The Bharatiya Janata Party has entered into post-poll alliances with rivals Congress and All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen in some municipal councils in Maharashtra, even as Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Wednesday rejected the tie-ups and warned of action against party leaders involved.
Results and trends from recent bypolls across eight assembly seats in India show wins for MNF in Mizoram, BJP in Jammu and Kashmir, and Congress leading in Telangana and Rajasthan.
According to the police, a social media user shared a post on Facebook on the arrest of notorious gangster Amrish Rana.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader and Nagrota MLA Devender Singh Rana, brother of Union minister Jitendra Singh, died on Thursday at a private hospital in Haryana's Faridabad. He was 59.
The counting of votes will be done on November 14, along with the Bihar assembly election votes.
Janata Dal-United supremo Nitish Kumar is set to be sworn-in as Bihar chief minister for a record 10th time on Thursday, days after the National Democratic Alliance secured a landslide victory in the assembly elections.
'Will any coach think of keeping out Rohit and Kohli from the ODI team? That means there is something going on within the team against the two players.' Manoj Tiwary, who played 12 ODIs and three T20Is for India, said iconic players like Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli deserve greater respect.
Remarks by Congress and NCP (SP) leaders in Maharashtra suggesting the term 'Sanatani terrorist' have sparked a controversy, drawing strong criticism from the BJP, which accuses them of 'Hindu hatred' and 'appeasement politics'.
Rana, who currently represents the Amravati Lok Sabha seat, joined the ruling BJP at the party's state unit chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule's residence in Nagpur along with her supporters late Wednesday night.
Under the Eknath Shinde government's flagship 'Mukhyamantri Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana', eligible women in the state will be given Rs 1,500 per month.
Rana's blistering attack came in response to AIMIM MLA Akbaruddin Owaisi's controversial speech in 2013 that it would take them only '15 minutes' to balance the 'Hindu- Muslim ratio' in the country if the police were removed.
Rajesh Shukla, the lone SP MLA in Madhya Pradesh, along with an MLA of the Bahujan Samaj Party and an independent legislator joined the BJP in Bhopal on Tuesday in the presence Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.
The Supreme Court on Thursday set aside the Bombay high court verdict cancelling the caste certificate of Amravati MP and BJP leader Navneet Kaur Rana.
Six rebel Congress MLAs, including Rana, who were disqualified for defying the party whip asking them to be present in the assembly and vote in favour of the state government during cut motions and the budget, moved the Supreme Court on Tuesday against their disqualification.
A drunk SUV driver, identified as Usman Khan, a Congress leader, allegedly hit multiple pedestrians and vehicles in Jaipur, killing three people and leaving six others seriously injured. The incident occurred on a narrow city road in the Nahargarh area. Khan, who is the Congress' Jaipur district vice president, was driving recklessly and under the influence of alcohol, according to police. Following the incident, locals gathered at the Nahargarh police station and blocked roads to protest and demand compensation for the victims. The Congress has expelled Khan and expressed condolences to the families of the victims. The BJP criticized the Congress, alleging that the party is full of people with criminal tendencies.
A case of criminal conspiracy, corruption practices and undue influence on election has been registered on the complaint of two Congress MLAs, police said on Sunday.
The Jammu and Kashmir assembly unanimously passed a resolution on Monday expressing shock and anguish over the terrorist attack in Pahalgam and resolved to fight resolutely to defeat the nefarious designs to disturb communal harmony and hinder progress.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is set to form its government in Delhi after winning the recent assembly elections. Party leaders have stated that the new chief minister should be chosen from the elected BJP MLAs, with several contenders emerging from the newly-elected members. The decision on the next chief minister is expected to be made after Prime Minister Narendra Modi returns from his foreign visit around February 15.
'The Congress is not listening to its young leaders. That is why the situation of the party is worsening in all states'
Amravati MLA Ravi Rana has claimed Shiv Sena-Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray head and former Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray will join the Modi government in 15 days after the Lok Sabha election results come out on Tuesday.
