Prime Minister Narendra Modi was on Tuesday poised to form the government for a third consecutive term with the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance getting a majority in the Lok Sabha, notwithstanding crushing losses in three Hindi heartland states after a bitterly fought election that was projected as a referendum on his popularity.
While normal life remained paralaysed in Andhra and Rayalseema region for the second consecutive day on Thursday over the Centre's decision to create a separate state of Telangana, Andhra Pradesh appeared to be hurtling towards a deeper political crisis.
The Telugu Desam Party has decided not to contest the upcoming Lok Sabha polls in Telangana, and the beleaguered party is yet to take a call on whom to support in the state, though it is part of the NDA in the neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, a senior leader of the party said.
Unidentified miscreants hurled a stone at the Chief Minister on Saturday night near Vivekananda School Centre in Vijayawada's Singh Nagar, which injured his left temple when he was canvassing for polls.
Throwing a direct challenge at the Congress high command, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy on Saturday said that he would ensure the defeat of the AP Reorganisation Bill 2013 when it comes up for passage in the state assembly.
With billionaire Gautam Adani charged in the United States with alleged bribery and fraud, the Congress on Thursday said it 'vindicates' its demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee investigation into the various 'scams' involving his conglomerate.
The Telugu Desam Party-Bharatiya Janata Party combine stormed to power in the residual state of Andhra Pradesh, commonly known as Seemandhra, as the Congress was virtually wiped out in the assembly polls, which were simultaneously held with the Lok Sabha elections.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister K Rosaiah was on Saturday nominated the Congress Legislature Party leader by party chief Sonia Gandhi, bringing down the curtains on the issue of sucessor to late Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, who died in a helicopter crash more than two months ago.
It also asked why the data shared pertained to a period from April 2019 even though the scheme for anonymous political funding was introduced in 2017.
Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Ltd made a number of electoral bond purchases close to the date of bagging crucial projects, including the all-weather Zojila tunnel that is being constructed at an estimated cost of Rs 4,500 crore in Jammu and Kashmir.
Parallel to this, the ruling Telugu Desam has been organising rallies across the state in solidarity with its MPs.
Rao said his pro-Telangana utterances had nothing to do with his present appointment and claimed that his focus would now be to ensure that the RTC functioned as a viable public sector undertaking.
With the demand for the creation of a separate state of Telangana gaining momentum, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy met Congress President Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi on Sunday and is understood to have discussed the contentious matter.
'If we get 399 seats and you say we have not crossed 400, then it is your wisdom. But the '400 paar' slogan is based on calculation and considered opinion'
Thousands of people may have gathered at the Lal Bahadur Shastri Stadium in Hyderabad on Sunday to attend a rally by Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi but it remains to be seen whether the mammoth turnout will actually translate into votes for the Bharatiya Janata Party in Andhra Pradesh.
Nallari Kiran Kumar Reddy, who will be listed in the history as the last chief minister of an "undivided" Andhra Pradesh, is likely to drop his plans to float a new political party.
Sources within the Congress, including those who have been members of the teams that drafted its 2019 and 2024 Lok Sabha poll manifestos, said the Karnataka government decision lacked any empirical basis.
With the TRS and TDP achieving majority in Telangana and Andhra respectively, the results reveal that both the states will have non-coalition governments. Vicky Nanjappa reports.
This will be the third plenary of the decade-old party, and the first since it came to power in Andhra Pradesh three years ago.
The controversy has sparked reactions across states. The famous Mankameshwar temple in Uttar Pradesh has now banned offerings of 'prasad' bought by devotees from outside and said they can offer homemade 'prasad' or fruits.
Asaduddin Owaisi, who was once the leader of a little-known outfit confined to the old city of Hyderabad, has emerged as a powerful voice of Muslims in the country in recent years.
The decision to bifurcate Andhra Pradesh has "zero" electoral prospects and it will be a "death blow" to the Congress, Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy has claimed.
Telugu Desam Party chief Chandrababu Naidu on Monday began an indefinite fast in New Delhi to protest against the split of Andhra Pradesh, accusing the Congress of playing politics in view of the Lok Sabha polls, but remained ambivalent on Telangana.
Among the keenly watched contests are those involving former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav (Kannauj, UP) and Union ministers Giriraj Singh (Begusarai, Bihar), Nityanand Rai (Ujiarpur, Bihar) and Raosaheb Danve (Jalna, Maharashtra).
The total assets of seven Members of Parliament analysed from Telangana is Rs 5,596 crore, that of 11 MPs from Andhra Pradesh is Rs 3,823 crore, and 30 MPs analysed from Uttar Pradesh have total assets worth Rs 1,941 crore.
Close to half of the total 543 Lok Sabha seats are bracing for multi-cornered fight this time, making the contest way more interesting and intense than it was in the 2019 elections.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday assured Congress MPs from Andhra and Rayalseema regions that efforts were on to work out an amicable solution to defuse the situation in Andhra Pradesh in the wake of protests over announcement of a separate Telangana state.
After a marathon polling process to elect the 18th Lok Sabha that lasted for a month and a half, the results were declared on Tuesday.
A voter turnout of over 40 per cent was recorded till 1 pm on Monday in the fourth phase of Lok Sabha elections in 96 constituencies spread over 10 states and Union Territories amid incidents of violence in Andhra Pradesh and reports of poll boycott in some villages of Uttar Pradesh.
Amdist claims of positive signal from the Centre over Telangana statehood, Congress leaders from Andhra and Rayalaseema regions of Andhra Pradesh will meet the party high command in New Delhi on January 21 to press their demand for a unified state.
22 images that captures glimpses of a most unusual Indian who led the nation for 10 years.
Member of Parliament Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday said the president was the "supreme authority' in the Congress and whoever got elected to the post would decide on the way forward (for the party).
'I shall soon enter politics in Andhra Pradesh to serve the people. Before that, I have decided to visit different parts of the district to know the people's pulse and understand their problems.'
The deadlock in the Andhra Pradesh assembly is likely to end on Monday, when the Telangana Bill will finally be presented in the House.
'Women' as a political constituency appears to be an idea that has come of age. It is changing India in ways that we only dimly understand, asserts Aditi Phadnis.
Megha Engineering and Infrastructure, the little-known Hyderabad-based firm that in recent years won the prestigious Zojila tunnel deal among other projects, forayed into city gas and acquired a media group, was the second largest donor to political parties using electoral bonds.
Andhra Pradesh Minister for Infrastructure and Investment Ganta Srinivasa Rao on Thursday resigned from his post in the backdrop of mounting protests across Andhra-Rayalaseema regions against the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government's decision to bifurcate the state.
'For the first time in this country, perhaps the first time anywhere, we are going to use backwardness index.' 'It is a fundamental shift in the discourse in the country's social justice.'
The prospect of an upset worries the ruling Congress in Andhra Pradesh as it faces a threat from a rebel candidate in the biennial election to Rajya Sabha slated for Friday.
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