The new chief minister, if from the Congress, will have little or no time for political administration, to ensure that he does not lose the voter's goodwill even before the Lok Sabha polls. He can count only on one thing. That the BJP may not want to upset him too early lest an early failure should become an added problem for the party in all the polls to follow, predicts N Sathiya Moorthy.
Belligerent Congress members, who were in the Well, shouted slogans against the minister and asked 'Aapka goli kaha hai (where is your bullet?)', an apparent reference to the minister's controversial remarks. Some members also shouted 'Goli maarna band karo (Stop shooting)'. Whenever Thakur was responding to supplementaries during the Question Hour, the members began sloganeering against him.
While Modi had a party and an organisation that supported him, all Mulayam, a self-made man with no inheritance in politics, had was a set of (fairly flexible) beliefs.
The dates for the crucial assembly elections in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh have been finalised and will be announced by the Election Commission on Wednesday.
Among other things, the code bars the government from announcing policy decisions.
'By manipulating India's electoral laws, the aim of the Modi government is to weaken democracy to such an extent that it ultimately crumbles.'
the Congress too petitioned the Election Commission for action against Prime Minister Narendra Modi for addressing an event organised by an industry body on the eve of the final phase of the Gujarat polls where he attacked the main opposition party.
The bench said it has to balance the equity and it was not against any policy of the government or the scheme.
Green-coloured ballot papers will be there for members of Parliament and pink for MLAs who vote in the election.
The father of the man arrested for allegedly raping a 12-year-old girl in Ujjain on Friday demanded capital punishment for his son, while the local bar association appealed that no lawyer should defend him in the court.
Most candidates of the Arvind Kejriwal-led party secured less than 1,000 votes in the two states and were set to lose to their security deposits.
BJP candidate and former chief minister Bhajan Lal's grandson Bhavya Bishnoi on Sunday defeated his nearest rival and Congress nominee Jai Prakash in the Adampur assembly seat by-election, retaining the family bastion.
All 41 candidates from Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand and Telangana were elected unopposed on Friday after the biennial elections to 57 Rajya Sabha seats were announced recently.
As per a letter sent to the MLAs by the assembly secretariat, the chief minister has expressed his willingness to move a motion of confidence to prove his majority.
The fresh charges against Chandrashekhar pertain to Rs 3.5 crore that Malvinder Singh's wife Japna is alleged to have paid after she was conned that this money would be used to bail her husband out.
Cash collections accounted for a whopping 63 per cent of total funds or over Rs 2,100 crore garnered by various political parties during all state assembly polls between 2004 and 2015, a study showed on Monday.
While Twitter had taken down one of his controversial tweets on Friday following directions of the EC, a first information report was lodged against him under Section 125 of the Representation of the People Act dealing with creating enmity among classes.
Top leaders of 26 opposition parties were arriving in Bengaluru on Monday for a two-day brainstorming session with a call for unity and are expected to chalk out their joint programme aimed at defeating the Bharatiya Janata Party in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Bhupender Yadav's entry to the Modi government as a Cabinet minister is seen as his just reward after serving as a party office-bearer for the longest term among all current occupants.
Simultaneous elections to Lok Sabha and state assemblies can help reduce difficulties in terms of expenditure and management, President Pranab Mukherjee said on Wednesday and asked the Election Commission to take the initiative in bringing political parties on one platform to discuss the issue.
The assembly elections in Delhi, where the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Aam Aadmi Party are raring for another face off, are likely to be held by the middle of February.
The fear that Mamata might snatch the mantle of Opposition leadership which the Gandhis firmly believe to be theirs by birthright seems to have persuaded Sonia and Rahul to give up their hoity-toity ways, observes Virendra Kapoor.
The Congress refrained from commenting on any peace formula between Gehlot and Pilot.
If Modi wants to leave a real legacy, breaking India's strategic triangulation would be the real gift, notes Shekhar Gupta.
Saharanpur recorded a turnout of 71.13 per cent, Bijnor 65.91, Moradabad 67.26, Sambhal 62.87, Rampur 64.26, Amroha 71.98, Budaun 59.24, Bareilly 61.67 and Shahjahanpur 59.34 per cent, a statement issued by the election office said in Lucknow on Tuesday.
The byelections are of critical importance to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who lost the assembly poll to Bharatiya Janata Party's Suvendu Adhikari in Nandigram.
Goa's poll panel chief has already taken cognisance of similar remarks allegedly made by the Delhi CM.
From the voter-level, traditionally anti-BJP, anti-Hindutva minorities and other secular voters would have an option, especially in the face of the mounting anti-incumbency against the ruling party -- as it happened in the 2001 assembly polls, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
He also lamented that EVMs are being used as a 'football' and some sections are doing a 'motivated slugfest' over their use.
The Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena faction on Monday approached the Delhi high court seeking quashing of the order of the Election Commission of India (ECI) freezing the party name and election symbol.
The Bahujan Samaj Party declared that it did not receive any donation above Rs 20,000 during 2021-22 as it has been declaring for the past 16 years, the ADR claimed.
'The over-reaction by the BJP to District Magistrate Pranjal Yadav's decision will prove a double-edged sword.' 'On May 16, if the BJP gets a handsome number of seats and if Modi wins from Varanasi and Vadodara, his opponents can repeat Modi's scathing remarks against the Election Commission, that it was not 'impartial'.'
'Economic issues do not matter during elections; it is the emotional connect that helps swing votes.'
Political parties were bracing for the assembly election results on Thursday in the crucial state of Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and politically volatile Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur, sending out feelers for possible post-poll tie-ups.
The poll body also termed as "scurrilous" the AAP leader's claim that the Commission is encouraging bribery by restraining him from uttering such statements.
In a series of tweets, BJP chief J P Nadda said people of the country and Delhi today have seen the 'dirty face' of AAP. The AAP hit back, questioning the police investigation.
Though the wily TRS supremo, credited with achieving the separate state of Telangana, stopped short of saying he was about to declare dissolution of the assembly, none doubted its imminence.
The Congress on Monday promised that a government led by it will conduct a nationwide caste census and implement 33 per cent reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and state legislative assemblies at the earliest, including adequate representation for women belonging to the OBC community.
Addressing the meeting in support of BJP candidate from Rithala, Manish Chaudhary, Singh raised the pitch of nationalism as he linked opposition parties with anti-CAA protests in Shaheen Bagh and with alleged anti-India slogans, and then asked the crowd to raise the controversial slogan.
Shah also rejected West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's charge that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to a temple of the Matua community -- which is in sizeable number in the state -- during his trip to Bangladesh violated the poll code.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances