Gujarat Assembly has issued notification for elections to three seats of Rajya Sabha, to be held on July 22. Elections were necessitated as terms of Patel and BJP MPs Surendra Patel and Pravin Nayak would end in August.
'There was a 77 per cent chance that electorates in India voted for the same party for both the state and Centre when elections were held simultaneously.'
'Commentators have said that dealing with allies as equals will make Modi more sensitive.' 'Remember that the people Modi is dealing with are equally autocratic in their own lairs.' 'Further, Modi always has handy the threat of dissolving Parliament and calling for fresh polls.' 'Most of his own party, and certainly his allies and opponents having blown their budgets of efforts and resources in the just concluded elections, have no stomach for this.' 'They are all greatly looking forward to the loaves and fishes of office on offer.' 'That gives Modi an unbeatable advantage in any push-comes-to-shove situation,' explains Shreekant Sambrani.
Performance counts more than populist slogans when you are in power, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
'The judge could have given him a six-month, one-year, or one-and-half-year sentence also because the maximum punishment for defamation cases is two years.' 'Disqualification happens only if one is sentenced for two years; it does not happen if the disqualification is for one-and-half years.' 'But the period of sentence is the judge's discretion.'
Venugopal said not just the Congress but the entire nation has "condemned this erroneous conviction and disqualification, and resolved to stand by Rahul in this noble fight".
AAP leader and Delhi minister Atishi made the allegations against the agency at a press conference and called the entire probe a "scam" in itself.
Counting of votes will be held on Sunday in assembly polls in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Telangana in what is seen as a semi-final contest ahead of the general elections in less than six months.
The two AAP leaders later filed a revision application in the sessions court challenging the metropolitan court's summons in the defamation case.
BJP MLA Purnesh Modi, complainant in the defamation case against Rahul Gandhi, has filed a caveat in the Supreme Court seeking that he be heard if the Congress leader moves a plea challenging the high court verdict refusing to stay his conviction in the Modi surname remark case.
Congress Member of Parliament DK Suresh on Sunday said that the Gujarat Congress is united and all the 44 MLAs are ready to vote for Ahmed Patel in the election scheduled for August 8.
The Election Commission of India has announced that elections for 10 Rajya Sabha seats in Goa, Gujarat, and West Bengal will be held on July 24.
8 of Hawk-Eye's high-speed cameras are spread over the ground, and two Hawk-Eye operators will be seated in the same room as the TV umpire, providing him with images obtained by them as part of the Smart Replay System.
The over half-an-hour meeting between the opposition parties and the government, however, remained inconclusive.
The Aam Aadmi Party on Sunday raised questions on the genuineness of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's degrees and claimed that they would turn out to be fake if a probe is conducted.
Modi said he is seeking a third term not to enjoy power but to work for the nation. "If I had thought of my home, it would not have been possible to build homes for crores of people," he said.
BJP MP Poonamben Maadam on Thursday said that it was mere a 'misunderstanding' that led to a verbal spat between party MLA Rivaba Jadeja at a public event after they exchanged barbs over the 'use of slippers' while paying tributes to the bravehearts.
In percentage terms, 1.8 per cent voters in Gujarat pressed the NOTA button on electronic voting machines in Gujarat, as against 0.9 per cent in the hill state (over 33,000 voters).
Apart from these leaders, the Congress also hinted at forging a pre-poll alliance with Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party and bringing on board Chhotu Vasava, the lone Janata Dal-United MLA from the state.
With land acquisition completed and infrastructure work streamlined, India's bullet train dreams are slowly, but finally, inching closer to reality.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday alleged the BJP-led central government wanted to arrest him and prevent from campaigning for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, saying the ED summons issued to him was aimed at hurting his "biggest asset", honesty, and defaming him..
Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, the party's Rajya Sabha members Sanjay Singh and Raghav Chadha as well as its Gujarat chief ministerial face Isudan Gadhvi also figure in the list shared with the media on Tuesday night.
What about Uttar Pradesh Pradesh, Rajasthan, Delhi, Gujarat and Bihar? Mamata asked.
The court of Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate SJ Panchal summoned Kejriwal and Singh after the court was informed that the summons issued earlier directing the duo to appear on May 23 does not appear to have been received by them as none of them was present in the court.
A source in the know said realistically two-three of the seven bullet train corridors could be included as a practical election promise.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday termed the cancellation of over 25,000 school jobs as 'gross injustice' and alleged that it was a ploy by the Bharatiya Janata Party to stop these job losers from being deployed in poll duty.
In a setback to 53-year-old Gandhi, the high court on July 7 dismissed Gandhi's plea for a stay on his conviction, observing that "purity in politics" is the need of the hour.
Elections to 10 Rajya Sabha seats, including those held by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Trinamool Congress leader Derek O'Brien, will be held on July 24, the Election Commission (EC) said on Tuesday.
The Supreme Court on Friday sought responses from former Gujarat minister Purnesh Modi and the state government on Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's appeal challenging the high court verdict that declined to put on hold his conviction in a defamation case over his "Modi surname" remark.
Temperatures remained above 45 degrees Celsius in large parts of Rajasthan, Haryana, Delhi, Chandigarh and Uttar Pradesh, affecting daily life as many chose to remain indoors in the afternoon.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will be in Gujarat's Surat city on Monday to file an appeal before a sessions court against his conviction in a criminal defamation case, his lawyer said on Sunday.
In the first such initiative, the Bharatiya Janata Party has invited the ruling and Opposition parties from around the world to witness the Lok Sabha elections in India first-hand.
Deriving from Narendra Modi's continuing charisma, the proposed scheme, if and when implemented, can cut both ways. That is to say, if Modi can win, he can lose. Or, someone else in his place, later on, could lose as much as he could win in his time, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
The HC noted that there is no reasonable ground to stay the conviction.
The BJP is still short of the halfway mark of 123 in the 245-member House, but can now muster a 'working' majority with help of allies, friendly parties, some Independents and nominated members.
Zala, a close associate of Thakor, was the MLA from Bayad in Sabarkantha district.
Congress MLA Shailesh Parmar earlier said, "To ensure that BJP is not successful in its mission, 44 of us Congress MLAs are leaving from Gujarat for Bengaluru. To hide their failure, the saffron party is trying to make sure our MLAs resign by offering money and through police pressure."
'Is it not a fact that all good leaders in the Congress have left the party?'
"Gandhi's disqualification is illegal and the case is also bogus. I am sure that a higher court in Gujarat will do justice to Gandhi," said Raut, whose party is an ally of the Congress in Maharashtra.
