The Congress and the Left parties have not only extended support to the Samajwadi Party candidate but are also campaigning for him, in accordance with the spirit of the new opposition togetherness ahead of next year's general election.
Despite Sharad Pawar's categorical stand, the Maharashtra government has done nothing to ease the suffering of the Bhima Koregaon 16, who have been denied their basic rights to health and to communication with their families while in jail.
"Doctors have already made it clear that the Hathras woman was not raped," Pal, the UP minister of state for Electronics and Information Technology said in a statement which is set to further aggravate the controversy.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday alleged that India is witnessing the 'death of democracy' and anybody who stands against the onset of dictatorship is 'viciously attacked'.
'Islam is the oldest religion among all religions. India is the best country for Hindi Muslims'
He also asserted that everything has gone smoothly for the party in the assembly polls and the government will be formed soon.
Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister and former state BJP president Keshav Prasad Maurya had also dropped a hint in a recent tweet, saying Yaduvanshi (Yadavs), Ravidasiyo (Jatavs) and Pasmanda Muslims will be brought closer to the BJP so that the lotus 'blossoms' in every booth in UP.
A day after her remarks during a lecture in which she had said that anthropologically Gods do not belong to the upper caste, Jawaharlal Nehru University Vice Chancellor Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit said it is to the credit of Hinduism that great dissenters from Gautam Buddha to Dr B R Ambedkar are celebrated.
'The government is doing away with crucial laws such as the Forest Conservation Act and the Environment Protection Act which had helped safeguard our forests.' 'The President has to show that she will stand in favour of tribal rights.'
Mayawati has accused 'Ravan' of being a BJP agent who is dividing the scheduled castes.
For the BJP, the RSS' organisational heft is a prized asset, considering the slew of elections it faces this year, ahead of the Lok Sabha election in 2024.
The home minister said eight people were killed -- six in Madhya Pradesh and one each in Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, during Monday's Bharat Bandh.
But she added that her government will be open to erecting memorials to honour leaders from 'other communities' and keep their religious sentiments in mind.
"Debate is just an excuse, the real target of the RSS-BJP is social justice," Priyanka Gandhi said.
The less charitable in the party say he owes his appointment Sonia Gandhi -- the family wanted someone who wouldn't talk back and would not exert himself too much, notes Aditi Phadnis.
This comes a day after Twitter removed a controversial post of Gandhi with a picture of him meeting the family of a nine-year-old Dalit girl who died following an alleged sexual assault. A message from Twitter read that the tweet had violated its rules.
Former Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh met Union Home Minister Amit Shah at his residence in New Delhi on Wednesday, raising speculation over his future plans ahead of the assembly polls in the state.
Asserting that he is neither retired nor tired, Singh says the urge to make Punjab and the country a better place keeps him going at this age.
In a shot in the arm for the Bharatiya Janata Party in Bihar, Chirag Paswan on Sunday cast aside his ambivalence and announced that he will campaign for the saffron party in bypolls to two assembly segments in the state.
The chief minister said the campaign, whose start coincided with the commencement of the Navrati festival dedicated to Goddess Durga, is a tribute to the woman who died after being allegedly raped by two men in Balrampur and asserted that his government has 'zero tolerance' towards crime against women and girls.
The party's state unit president Jagadanand Singh announced the names of Mohd Qari Sohaib, Munni Rajak and Ashok Kumar Pandey.
Such is the situation of the government in Punjab, the prime minister said while hitting out the Congress, and asserted that he will come to Jalandhar again and pay obeisance at the Devi Talab Mandir.
Jailed gangster and former member of Parliament Atiq Ahmad and his wife on Tuesday joined the All India Majlis e Ittehadul Muslimeen in the presence of its chief Asaduddin Owaisi, drawing a sharp reaction from the Bharatiya Janata Party which said Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath will not allow "Jinnah's jihadi mentality" to flourish in Uttar Pradesh.
The Tamil Nadu government told the Supreme Court on Friday that it is not completely opposed to allowing the RSS's route marches and public meetings across the state on March 5 but cited intelligence reports to say these cannot be held in every street or locality.
Senior Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Shashi Tharoor will face-off in an electoral contest on Monday for the post of All India Congress Committee chief, as the party gets set to have a non-Gandhi president in over 24 years.
Mallikarjun Kharge was on Wednesday elected the Congress president after defeating Shashi Tharoor in an electoral contest, the sixth in the party's 137-year-old history.
Sharda claimed the Vaishya community and Lord Ram come from the same lineage and Lord Hanuman is the adopted son of Lord Ram.
"We have seen the same thing after 2014 (elections) in the name of 'award wapsi', this is just part two of that," the minister said
In renaming TRS and repositioning it as a 'national' party, KCR is also eyeing a pole position in opposition politics ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Congress' chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said the 'Nav Sankalp Chintan Shivir' is also aimed at deliberating on challenges facing the country such as "freefall of the economy", increasing inequality of wealth, price rise of essential commodities, "deep-rooted conspiracy" to hand over farming sector to a select group of private corporates, "attack on India's territorial integrity by China, "attack" on rights of Dalits, SCs/STs, minorities and attempts to divide by using Hindu-Muslim rhetoric.
"We will fight against injustice, and fight till justice is done," Priyanka Gandhi told reporters after the meeting that lasted about 45 minutes. Rahul Gandhi said no power can stifle the voice of the family.
Having twice betrayed the BJP -- and Arvind Kejriwal determined not to admit in AAP anyone who could question his authority -- Sidhu seems to have reached a dead-end in his political career, asserts Virendra Kapoor.
Over the last two days, Dalit organisations and the opposition Telugu Desam Party put in sustained pressure calling for the police to arrest the ruling party legislator.
Yadav also called for firming up of an Opposition alliance to take on the BJP in the 2024 general elections, suggesting that the Congress must focus on over 200 seats on which it is in direct fight with the saffron party, while taking a 'backseat' in states where regional parties are a formidable force.
Kejriwal, who is the AAP national convener, asserted that the people of Punjab are fed up with the present leadership ruling the state and added that the state is looking for a new type of leadership.
Five-time MLA Parshottam Solanki, who is also known as 'Bhai' among his followers, has been winning Bhavnagar-Rural with a comfortable margin.
'The State has played with their lives. Arsenal proved the machines were hacked and false evidence implanted with false files and letters.'
The mortal remains of Lakhbir Singh were cremated at his native village in Punjab's Tarn Taran amid tight security in the presence of his family members. No Sikh priest was present to perform Ardas (Sikh religious prayer) and no one from his village, Cheema Kalan, attended the last rites.
The discussion between the former deputy chief minister and the Gandhi siblings comes days after the dramatic developments in Punjab where the Congress replaced Amarinder Singh as chief minister and appointed Charanjit Singh Channi, a Dalit leader, to the top post of the state.
The event assumes heightened political significance at a time when Chirag Paswan is embroiled in a bitter dispute with his uncle and Union Minister Pashupati Kumar Paras to claim the legacy of his father.
