However, in recent times, the clout that trader bodies such as CAIT and other organisations like Swadeshi Jagran Manch and Laghu Udyog Bharati has is steadily increasing. Earlier this year, trader bodies were able to convince the government not to extend the deadline for implementation of the new norms in FDI policy on e-commerce.
Family feuds, in what are essentially family-run outfits, have cast a shadow over the reunification efforts of Janata Party.
The journey of the prime minister in public office began on October 7, 2001, as the chief minister of Gujarat.
An editorial in Sena mouthpiece Saamana said it was never decided that the grand temple will be constructed through public donations, and political campaigning in the name of Lord Ram has to be stopped at some point of time.
150 BJP elected local representatives in Beed resign in protest against Pritam Munde's exclusion from the Union ministry.
A party of newbies which had anger as fuel and hope in its own capability to work wonders suddenly finds itself not only in government but put on fast forward by everyone. These are heavy burdens for a fledgeling party, to perform under a microscope. Transparency is what they promised, and they are in a glass house now, says Mahesh Vijapurkar.
Trinamool Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party are contesting in all the 30 seats, while the Communist Party of India-Marxist is in the fray in 15 and its alliance partners of Sanjukta Morcha the Congress and ISF are competing in 13 and two seats respectively.
Bihar! The state goes to the polls next year. Narendra Modi has chosen a Bhumihar, Rajput and Yadav as his ministers from the state.
With Lok Sabha elections due in April-May, government will hold a session of Parliament in the first fortnight of February to pass the vote-on-account.
Trains were set afire and blocked, and public vehicles attacked as protests over 'Agnipath' swept across several places in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi and Jammu on Thursday amid partisan political voices in favour and against the new recruitment scheme for the defence forces that has set off a firestorm.
The judgment was reserved after a marathon hearing which went on for 38 days spanning four months.
Governor E S L Narasimhan administered the oath of office and secrecy to the 46-year-old leader, whose party emerged victorious in 151 seats in the 175-member strong state assembly.
In his book Arun Bhatnagar, a retired IAS officer, makes a dig at Hardeep Singh Puri, former diplomat, Union minister and BJP nominee from Amritsar Lok Sabha seat, for Rajiv's faulty Sri Lankan policy, writes Rasheed Kidwai.
The deputy prime minister's comments come after the prime minister's remarks that he was 'fit and ready' for elections.
Firing a salvo against Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar has alleged that the senior BJP leader is in a rush to take over the country's top post.
Narendra Modi is expected to have a 45-member council of ministers who will take oath along with him on Monday evening. The council of ministers is expected to have 23 Cabinet ministers, 10 ministers of state with independent charge and 11 ministers of state, according to sources.
BJP would observe the next 10 days -- from Sunday to September 17, the birthday of the PM -- as 'seva parva'.
BJP chief Amit Shah had set a target of winning 22 Lok Sabha seats out of 42 seats in West Bengal.
940 children have died this year. A team from NCPCR found the hospital to be in the 'worst condition'. 77 infants had died till December 24 including 10 within 48 hours on December 23-24.
A key argument against the Aadhaar scheme was that it was violative of the nine-judge bench verdict that had held that Right to Privacy is a fundamental right under the Constitution.
Despite drawing a blank in Tamil Nadu, its leaders in the state claimed they should strike roots without using a crutch at this "most opportune" time, reports Radhika Ramaseshan.
Dismissing Kejriwal as an anarchist and trying to corner him on that score is unfair because the AAP is unlike any other party we have so far seen. It takes its strength directly from the people not just by way of votes but being participatory in its decisions, says Mahesh Vijapurkar.
The street-fighter attitude is what keeps Rane going even at 69. The expectation is -- at least in the BJP camp -- that he will be itching for a battle royale with the Shiv Sena in its bastions.
Nirahua, a Bhojpuri star and the BJP's candidate, is drawing huge crowds in his road shows and meetings after he entered the poll fray against Yadav, but voters with caste and local equations appear favourable for the senior Yadav.
BJP won 18 of the seats while the TMC won 22 of the seats.
Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com attended the Congress president's rally in Mumbai on Friday, and explains why people who came with high hopes left disappointed.
The Samajwadi Party stormed to the power with 224 of the 403 assembly seats.
The online edition of the 52-page magazine has been removed from the official website of the primary education department.
The Congress was not unduly perturbed by reports that party vice-president Rahul Gandhi's application for proof of residence in Amethi was turned down by the district magistrate, stating emphatically that this would have no impact on his nomination from his Lok Sabha constituency. Anita Katyal explains why
The search committee will forward the names to the selection committee comprising the Prime Minister, the Chief Justice of India or his nominee, Lok Sabha Speaker, the leader of the largest opposition party and an eminent jurist.
The Bharatiya Janata Party appeared to cede ground in Uttar Pradesh where Samajwadi Party was leading on six of the 11 Assembly seats where bypolls were held while it was neck and neck with Congress in Gujarat and behind in Rajasthan, exactly four months after it swept the three states in Lok Sabha elections.
"The Opposition's mahagathbandhan is an alliance of corruption, negativity and instability. The Opposition has 'dhanshakti' (money power), we have 'janshakti' (people's power)," the prime minister said.
The RSS realises that with a majority BJP government at the Centre and in several states, now was the best time to undermine and perhaps outdo the Congress-Left 'stranglehold' over campuses and young minds.
A day after Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad fielded his daughter Misa Bharti as party nominee to contest from the Patliputra seat in Patna, a senior party leader and Rajya Sabha MP Ramkirpal Yadav has revolted against him. He is now set to join the Bharatiya Janata Party to contest against Misa.
'The EC is a sacred institution.' 'In the last few years, more than once, we have found the EC bending over backwards to accommodate the government.'
Even as politics engaged him more, he never hid his way of life. On one occasion, Morarji Desai pleaded with him to stop drinking publicly. "You stick to your pissky and I'll stick to my whisky'' he is supposed to have told him.
From President Pranab Mukherjee's son Abhijit to Rahul and Varun Gandhi, at least 50 parliamentary constituencies will be contested by 'sons and daughters' of politicians of various parties during the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
As electoral sails shift in the dynamic political winds of West Bengal, two factors may still change the electoral equations are how the BJP fares this time and how Muslims are going to vote. Mayank Mishra reports.
UP now has 16 ministers, the maximum from any state, in an apparent bid to keep the Dalit and other backward class votebank content.
When the results for the Rae Bareli assembly seat came in on March 11, Aditi Singh (Congress) had won 128,319 votes, Mohammad Shabaz Khan of the BSP had won 39,156 votes and the BJP's Anit Srivastava had won 28,821 votes. It was a stunning victory for the US-educated rookie Congress candidate.
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