Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy on Wednesday said he would not appeal against the Vigilance Court order of a probe into his alleged role in the Palmolein oil import case. "I will not do anything that will hamper the investigation process," Chandy told reporters after a Cabinet meeting. He also rejected the Opposition's allegation that the vigilance probe would not be impartial as long as he (Chandy) continued to be the chief minister.
The dawn-to-dusk hartal called by the Communist Party of India-Marxist-led Left Democratic Front to step up pressure on the Centre for imposing a nation-wide ban on endosulfan pesticide hit normal life across Kerala on Friday.
While the major fronts, the CPI-M led LDF and Congress-led UDF have given three and one seat respectively to women, the BJP-led NDA has set aside five seats for their female politicians in the upcoming LS polls.
State government and the investment partner of the project was on a dispute over 'free hold land' issue.
10 vacancies in the Upper House after Rajya Sabha members were elected to the Lok Sabha.
Omar Abdullah will have to negotiate at every step with the lieutenant governor's office and the Modi government at the Centre.
The decision was taken by the state cabinet, which gave its approval to the proposals of the high power committee headed by Local Administration Minister Paloli Muhammadkutty, set up to study the state-level implementation of the Sachar Committee report.
The juggernaut of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance, which triumphed in three of the four east and north-eastern states that went for assembly bypolls on Saturday, was halted yet again in West Bengal where Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress registered a six-on-six clean sweep.
Kerala Congress (J), a constituent of the Communist Party of India-Marxist-led Left Democratic Front in Kerala, on Friday said its Lok Sabha member Francis George would vote against the trust vote on July 22 along with other LDF members. Denying reports in a section of the media that its party MP Francis George might vote in favour of the trust vote, the party chairman P J Joseph told PTI in Thiruvananthapuram that the party MP would vote against the trust vote.
The Election Commission has said it will allow suspected fake voters to cast their ballots in the Palakkad assembly by-poll, but will take action against them later. The CPI(M), Congress, and BJP have accused each other of enrolling fake voters. The by-poll is scheduled for November 20.
The Bharatiya Janata Party announced on Saturday that Navya Haridas, a two-time councillor in the Kozhikode Corporation, will be the National Democratic Alliance candidate for the Wayanad Lok Sabha by-election.
The government may have to move 18 amendments to the Constitution to implement the concept of simultaneous elections as recommended by a high-level committee chaired by former president Ram Nath Kovind.
Local residents have stressed that land acquisition for rehabilitation must be completed promptly, as it has been delayed after estate owners challenged it in the Kerala high court.
The ruling Mahayuti is poised to retain power in Maharashtra with the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) also putting up a strong show in assembly polls, most exit polls predicted on Wednesday after conclusion of polling on 288 seats in the state. Jharkhand is likely to see a change of government with BJP-led National Democratic Alliance coming to power in the state, three exit polls said on Wednesday with one poll giving majority to the ruling JMM-led alliance.
Voting for by-elections to seven assembly constituencies of six states, including Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Kerala, Tripura, West Bengal, and Jharkhand, started on Tuesday at 7 am.
Apparently rattled by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor's Malabar tour, Leader of Opposition in the Kerala assembly, V D Satheesan on Tuesday said any kind of sectarianism or parallel activities would not be allowed in the party and warned that such moves would be dealt with 'seriously'.
With challenges such as raising the legal age of marriage for women, combating malnutrition among women and children, and addressing women's safety issues, the new ministers face a formidable agenda.
JD-U chief whip Shravan Kumar said those defying the whip "will lose their membership" even as he maintained that it was a "routine exercise that takes place ahead of every assembly session".
Women-centric schemes could have proved a game-changer in both Maharashtra and Jharkhand, as both states witnessed a surge in women voters in the recently held assembly polls as well as return of the ruling alliances with a thumping majority.
A senior TMC leader will be present at the proposed meeting, he said.
Tharoor suffered head injuries while performing a ritual at a temple in Thiruvananthapuram.
