India's top grapplers Bajrang Punia, Vinesh Phogat and Sakshi Malik are reportedly making a last-ditch effort to ensure Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh's close aide, Sanjay Singh, does not become the Wrestling Federation of India chief.
With a view to a hold free and fair Lok Sabha polls in Bihar, the Election Commission has decided to depute micro-observers at all booths in the state, official sources said on Friday. Bihar is known for its poll violence and rigging for decades now.
Intense heat swept through east India and parts of the southern peninsular region on Thursday, testing power grids and prompting the Kerala government to order closure of educational institutions till May 6.
'We have taken technology to the mandal and booth level.'
Many senior BJP leaders and outgoing Rajya Sabha MPs, including seven Union ministers such as Dharmendra Pradhan and Bhupender Yadav, have not been renominated by the party for the biennial Rajya Sabha polls amid strong indications that several of them may contest the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
Referred to as 'Badlav Patr (document of change)', Congress leader Randeep Surjewala and All India Congress Committee's Bihar in-charge Shakti Sinh Gohil presented the manifesto that promises farm loan waiver and 50 percent subsidy in electricity bills to farmers up to 100 units of consumption. The manifesto also promised that it will reject the Centre's farm laws if voted to power.
'Rather than criticising the kind of candidates fielded by political parties from our living rooms, NOTA in a sense implores the electorate to say this by turning up in person at a polling booth to ensure their protest is registered.'
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal-United on Monday announced its low-profile top office-bearer Anil Hegde as its candidate for the by-election to a Rajya Sabha seat which has been necessitated by the death of multiple-term MP, King Mahendra.
Kishor held out the possibility of Jan Suraaj metamorphosing into a political party at a latter stage.
Heatwave conditions are expected over northwest India during the next five days, with Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Delhi predicted to bear the maximum impact, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Thursday.
The court order is in the public domain for all to see, the JMM executive president said, adding that he would discharge his duties with commitment.
'Everyone relies on caste to win elections in Bihar.'
'During the election period, Modi did not refer to the government as 'Government of India'...it used to be called Modi Sarkar, Modi's guarantee. Today that Modi guarantee is no longer there'
The much-hyped liquor ban in the state has been widely seen as a failed attempt five years after its introduction.
Over the next five years, it will be Narendra not Nitish who will be under pressure to deliver vikas and atmanirbharta in Bihar, notes Kanika Datta.
Once rolled out, theaterisation will be the biggest military reform in the country. It will see the creation of unified theatre commands within the 1.7 million-strong Indian armed forces.
'The BJP will use Samrat Choudhary and Vijay Kumar Sinha to check Nitish Kumar.' 'They will not allow him to function freely as before.'
'Our approach is forward-looking. The central leadership wants young leaders to lead the charge now. This will also send a clear signal that lapses will not be tolerated. We are targeting beyond 2025.' Satyavrat Mishra reports.
For now, Modi's government appears singularly focussed on demonstrating that it is not in any way inhibited by the BJP's loss of a majority, and will continue along its patented path of bulldozing all opposition and doing just as it likes, asserts Prem Panicker.
A voter turnout of over 40 per cent was recorded till 1 pm on Monday in the fourth phase of Lok Sabha elections in 96 constituencies spread over 10 states and Union Territories amid incidents of violence in Andhra Pradesh and reports of poll boycott in some villages of Uttar Pradesh.
Along with Modi, senior BJP leaders including Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah, Nitin Gadkari, Nirmala Sitharaman and S Jaishankar, all ministers in Modi 2.0 Cabinet, took oath as cabinet ministers at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. In all, 71 ministers were sworn-in along with Modi, taking the strength of the Union council to 72.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was on Tuesday poised to form the government for a third consecutive term with the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance getting a majority in the Lok Sabha, notwithstanding crushing losses in three Hindi heartland states after a bitterly fought election that was projected as a referendum on his popularity.
'If people don't see you, they might be hesitant, but once they see you, they are confident that this is the person they will vote for,' says political debutant Shambhavi Choudhury, 25, alumnus of the Lady Sriram College and the Delhi School of Economics.
JD-U's Krishnamurari Sharan alias Prem Mukhiya has polled 61,848 votes, while the RJD's Atri Muni alias Shakti Singh Yadav has got 61,836 votes.
7,06,252 people or 1.7 per cent of the voters opted for the option whereby they preferred not to vote for any candidate while exercising their democratic right.
Facing opposition fire for exit polls allegedly being used for stock market manipulation, Axis My India's chief Pradeep Gupta has said he is open to facing all kinds of investigations and it would help do business in a much better way if the government frames specific regulations for pollsters.
The Congress on Wednesday questioned the Election Commission's move to get a post on electoral bonds scheme deleted from social media platform X and said that the issue raised in the post makes the government 'extremely uncomfortable'.
'One is happy. The moment one starts criticising the BJP, ED, IT and CBI comes to one's house.'
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Thursday said he might not campaign for the by-elections to a couple of assembly segments in the state where his current ally Rashtriya Janata Dal is locked in a straight contest with his former alliance partner Bharatiya Janata Party.
always say the same thing at the last rally in every election that 'ant bhala to sab bhala', says Nitish.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Sunday claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been receiving invitations for functions scheduled much after the Lok Sabha polls, which showed the 'entire world believes his return to power is inevitable'.
Tejashwi, who has been chosen by the anti-National Democratic Alliance grouping as its chief ministerial candidate, is seeking re-election from Raghopur seat he won on his maiden outing in electoral politics in 2015.
The 77-year-old former Congress president is set to enter the Upper House for the first time from Rajasthan.
Signalling both change and continuity, India's new government, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a third consecutive term, got into work gear on Tuesday with cabinet ministers and ministers of state filing into their respective offices to assume charge.
The BJP's strategy seem to be to wean away allies from the Congress, in Dravidian Tamil Nadu, and maybe later in UP, Bihar and elsewhere, though in slow doses, but without wooing them into a new alliance. The idea seems to be only to weaken the INDIA bloc from within -- and leaving it at that, notes N Sathiya Moorthy.
A voter turnout of 60.19 per cent was recorded till 5 pm in the third phase of Lok Sabha elections in 93 constituencies spread over 11 states and Union Territories on Tuesday with sporadic incidents of violence in West Bengal.
Upset about being snubbed by INDIA, Nitish Kumar is weighing his political options. BJP would like him back knowing that it would jolt the Opposition alliance, perhaps irreversibly.
The Chief Election Commissioner pointed out that the exercise involved nearly 7.3 crore voters and over 1.06 lakh polling stations.
A "record" 57.59 per cent of over 1.46 crore voters cast their ballots in 55 assembly seats in Bihar on Sunday in the fourth and penultimate round of polling.
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