The vice president of India is elected by an Electoral College comprising the elected members and nominated members of the Rajya Sabha and the elected members of the Lok Sabha.
Claiming that the government at the Centre is actually in a minority, Bharatiya Janata Party leader Sushma Swaraj on Saturday said mid-term general elections are a possibility for which her party is fully geared up for. "The politics of the country is changing every day and in view of the present situation, there is a possibility of mid-term Lok Sabha polls," said Swaraj, who was in Dewas to take part in the District Vigilance and Monitoring Committee's meeting.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed NDA parliamentarians, emphasizing that laws and regulations should serve the convenience of the common people and not cause harassment.
Karnataka Cooperation Minister K N Rajanna has been asked to resign after allegedly blaming his own Congress government for 'vote theft' in an Assembly segment. The issue sparked controversy and led to demands for clarification in the state assembly.
General elections are likely to be held in April next year, which has been emerging as the most acceptable option in the Congress camp as the party and its United Progressive Alliance government are apprehensive about the ripple effects of the global economic slowdown on India and want time to enable this to abate.
'We would do well to encourage all Indians to participate in democracy by contesting and laws that prevent or deter individuals and parties should be relooked at,' says Aakar Patel.
A delegation of Opposition leaders in Maharashtra, including Sharad Pawar, Uddhav Thackeray, and Raj Thackeray, met with the state's chief electoral officer to raise concerns about alleged irregularities in the poll process, particularly regarding the voters' list, ahead of local body elections.
A cross-party delegation led by Congress MP Dr Shashi Tharoor is visiting key American nations to rally global support for India's counter-terror stance under Operation Sindoor, spotlighting regional stability and Pakistan-backed cross-border threats.
A voter turnout of 69.69 percent was recorded in the third and final phase of voting Tuesday in the assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir, the Election Commission said.
'If you want a bright future of Bihar and your children, I urge you not to vote for anyone with a criminal background or corrupt candidates even if they belong to your caste.'
Rahul Gandhi's attack on Narendra Modi over the 2002 riots in his first-ever television interview indicates that the Congress will shift focus to 'contrasting ideologies' with the BJP before the general election.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday called on President Droupadi Murmu separately within hours at the Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi.
Much of the credit for bringing the BJP, which had lost ground in UP, back to the top goes to Sunil Bansal.
The DMK may consider a two-tier campaign, where they keep the focus on Chief Minister Stalin, as a senior statesman with 50-plus years of political experience, and let EPS and the BJP shout in the wilderness. In such a case, the second-tier may project Udhayanidhi as the contender and chosen obstructionist in Vijay's path. The attempt, if any, would be to reduce Vijay to Udhayanidhi's level when the former is aiming at Stalin and Stalin alone in the state's political horizon, predicts N Sathiya Moorthy.
Tharoor led a multi-party delegation, visiting various countries, to apprise the world about India's stand against cross-border terrorism following Operation Sindoor, which was launched in retaliation against the ghastly Pahalgam terror attack that claimed 26 lives.
Major Ramesh Upadhyay (retd), acquitted in the 2008 Malegaon blast case, claims he was tortured in jail to falsely implicate Yogi Adityanath, Mohan Bhagwat, and Indresh Kumar.
BJP patriarch Vajpayee and Lok Sabha Speaker Chatterjee, the senior-most and the only two ten-term MPs in the 14th Lok Sabha, will not be contesting the general elections this time for different reasons.
The video is said to be of Mokama, which falls under Lalan's Munger Lok Sabha seat, where the former Janata Dal-United president's defence of party candidate Anant Singh in a murder case has already drawn flak from the Opposition.
Gandhi asserted that the Congress is going to defeat the BJP and its ideology.
The Howrah Lok Sabha by-election to be held in the shadow of Saradha chitfund scam will be a test case for the Mamata Banerjee government's popularity and for the Congress and the Communist Party of India-Marxist to gauge their standing in West Bengal prior to the 2014 general election.
Having struck a seat-sharing deal, leaders of the Janata Dal-United and the Bharatiya Janata Party sat across the table in Patna on Monday to thrash out, among other things, constituencies they planned to swap or give up in favour of smaller allies in Bihar.
