Setting aside their political differences, the ruling CPI-M-led Left Democratic Front and Opposition Congress headed United Democratic Front, once again came together to launch a joint fight against the Centre on the CAA, which has seen unprecedented protests all over the country.
More than 750 constituencies spread across four states and one union territory will go to the polls on Tuesday
The Left rewrote history in Kerala on Sunday by becoming the first government to get a second term in four decades but its fortunes fell to a historic low in West Bengal where it failed to bag even one seat, resulting in its complete decimation in a state it once ruled for over three decades.
Rampant corruption by Congress ministers must be counted as the single biggest factor to prompt the electorate to hand over a thumping mandate to the Communist parties, says M K Bhadrakumar.
The arrest and an alleged attack on TMC workers by unknown persons whom the Trinamool Congress believes to be Bharatiya Janata Party supporters happened barely 24 hours before the Mamata Banerjee-led party's national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee is slated to reach Agartala to 'stand beside attacked party workers'.
The long-time Congress leader and seven-time parliamentarian had tested positive for COVID-19 at the time of his admission and was being treated for a lung infection.
Trains were set afire and blocked, and public vehicles attacked as protests over 'Agnipath' swept across several places in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi and Jammu on Thursday amid partisan political voices in favour and against the new recruitment scheme for the defence forces that has set off a firestorm.
'India has ramped up infrastructure on its side, so the Chinese military is finding Indian soldiers in locations where they are not used to seeing an Indian footprint,' points out Harsh V Pant.
After following Congress president Rahul Gandhi and the party's official Twitter handle, he began following senior leaders P Chidambaram, Kapil Sibal, Ahmed Patel, Ashok Gehlot, Ajay Maken, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Sachin Pilot and CP Joshi from this month.
The People's Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) on Monday said assembly elections should be held only after restoration of statehood to Jammu and Kashmir and asked the Bharatiya Janata Party-led central government to honour its commitment made on the floor of Parliament.
A u-turn by the BJP will be an apocalyptic occurrence in Indian politics and society, argues Amulya Ganguli.
The FIR lodged at Chandpa police station in Hathras district against 'unknown persons' mentioned alleged attempts to foment cast conflict, promoting enmity between groups and tarnish the image of the government and invoked section 124A of the Indian Penal Code -- the serious charge of sedition.
The Marxists are heading for their worst debacle in many elections. How will May 16, 2014 affect India's Communists? T V R Shenoy surveys the landscape.
The BJP continuing to look at the Dravidian polity through the religious prism has not worked in Tamil Nadu whereas it has yielded political and electoral results across much of the rest of the country, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Two other Rajasthan ministers Vishvendra Singh and Ramesh Meena were also sacked from the state cabinet after a meeting of the Congress Legislature Party, its second in the last two days. The meeting was billed as a 'second chance' for Pilot, who had turned down appeals from the party's top leadership -- including Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi -- to return to the fold.
Governments in most of the world saw their approval ratings dip as they struggled to contain the raging virus, which hit economy hard everywhere, but Indian politics followed a different script, with the outgoing year marking further shrinking of a rudderless Congress while the ruling BJP soared riding on Modi's enduring appeal.
'Raman Singh will certainly be defeated by the alliance we have created," says Chhattisgarh's first chief minister Ajit Jogi.
'The government is adopting double standards by allowing foreign envoys to visit Jammu and Kashmir, but not Indian politicians'
Making waves with trade deals worth billions of dollars during his first European tour, President Xi Jinping put up a strong defence of the monopoly of power by the Communist Party of China saying that China had settled for a one-party system after unsuccessful experiments with multi-party democracy.
Xi ordered country's 2.3 million-strong military to be absolutely loyal to the party, to focus on how to win in wars, to pioneer reforms and innovation, to scientifically manage commanding a unit, to lead troops in accordance with the strictest standards and to take the forefront in complying with laws and regulations.
