Among the notable absentees were Congress president Rahul Gandhi, West Bengal chief minister and Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee, Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam's M K Stalin, Telugu Desam Party chief K Chandrashekhar Rao, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray and Delhi chief minister and Aam Admi Party convenor Arvind Kejriwal.
Caste census politics took centre stage on Thursday with the Congress terming the government's decision as a 'diversionary tactic' and a move for headlines management and the Bharatiya Janata Party saying it has exposed the difference between the Centre's 'true intentions' and the 'empty sloganeering' of the opposition party.
Modi on Sunday suggested that if the Congress came to power, it would redistribute the wealth of people to Muslims and cited former PM Manmohan Singh's remark that the minority community had the first claim on the country's resources.
Jharkhand Mukti Morcha working president Hemant Soren was on Sunday sworn in as the 11th chief minister of Jharkhand at Morhabadi Ground in Ranchi. Governor Droupadi Murmu administered the oath of office and secrecy to Soren, in the presence of senior political leaders and chief ministers from across states.
As BJP leaders went all out to project the event as a moment of national pride, some leaders were directly critical of the ceremony with Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, belonging to the Communist Party of India-Marxist, slamming the state's role in the Ram Temple consecration, saying the line that demarcates religion and state seems to be 'getting thinner and thinner'.
Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi on Saturday cruised to her maiden electoral victory, from the Wayanad Lok Sabha seat in Kerala, with a margin of over 4.1 lakh votes against Communist Party of India-Marxist-led Left Democratic Front's Sathyan Mokeri, according to figures released by the Election Commission.
"PM Narendra Modi yesterday in his broadcast to the nation claimed that there is normalcy in Jammu and Kashmir and people are happy with the decision of abolition of article 370 and 35A.
'The political situation in the country will depend on the electoral outcome in Maharashtra.'
The bench sought a reply within one week and posted the matter for further hearing on September 16.
JMM leader Hemant Soren was sworn in as the 14th chief minister of Jharkhand in a grand ceremony in Ranchi, amid the presence of a galaxy of INDIA bloc leaders. This is Soren's fourth stint as chief minister. The JMM-led alliance won a majority in the recent assembly polls, securing 56 seats in the 81-member assembly.
There was a protest in the university demanding Gandhi's resignation as the chancellor and the students decided to walk down to her residence and paste a memorandum demanding her resignation on the door.
'Prashant Kishor is a businessman before he is a politician, and given that the expected average turnout for JSP candidates is 5,000 to 6,000 votes and since Bihar has a significant number of seats where the margin between the winner and runner-up falls within that range he will capitalise on exactly that to showcase his presence.'
Yadav said all parties have joined hands against the BJP in the Bihar assembly, and added "now this is going to be replicated across the whole country".
'40 percent of voters in Bihar will be excluded.'
Sources said the Congress, which has 19 legislators in the Bihar assembly, will go by what the Rashtriya Janata Dal decides and its presence will help strengthen the coalition.
On April 3, Gandhi's roadshow, on the way to filing his nomination in Wayanad was visibly different from that of 2019 in the hill constituency when the green flags of ally IUML outnumbered the Congress's in the crowd. There were no flags of any party or affiliated organisations.
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has said the attack by the Bharatiya Janata Party workers and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh on the party headquarters in New Delhi will be raised in Parliament on Monday. Addressing a press conference in New Delhi, party general secretary Prakash Karat said, "What is worse is that the local leaders of BJP and RSS were leading the mob which threw boulders and stones on our national party headquarters in New Delhi."
The Supreme Court of India is scheduled to hear a batch of petitions challenging the validity of certain provisions of the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991, which prohibits lawsuits to reclaim a place of worship or change its character from what prevailed on August 15, 1947. The pleas, including one filed by Ashwini Upadhyay, argue that these provisions violate the right to judicial remedy and create an arbitrary cut-off date. The matter will be heard in the backdrop of several ongoing cases related to places of worship, including the Gyanvapi Mosque in Varanasi and the Shahi Idgah Mosque in Mathura. The Muslim side has cited the 1991 law to argue that such suits are not maintainable. The Supreme Court had previously sought the Centre's response to Upadhyay's petition, which alleged that the law creates an "arbitrary and irrational retrospective cut-off date" for maintaining the character of places of worship.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, however, was conspicuous by her absence at the event, which was attended by tens of thousands of people as the Congress sought to promote opposition unity.
