Even as Priyanka is gaining traction among the electorate and the media, her counterpart for the western UP region, Jyotiraditya Scindia, has been low key and perceptibly missing from the 'heat and dust' of elections in UP, reports Virendra Singh Rawat.
Akhilesh Yadav confirmed in a television interview that the press conference is on the alliance in Uttar Pradesh, while parrying questions on the Congress.
The minister also hoped that a resolution should be reached before the year ends and asserted that the Modi government is committed to address all genuine concerns of the farming community.
'There is no animosity among us. We are one family.'
'Do you know there is a 500 page report prepared by an inquiry committee headed by myself? When I placed the report in Parliament, have you heard any single Opposition leader give a notice for discussion? Why are they not demanding a discussion in Parliament on the report? They could have established that there was a scam. Today, a Parliament Committee report is as good as a Parliament report and this report says the 2G scam is no scam. Our government is suffering because of the media hype on these scams,' Congress MP P C Chacko tells Rediff.com's Shobha Warrier.
Farmer leaders said unions do not allow any political party to use their stage and accused the government of diverting the issue.
It is learnt that Bhanot has been recommended by the Athletics Federation of India to contest the AAA elections to be held on June 1 prior to the Asian Athletics Championships at Wuhan in China from June 3 to 7.
The Congress chief, however, said he was not expecting any cooperation from the prime minister and the BJP-led central government for the development of Wayanad and Kerala.
The removal of the term limit will give Xi a limitless tenure.
With his exit, the TMC will lose a crucial, politically influential vote catcher in the Jungalmahal region and areas in minority-dominated Murshidabad, and the BJP will get a face it badly needs, especially in rural Bengal, reports Aditi Phadnis.
The polls have come at a time when opposition parties in Haryana are in a disarray.
Getting ready to fight the next assembly election in Assam in 2016 on the 'U-turns' on state issues made by the Bharatiya Janata Party government in the Centre, the ruling Congress government in Assam has brought out a handbook for its party workers highlighting the 'failures' of the Narendra Modi government to fulfil promises made to people of the state.
'It will be a ghastly mistake for the CPI-M to face the 2019 poll on its own.' 'At best, it can hope to split non-BJP votes in some pockets, but the humiliating rout will spell its doom,' warns M K Bhadrakumar.
As electoral sails shift in the dynamic political winds of West Bengal, two factors may still change the electoral equations are how the BJP fares this time and how Muslims are going to vote. Mayank Mishra reports.
No longer Bengal's finance minister, Amit Mitra, Mamata's principal chief advisor, will still advise and aid the 'chief minister and finance department on all matters relating to management of state finance', represent the 'state government in national and international events/meetings/committees' and examine 'important proposals/files and policy issues relating to financial matters referred to him for advice/views'.
Cracking the whip, Congress on Thursday night suspended rebel party MP from Haryana Chaudhary Birender Singh and former CWC member Jagmeet Brar for "gross indiscipline" and "deliberately lowering the prestige of the party".
The meeting was convened by the party to assess whether its flock was intact amid speculation that some of the MLAs had switched over to the Bharatiya Janata Party.
'By treating Nepali politicians as shabby buffoons to be pampered one day and collared another day, India badly exposed itself.' 'A belief got entrenched in the Nepalese mind that we are a dangerous neighbour,' observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Buoyed by the formation of governments in Assam, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh, the BJP is making a bid to expand its footprints in the region.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has underlined the need for building a combat-ready army and accelerate the building of the theatre joint combat command system, amidst the People's Liberation Army flexing its muscles in the disputed South China Sea.
The Gandhi family will now get 'Z+' security by the Central Reserve Police Force on an all-India basis.
The Aam Aadmi Party's Party's East Delhi candidate Atishi talks on her competition against the Bharatiya Janata Party candidate, the former cricketer -- Gautam Gambhir, and her agenda for the polls.
Two powerful US Senators have urged President Joe Biden not to impose provisions of the punitive Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act against India for buying the S-400 surface-to-air missile system from Russia.
Aditi Phadnis remembers the former prime minister on her 102nd birth anniversary.
Polling will be held between 7 am and 4 pm, except in some polling stations of the interior districts of Nagaland, where the process is scheduled to conclude at 3 pm. The two states have a 60-member House each, but voting will be held for 59 constituencies in both.
Kerala, Punjab and Rajasthan are the other three states to pass a resolution opposing the contentious legislation, reports Archis Mohan.
If the protests have cemented the ties between the peasantry and the traders, the political implications for the BJP might become too serious to be disregarded because its core base was made up of the urban Khatri merchants.
The Congress leadership has become stunted, it does not understand agriculture and the party is trying to mislead farmers for its own vested interests, said Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar.
'They are our go-to men, our trouble-shooters.' 'They draw their strength from remaining low-key and accessible only to our workers.'
Once a Congress-led government is formed at the Centre, the farm laws will be revoked and dumped into the 'dustbin', he said, addressing a gathering in the evening here on the conclusion of his 'Kheti Bachao Yatra' (save the farming march), which began from Punjab's Moga district on Sunday.
Confrontation between the Sikh bodies of Punjab and Haryana has become more political than religious, says Rediff.com contributor Upasna Pandey.
Apart from taking stock of the political situation in the country, the CWC discussed the upcoming presidential and vice presidential elections.
As well as UEFA, the continental confederations representing South America (Conmebol), North and Central America and the Caribbean (CONCACAF), and Asia (AFC) have all reportedly told Platini they would back his candidacy for FIFA president. The other two confederations are Africa's CAF and Oceania's OFC.
BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra hit back at the Congress a day after it cited some audio clips to accuse some saffron party leaders, including Union minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, of conspiring to topple the Ashok Gehlot government in the state.
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and other top central leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party will address a conclave of the party's spokespersons, panelists and media cell office-bearers in New Delhi on Saturday and guide them on how to handle the propaganda ahead of next Lok Sabha elections.
Enraged over a trenchant message printed on a restaurant's bill slamming United Progressive Alliance government for imposing service tax on AC restaurants, Congress workers forced closure of the Mumbai eatery.
Congress leader Saifuddin Soz is presently in an eye of the storm due to his book 'Kashmir: Glimpses of History and the Story of Struggle.' Soz, the former president of Jammu and Kashmir Congress committee, has also been in the National Conference. He was also a minister in the United Progressive Alliance government. PTI-Bhasha spoke to Soz on the issue of breakup of the Bharatiya Janata Party-Peoples Democratic Party alliance in Jammu and Kashmir and the prevailing situation in the Valley.
Veering towards conceding the demand for a separate Telangana, the Congress has convened a meeting of its working committee, the party's highest policy-making body, on Tuesday after deliberations on the issue in the United Progressive Alliance coordination committee.
Rajasthan Governor Margaret Alva will be sworn-in as Governor of Goa on Saturday after predecessor B V Wanchoo resigned last week. Chief Justice of Bombay High Court, Mohit Shantilal Shah will administer the oath of office to the Governor at Durbar hall of the Raj Bhavan at 6 pm on Saturday, according to a statement issued by the state government.
"The Asian Football Confederation expresses its disappointment and sadness at Wednesday's events in Zurich whilst opposing any delay in the FIFA Presidential elections to take place on Friday May 29 in Zurich," the AFC said in a statement posted on its website (the-afc.com) on Thursday.