Bowing to Maoists' demands, for securing the release of a Biju Janata Dal MLA and an Italian from the captivity of ultra-Left activists' captivity, Odisha government on Wednesday said it would facilitate the release of 27 persons, including 8 Naxals, from jails.
The Odisha government on Wednesday hoped Maoists would soon name their negotiators for talks for release of Biju Janata Dal MLA Jhina Hikaka, a day after it invited them for parleys, even as intervention of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik was sought by mediators in the Italian captive's case.
Odisha government, grappling with the hostage crisis, on Tuesday said some demands made by Maoists like halt to combing operations, have been conceded as prospects of the release of the lone Italian national seemed to have brightened.
The Odisha government is examining the demands made by abductors of ruling Biju Janata Dal MLA Jhina Hikakaka, which includes release of jailed ultras, amid indication that talks with Maoist mediators for release of the second Italian will soon yield positive results.
Though two days have passed since the Maoists abducted ruling Biju Janata Dal member of Legislative Jhina Hikaka, the Odisha government is yet to receive any information on the whereabouts of the young tribal legislator.
Terming the severe floods in Orissa as man-made, Congress on Tuesday accused Biju Janata Dal government in the state of failing to provide relief to marooned people after exposing its inability in preventing the calamity.
A new realignment should be expected in equations between the non-BJP, non-Congress parties and the government at the Centre. Aditi Phadnis reports.
First to back P A Sangma, a tribal and minority leader for the Presidential contest, the ruling Biju Janata Dal in Odisha on Thursday hoped for a miracle in his favour as polling for the top post ended at the state assembly.
Hitherto considered as the unchallenged leader of ruling Biju Janata Dal, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik was jolted by a whiff of revolt in 2012, as the year also witnessed a spate of abductions in Odisha with Maoists using them as a new weapon to clinch their demands.
The Election Commission will start counting votes for Vidhan Sabha elections on May 23. The assembly elections were held in four states -- Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim -- simultaneously with the Lok Sabha Elections over April and May. The Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, and Sikkim Assemblies went to polls in the duration between 11 April and 19 May, and the Election Commission will declare the results for at least 534 assembly seats - which is almost as many as the Lok Sabha seats - on May 23.
Nationalist Congress Party leader and former Lok Sabha Speaker P A Sangma, who is being backed by the Biju Janata Dal and All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam for the President's post, on Tuesday sought to reach out to political parties, saying he hoped they will respond "to the call of conscience of the tribal people of the nation."
The Maoists holding ruling Biju Janata Dal Member of Legislative Assembly Jhina Hikaka hostage on Sunday extended the deadline for the fulfillment of their demands till April 18. In a message, a leader of Maoists' Andhra Odisha Border Special Zonal Committee set a new deadline of 5 pm on April 18 for the release of 29 rebels, said Nihar Ranjan Patnaik, a Koraput-based lawyer who fights cases for Maoists.
There are lessons for the Congress to learn from the Karnataka elections of how burying the hatchet among top leaders and not washing dirty linen in public can help, says Ramesh Menon.
Biju Janata Dal supremo and Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, who was the first to advocate an alternative government minus Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party at the Centre, on Tuesday said it was still too early for such a move.
The 'Group of 23' leaders who participated included Ghulam Nabi Azad, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Anand Sharma, Mukul Wasnik, Prithviraj Chavan, Manish Tewari, Shashi Tharoor, besides Sibal who hosted the post-birthday dinner for them.
The decision of some key regional parties like the Biju Janata Dal, the Telangana Rashtra Samiti and the Aam Aadmi Party to skip a key opposition meet called by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on the presidential poll has cheered the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party as it believes that their absence has only highlighted the faultlines and one-upmanship among its rivals.
The NDA's combined parliamentary and state-level committed Presidential votes number around 12,000 fewer than a majority.
Panda met BJP chief Amit Shah and joined the party at its office in the national capital.
Anti-incumbency is fast losing relevance as an election factor in India.
'When a criminal assumes a new identity he think everybody knows them by that name only.' 'Criminals forget that the police are always hunting for them to put them in jail.'