Voting for the second phase of Lok Sabha polls will be held on Friday for 88 seats in 13 states with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi seeking a second-straight term from Wayanad in Kerala.
The final round of voting for the Jharkhand Assembly elections is taking place on Wednesday, with the JMM-Congress-RJD coalition seeking to retain power while the BJP-led NDA aims to take control. The election will decide the fate of Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren, his wife, and several other candidates. Key issues during the campaign included alleged infiltration from Bangladesh, corruption, and Hindutva.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Friday said a decision on whether to oppose the Centre's ordinance on the control of administrative services in Delhi would be taken before the Parliament session.
The LDF is also maintaining its lead in village and block panchayats from where results have begun to pour in.
The already strained relations between the Dravida Munnettra Kazhagam and the Left parties hit the nadir on Friday with Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK supremo M Karunanidhi stating that Communist Party of India - Marxist leader N Varadharajan's remarks only showed that the Left parties had already decided to walk out of the DMK-led Democratic Progressive Alliance. Karunanidhi took a dig at the CPI-M state secretary on the latter's remarks that Congress was a 'sinking ship'
The exit polls on Saturday predicted the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance winning most of the seats in Congress-ruled Karnataka in the Lok Sabha elections and the Congress not putting up a good show.
The Delhi high court on Friday sought a response from the Centre, Election Commission of India, and 26 political parties on a petition seeking to restrain opposition parties from using the acronym INDIA for their alliance.
The country now has six national parties - Bharatiya Janata Party, Congress, Bahujan Samaj Party, Communist Party of India-Marxist, NPP and AAP.
The Communist Party of India-Marxist on Friday said the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) is "not a communal party" and praised the key partner of the opposition United Democratic Front for not agreeing with the Congress on the issue of the alleged move by Governor Arif Mohammed Khan, who according to the ruling front, was trying to "saffronise" the universities in Kerala.
The Kerala unit of the Congress instantly gets a headache when Shashi Tharoor lets loose one of his observations showering flowers on enemy territory. With every such action triggering controversy within a nervous Congress party, some feel it is high time Tharoor showed a degree of solidarity with the ideals of his party, notes Shyam G Menon.
'After the 2024 election results, I have had the realisation that electoral politics is simply not for me. I am therefore quitting all forms of electoral politics with immediate effect.'
Fissures surfaced among Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) partners ahead of the Jharkhand assembly elections as the Rashtriya Janata Dal on Saturday expressed disappointment over the announcement of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha and Congress contesting 70 of 81 seats in the state.
In a strategic move, the BJP has welcomed prominent Christian figures like Anil K Antony, son of Congress stalwart AK Antony, and seasoned Kerala politician PC George, into its fold.
Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren expanded his cabinet on Thursday, inducting 11 new ministers, including six first-timers and two women. The swearing-in ceremony was held at the Raj Bhavan in Ranchi. The new ministers include six from the JMM and four from the Congress. One minister is from the RJD. The expansion comes after the JMM-led alliance won the recent assembly elections with a comfortable majority. The cabinet expansion is expected to give the government a fresh impetus to push its agenda and accelerate development in the state.
APCC president Ripun Bora said following discussions with various parties, it has been decided that the Congress will join hands with the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF), the Communist Party of India, the Communist Party of India-Marxist, Communist Party of India-Marxist Leninist and the Anchalik Gana Morcha.
In a stunning comeback, Hemant Soren's Jharkhand Mukti Morcha-led alliance on Saturday stormed to power in Jharkhand for a second consecutive term, winning 56 seats in the 81-member assembly, despite an all-out blitz by the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance which managed only 24 seats.
Former West Bengal chief minister and a front-ranking Marxist leader Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee will go down in the country's history as a pragmatic communist who kept aside his ideological convictions to woo capital for the industrialisation of his state.
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.
In a significant development, the Supreme Court on Friday agreed to consider the separate pleas of opposition-ruled Kerala and West Bengal, alleging the denial of assent to bills passed by the respective legislative assemblies.
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