The Devendra Fadnavis-led ministry in Maharashtra has successfully passed a trust vote in the state assembly, securing a commanding majority of 230 seats in the 288-member house. The BJP-Shiv Sena-NCP 'Mahayuti' coalition, with a majority mark of 144, had a comfortable win with the support of smaller parties and independent MLAs. The trust motion was tabled by Shiv Sena MLA Uday Samant and others, and was passed by a voice vote. The 15th legislative assembly began its tenure on December 7, and the floor test was considered a mere formality. Fadnavis was sworn in as the chief minister for the third time on December 5, with Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar as deputy chief ministers.
The welcome procession impeded traffic at several spots, while an 'aarti' performed by the couple had loudspeakers in use even after 10pm, local police officials said.
'On the governmental level, we are saying all the right things, like beti bachao, beti padhao. Yet, a High Court judge in Prayagraj, who is highly educated, has studied the Constitution and its laws, says breaking the naada of a pyjama or touching the breasts of a minor girl is not part of the reform process. Just giving lip service is not enough, the general mindset has to change.'
The BMC notice to the couple recently arrested over the Hanuman Chalisa row was issued under Section 488 of the Mumbai Municipal Corporation Act, 1888, according to which, officials can visit any building and ascertain whether any illegal alterations have been undertaken.
The BJP has emerged the second largest party by winning 29 constituencies in the maiden assembly polls post abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir, improving its all-time high tally of 25 seats recorded in 2014 elections.
The Ranas had on Friday said that they would recite Hanuman Chalisa outside 'Matoshree', the personal residence of Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray in suburban Bandra at 9 am on Saturday.
The development came hours after the couple cancelled their plan to recite the Hanuman Chalisa outside Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray's private residence 'Matoshree' in Mumbai.
After they were granted bail on Wednesday, the necessary documents had not timely reached the prisons where they were lodged.
Raut claimed Navneet Rana received a loan of Rs 80 lakh from Yusuf Lakdawala, who was arrested in a money laundering case.
The move came after the Lok Sabha Privilege and Ethics Committee asked the Home Ministry to seek a report from the Maharashtra government.
An average voter turnout of 20 per cent was recorded in the first four hours of voting in the bypolls to 15 assembly seats spread across Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Kerala and Uttarakhand on Wednesday amid an incident of stone pelting in a village in UP's Meerapur and allegations of police personnel deterring voters from casting their ballot.
Kicking up a controversy, Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Suresh Rana said that curfew will be imposed in Kairana, Deoband and Moradabad if he is elected again in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls next month.
"Time will also take account of those registering cases and those getting them registered. Stopping the business of MLAs and allowing friends to loot, is this a change in the system?" he posed.
The police sought that the couple's bail be cancelled on the ground that they had allegedly violated one of the conditions imposed by the special court while granting them bail last week.
Maharashtra's MP-MLA couple Navneet Rana and Ravi Rana, arrested over the Hanuman Chalisa row, will have to remain in jail at least for a few more days as a special court in Mumbai on Monday said it will give its ruling on their bail plea on May 4.
The couple had approached the HC seeking that the FIR registered against them by the Khar police in Mumbai on the charge of deterring a police officer from discharging her official duties be quashed.
Maharashtra Home Minister Dilip Walse-Patil on Tuesday denied Independent MP Navneet Rana's accusation that she was ill-treated in the police custody after her and her husband's arrest on Saturday.
The video clip shows the Rana couple sitting on chairs and sipping tea in front of police officials at Khar police station. Bottles of mineral water are also seen on the table in front of them.
Independent MP Navneet Rana and her MLA-husband Ravi on Monday said they will approach Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah to raise the issue of their alleged ill-treatment by Maharashtra authorities when the couple was in jail recently.
On Sunday, a Mumbai court remanded the politician couple in 14-day judicial custody, a day after they were arrested by the Mumbai Police on the charge of 'creating enmity between different groups', rejecting the police's demand for their custody, an official said.