Bindu and Kanakadurga, who broke centuries-old tradition by entering the holy shrine, said there were no objections from the devotees and called those who were protesting riot-mongers.
The Bharatiya Janata Party has taken full advantage of the anger of the people against Congress and its policies and complete absence of a non-Congress, non-Bharatiya Janata Party alternative in the Lok Sabha polls, Left parties said on Friday.
As polling begins on Friday for the remaining 25 Rajya Sabha seats in six states, here's a list of some of the bigwigs who are seeking to be elected to the Upper House of Parliament.
'The Modi government is about privatising profits and nationalising losses.'
New Union minister L Murugan's declaration of Kongu Nadu as his native place, instead of Tamil Nadu, may be part of a grand BJP strategy to create new states out of existing ones, particularly those that have anti-BJP governments, mulls N Sathiya Moorthy.
Mohammad Salim cited a news magazine which quoted Singh as reportedly saying -- after Narendra Modi and BJP's victory last year -- that India had the first "Hindu ruler after 800 years."
Will appeasement, rising unemployment and her dictatorial style become major obstacles in her path? asks Payal Singh Mohanka.
In a change of stand, days after resenting police action against student editors over campus magazines containing remarks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Kerala Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala on Thursday said though the government respected freedom of expression, it was not proper to depict a person in any manner.
'Like it or not, the Congress is still the only party with the potential to challenge the BJP at a pan-Indian level,' says T V R Shenoy.
The term of the Meghalaya, Nagaland and Tripura legislative assemblies is ending on March 6, March 13 and March 14 respectively.
As the situation went out of control, police first used water cannon and then burst tear gas shells to disperse the unruly crowd.
'In the long term, the party that is going to be irrelevant is the Left.' 'It seems absurd that the people of Kerala are the last ones to wake up to the reality that this kind of discredited dogmatic ideological politics has no place in the modern world.'
Here is a closer look at politicos who have emerged victorious in the electoral contest of five state assemblies.
The finance minister's Budget presentation is a sombre affair, yes, but it wasn't as if the Lok Sabha was all serious through the speech.
A minor fire followed by smoke at the venue of Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy's mass contact programme held here amid tight security gave tense moments to police and other officials on Friday.
Eleven persons, three of them local Communist Party of India-Marxist functionaries, were sentenced to life imprisonment in the sensational T P Chandrasekharan murder case by a special court in Kozhikode on Tuesday.
Its passage in the Lok Sabha is all but certain due to the massive majority the Bharatiya Janata Party and its allies have, and the Union government is confident of its passage in the Rajya Sabha as well with the support of several non-aligned regional parties which have often joined the treasury benches in the past.
'It is wrong to assume that it is only after 1991 that we started following this ritual.' 'Ayyappan himself instructed where the temple had to be built, the rituals that had to followed and the route that had to be taken by devotees to the temple.'
The exit poll results were released at the end of the polling in Tamil Nadu and Kerala, marking the closure of voting in four states and Puducherry.
'The D K Adikesavulu clan is so wealthy, owns so many houses, and has so much jewellery,' notes T V R Shenoy, 'that it did not notice a servant stealing at the rate of Rs 66 lakh every year!'
The Rajya Sabha on Wednesday approved the biggest tax reform since Independence.
Bindu from Malappuram and Durga of Kozhikode were trying hard to become part of history by trying to enter the shrine under heavy police protection.
Holding placards bearing pictures of Lord Ayyappa and chanting his hymns, the protesters marched through the busy roads of Kochi, the state's commercial hub, after launching the stir from the famed Shiva temple there.
Chairman of the committee S S Ahluwalia has sought an extension.
The ruling party has indicated willingness to discuss opposition-sponsored motions on 'intolerance'; Jaitley has also shown willingness to accommodate concerns on GST
Mayawati was outmanoeuvred by the BJP in the race for the Rajya Sabha in Uttar Pradesh just days after she helped the Samajwadi Party snatch two Lok Sbaha seats from the saffron party in bypolls.
The Supreme Court is scheduled to pronounce on Thursday its verdicts on a batch of petitions seeking re-examination of its decision to allow entry of women of all age group in Kerala's Sabarimala Temple and a review of its judgment giving a clean chit to the Modi government in the Rafale fighter jet deal with French firm Dassault Aviation.
P Rafeeq's comment on the burkha led to his studio being razed.
With Maharashtra and Haryana assembly elections, results for 51 assembly and two Lok Sabha bypolls spread across 18 states were declared on Thursday. Here are state-wise results of the bypolls.
'At this moment, the Trinamool has an edge.'
'The Left's decline is now a reality, both nationally and in West Bengal.'Behind it lie: Ideological rigidity and confusion, outdated party programmes... a socially conservative upper-caste leadership,' says Praful Bidwai.
What the Congress will have to understand is that it is not enough to have a 40-something vice-president in New Delhi, but young faces with fresh ideas in the states,' says Amulya Ganguli.
Leading the charge, Congress president Rahul Gandhi tweeted that Bhagwat's remark insulted the Indian tricolour.
'Had the BJP gone along with the NPP, that would have eased the task of the Congress of winning more seats.' 'That was a great strategy of the BJP.' 'It helped the NPP get more seats than perhaps if it had gone as a pre-alliance partner with the BJP.'
Haasan said that interference in the functioning of an elected government is 'unacceptable in a democracy'.
A total of 16,960 cases of crime against women and children, including 2,568 rapes, have been reported in the last one year in Kerala.
Attacking the Bharatiya Janata Party's manifesto containing contentious Hindutva issues, Congress President Sonia Gandhi said their 'communal agenda' was a 'grave threat' to the country's unity and integrity.
'Narendra Modi is one person who came up fighting many injustices. So, he is a fighter all the time, and that makes all the difference.'
Cutting across party lines, members in Lok Sabha highlighted the cases of atrocities being committed on Dalits in various parts of the country and demanded steps to prevent them.
'Mere 'literacy' is not the same thing as 'education', which involves conceding that others have rights, and that one of those prerogatives is a woman's right to dignity. In 2012, the Kerala police registered 1,474 cases of rape, of which 455 victims were children,' says T V R Shenoy.
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