'You can attack and conspire to weaken us, but you cannot destroy the Congress permanently.'
'The Opposition will continue to be attacked through misuse of agencies, civil society will be force-marched towards extinction and India's plummeting on global indices will continue.' 'Minorities and especially Muslims will continue to have open season declared on them. Institutions will continue their decline,' predicts Aakar Patel.
Counting of votes will be held today in Jammu and Kashmir and Jharkhand which witnessed a record turnout in the multi-cornered contests to elect their assemblies.
According to Congress sources, Marandi's party has agreed contest 19 of the 81 seats in the state. There will also be friendly fights in six seats, in which both parties were unable to come to a settlement.
The JMM would contest 35 seats and the Congress 33. The remaining 13 seats in the 81-member house have gone to the Rashtriya Janata Dal and Left parties.
The biggest challenge will be to convert his regime into a coalition of minds. But given the fact that he is instinctively an authoritarian leader and supporter of the hard Hindutva line, the survival of his government will depend on his ability to balance between his heart and mind, between instinct and pragmatism, asserts Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, author of Narendra Modi: The Man, The Times.
Allies of embattled Jharkhand Chief Minister Shibu Soren have demanded that he quit immediately to clear the political uncertainty, following his failure to enter the state assembly."We all adhere to the Constitution. And Guruji (Soren) should have resigned immediately after his defeat in the Tamar bypoll. He should resign forthwith," Deputy Chief Minister Stephen Marandi said.
"I met the Governor and informed him that he was constitutionally not bound to accept the recommendation of House dissolution taken by a minority government," Jharkhand PCC Chief Pradeep Kumar Balmachu told reporters at the Raj Bhavan after calling on Ahmed
Sources said senior leaders of the party have been told to reach out to other leaders of the alliance and talks with some parties have begun.
Voting for the second phase of Lok Sabha polls will be held on Friday for 88 seats in 13 states with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi seeking a second-straight term from Wayanad in Kerala.
Bharatiya Janata Party leader Raghubar Das was on Sunday sworn-in as the new chief minister of Jharkhand, becoming the first non-tribal leader to rule the state.
The 79-year-old activist also demanded an inquiry by a sitting judge of the Jharkhand high court.
The move comes a day after the government called a special session of Parliament between September 18 and 22, the agenda for which is under wraps.
Bharatiya Janata Party veteran L K Advani on Tuesday backed party leader Yashwant Sinha saying he is the 'right person' to be chief minister and suggested that he should leave jail after securing bail to lead the 'historic agitation' against power crisis in Jharkhand.
Jharkhand Mukti Morcha Legislative Party leader Hemant Soren on Thursday submitted his resignation letter as an MLA to his father Shibu Soren and offered his Dumka seat to the Jharkhand chief minister to contest and enter the state assembly.
The BJP has changed five chief ministers since 2019, including in Gujarat and Karnataka.
Decks were cleared on Thursday for holding of assembly elections in the state, which has been under President's Rule for the last nine months, with the Union Cabinet approving dissolution of the 81-member House.
The Jharkhand high court on Thursday asked Jharkhand Mukti Morcha chief Shibu Soren to surrender before the sub- divisional judicial magistrate in Jamtara before August 2.
Raghuvar Das, the national vice president of the Bharatiya Janata Party will be the first non-tribal chief minister of Jharkhand after he was elected the leader of BJP legislative party.
While the BJP and the Congress have always supported the bill, opposition by other parties and demands from some for quota for backward classes within the women's quota have been key sticking points.
He denied speculations that the three ministers, who appear to be switching sides to the UPA to topple his government, have faxed their resignations to the governor.
All five RJD members abstained from voting, while Enos Ekka of Jharkhand Party, Independent Harinarayan Rai, Congress' Gopal Nath Sahadeo and Arup Chatterjee of the Marxist Coordination Committee were absent.
Do you know how to buy the best lady's fingers? Or choose the best cauliflower?
The Election Commission today announced by-polls to three assembly constituencies in Delhi which fell vacant after Bharatiya Janata Party MLAs were elected to the Lok Sabha in the recently-held general elections.
This is a one-sided electoral understanding without taking the RJD into confidence, party's national spokesman Sanjay Paswan said.
With President's rule scheduled to end in Jharkhand on July 18, the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha and Congress leaders on Tuesday held talks on the possibility of formation of a government in the state.
Optimistic over forming a new government in Jharkand, the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha is all set to stake a claim for government formation, with Rashtriya Janata Dal supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav vowing to install him as chief minister at all costs.Requiring a majority of 41 for the 81-member House, the JMM has 17 MLAs and guaranteed support of Congress, RJD and NCP.Four independents have pledged support to Soren and the JMM is lobbying to get the backing of at least 3 independents.
A Jharkhand court on Monday directed Chief Minister Shibu Soren to appear before it on February 3 in connection with a 35-year-old double murder case. Soren, who will seek a trust vote in the Jharkhand assembly on January 7, is the sole accused in the case, in which eight others were acquitted in 1986. Soren was made one of the accused in the double murder case which had occurred on April 15, 1974 over the killing of a goat at Kudko under Pirtand police station in Giridih.
The state governments expressed their resolve to end the menace as India played global host to 2018 World Environment Day celebrations with the theme "Beat Plastic Pollution".
The Congress will begin the Rahul Gandhi-led Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra from the violence-hit Manipur on Sunday, in what is being seen as the party's bid to set the narrative in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls and put the spotlight on issues such as unemployment, price rise and social justice.
Warning against canvassing for the December 18 phase of Jharkhand assembly polls, Maoists on Tuesday burnt the campaign vehicle of an Independent candidate contesting from Panki assembly constituency in Palamau district, the police said.
A sizeable number of MLAs from across state assemblies cross-voted in support of President-elect Droupadi Murmu, defying their parties' stated support to Opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha, sources said on Thursday.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday assured the country that the beginning of building a "new and developed Kashmir" that will be free from terrorism has been made under Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said that full statehood would be restored to Jammu and Kashmir at an appropriate time.
'Kejriwal could have easily deputed someone to step in as chief minister, but being the authoritative and self-centered personality that he is, he chose not to do it.' 'If the AAP loses Delhi, where it has a huge majority, the only one to blame would be Kejriwal,' asserts Ramesh Menon.
The Union Cabinet on Monday recommended President's Rule in Jharkhand. According to official sources, the Jharkhand assembly will be kept under suspended animation.The state had witnessed political uncertainty after Jharkhand Chief Minister Shibu Soren was forced to resign, in the wake of his humiliating defeat in the bypoll in Tamar constituency.
The Congress on Thursday renamed the Rahul Gandhi-led Manipur-Mumbai yatra starting on January 14 as the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, which will travel through 100 Lok Sabha segments in 15 states including Arunachal Pradesh, and asserted it will prove to be as 'transformative' as his earlier cross-country march.
"The governor has returned to Ranchi...so far he has not issued any order," an official source in Raj Bhavan said.
Soren also claimed that his Assam counterpart Himanta Biswa Sarma indulged in "purchase" of Jharkhand MLAs.
It is unfortunate that the Congress has taken a decision of contesting the elections in alliance with the JMM without even consulting allies in the UPA government, he said.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances