A senior TMC MLA said Banerjee told her party leaders during the closed-door meeting that they should shun "VIP culture".
There is growing acceptance of the idea in the international community that engaging the Taliban government is a far better approach than ostracising it, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
As the campaign peaked, AAP leaders evidently realised they had to deflect their chief opponent's attempts to polarise the electorate over religious identity, explains David Devadas.
The Delhi BJP, on the other hand, alleged that one Amrik Singh Micky, who was present at the Red Fort and later posted his picture with provocative slogan in Facebook, was an AAP leader.
The first priority for the new Tibetan administration in Dharamsala should be to look at Tibetan recruitment in the PLA, suggests Claude Arpi.
The elections are not only a means for TMC to prove its wide, unopposed mass allegiance but also a way to bargain for national leadership among regional political parties in the road to New Delhi.
Bhupesh Baghel revived the Congress in Chhattisgarh after the party's frontline leadership was wiped out in a Maoist attack in 2013.
The saffron party, which had witnessed unprecedented growth in terms of vote share and mass base over the last few years, had opened its doors wide for leaders from other parties as part of its poll strategy, but that did not go down well with many senior leaders, who had once locked horns with the newbies from rival camps, sources in the BJP said.
'...to come back to power because it was not doing well.'
'We had no inkling this would come. Admittedly, we failed to inspire confidence in migrants that no harm would come to them if they stayed back.' Radhika Ramaseshan reports.
Apart from being the CM twice earlier, he has won a series of Lok Sabha and assembly elections from the state and headed the Rajasthan Pradesh Congress Committee four times.
The orders under Section 144, Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), will remain in force for a month in Kishtwar and for 15 days in Ramban district of Jammu, an official spokesperson said on Saturday. In Bihar, the administration imposed Section 144 of CrPC in Sheohar, Banka, Gopalganj and Samastipur districts on Saturday.
Asserting that he will not let Punjab plunge into anarchy at any cost and nobody can be allowed to take the law into their hands, the chief minister said he has been forced to toughen his stance as his repeated appeals to perpetrators of such acts had been ignored.
A day after Communist Party of India-Marxist member of legislative assembly Sushanta Ghosh was apprehended by the Criminal Investigation Department in a murder case, the West Bengal Assembly on Friday witnessed uproarious scenes on the issue with the ruling bench demanding the arrest of former Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.
The Speaker, responding to pleas by DMK's KN Nehru, who was not among those suspended since he was not present in the House on August 17, made it clear that there was no reviewing of his decision to suspend the agitating DMK legislators for a week.
'There is no future for the Shiv Sena under Uddhavji's leadership.'
Official celebrations in most states were restricted to unfurling of the national flag and chief ministers and governors addressing the people, with fewer guests in attendance.
Five years ago, Nazarwala made history when he predicted on Rediff.com that Mayawati would be victorious in the Uttar Pradesh assembly election, winning over 184 seats. With UP heading into a critical assembly election, Nazarwala returns to Rediff.com and writes of a mandate squandered at the altar of megalomania and vanity.
Political observers have said that the TMC, now desperate to shed the 'anti-Hindu' tag and embrace 'soft Hindutva', is carefully planning its moves, with help from poll strategist Prashant Kishor and team, as is evident from its decisions to organise Brahmin Sammelan, provide sops to Sanatan Brahmins, and financial aid to Durga puja committees.
The 31-year-old will have to do the balancing act between his anti-BJP support base and work with the Khattar-led dispensation for smooth governance.
Taking exception to Andhra Pradesh Assembly Speaker N Manohar rejecting en masse resignations of members of legislative assembly from Telangana, Telugu Desam legislators from the region on Sunday said they are ready to put in their papers again.
Judge Vyas observed that it was for the first time that a dozen persons were being convicted for conspiring in a terror attack before they could do any damage.
'The BJP will get the lion's share of the Opposition vote. I would give the Congress-Left around 15 per cent.'
Elections 2024 is not as open and shut as has been presumed. There is some life left in it, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
One million schoolkids around the world build and light solar lamps.
Freebies galore and populist schemes under the popular 'Amma' brand became the hallmark of late Jayalalithaa's tenure as Chief Minister, helping her steamroll arch-rival M Karunanidhi's Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam in this year's assembly polls.
Small indoor meetings at 370 different locations across the country with 500-1000 opinion makers at the district level, and 35 big indoor meetings having gathering of 2,000 people will be held at capitals of all states and Union territories in the country, the party leader said.
Ram Vilas Paswan, 74, who was the Lok Janshakti Party patron, had undergone a heart surgery at a hospital in New Delhi a few days ago.
'India is a multifaceted place that resides in one country.' 'I always say that there are 1.3 billion Indias and everyone takes their own form and shape of the country.' A fascinating glimpse from Barkat: The Inspiration And Story Behind One Of The World's Largest Food Drives, Feed India.
The Telangana issue assumed centre stage on Thursday night as Union Law Minister Veerappa Moily held consultations with Congress members of Legislative Assembly and members of Parliament. Though a lot of hope was pinned by the Telangana leaders on this meeting there was absolutely no decision taken on issue of statehood, say insiders. However, the mass resignation programme by these elected representatives will be put on hold till the assembly elections in five states.
'The NDA has provided me a healing touch to survive'
The Telegu Desam Party, which had threatened to resign en masse from the state assembly unless the Centre initiated proceedings for the creation of a separate Telangana state, has decided to play it safe. TDP Members of Legislative Assembly from the Telangana region have decided to resign from the assembly only if Congress MLAs from the region do so first.This decision by the TDP has put the pro-Telangana movement on the back-foot.
As and when the pandemic recedes from these shores, rebuilding the economy will be the biggest challenge for Modi in the remaining three years of his term, observes Virendra Kapoor.
'Mamata will beat the living daylights out of BJP workers with the result that people who are not totally committed, they will promptly leave the party and go back to Trinamool.' 'Or when they find they cannot get what they came to the BJP for they will go back to Trinamool.'
While five resident doctors of Hindu Rao Hospital had been sitting on a relay hunger strike since Friday, the senior doctors of the North Corporation-run facilities had gone on an indefinite strike on Tuesday. Their associations had joined hands in solidarity since Tuesday.
'When violence spread, it looked as if Mamata was losing control, but soon, she was able to contain the situation.' 'Now, the TMC stands to gain the most.'
'The main characteristic of Bihar politics is that it has always affected Delhi.'
'If Modi-Shah had not changed the leadership, one section would have parted ways with the BJP for sure.'
The 61-year-old feisty leader, who had single-handedly wrecked the red bastion in West Bengal in 2011, was unfazed by the Left-Congress alliance ahead of the assembly polls.
Khushi Dubey, Hari Shankar Tiwari and Mata Prasad Pandey represent the resentment among Brahmins towards the Adityanath government. Radhika Ramaseshan reports.
