The presidential poll process is in a rollercoaster ride. If it is not arrested, there is a danger of it affecting governance, says B Raman.
Pranab's earlier fear of Sonia relying too heavily on a coterie due to her lack of experience turned out to be unfounded. As per Pranab, Sonia had her close advisers but she did not follow anyone's advice blindly. A fascinating excerpt from Sharmistha Mukherjee's Pranab, My Father: A Daughter Remembers.
With the support from eight political parties, 78-year-old Poudel's victory was certain. His rival Subas Chandra Nebmang had support of former prime minister KP Sharma-led CPN-UML.
Nearly 30,000 people, including US President George W Bush, were present when Clinton inaugurated his library at a rain-soaked ceremony in Little Rock, Arkansas.
A senior Congress leader said the Opposition's presidential pick Meira Kumar might also pay a visit to Lucknow to seek votes from the electoral college as the party "will not leave any stone unturned" for the election.
With uncertainty over P A Sangma's candidature for the Presidential poll in the wake of the Nationalist Congress Party's threat to sack him, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday decided to adopt a wait and watch attitude and deferred the National Democratic Alliance meeting. Party sources said the NDA meeting, which was earlier planned for Wednesday, has been deferred as there has been no fresh development since A P J Abdul Kalam withdrew from the race.
Mistry said the poll body satisfied the candidate on every complaint but despite that he raised all those points in the media before bringing them to "our notice".
If elected, he will be the second All India Congress Committee president from Karnataka after S Nijalingappa, and also a Dalit leader to hold the post after Jagjivan Ram.
'I assured them I will not back away. I will not betray those who have supported me till now. Their confidence in me is what gives me the strength to move forward'
Returning home after a five-day high-profile state visit to China, Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu on Saturday struck a defiant note saying that his country may be small but 'doesn't give them the license to bully us'.
Going by precedence, the 15th presidential election scheduled to be held on July 17 this year will see a contest, notwithstanding the frenetic political confabulations for a consensus candidate.
A revealing excerpt from Mani Shankar Aiyar's fascinating new book, The Rajiv I Knew.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, visited Thackeray's residence 'Matoshree' and held a close-door meeting, which started around 10 am and lasted for nearly 75 minutes.
The development comes a day after clashes broke out in Parliament on Sunday between pro-government MPs and opposition lawmakers over differences over the approval of four members of the pro-China President's cabinet.
Accompanied by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, 72-year-old Pratibha filed the documents before the returning officer and Lok Sabha Secretary General P D T Achary at the Lok Sabha Secretariat.
Karunanidhi also met NCP supremo Sharad Pawar, and CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat where the issue of a successor to President A P J Abdul Kalam came up for discussion.
Maldivian President Mohamed Muizzu's party secured a 'supermajority' in Parliament by winning over 60 seats in Sunday's crucial parliamentary election, seen as a litmus test for the pro-Beijing politician whose policies are being closely watched by both India and China amidst regional power dynamics.
The ruling Biju Janata Dal in Odisha on Sunday announced that it would abstain from voting in the vice-presidential election scheduled to be held on August 7.
A record five Indian-American lawmakers from the ruling Democrat Party, including Raja Krishnamoorthi, Ro Khanna, Pramila Jayapal and Ami Bera have been elected to the US House of Representatives, while several others were elected in state legislatures, in one of the most polarised midterm elections in the country.
The Telugu Desam has decided to abstain from voting in the July 19 Presidential election, a statement from party president N Chandrababu Naidu said on Tuesday night.
Making it clear that it is firmly behind the United Progressive Alliance candidate in the Presidential race, the Nationalist Congress Party has told former Lok Sabha speaker P A Sangma not to press for his candidature in the polls.
Will January 22 mark a point of no return for our Constitutional secularism? asks Shekhar Gupta.
The Lok Sabha MP said a clear picture about the Congress president poll can be known on September 30 and the Yatra would cross the state's borders the next day.
On Thursday, September 21, 2023, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made a second trip to Washington, DC since Russia invaded his country on February 24, 2022.
The "Samosa caucus" comprises of five Indian-American lawmakers, including four members of the House of Representatives and Senator and Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris.
Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar, who had caused a flutter by pitching for a "non-political" person as the candidate for the Presidential polls, on Monday said he had only talked about an "agreed" candidate. "I have not said this. I have spoken about an agreed candidate," Pawar told reporters when asked to comment on his remark on a "non-political" candidate for the post of the President of India.
'There was trust, but perhaps there was also this apprehension that given the supreme post of prime minister, Sonia Gandhi felt her authority may be a challenged.'
The Opposition is putting up a symbolic fight for the presidential polls as it knows that the BJP has the numbers to get its candidate elected to the top post.
The CAA, enacted by the BJP-led government at the Centre in 2019, aims at granting Indian citizenship to persecuted non-Muslim migrants, including Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis and Christians, from Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan who entered India before December 31, 2014.
Giving a new turn to the Presidential race, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday ruled out supporting Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Vice-President Hamid Ansari or any other candidate who may be put up by the Congress but is open to supporting anyone chosen by the non-Congress parties.
BJP President Amit Shah has authorised Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu to liaise with M Thambidurai and TTV Dinakaran from the Sasikala camp, just in case it turns against the BJP after the income tax raids on its health minister C Vijayabaskar.
Political parties of all hues, including the ruling Congress, Telugu Desam Party and Bharatiya Janata Party in Andhra Pradesh on Tuesday welcomed the Centre's decision to repeal a clause in a 1975 Presidential Order for the benefit of Telangana, while the Telangana Rashtra Samithi and student groups said they would continue their campaign till the orders are issued officially.
Raut also highlighted that the party had goodwill toward the opposition's Presidential candidate Yashwant Sinha.
Chris Christie, the governor of New Jersey, which has one of the largest Indian-American population in a US state, has launched his bid for president, joining the already crowded presidential race of his Republican party.
Any miscalculation and miscommunication are fraught with the risk of a major catastrophe, warns Rup Narayan Das.
They are actively engaging with the party leadership for the past some time but the party is yet to take a call, the sources said, adding the MPs include one from the north of the country and one from south.
During that election, the ballot papers were shuffled three or four times during the polling so that the agents of the candidates find it difficult to note down the serial numbers to identify votes cast by members during counting.
"I am contesting the organisational election. There is a saying 'Bakrid mein bachenge toh Muharram mein nachenge'. First, let these elections get over and let me become president, then we will see," Kharge said at a press conference held at Pradesh Congress Committee office in Bhopal.
The Election Commission said July 18 is the last date to file nomination paper.
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