and secularism card to woo the Hindu voters of the region.
"We have come to realise that these elections are being held to facilitate only one party -- ruling party," Congress leader Ghulam Ahmad Mir said.
Independent candidates have emerged as big winners in Jammu and Kashmir's maiden District Development Council polls, with 49 of them having been declared elected so far from 280 seats, putting them ahead of parties like the Congress and the Peoples Democratic Party.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said the ongoing delimitation exercise in Jammu and Kashmir has to happen quickly so that polls can be held to instal an elected government that gives strength to its development trajectory.
With no agenda announced for the meeting, the leaders from Jammu and Kashmir said they have come with an open mind.
What the election demonstrated is that the BJP has a stranglehold on most of the Hindu votes in the Union territory, observes David Devadas.
Officials said there was no discussion on constituting a delimitation commission.
While the BJP emerged as the single largest party in 12 municipal bodies, it has majority in five of these bodies.
The FIR lodged at Chandpa police station in Hathras district against 'unknown persons' mentioned alleged attempts to foment cast conflict, promoting enmity between groups and tarnish the image of the government and invoked section 124A of the Indian Penal Code -- the serious charge of sedition.
A total of 123 candidates, including seven ministers of Congress-National Conference coalition, eight former ministers and legislators are in fray for the Jammu and Kashmir's first phase of elections scheduled later this month.
Terrorists on Monday night killed seven Amarnath pilgrims, including six women, and injured 19 others as they struck at a bus in Kashmir's Anantnag district, in the worst attack on the annual pilgrimage since the year 2001. Five of those killed were from Gujarat and two from Maharashtra. Here are the latest updates:
Counting of votes will be held today in Jammu and Kashmir and Jharkhand which witnessed a record turnout in the multi-cornered contests to elect their assemblies.
Natwar Singh's book is un-illuminating, largely self-justificatory, often contradictory, and at times tendentious. He is too preoccupied with depicting himself as a victim of the Congress party's machinations, says Praful Bidwai.
'...incarcerated in jails, ruining their entire families.' 'You would see that Dalits who displayed so much agitation over the Bhima-Koregaon issue are effectively silenced by the arrests of their activists by the police.' 'What can be a more pitiable state than this for a people who had just seen a ray of hope after darkness of millennia?'
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