The way things are going, India may have a no-limits free-for-all political contest rather than a three-horse race. Parties are approaching one another across the dividing lines of alliances, breaching conventional rules of the political game.
Temporary relief for Bharti, Vodafone and former telecom secretary Shyamal Ghosh
With the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha withdrawing support to the 23-month-old United Progressive Alliance government in Jharkhand and Chief Minister Madhu Koda still expressing confidence for a solution, all eyes are on Governor Syed Sibtey Razi as different political parties are meeting him and placing their views.
The Bharatiya Janata Party suffered a setback in Lok Sabha polls in Maharashtra on Tuesday, with its tally dwindling by less than half compared to 2019, while the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi of Congress, Shiv Sena-Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray and the Nationalist Congress Party-Sharadchandra Pawar was on a roll, pocketing 30 of the 48 seats.
In the course of the investigations, CBI has found irregular allocation of additional spectrum beyond 6.2 MHz to 10 MHz to GSM operators, including Bharti and Vodafone during Mahajan's rule.
An opinion poll on Monday night projected the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance securing majority with 275 out of the 543 Lok Sabha seats in the elections.
Govt ready to discuss issues of public importance: Azad
Bringing to Delhi his battle for special status to Bihar, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Sunday suggested that his support would be crucial for formation of next government at the Centre and Janata Dal-United, which is part of Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance, was not averse to exploring other tie-ups.
Democracy in India is too important to be left to a leader with a limited appeal. If Rahul Gandhi cares for India, he should step aside for a new crop of leaders, suggests Harishchandra.
Coming out in strong defence of Home Minister P Chidambaram, Kapil Sibal on Saturday attacked the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance of attempting to "foist" culpability on him in the 2G scam saying it was a desperate attempt to make Parliamentary democracy dysfunctional.
Dubbing the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance as a "sinking ship", the Congress claimed on Tuesday that the UPA would retain power at the Centre as it enjoys the support of people for its "impressive performance and charismatic leadership".
The Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance on Saturday demanded to know how the Joint Parliamentary Committee's draft report on 2G spectrum allocation issue had exonerated Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister P Chidambaram without examining them and appealed to all members of the committee to reject the document.
The Rashtriya Janata Dal, which had suffered decimation in the last general elections, was leading in five seats, out of 23 where it had fielded candidates.
While trends suggest a whopping 340 seats for the NDA -- a direct endorsement for BJP's PM nominee Narendra Modi -- the results have also showed a clear drubbing for some of the biggest political forces in the country.
Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance on Thursday stuck to its demand for the Prime Minister's resignation on the coal block allocation issue at a meeting convened by the Rajya Sabha chairman to end the impasse and boycotted a meeting called by the Lok Sabha Speaker on the matter.
The Bharatiya Janata Party-led NDA and Left Parties, including the CPI-M and CPI, have organised a 'Bharat Bandh' on Monday to protest against rising inflation and the hike in prices of petrol, diesel and cooking gas.
Sources said a meeting of heads of the oil marketing companies -- Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum -- was called off.
Sources said the impact of the bandh is likely to be the worst in at least 10 states where the opposition was holding reins. The bandh is also expected to have total impact in states like Maharashtra.
Lok Janshakti Party MP Mehboob Ali Kaiser, the lone Muslim to have been elected to the Lok Sabha from the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance in Bihar, joined the Rashtriya Janata Dal on Sunday, in a shot in the arm for the opposition party amid the elections.
The government had taken kickbacks when coffins meant for Kargil martyrs were purchased, she said.
'Are elections still fair in India, or are we all witness to a macabre style of 'selection' of lawmakers? The jury will be out on this for a long time because there is no definitive evidence on either contention, at least as yet,' notes Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, author, Narendra Modi: The Man, The Times.
Dr A N Prasad, former director of the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre and a distinguished nuclear scientist, explains the reasons behind Santhanam's statement on Pokhran II and its possible implications for India.
Party president Omar Abdullah said the decision to withdraw support was taken to protect the identity of the party in Jammu and Kashmir.
The EC has also to act on the complaint made to the President against Navin Chawla.
Heavy institutional buying in banks and technology counters helped the Bombay Stock Exchange's benchmark index end at an over seven-month high, overcoming uncertainty on the outcome of the elections and weaker-than-expected industrial output data.
Leader of opposition L K Advani on Tuesday led a delegation of 146 members of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance and met President Pratibha Devisingh Patil to intervene in the row triggered by the joint-statement issued after talks between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Yusuf Raza Gilani at Sharm-el Sheikh, Egypt -- wherein the issue of Baluchsitan was mentioned for the first time.
The Bharatiya Janata Party -led National Democratic Alliance on Friday indicated that it will try to mobilise support of non-Congress parties for A P J Abdul Kalam, whose name has been floated by SP and Trinamool Congress.
The Congress-led government was caught napping over the Left Front's opposition to the India-United States nuclear agreement, feels B J Panda, a member of the Rajya Sabha.
The 70-year-old leader attended a meeting of the floor leaders of NDA allies in both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha in the Parliament chamber of Opposition leader Lal Krishna Advani on Thursday.
Decks were cleared for tabling the report of Justice Nanavati Commission, which probed the 1984 anti-Sikh riots with the union cabinet clearing the action taken report.
Janata Dal-United, a key ally of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance, has decided to go it alone in the upcoming Assembly election in Gujarat.
A national opinion poll conducted by a television channel has predicted 215 to 235 seats for the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance and 165 to 185 seats for the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance in the Lok Sabha polls. The poll, conducted by the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies for CNN-IBN, has predicted that the UPA alliance will have a vote share of 36.6 per cent while the NDA combine will cobble up 29.4 per cent votes.
There is still no clarity from the government side on the number of members of the JPC as to whether there will be 21 or 31. If it is 21, the Lok Sabha will have 14 members and the Rajya Sabha 7. If it is 31, the Lok Sabha will get 21 berths, including that of chairman, and the Rajya Sabha will get 10.
Unrelenting on its demand for a JPC probe into 2-G Spectrum scam, Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance attacked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for giving "repeated clean chits" to former Telecom Minister A Raja and alleged the government was "scared" of embarrassing truths coming out.
Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance is projected to bag 234-246 seats in the Lok Sabha elections, a survey conducted by CNN-IBN and CSDS said.
The Bharatiya Janata Party along with its coalition partners had decided to stall the proceedings in Parliament on Tuesday if a Nandigram-specific debate was not allowed.
The Congress party on Wednesday promised high economic growth for all, a boost to the corporate sector and end to unemployment, poverty, hunger and illiteracy, if it is voted back to power.
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