Kerala's election discourse operates surreptitiously. Its explicit face focuses on important national and local issues. At the same time, it seeks to secure apt communal equations to ensure votes, notes Shyam G Menon.
There have been allegations of inflation of marks in NEET-UG which has led to a record 67 candidates sharing top rank with perfect score.
By bringing in 'outsider' Sanjay Jha to address mediapersons from the AICC platform, the Congress party is not helping its case in regaining the ground it has lost in the perception battle, notes Renu Mittal.
The Shiv Sena came to the defence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the auction of his pinstripe monogrammed suit and said the two-piece ensemble was valued highly because of the person who wore it.
The AAP, which is the only party to declare its chief ministerial candidate before the polls, is trying hard to make the contest triangular.
BJP sources suggest that the upcoming elections will likely revolve around the renewed enthusiasm for the temple unless another theme with religious and nationalist undertones emerges.
'One Sandeshkhali won't turn around women's perception of Mamata Banerjee in this state'
Balwant Singh Rajoana, a convict on death row in connection with the assassination of former Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh, has said that he did not want anyone to defend him.
Trinamool Congress (TMC) member Mahua Moitra on Tuesday approached the Delhi high court seeking to restrain Bharatiya Janata Party MP Nishikant Dubey, an advocate and several social media platforms and media houses from posting, circulating or publishing any alleged fake and defamatory content against her.
The IUML is a major ally of the Opposition Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) in Kerala and an influential political party among the Muslim community.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has honoured Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh and Jain refugees by giving them citizenship through Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), Union home minister Amit Shah said on Tuesday and maintained there is no provision of stripping of anyone's citizenship in the new law.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday accused NIA officials of attacking villagers in Purba Medinipur district, the BJP hit back at her saying that the attack on the NIA officials is Sandeshkhalli 2.0 orchestrated by the state.
The Congress chief also accused the prime minister again of running away from the debate.
According to the Aam Aadmi Party, it has received permission from the authorities concerned to hold the rally of more than 20,000 people.
'aris can be boiling hot in July. The choice of viscose over cotton was deliberate. Cotton would have crushed badly. We used viscose because it is a wood pulp fibre and lets you breathe. It is cooler than silk. We had to consider breathability because the athletes would be on a barge, in the heat, for up to five hours.'
While people voted in a fifth round that will set the tone as this election rounds into the straight, and while Modi on the stump chews the cud of personal grievances and hackneyed promises that have long since passed their use-by date, there is a rogue wave rising -- what damage it will do, we will know 16 days from today, observes Prem Panicker.
It is time the political leaderships in this country arrived at a common ground over issues of foreign and security policy concerns. There has to be a greater communication between the government and the Opposition leaderships for the nation to present a unified face against the rest of the world, advises N Sathiya Moorthy.
In 2014, Vardhan had defeated Kapil Sibal, then with the Congress, to win the Chandni Chowk Lok Sabha seat while in the 2019 polls, he trounced Congress' Jai Prakash Agarwal.
The Congress has alleged that the Gujarat government was playing with the lives of coronavirus patients to promote 'Dhaman-1' ventilators made by a firm `owned by Chief Minister Vijay Rupani's friend'. The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party called the allegations levelled by the Congress on Thursday as baseless and said the opposition party was maligning the image of a local manufacturer.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday cornered the government for 'defending' Chief Vigilance Commissioner P J Thomas in the Supreme Court, asking Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi as to what was the 'compulsion' to defend the 'tainted' official and attack the upright comptroller and auditor general.
Taking a dig at Pakistan without naming it, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said a country which was a supplier of aatank (terror) is struggling for aata (flour) these days.
'Given that the RGF is a family-controlled trust, why would the Congress defend it every time someone accuses it of wrong-doing?' asks Virendra Kapoor.
The parliamentary election result was also to prove that the Maldivians want "autonomy in choosing their future, without foreign coercion," President Muizzu said, without naming any country, according to the Sun.mv news portal.
For the first time in his political career, he failed to carry his party to even a working majority -- and again, for the first time in his career, he finds himself in a situation where he cannot rule by dictatorial fiat, points out Prem Panicker.
Asserting that the JD-S does not practice opportunistic politics, Gowda while defending the decision to ally with the BJP said, "This party has to be saved, which has been his pain and struggle for decades, and there is no selfishness in this....I took the decision."
Why did Modi single out the Congress and its leaders for the most pugnacious verbal assault while sparing other regional adversaries? If he is trying to get some parties to break the Opposition ranks, it means that the BJP's present bravado is for effect. Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, author of Narendra Modi: The Man, The Times, begins a new column for Rediff.com.
A US federal judge in Houston has declared illegal a federal policy that prevents the deportation of hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants, including hundreds of Indians, brought to the US as children, but noted that the government can continue to process renewals of its current recipients.
The Calcutta high court on Tuesday directed that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) be handed over the case of attack on Enforcement Directorate officials at Sandeshkhali and the custody of suspended Trinamool Congress leader Shajahan Sheikh, as it slammed West Bengal Police for 'totally biased' conduct and said every attempt is being made to delay the probe to 'protect' the accused.
Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray on Wednesday defended the controversial statement of RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat about every citizen of India being a Hindu, and said his father, the late Bal Thackeray, held similar views.
Singh also defended Madhya Pradesh Congress chief Kamal Nath over the latter's comments on 'Hindu Rashtra.'
Politicians, historians have criticised the work terming it an "insult towards the martyrs".
The MLAs inducted into the Rajasthan cabinet are Meena, Madan Dilawar, Rathore, Gajendra Singh Khimsar, Babulal Kharadi, Jogaram Patel, Suresh Singh Rawat, Avinash Gehlot, Joraram Kumawat, Hemant Meena, Kanhaiya Lal Choudhary and Sumit Godara.
The discussion on the joint statement would start after a special discussion on the issue of price rise of essential commodities, an issue that led to protests from several opposition parties in both Houses of Parliament on Tuesday.
Sonia Gandhi has just started campaigning in Bihar.
Besides Joseph, one of the lawyers defending Michel is a member of the Congress' youth wing while the father of another is a party member, Patra claimed at a press conference.
The issue of electoral bonds has snowballed into a political flashpoint after following reports that said the Reserve Bank of India and Election Commission had reservations against them but they were overrule by the Modi government.
The Lok Sabha's ethics committee on Saturday turned down Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra's request to call her after November 5 while allowing a two-day extension, as the panel asked her to appear before it for 'oral evidence' on November 2 in relation to the allegations against her.
Members from the Jayant Chaudhary's Rashtriya Lok Dal too were part of the group, their participation seen as another indication that the party is all set to switch sides from the SP to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.