'Modi's charisma may have weakened as last year's Lok Sabha poll results showed but in the eyes of the Sangh Parivar, it has not waned.' 'Minus a strong BJP government at the Centre for another decade and more, there is apprehension that an anti-Hindutva government could reverse many of the ideological gains that the Modi dispensation has achieved through its three terms,' points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
With an eye on Lok Sabha polls, the Congress in Maharashtra is trying to rope in celebrities like superstar Shah Rukh Khan, former cricket captain Dilip Vengsarkar and Bhojpuri actor Ravi Kisen to boost its electoral fortunes.
The Deepa Thoon controversy, if not allowed to die a natural death, could take the election focus away from the anti-incumbency impacting the DMK and into the secular space. Stalin would love to have it that way, all over again, after the three past elections, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
Formally kicking off his party's campaign for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on Friday paid obeisance at the dargah of renowned sufi saint Haji Waris Ali Shah and held a road show in Barabanki.
A seasoned politician and two-term Member of Parliament, Dr Shakeel Ahmad, who has served as a Union minister and senior Congress leader, resigned from the Congress party, marking the end of his decades-long association with an organisation that his family has been part of for three generations. In an interview with Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff he speaks why he quit the party.
Renu Mittal details the roadmap till June 1 when the new administration takes over.
"More voters were added in Maharashtra in five months between the Lok Sabha and assembly polls than in five years," the former Congress president said.
Bharatiya Janata Party MP Nishikant Dubey emphasised the crucial role of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the party's electoral success, stating that the several sections which did not vote for BJP earlier now support the party and it has broken new ground in many states.
Mokama will witness one of this Bihar assembly election's hottest battles as Janata Dal-United candidate Anant Singh takes on the Rashtriya Janata Dal's Veena Devi, whose husband Surajbhan Singh, like her JD-U rival, is considered one of the state's tough guys or as they say in these parts, a Bahubali.
'No member of Pattali Makkal Katchi should maintain any association with Anbumani...
'If anyone does so, they too will face strict disciplinary action.'
Poll strategist Prashant Kishor alleges that the BJP pressured three Jan Suraaj Party candidates to withdraw from the Bihar elections, accusing the ruling NDA of threatening opposition candidates and urging the Election Commission to ensure candidate security. The BJP denies the allegations.
Delhi's ruling party is all set to tackle the Parliamentary polls in the desert state, says Shahnawaz Akhtar
Kejriwal claimed that the BJP has ruined Gujarat in its 30-year rule. The Congress has failed as an opposition because it helps the BJP retain power, he said.
Sources in the Prime Minister's Office said Dr Manmohan Singh's meeting with the finance ministry team, led by Finance Minister P Chidambaram, has been deliberately fixed for two days after the results of the assembly elections in five states are declared (for Jammu and Kashmir, the counting is on December 28), as the Congress leadership as well as the United Progressive Alliance members would have by then decided on the timing of the Lok Sabha polls
Former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah expresses dwindling hope for the restoration of statehood to Jammu and Kashmir, citing delays and governance challenges in the Union Territory setup.
Perhaps Arvind Kejriwal got it right when he described the party as Shivji ki baraat. In other words, without the pejorative sense associated with it, a ragtag. New, and new to the business of government, it is faltering, notes Mahesh Vijapurkar.
Following Raut's statement, the MNS, however, said the party's stand is decided by its chief.
The Indian Parliament will introduce a constitutional amendment bill on Tuesday that seeks to hold Lok Sabha and state assembly elections simultaneously. The bill, popularly known as "one nation, one election", will be introduced by Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal and is likely to be referred to a joint committee of both houses for wider consultations. The bill also aims to align elections in the union territories of Jammu and Kashmir, Puducherry, and the NCT of Delhi. The move has been met with mixed reactions, with some supporting the idea of reducing election-related expenses and others expressing concerns about its impact on democratic processes.
Bharatiya Janata Party leader Sumitra Mahajan will be appointed Speaker of the 16th Lok Sabha on Friday. Other key parliamentary posts like that of Leader of Opposition, deputy Speaker, chairman of the Public Accounts Committee and head of the all-important standing committee on finance will be keenly contested.
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