The Congress is hopeful of soon finalising the Lok Sabha poll seat-sharing arrangements with the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) allies Aam Aadmi Party and Trinamool Congress, sources said on Friday, days after the principal opposition party arrived at an understanding with the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh.
'Rahul Gandhi should have prevented Nitish Kumar from going.' 'He must pacify Mamata Banerjee if he has a cause of Mohabbat Ki Dukaan.' 'He should bring this Mohabbat Ki Dukaan on the political canvas.'
Vinai Kumar Saxena's current job as lieutenant governor of an Opposition-ruled state will raise the bar -- not just for him, but also for the Aam Aadmi Party government, which never says no to a fight with the representative of the central government in India's capital.
The Odisha government told the assembly over 40,000 workers migrated from the state last year, with the highest number -- 26,151 -- from Balangir.
The NTA denied any irregularities and said the changes made in the NCERT textbooks and grace marks for losing time at the examination centres were some of the reasons behind the students scoring higher marks.
Hitting out at the Narendra Modi government on Wednesday, the Gujarat Congress demanded that the controversial deal between Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation's Pipavav Power Company and Swan Energy Ltd be scrapped since it 'smacked of unprecedented corruption and nepotism'.
'Episodes of targeted attacks on Muslims established that for a section of people and, sadly, even officials of the State, the election results conveyed no lessons.' 'Opposition parties must not be hesitant in speaking out whenever the mob with tacit State support targets Muslims,' asserts Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, author of Narendra Modi: The Man, The Times.
The party also promised reservation to minorities on basis of their population after the caste census.
Pilot said rules and discipline of the party apply to all, adding that he hoped Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge would take a decision in the matter soon.
The states and union territories where the elections are being held in this phase are Assam (4), Bihar (5), Chhattisgarh (7), Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu (2), Goa (2), Gujarat (25), Karnataka (14), Maharashtra (11), Madhya Pradesh (8), Uttar Pradesh (10) and West Bengal (4). The BJP has bagged the Surat seat unopposed.
Informal talks with people close to the Patidar leader are on to enlist the support of the Patel community, which comprises 20 per cent of the voters.
The Congress president, however, expressed 'disappointment' at the Gujarat poll results.
Party leaders list three clear positive outcomes -- an activated Congress which has hit the ground running leaving the past inertia behind, an interactive top brass which is directly engaging the people, and a mobilised organisation which was dormant for many years.
'The BJP's numbers in this government are almost the same as those enjoyed by the Congress under P V Narasimha Rao when the reform process was kicked off in 1991.' 'As before, the only constraints on the prime minister's actions are internal, not external.' 'They come from his own assessment of the political consequences of any action,' points out Mihir S Sharma.
The Congress, desperate to make a comeback in Gujarat, which has been ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party for over 20 years, has tried to reach out to various sections of society in its blueprint unveiled.
BJP president Shah listened to the programme at a tea stall in Ahmedabad's Muslim-dominated Dariyapur area in the presence of hundreds of locals and party workers.
In 2010, Gujarat government is believed to have allotted 250 acres of land next to Gir Lion Sanctuary to Wildwoods Resorts and Realties Pvt Ltd for setting up a resort which was allotted at a price of Rs 15 per square metre or Rs 60,000 per acre.
The prospect of the Delhi chief minister's wife, Sunita Kejriwal, who has so far maintained a distance from politics, assuming a new role is also being discussed by people.
During a hearing on the case on Monday, MP/MLA court judge Yogesh Yadav summoned Gandhi on December 16, advocate Santosh Pandey said.
The objective of the new practice is to 'foster patriotism among students right from childhood', the notifications stated.
The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the Centre and the Gujarat government to submit by October 16 the original records related to the remission of sentence of 11 convicts in the Bilkis Bano gangrape case and murder of seven of her family members during the 2002 Gujarat riots.
The point made by sociologist M N Srinivas, that it represented a Sanskritic act that was linked to caste, is never raised in Indian debates and the disapproval of drink is almost universal, notes Aakar Patel.
Gilletwala has previously also attended Modi's public functions and sat next to him. Two days ago he had said that he would join the BJP and announce this in a public function.
In nearly 100 seats, the BJP stands almost no chance of winning. In 200 seats, it is a direct fight between the BJP and the Congress where the BJP has an upper hand. In 243 seats, the BJP is pitted against regional parties and it is not going to be easy. That is why 400 seats may end up as a pipe dream, states Ramesh Menon, author of Modi Demystified: The Making of a Prime Minister.
Several candidates, including Taranjit Singh Sandhu, the BJP's Amritsar candidate, are promising resumption of India-Pakistan trade via the Attari-Wagah land route.
The Congress units in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, the only two states where the party is in government on its own, have passed resolutions that Gandhi be made the party's president.
Prime Minister Narendra D Modi on Tuesday paid floral tributes to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel at the Statue of Unity at Ekta Nagar in Gujarat's Narmada on the birth anniversary of the country's first home minister which is celebrated as National Unity Day. In New Delhi, Congress MPs Mallikarjun Kharge, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi paid homage to Indira Gandhi on the 39th anniversary of the late prime minister's assassination.
Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Ltd made a number of electoral bond purchases close to the date of bagging crucial projects, including the all-weather Zojila tunnel that is being constructed at an estimated cost of Rs 4,500 crore in Jammu and Kashmir.
Along with Modi, senior BJP leaders including Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah, Nitin Gadkari, Nirmala Sitharaman and S Jaishankar, all ministers in Modi 2.0 Cabinet, took oath as cabinet ministers at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. In all, 71 ministers were sworn-in along with Modi, taking the strength of the Union council to 72.
Over 20 leaders would be sworn in as ministers which may make way for young ministers, the sources said.
With Kanhaiya Kumar likely to join the Congress party on Tuesday, CPI Bihar state secretary Ram Naresh Pandey on Tuesday confirmed that some days ago Kanhaiya had taken out the AC installed by him in the CPI's state office in Patna.
'It's dull because this time the election is spread over such a long period.'
Megha Engineering and Infrastructure, the little-known Hyderabad-based firm that in recent years won the prestigious Zojila tunnel deal among other projects, forayed into city gas and acquired a media group, was the second largest donor to political parties using electoral bonds.
12 of the 20 MPs with the highest winning margins in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls have not been re-nominated by their parties for the 2024 general elections.
The Congress won in five local bodies, while the BJP was confined to three.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday named 14 candidates for the upcoming Rajya Sabha polls including former Union minister R P N Singh and Sudhanshu Trivedi -- the only outgoing MP renominated by the party.
The list of guests included celebrities from across the globe, politicians, the who's who of Hindi and south Indian cinema world and almost all the top cricketers of the country.
Preparing to take office for a record third consecutive term, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday pledged to work with all states, regardless of the party in power, to build a developed India.
"The Congress should realise that secularism alone is not enough and it should do some serious introspection over its policies," said CPI secretary D Raja.
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.
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