The RSS-affiliated ABVP has won the post of joint secretary in the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union (JNUSU) election, ending a nine-year period out of office. The ABVP's victory marks a significant shift in the political landscape of JNU, breaking the Left's long-standing dominance. Left candidates won the remaining three central panel posts, but the ABVP's victory is seen as a major gain for the right-wing group.
Janakrosh, hunkar and khabardar rallies will be brought out by the Communist Party of India, Bharatiya Janata Party and Communist Party of India-(Marxist-Leninist) in Patna in the next few days. M I Khan reports
The CPI-M elects a new general secretary to replace Prakash Karat who steps down after three terms.
Gandhi alleged that scores were being settled in the country with anyone who raised his voice against the ruling dispensation.
The Mahagathbandhan's seat-sharing announcement comes a day after the filing of nomination papers for the first phase of Lok Sabha polls was over.
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.
The special session is set to commence on a stormy note on account of Speaker Vijay Kumar Sinha's stout refusal to resign despite the new ruling dispensation's motion of no-confidence against him.
The editorial, titled "Ahimsa Award for the Executioner?", criticized Congress leader Shashi Tharoor for praising the entrepreneurial growth of Kerala under the Left government. It argued that it was "suicidal" to weaken the party from within when the Congress was actively opposing the shortcomings of the LDF government. The editorial also criticized Tharoor's positive remarks on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's recent US visit, calling it a mere gesture by two administrators to improve their image.
The representatives of thousands of agitating farmers, who are sitting on various borders of the national capital since November 26 demanding repeal of the three agri laws, have said that the countrywide strike on Tuesday would be observed with full force.
Just eight months after its good showing in the Lok Sabha polls, the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) seems to be running out of steam with internal bickering and conflicting ambitions resulting in diminishing electoral returns that have once again put the Bharatiya Janata Party in the driver's seat in national politics.
The CBI has till December 13 to submit a report to the court.
Condemning BJP president Amit Shah's statement on 'exodus' of Hindus in Kairana, the opposition parties alleged that the statement has created anxiety and tension in Western Uttar Pradesh.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday said he was neither a claimant for the prime minister's post nor desirous of it, his assertion coming amid speculation that his visit to the capital is to claim leadership of the opposition parties.
The apex court made it clear that Yechury was allowed to visit Jammu and Kashmir only to meet his party colleague.
Rahul Gandhi's focus will be on his Nyay Yatra, rather than the INDIA bloc's election campaign, leading to speculation among allies that the Congress leader is already looking at the Opposition's fight beyond May 2024.
With a significant number of Opposition leaders present at the swearing-in ceremony of the Congress government in Karnataka, Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal on Sunday said Opposition unity requires much more than optics of this nature and stressed the need for meeting of minds, a common agenda and sacrificing partisan interests.
Rao's history includes arrests in 2000 by Sahadha police of Nandurbar district and subsequent releases, as well as an underground stint in 2002, leading to his arrest by Malkanoor PS police of Karnataka in 2005.
Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra on Wednesday wrote to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla flagging alerts received by several opposition leaders about 'state-sponsored' attacks on their iPhones, and urged him to provide them protection to continue doing their duties.
The Congress expressed its 'whole-hearted' support to the 'Bharat bandh' called by farmer unions against the new agri-marketing laws and announced that it will hold protests that day at all district and state headquarters in solidarity with the demands of the farmers. TRS president and Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao said the party rank and file would actively participate in the bandh to ensure it was a success.
In a new report, the ADR said the BJP declared a total income of Rs 3,623.28 crore during the financial year 2019-20, but spent only 45.57 per cent (Rs 1,651.022 crore) of it.
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.
