'Laluji is like my father and I am like his son.'
The Communist Party of India-Marxist-led Left Democratic Front on Sunday retained the Koothuparamba and Azhikode assembly seats in Kerala thrashing its United Democratic Front rivals by huge margins.
Rediff Labs analysed the past performance of the parties to develop this Sentiment Meter for the 2016 Kerala election.
The highlight of the occasion, according to officials, is an address to a special gathering in the morning by President Xi Jinping, who cast himself in the mould of Mao Zedong, the founder of the Communist Party of China as it is officially called.
'You don't win elections on the basis of borrowed players.' 'There is a great crisis of leadership for the BJP in Bengal'
The 84-year-old Marxist veteran also likened the party's action on Saturday to suspend him and state party secretary Pinarayi Vijayan to 'punishing children when they commit mistakes'.
The Central Industrial Security Force, tasked with the security of the ED officials, are using high-resolution body cameras to keep track of activities around Soren's residence, he said.
'Not even a single rupee from the electoral bonds should be allowed to be used in the election.' 'If it is used in the election, it will taint India's electoral process itself.'
Once a reviled practice in the state, both the parties seem to have endorsed a record number of turncoats this time -- triggering a wave of discontentment among their loyalists.
Besides Defence Minister Singh (Lucknow), Minister of Women and Child Development Irani (Amethi), those in the fray are Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs Kaushal Kishor (Mohanlalganj) and Minister of State of Consumer Affairs Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti (Fatehpur).
Navigating a history of animosity and mistrust, negotiations for a potential Congress-Trinamool Congress alliance in West Bengal face significant challenges while addressing the shared adversary of the Bharatiya Janata Party, with the Bengal Congress unit appearing reluctant to engage in an electoral pact.
Rahul Gandhi's focus will be on his Nyay Yatra, rather than the INDIA bloc's election campaign, leading to speculation among allies that the Congress leader is already looking at the Opposition's fight beyond May 2024.
Top leaders of the Opposition's Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) held talks in an informal setting in Mumbai on Thursday evening to chart out a concrete roadmap and evolve a structure for cooperation among the alliance partners to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
Leaders of the Communist Party of India-Marxist gathered last week in Kerala, the only state the CPI-M still rules today.
In a landmark judgment that delivered a big blow to the government, the Supreme Court on Thursday annulled the electoral bonds scheme, saying it violates the constitutional right to freedom of speech and expression as well as the right to information.
This election will be remembered for being the first election where the Election Commission failed to take action on gross violations involving the ruling party that repeatedly used religion, communal slurs, lies and undocumented allegations, observes Ramesh Menon.
Defending the display of a portrait of Jesus Christ at an exhibition organised by the Communist Party of India - Marxist, party general secretary Prakash Karat on Tuesday said it was not done to run down religion or the basic tenets of Christianity. Terming it as an "unnecessary controversy", Karat in his inaugural address to the CPI-M's state conference quoted Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro to buttress the point that Christianity and Communism could "There
CPI-M alleged that some Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh-Bharatiya Janata Party workers came in a vehicle and hurled a bomb at Pinarayi in Dharmadam assembly segment from where CPI-M politburo member Pinarayi Vijayan won.
The Z+ security cover of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel has been extended to Khan and Raj Bhavan, his office said in a post on 'X'.
Rifles, guns and ammunition were seized from a Communist Party of India- Marxist party office, a health centre and other places in West Midnapore district on Tuesday, while the hand of a Trinamool Congress worker was chopped off allegedly by a CPI-M worker in Malda district.
A senior Delhi Police officer, however, said no student was detained.
In a landmark ruling to ensure transparency in the functioning of political parties, the Central Information Commission on Monday held that the parties are public authorities and answerable to citizens under RTI Act.
A day before the start of the Budget session of Parliament, as many as 18 opposition parties, led by the Congress, the Nationalist Congress Party, the Shiv Sena and the Trinamool Congress, decided on Thursday to boycott the President's address to the joint sitting of both Houses in solidarity with the farmers protesting against the new farm laws.
Tafajjal Hossain polled 33,849 votes in the by-election to the Boxanagar seat while CPI-M's Mizan Hussain got only 3,884 votes.
The INDIA bloc has 95 MPs in Rajya Sabha of which 45 were suspended on Monday.
In an unprecedented admission, Communist Party of India-Marxist patriarch Jyoti Basu on Friday said he had breached party discipline by openly canvassing for maverick West Bengal transport minister Subhas Chakraborty's induction into the Central Committee as well as the state secretariat.
There was considerable disquiet in the Congress after Mukherjee accepted the invitation of the RSS to address its workers at its headquarters in Nagpur.
Even as the grand old party seeks to promote opposition unity ahead of the hustings next year, Trinamool Congress supremo and West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, however, would be conspicuous by her absence at the event at Sree Kanteerava Stadium.
With the assembly poll results in three states being a disappointment for the Congress, some rumblings have begun among the constituents of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) ahead of their meeting on December 6, with many leaders alleging that the grand old party ignored others, but was unable to win elections on its own.
'I told him when I started my political career seven decades ago he was not even born. His political activities, the protests he organises and the way he fights the biggest corporate of India, the Ambanis, give hope to all people who are progressive. My desire is that such a party must grow, and I wished him all success for its growth.' V S Achuthanandan, the senior-most Communist in India, tells Rediff.com's Shobha Warrier why he turned down Arvind Kejriwal's invitation to join the Aam Aadmi Party.
In their dissent notes, the opposition members alleged that the inquiry process is a "farce" and a "proverbial kangaroo court".
A five-judge constitution bench of the Supreme Court is scheduled to commence hearing from October 31 a batch of pleas challenging the validity of the electoral bond scheme for political funding of parties.
The Congress and the Left parties have not only extended support to the Samajwadi Party candidate but are also campaigning for him, in accordance with the spirit of the new opposition togetherness ahead of next year's general election.
The Congress in Kerala on Friday approached the Election Commission of India (ECI) against the decision of Doordarshan to telecast the controversial movie The Kerala Story, saying it was a 'tacit effort' to divide society on religious grounds to further the electoral prospects of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.
Opposition parties will hold the next meeting of their 26-member INDIA coalition in Mumbai on August 25 and 26, sources said on Thursday.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has honoured Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh and Jain refugees by giving them citizenship through Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), Union home minister Amit Shah said on Tuesday and maintained there is no provision of stripping of anyone's citizenship in the new law.
Congress deputy leader in Lok Sabha Gaurav Gogoi claimed in a social media post that the website of the Ministry of Food Processing shows the CM's wife Riniki Bhuyan Sarma's firm Pride East Entertainments Pvt Ltd has received Rs 10 crore as part of credit credit-linked subsidy.
While the CPI-M in a statement after the secretariat on Friday maintained that Balakrishnan, who is also a Polit Bureau member, had sought leave for further treatment which had been accepted, the leader of opposition in the state assembly Ramesh Chennithala dubbed the move as a delayed dawning of wisdom.
Sandeshkhali, a village in North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal, has been at the centre of a political storm for nearly a month and has witnessed unprecedented protests over allegations of sexual abuse by scores of women against a local Trinamool Congress leader.
SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav joined the protest in the Lok Sabha and, along with Left leaders, demanded suspension of the Question Hour to take up a discussion on the issue. The House was adjourned for about 20 minutes and later parliamentary affairs minister P K Bansal said a structured discussion on the price situation would take place on Wednesday.
