The three gunmen involved in the killing of Nationalist Congress Party leader Baba Siddique in Mumbai practiced firing near a waterfall in adjoining Raigad district before executing the murder, police officials said on Tuesday citing their investigation.
There are lessons for the Congress to learn from the Karnataka elections of how burying the hatchet among top leaders and not washing dirty linen in public can help, says Ramesh Menon.
Eight Union ministers, two former chief ministers and one ex-governor are among those who are set to test their electoral fate in the first phase of elections on April 19 when 102 seats across 21 states and Union territories will go to polls.
Fadnavis rules out holding special session of legislature and instead assures of relief measures, says Sanjay Jog
However, it was Narendra Modi's 27 rallies that attracted maximum attention.
Close to half of the total 543 Lok Sabha seats are bracing for multi-cornered fight this time, making the contest way more interesting and intense than it was in the 2019 elections.
Shooters involved in the killing of Nationalist Congress Party leader and former Maharashtra minister Baba Siddique learnt to handle firearms by watching videos on YouTube at a rented house in Kurla area in Mumbai, officials said on Wednesday.
KC Venugopal mentioned that the Congress's goal is to diminish the BJP's representation in Uttar Pradesh by securing half of the seats in the state.
'The Congress government is on its way out in Himachal Pradesh.'
In a breakthrough, Mumbai Police and Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (STF) on Sunday arrested wanted shooter Shivkumar in Nationalist Congress Party politician Baba Siddique murder case from the northern state along with four others, an official said.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of spreading fear, hatred and violence and said the country can not progress under these circumstances as he asked the government to be compassionate in handling farmers' problems to prevent suicides.
Bollywood actor Salman Khan has allegedly received a death threat again along with a demand of Rs 2 crore following which the Mumbai police have registered a first information report (FIR) against an unidentified person, an official on Wednesday.
But the atmosphere is now conducive for the Mahayuti to continue in power in Maharashtra thanks to the government's people-centric schemes, while the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) is giving promises that it cannot execute, he said.
The Mumbai police probing the Baba Siddique murder case have found that the five newly-arrested accused had demanded Rs 50 lakh for the killing, but backed out later due to disagreement over payment and also considering the Nationalist Congress Party leader's clout, officials said.
The Bharatiya Janata Party has fielded Union minister Piyush Goyal, as well as its senior leaders Anil Bonde and Dhananjay Mahadik for the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections to six seats from Maharashtra, and senior party leader Devendra Fadnavis asserted that all of them will win.
Bypolls are due in Bihar, Gujarat, Haryana, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Telangana, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu
The Congress has finalised almost all the 174 seats it plans to contest in the October 13 Maharashtra polls but did not rule out exchange of few seats with the Nationalist Congress Party for the 288-member assembly.
UP's representation in the government could diminish, given the BJP's decreased seat count in that state.
The 'Make Rahul Gandhi All India Congress Committee president again' chorus is growing louder in the Congress with half a dozen state units so far seeking his elevation to the top post, even as uncertainty and suspense persisted over whether he would take on the mantle.
Among the bigwigs are Union ministers Amit Shah (Gandhinagar), Jyotiraditya Scindia (Guna), Mansukh Mandaviya (Porbandar), Parshottam Rupala (Rajkot), Pralhad Joshi (Dharwad) and SP Singh Baghel (Agra).
Those joining Prime Minister Narendra Modi's council of ministers for the first time include three former chief ministers -- Shivraj Singh Chouhan (Madhya Pradesh), Manohar Lal Khattar (Haryana) and H D Kumaraswamy (Karnataka).
In his letter to Modi, Kharge asserted that strict legal action should be taken against those giving such statements so that Indian politics can be prevented from degenerating and nothing untoward happens.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi criticized the BJP for claiming to protect the Constitution while citing V D Savarkar's remarks that there was nothing Indian about it. He also drew parallels to the story of 'Eklavya' to illustrate the BJP's alleged economic policies hurting small businesses and farmers. He further supported the removal of the 50 percent cap on reservations and advocated for a caste census.
Raut said such friendly fights should happen on all 48 seats in Maharashtra as well as in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.
The monsoon spelt mayhem in several parts of the country on Monday, particularly Mumbai where local train services and flight operations were hit and everyday life disrupted as well as Assam that was grappling with floods yet again.
Gandhi, who is seeking a second-straight term from Wayanad in Kerala, in a video appeal said this election is to save democracy and the Constitution.
Raut said they do not require the exit polls as they work on the field and know the "undercurrent".
The assembly bypolls in Bihar and Maharashtra, scheduled for November 3, are set to be the first electoral test of the popularity of the respective state governments after a change in the political alignment.
Several BJP-backed state governments have unveiled schemes targeting the poor, women, farmers and students, following the party's setback in the Lok Sabha polls.
The article had criticised the BJP for forming an alliance with the NCP.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday took oath as member of the 18th Lok Sabha.
Khera told reporters in Hyderabad that the views of the newly-elected MLAs have been elicited and the central leadership is seized of the matter.
After a marathon polling process to elect the 18th Lok Sabha that lasted for a month and a half, the results were declared on Tuesday.
The TMC also announced it would hold talks with other regional parties in their bid to take on the BJP in the crucial 2024 elections but at the same time denied that it was planning a third front, separate from the Congress-led front.
The stakes are significant for the BJP in this round as the party had in 2019 won an overwhelming majority of these seats, including all in Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, that will go to polls on May 7.
The grand old party faces the onerous task of rebuilding its moribund organisation, which is struggling to overcome a leadership crisis and regain credibility with the voters.
Ghulam Nabi Azad's resignation from the Congress on Friday marked the most high-profile exit of one of the "Group of 23" (G-23) leaders, who had written to party chief Sonia Gandhi two years ago for a "collective and inclusive leadership" in the organisation, exposing the faultlines in the grand old party.
The Congress may stand a better chance in the assembly polls if it followed the 'Himachal model', suggests N Sathiya Moorthy.
The controversy over fund collection for Congress president Sonia Gandhi's rally at Sevagram in Wardha district on Friday could land Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee chief Manikrao Thakre in trouble. The All India Congress Committe indicated that it was not coming to the rescue of the beleaguered leader, amid questions whether he was off the hook or being proceeded against.
'Leave aside the negative fallouts of phraseology like 'urban Naxals' and 'terrorists', both the BJP and the Congress have to re-discover themselves in the context of the 2024 election results, including those of the upcoming ones for Maharashtra and Jharkhand,' observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
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