The stage is set for a direct contest between NDA nominee C P Radhakrishnan and joint opposition candidate B Sudershan Reddy for the September 9 vice-presidential election. Nominations have been scrutinized and accepted.
BJP will find it tougher to push contentious Bills, especially those that would require Constitutional amendments, without the support of its allies and cooperation from the Opposition.
Amid a row over change in stand over voting on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2025, the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) on Friday asserted it is a secular regional outfit and maintains equal distance from the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance and the opposition Indian National Democratic Inclusive Alliance bloc led by the Congress.
Three of the fence-sitters rule fairly large states Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Odisha that together send 63 members to Lok Sabha -- where the Congress or other opposition parties have been pushed to the margins.
The BJP state unit hailed Vasan and said his advice will be used in the coming days to guide the alliance.
The Kerala Congress-Mani led by former Kerala finance minister K M Mani on Sunday decided to withdraw its support to the Congress-led United Democratic Front coalition of which it was a part for more than three decades.
Appreciating the central government for conferring Bharat Ratna to Charan Singh, he said that this decision proves that Modi understands the sentiment and character of the nation.
Shah pulled no punches in lambasting the RJD supremo for alleged nepotism, accusing him of making his wife the chief minister, getting his daughter elected to Parliament and "now both his sons want to become the CM".
Moderate turnout was recorded in the first four hours of polling across five assembly constituencies across Punjab, West Bengal, Gujarat and Kerala where bypolls are underway on Thursday.
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.
Union minister Chirag Paswan has caused a flutter by stating he would choose to give up his ministerial berth instead of a compromise on his principles, in keeping with the precedent set by his late father Ram Vilas Paswan.
Introducing the bill, Rijiju said the consultation process of the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) was the largest ever exercise carried out by a parliamentary panel in India's democratic history.
Brisk polling was seen for the Wayanad Lok Sabha and the Chelakkara assembly seats in Kerala as they witnessed a turnout of 20.54 and 19.08 per cent, respectively, after the first three hours of voting on Wednesday.
'The Election Commission's involvement in the avoidable SIR controversy has carried a message down to the last voter -- who just does not like it,' observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
The Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance was surging ahead in two southern states -- Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka -- while the respective blocs led by the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam in Tamil Nadu and Congress in Kerala were on their way for another excellent show, going by the latest trends emerging from the counting of voted polled in the just concluded Lok Sabha polls.
The opposition parties on Sunday slammed the move to hire public servants through lateral entry, claiming it will snatch reservations from SCs, STs and OBCs, but the Bharatiya Janata Party hit back stating the National Democratic Alliance government was bringing transparency to this mode of recruitment started by the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance.
The senior Paswan sought an appointment and waited for more than three months but Rahul Gandhi did not relent, said Chirag Paswan, who at that time too was keen to leave the UPA and join the National Democratic Alliance.
Leaders of the JD-U, which has two ministers in the Union government, insist that the resolution also spoke of "special package and other types of help" and that Bihar could still get a lot from Narendra Modi government.
The collegium system has shut the doors of judgeship in the higher judiciary on Dalits, OBCs and even the poor among the upper castes
10 vacancies in the Upper House after Rajya Sabha members were elected to the Lok Sabha.
In their letter to Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar, the Congress leaders said during a discussion on the functioning of the ministry of agriculture and farmers' welfare on August 2, "misleading and incorrect assertions" were made by the minister.
The government will come out with a White Paper on the mismanagement of economy prior to 2014 with an aim to draw lessons.
The exodus in Congress could again momentum (Kiran Reddy, L Rajagopal's resignations) in contrast to which the BJP is adding to its tally of allies and is finding new admirers. Anita Katiyal reports
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi is not a threat to the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance but a threat to the Bharatiya Janata Party led-National Democratic Alliance itself, as proved by the developments following his elevation as the BJP poll panel chief, his Assam counterpart Tarun Gogoi said on Saturday. "Modi is not a threat to the UPA. Modi is a threat to NDA itself," he said.
The Opposition Congress-led United Democratic Fund has alleged that absence of Bharatiya Janata Party candidate against Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan in Malampuzha is part of a clandestine understanding between the Communist Party of India-Marxist and the BJP as they are now together in opposing the United Progressive Alliance at the Centre.
On February 1, grappling with the intractable issue of the AMU's minority status, the top court said the 1981 amendment to the AMU Act, which effectively accorded it a minority status, only did a "half-hearted job" and did not restore the institution the position it had prior to 1951.
The Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance is projected to get 227 seats in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, while Congress will be reduced to 84 seats, according to an opinion poll.
Lone member of the Rajya Sabha from Mizoram Lalhming Liana on Friday said he would not support the United Progressive Alliance government when voting takes place in the upper house on Foreign Direct Investment in retail.
The Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance is projected to form the government at the Centre with exit polls on Monday night giving between 249 and 290 seats to the Narendra Modi-led grouping, which is close to the half-way mark in the 543-member Lok Sabha.
Sharing the dais with Ramdev, Bharatiya Janata Party President Nitin Gadkari on Monday pledged his party's "full support" to the yoga guru's agitation against black money and launched a blistering attack on the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government on issues like corruption and black money.
An average voter turnout of 20 per cent was recorded in the first four hours of voting in the bypolls to 15 assembly seats spread across Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Kerala and Uttarakhand on Wednesday amid an incident of stone pelting in a village in UP's Meerapur and allegations of police personnel deterring voters from casting their ballot.
An opinion poll on Monday night projected the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance securing majority with 275 out of the 543 Lok Sabha seats in the elections.
Predicting a hung Parliament post 2014 general elections, the Nationalist Congress party on Thursday said it will continue to be part of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance, which may possibly expand itself with additional allies, as none of the party combines will be able to form a government on its own.
'Wait for 2019, there will be no space for the BJP in UP.'
The Indian National Lok Dal on Sunday rejoined the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance and announced that it will contest the coming Lok Sabha elections in Haryana in alliance with the BJP.
Kerala Chief Minister and veteran Marxist leader Pinarayi Vijayan intensified his attack on the Congress, alleging that its general secretary, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, is contesting the Wayanad Lok Sabha by-election with the backing of Jamaat-e-Islami.
The way things are going, India may have a no-limits free-for-all political contest rather than a three-horse race. Parties are approaching one another across the dividing lines of alliances, breaching conventional rules of the political game.
With the government moving a resolution in the Lok Sabha to set up a Joint Parliamentary Committee on the 2G spectrum issue, the battle lines between the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance and the Bharatiya Janata Party have become more tightly drawn with the Congress preparing its ammunition to target the BJP during its National Democratic Alliance government, in a bid to expose the actions of their telecom ministers.
The 'aura of invincibility' around Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been 'shattered' by the Indian voters who gave the Opposition a new lease on life, this is how the international media described the outcome of India's general elections.
Tamil Nadu and Kerala are voting in single-phase for 234 and 140 assembly constituencies respectively.
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