Sources within the Congress, including those who have been members of the teams that drafted its 2019 and 2024 Lok Sabha poll manifestos, said the Karnataka government decision lacked any empirical basis.
The fate of 1,351 candidates will be sealed by 1.63 crore voters in high-stakes multi-cornered contest in Haryana which goes to polls on Wednesday with top guns including the kin of the three famous 'Lals' battling it out in the state.
Thackeray had addressed the audience as his deshbhakt and deshpremi brothers and sisters" instead of the traditional invocation of "Hindu brothers and sisters" at the Shivaji Park gathering in Mumbai.
The Aam Aadmi Party has sought the setting aside of Tuesday's election, alleging tampering of ballot papers, and fresh elections under the supervision of a retired high court judge.
Kejriwal, who was arrested on March 21 by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the same case and later by the CBI which was probing corruption charges, stepped out after spending 155 days in Tihar jail. The AAP supremo, who was earlier granted three-week interim bail in the ED case, was given a resounding welcome by his party leaders and supporters who were drenched in heavy rain. Addressing party workers from the top of an SUV, Kejriwal, sporting a half-sleeve blue shirt, raised 'Inquilab Zindabad' and 'Vande Mataram' slogans.
The Delhi Police has recorded the statement of Wrestling Federation of India chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh in connection with the allegations of sexual harassment.
Political observers feel that the outcome of the elections weighs in favour of the BJP which had won a massive mandate in the Lok Sabha elections, held earlier this year.
In a veiled attack on Modi, Rahul said he has never come across a senior public representative who has constantly chosen silence in the face of untold violence against women.
'Resigning as president of Wrestling Federation of India is not a big deal for me, but I will not resign as a criminal.'
Here is the lowdown of the each state and parties.
The BJP has played the social engineering card in Rajasthan with an eye on the Lok Sabha election where the party will try and retain all the 25 seats that it had won in the 2014 and 2019 elections.
Vinesh, a world championship medallist and Olympian, also claimed that several coaches at the national camp in Lucknow have also exploited women wrestlers, adding that there are a few women at the camp who approach wresters at the behest of the WFI President.
If you thought Vajubhai Vala's invitation to BSY was a one-off, think again :))
While the term of 288-member Maharashtra assembly ends on November 9, that of the 90-member Haryana assembly expires on November 2.
Rebel Congress leader Chaudhary Birender Singh on Saturday joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in the presence of its chief Amit Shah at a rally, ending his over four-decade association with the party in poll-bound Haryana.
The former Haryana chief minister also reiterated his demand for an impartial inquiry into the allegations levelled against the head of the Wrestling Federation of India.
Kapoor has told the Enforcement Directorate that he was 'forced' to buy the M F Husain painting from Priyanka Gandhi and the sale proceeds were utilised by the Gandhi family for the medical treatment of Congress president Sonia Gandhi in New York, according to the charge sheet filed by the federal anti-money laundering agency in a special court in Mumbai.
Deol on Sunday evening issued a statement on his Twitter handle in Hindi, saying the matter is between the farmers and government, but there are people who are trying to gain something out of the agitation.
Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar courted controversy with his statement that the Muslim community needs to give up consuming beef in order to continue living in India.
The leaders of the two parties discussed the possibilities of seat sharing but did not divulge any details.
According to insiders, their lack of enthusiasm is showing on the ground. There is nothing to suggest that their enthusiasm will return in the final four phases of polling, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Haryana was again on the edge on Thursday with the 72-hour deadline set by Jats for resuming their agitation over quota from on set to come to an end on Thursday night.
Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com presents 10 dynasts of the BJP who have managed to get elected this time round.
New entrant Aam Aadmi Party has emerged as the leading party winning 13 of 35 wards so far as the counting of votes in the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation polls is in progress here on Monday.
Referring to Modi, Adityanath and Union Home Minister Amit Shah as 'outsiders', the farmer leader said he has no objection if they become prime ministers after winning polls from Uttarakhand or Gujarat.
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.
'We have made a pledge; those who kicked Rahul Gandhi out of the house he had lived for 19 years, will be kicked out from the corridors of power.'
The BJP has 165 first-time MPs. Are we to expect such utterances from all 165 of them? Or only those from a rural background? Because that is the explanation given by the PM, says Jyoti Punwani.
The protesters who had gathered under the banner of the Joint Forum for Restoration of Old Pension Scheme and National Joint Council of Action said they were worried about their post-retirement future.
Former Union minister and controversial Bharatiya Janata Party MP Anantkumar Hegde has once again stoked a row by calling the freedom struggle led by Mahatma Gandhi a "drama". However, this is not the first time a leader from the ruling party has insulted the Father of the Nation. Here are other instances when BJP leaders took a swipe at Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi.
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.
Even if the BJP gets 60, 70, or even 100 per cent of the votes in the seats where it scored more than 50 per cent in the 2019 Lok Sabha election, these will still add up to only 224 seats, argues Shekhar Gupta.
Nath's resignation brought an end to the 18-day-long political drama which also played out in Haryana, Bengaluru and the national capital.
A member of the 1983 cricket World Cup-winning squad, Azad was suspended from the Bharatiya Janata Party for openly targeting the then Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley over alleged irregularities and corruption in the Delhi and District Cricket Association in December 2015. He joined the Congress in 2018.
The Punjab government has declared a holiday on Thursday as a mark of respect to the former chief minister.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged people to vote in large numbers. "Today, there are bypolls taking place in various places across India. I urge those voting in these seats to vote in large numbers and strengthen the festival of democracy," he said in a tweet.
As the winter session of Parliament ends on Friday, images of our MPs you haven't seen before!
The cartoon, posted by Raut on his verified Twitter account, shows a tiger (Shiv Sena's party symbol) wearing a clock locket (Nationalist Congress Party's symbol) sniffing a lotus (BJP's party symbol).
Is it is necessary to play divisive politics to succeed in the next general elections? asks Dr Sudhir Bisht.
