'Party workers sit outside polling booths and they know everything that is happening.' 'Besides, as a voter when you push the EVM button to vote there is a paper slip that comes out showing you who you voted for.'
Most exit polls telecast by news channels soon after voting ended for the fifth and final phase of the Jharkhand elections on Friday indicated a hung assembly. Results for the elections to the 81-member state assembly will be announced on December 23.
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has expressed concerns about the Congress party's leadership role within the INDIA bloc, raising questions about their ability to justify their position. Abdullah highlighted a sense of disquiet among some allies, who feel the Congress isn't doing enough to earn its leadership position. While praising Sonia Gandhi's leadership, he also criticized the alliance's lack of consistent engagement and called for more structured communication to address potential disagreements. Abdullah's comments suggest underlying tensions within the opposition alliance, particularly regarding the Congress's electoral performance and seat distribution strategies.
It was a mixed bag for 11 seats with more than 35 percent Muslim voters, where six candidates of the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi emerged victorious in the Maharashtra assembly polls on Saturday, while four seats went to the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Mahayuti alliance.
Several Oppn parties linked the mandate to CAA and NRC, saying people have demolished 'arrogance' of the BJP, which attributed its defeat to local issues and 'internal strife' in the state.
The BJP government in Gujarat has formed a five-member committee, headed by a retired Supreme Court judge, to assess the need for the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) in the state and to draft a bill for the same. The committee will submit its report within 45 days. The decision has sparked debate with the Opposition claiming it is an attempt to divert attention from pressing issues ahead of the upcoming local body polls, while the government insists the UCC will protect the rights of tribal communities. The committee will consult with religious leaders, including those from the Muslim community.
'Kerala will lose 6 seats, Tamil Nadu 9 seats, Telangana and Karnataka 2 seats each, Andhra Pradesh 5 seats.'
A bench of Justices Hrishikesh Roy and SV N Bhatti sought Tankha's response in four weeks on the plea of Chouhan and BJP state president VD Sharma and former minister Bhupendra Singh who have challenged the October 25 order of the Madhya Pradesh high court refusing to quash the defamation case.
'They refuse to be transparent. They refuse to be accountable.'
'They want to snatch the land and give it to their friends'
The Ranchi police arrested the suspended BJP leader after a case was registered against her at the Argora police station.
Paswan said he was willing to contest the upcoming Bihar assembly polls as an NDA partner "if the BJP so desires", and made light of estranged uncle Pashupati Kumar Paras' recent meeting with Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
Opposition parties on Wednesday opposed the 'one nation, one election' proposal by calling it impractical and a 'cheap stunt' by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.
Leaders of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) have decided to raise the NEET issue in both houses of Parliament on Friday and members will give notices in this regard, sources have said.
Uttam Ghosh offers his take on the election result in Jharkhand where the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party failed to recpture power.
'It was my late husband Durga Soren (Hemant Soren's elder brother) who built the party and strengthened it.' 'It was due to his strengthening efforts that we have today a JMM government in the state.'
Hitting out at the Congress government headed by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, he said the ruling party has reached "height of appeasement politics," and alleged that it has in a way made appeasement of minorities its "goal."
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati, and Shiv Sena-Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray were among the famous faces who queued up at the polling booths on Monday to caste their votes in the fifth phase of the Lok Sabha elections.
The rout of Sharad Pawar-led faction has raised questions over his political future with a potential risk of a further slide in the party flock in future.
The Jharkhand poll results also show that the caste equations against BJP are consolidating. Cong leaders feel that the BJP is not invincible and can be defeated if like-minded parties get together.
Arvind Kerjiwal, who resigned as Delhi chief minister on Tuesday, is likely to focus on galvanising the AAP cadres and rebuilding trust among the people before the assembly polls, a senior functionary said.
The 52-year-old, who joins her mother Sonia and brother Rahul as an MP in what is a rare instance of three members of a family together in Parliament, would visit Parliament as a teenager to listen to her father Rajiv Gandhi speak as prime minister.
Development economist Jean Dreze said the Indian democracy is currently navigating a crisis that is not only limited to the 'recent wave of authoritarianism' but also suppression of opposition voices by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.
Kharge alleged that Dhankhar is working as a government spokesperson and acting like a school headmaster, often sermonising experienced opposition leaders and preventing them from speaking in the House.
Hours before the ceremony, Saini visited the Valmiki Bhawan and offered prayers at a gurdwara and the Mansa Devi temple in Panchkula.
The juggernaut of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance, which triumphed in three of the four east and north-eastern states that went for assembly bypolls on Saturday, was halted yet again in West Bengal where Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress registered a six-on-six clean sweep.
Here's a look at how the heavyweights of fared in the Jharkhand assembly polls, 2019.
The BJP is leaning on Yogi's 'batenge to katenge' theme to weave a unifying narrative that transcends caste and communal lines.
'This is becoming the new normal. Accountability of @AshwiniVaishnaw ji is zero. The GOI has no answers whatsoever'
The opposition on Sunday asked the Centre to allow discussions in the Parliament on the United States prosecutors' bribery charges against the Adani Group even as Union minister Kiren Rijiju made it clear that the matters to be taken up in the two Houses will be decided by their authorised committees with the consent of the respective Chair.
The response was tepid in other parts of the country even as several INDIA bloc parties as well as other non-BJP outfits extended their support to the bandh.
The Supreme Court on Monday sought the Election Commission's response on a PIL challenging its decision to increase the maximum number of voters from 1,200 to 1,500 at every polling station, saying no elector should be excluded.
Shinde had retained most of the sitting MLAs, who chose to be with him when he led the rebellion two years ago. They delivered for him on Saturday when votes for the state polls were counted.
"Hemant Soren repeatedly ignored my advice and eventually landed in jail... he has always been surrounded by wrong advisors," Hembrom, a lawmaker from Borio seat in Sahibganj district, told reporters.
'The Jharkhand government is increasingly intolerant of voices of dissent.' 'Recently 20 persons, including activists, writers and academics, were booked for sedition.' 'Many of them have been critical of the government's apathy towards Adivasis,' notes Siraj Dutta.
Every student of Classes 9 and 10 will receive Rs 2,200 and that of Classes 11 and 12 Rs 7,500 as scholarships, said the manifesto, which was released by Prasad in Ranchi, in the presence of Chief Minister Raghubar Das, Union Tribal Minister Arjun Munda and BJP's state unit president Laxman Gilua.
Names of Rajya Sabha MPs Harbhajan Singh and Swati Maliwal are missing from the list.
Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar said his statement on 'Shakti scheme' was distorted and presented as if the Congress government in the state wanted to withdraw it.
As many as 12 MLAs of the Congress have threatened to boycott the upcoming state assembly session from February 23 and head to Jaipur if the ministers are not replaced with new faces.
Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Monday hit out at the Election Commission for the 'tone and tenor' of its recent letter to his party while also urging the poll body to act against 'communal and incendiary rhetoric' allegedly used by Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma during poll campaigns.