Declaring that its erstwhile coalition partner in Orissa, Biju Janata Dal, and the Congress are its prime enemies, the Bharatiya Janata Party has threatened to expose the 'misdeeds' of the Naveen Patnaik government. "Being part of the coalition, we know the misdeeds of the Naveen government and have enough material against it, which would be made known during electioneering in phases," BJP said. It dubbed BJD as 'a great betrayer'.
Priest-turned politician Yogi Adityanath, 44, who was on Sunday sworn in as the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, now joins Trivendra Singh Rawat of Uttarakhand, M L Khattar of Haryana, Sarbananda Sonowal of Assam and 70-year-old Biju Janata Dal chief Naveen Patnaik of Odisha in the league of singletons running state governments.
Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com gives the lowdown on the constituencies going to polls in the first phase on April 11.
The Bharatiya Janata Party is likely to project senior leader Dharmendra Pradhan, 40, as its chief ministerial candidate in Orissa after its alliance with the Naveen Patnaik led Biju Janata Dal came to an end on March 7.The BJP's central election committee on Friday cleared its six sitting MPs to seek re-election, with the exception of Pradhan's constituency Deogarh, leading to speculations that he will be the party's CM candidate for the assembly elections.
The disquiet over the Kandhamal riots, mutually acceptable seat-sharing for the Lok Sabha polls and the poor show of the saffron ally in recent civic elections could have contributed in equal measure to the parting of ways between Biju Janata Dal and the Bharatiya Janata Party after 11 years.
The new political alignments in Orissa are not a sudden development. Low-key consultations between Chief Minister and Biju Janata Dal chief Naveen Patnaik and Communist Party of India - Marxist politburo member Sitaram Yechury had been on even before March 5, though it was on that day the two leaders spoke to each other directly.However, the two leaders decided not to interact for the next few days fearing that their high-profile meetings would alert the BJP.
Raut's demand comes amid speculation over the possibility of Naveen Patnaik's Biju Janata Dal getting the post.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said all families in Puri and in those parts of Khurda, which had been 'extremely severely affected' in the storm, will get 50 kg of rice, Rs 2,000 in cash and polythene sheets, if covered under the Food Security Act (FSA).
India is not evolving towards a bipolar polity, but towards a complex multipolar system, in which regional and caste-based parties are indispensable to government formation at the Centre. The Left may shrink in size but will have a place of its own, which cannot be ignored.
Hinting that the ruling Biju Janata Dal might be a part of the proposed Third Front in the 2014 general elections, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Thursday 1dubbed the Congress "corrupt" and the Bharatiya Janata Party "communal".
The Third Front will be a major force in the next Lok Sabha polls, says Communist Party of India-Marxist leader Niloptal Basu.
The Bharatiya Janata Party's bypoll win in four of the six seats it contested has invigorated the party ahead of assembly polls in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh.
Voting will be held on Thursday in bypolls to seven assembly seats in six states -- a contest symbolic of the fierce turf war between the Bharatiya Janata Party and regional parties.
From trusted bureaucrat, to Wharton, MNC executive to businessman, and now politician, the man in charge of two weighty ministries is a unique all-rounder with specialist knowledge.
With the Tamil Nadu electorate having given him an unprecedented mandate that had eluded his father the late M Karunanidhi, Stalin has to prove his worth, ensuring at the same time that the Dravidian drag on the AIADMK's side does not open up space for the BJP to make inroads in the state, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
The CBI has been probing the activities of 44 ponzi companies in the state which allegedly duped thousands of investors of their hard earned deposits.
She also took a swipe at the Bharatiya Janata Party over its defeat in the just-concluded Himachal Pradesh assembly elections, saying the ruling party's president could not hold on to his home state. "Who is the Pappu now?" she asked.
Pramila Mallik is facing a non-bailable warrant.
Stalin, like his father M Karunanidhi did in 2004, may play the king-maker in a way -- not the king, unless the 2024 post-poll circumstances throws up a situation where he alone becomes acceptable to the rest, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
A senior TRS leader had said his party expects the Congress to not cross the 100-seats mark.
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