'The way opposition parties such as the Nationalist Congress Party, Shiv Sena, the Samajwadi Party, Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Jharkhand Mukti Morch have supported her, if she wins, she will be the biggest opposition face for 2024'
Pointing out that this is the first time that a complete alliance has been formed by the major Left parties in Bihar, the Communist Party of India state secretary Rajendra Prasad Singh said top Central leaders of the three parties will campaign together for the by-elections.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to chair a meeting with all political parties from Jammu and Kashmir on June 24 as part of the Centre's initiatives to bolster political processes, including holding assembly elections, in the union territory, officials said in New Delhi.
The Union Budget on Monday evoked contrasting responses in the political arena with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party hailing it as a vision for an 'Aatmanirbhar Bharat' and the Opposition describing it as a 'let down like never before' that was meant to 'deceive' people.
Having emerged as the face of opposition resistance to the Narendra Modi juggernaut after the TMC's triumph in the assembly elections, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is locked in an unequal battle as she squares off with "lightweight" rivals in her own lair--Bhabanipur.
Following the killing of an SDPI state secretary late Saturday night, a BJP leader was hacked to death less than 12 hours later on Sunday morning and later, prohibitory order under Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) Section 144 was imposed in the entire Alappuzha district, additional police force was deployed there and senior officers camped there to monitor the law and order situation.
At least 40 CRPF jawans were killed after the convoy of 78 buses, in which around 2,500 personnel were travelling from Jammu to Srinagar, came under attack on February 14, 2019.
The Chinese Communist Party's all important 19th Party Congress is just months away, and President Xi Jinping finds himself confronting unlikely challenges to his pre-eminent position, says former RA&W officer and China watcher Jayadeva Ranade.
'How Xi Jinping will withdraw the aggression and justify it to his Communist party in case of a negotiated settlement might be his biggest headache.' 'Unless he is ready to gamble on an armed conflict, whose outcome given India's battle-readiness and determination is always uncertain,' observes Virendra Kapoor.
In Maharashtra, where the 'Mahayuti' alliance of BJP, Shiv Sena and smaller parties is against the 'Maha-agadhi' led by the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party whereas the ruling BJP is locked in a contest with the opposition Congress and the fledgling Jannayak Janata Party for the 90 assembly seats in Haryana.
Kerala Bharatiya Janata Party chief K Surendran said the BJP's central leadership alone will decide on the party's chief ministerial candidate.
He also said that the India-China standoff at Doklam is "not a very serious" issue
'Tell me, one BJP policy that Mamata has opposed and is fighting tooth and nail?' Be it Article 370, instant triple talaq, be it CAA/NRC/NPR, be it notebandi, FDI, she has aligned with the BJP.'
'That the two sides allowed such a situation to arise exposed the level of inaction and inefficiency in China-India border management.' 'The Modi-Xi meeting in Xiamen initiated a process to to avert such contingencies in the future.'
'Jinnah developed a belief that Gandhi had stolen the tag of the leader of the Indian people from him and that he later used religion to reduce Gandhi's idea of a united India to naught was his revenge.'
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday unveiled its manifesto for the West Bengal elections, promising to build a 'Sonar Bangla' by providing employment, strengthening social security schemes and vowing to clear the implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act in the first cabinet meeting of the new government.
Nearly two years after the bifurcation of Jammu and Kashmir into two UTs and revocation of its special status, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday held talks with top political leaders from the erstwhile state, and said the Centre's priority is to strengthen grassroots democracy there for which delimitation has to happen quickly so that polls can be held.
Now, the bill will undergo a similar process in the National Assembly, wherein the ruling Nepal Communist Party commands two-thirds majority.
Unlike the LDF and NDA nominees who are at ground zero and campaigning hard every day, the Congress candidate's campaign is undertaken in absentia, dependent on an army of local and imported from the rest of Kerala Congresswomen and men.
Mamata Banerjee fended off a spirited challenge by a resurgent Bharatiya Janata Party in West Bengal with a landslide victory for her Trinamool Congress on Sunday for a third consecutive term and the saffron party and the Left Democratic Front were poised to form government again in Assam and Kerala respectively while the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam stormed back to power in Tamil Nadu after a gap of 10 years.
