In the last eight months, the government has received over a lakh representations from various organisations from across the country
For the most battle-hardened, specialised and successful counter-insurgency army in the world, this is an unfamiliar, first-time experience of dealing with the north east's deepest complexities, observes Shekhar Gupta.
Polling for three parliamentary seats and 29 assembly constituencies were held on October 30, an exercise being seen as a barometer of the political mood in the country ahead of assembly elections in politically critical Uttar Pradesh as well as other states.
A day after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's comment that there was no United Progressive Alliance anymore, Kishor, who has earlier been political advisor to various parties, also called for democratically electing the opposition leadership.
Union minister Prakash Javadekar said the government has taken care of the interests of everyone and 'the interest of India'.
With Maharashtra and Haryana assembly elections, results for 51 assembly and two Lok Sabha bypolls spread across 18 states were declared on Thursday. Here are state-wise results of the bypolls.
'The control of the Church over Christian people regarding politics has become weak...' 'People have started to think independently and it is not for sure that they will obey whatever the Church asks them to do.'
Adequate security and Covid safety measures have been put in place for the electoral exercise.
Bharatiya Janata Party veterans like Murli Manohar Joshi, Kalyan Singh and V K Malhotra may be accommodated as governors as their names are doing the rounds for appointment in gubernatorial posts in key states like Karnataka, Maharashtra and Haryana.
The former Union minister said it is 'quite heartening' to see that Gandhi has taken up the initiative to involve Kishor to come out with a strategy for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, and the party's revival plan.
'Had the BJP gone along with the NPP, that would have eased the task of the Congress of winning more seats.' 'That was a great strategy of the BJP.' 'It helped the NPP get more seats than perhaps if it had gone as a pre-alliance partner with the BJP.'
Assembly elections in Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat are over. Another set of state elections is due in 2018. Here's an assessment of the next round of the electoral challenge and how it could change India's political equations.
In the afternoon, the home minister will introduce the Bill to amend the six-decade-old Citizenship Act and later in the day, it will be taken up for discussion and passage, according to the Lok Sabha's List of Business for Monday.
Bharatiya Janata Party leaders were enthused after they ousted the Left government in Tripura and scored positively in Nagaland too. Here are reactions from the party leaders.
The Assam-Mizoram violence is an outcome of BJP trying too hard to 'integrate' distinct northeastern states, explains Shekhar Gupta.
The Congress party just lost power in Arunachal Pradesh once again!
Congress and RJD are single largest parties in Goa and Bihar respectively.
Former president A P J Abdul Kalam was admitted to a hospital in Shillong following a sudden illness on Monday.
Dubbing the next election a choice between governance and development on one side and chaos on the other, the prime minister cited the example of Karnataka, where the Congress-Janata Dal(Secular) alliance 'stole the mandate' to form government with 'development taking a back seat'.
'Why is the RSS trying to destroy the indigenous culture of Assam and its language?' 'If these migrants settle in Assam, they will overwhelm the 47 per cent of people who speak Assamese.'
Glimpses of the CWC meeting, which was meant to formulate a plan to revive the party from the death throes of electoral irrelevance, but...
'There are 17 million Hindus in Bangladesh and we, in the north east, see this Citizenship (Amendment) Bill as a route for them to enter India on the plea that they are facing persecution in Bangladesh.'
'The BJP is using all the central agencies at its disposal (to undermine us).' 'We are also taking care that our MLAs are not poached.'
Punjab Governor Shivraj Patil was the first who expressed his desire to put in his papers even before Modi government took charge, but he was told by Congress leaders not to do so as it would then put pressure on the others to do the same, reports Anita Katyal.
A defeat in Assam would be bad news for the Congress which is in power in Meghalaya, Mizoram and Manipur.
In Maharashtra, where the 'Mahayuti' alliance of BJP, Shiv Sena and smaller parties is against the 'Maha-agadhi' led by the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party whereas the ruling BJP is locked in a contest with the opposition Congress and the fledgling Jannayak Janata Party for the 90 assembly seats in Haryana.
A combative Congress president also hit out at the Centre saying it should not try to frighten them and that they 'would not allow democratic institutions to be weakened or destroyed'
The opposition parties snatched the high-profile Kairana LS seat in from BJP with a united force.
Describing north-east as the "gateway" to south-east asia, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said his government has been pro-actively pursuing the 'Act-East Policy'
Modi's NDA is good enough to give a psychological boost to the once 'untouchable' BJP and Modi but if the NDA doesn't get a majority on its own, then walking the last mile will be the greatest challenge of this election for Modi, says Sheela Bhatt/Rediff.com
'The BJP is no longer the BJP. It has become the Bharatiya Janata Poaching Party.' 'They talk of black money and here they are ready to pay Rs 100 crore to MLAs.'
While Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Kalam had left an irreplaceable void, Union Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu said the Centre has decided to include Rameswaram in AMRUT by relaxing norms as a tribute to the former president.
'I am hopeful of getting all six seats from Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur, either for the BJP or with our allies.' 'The same is true about Meghalaya.' 'We will have to work hard in Mizoram and in Tripura.' 'In Assam, we won seven seats. In 2019 election, we will add to this number.'
'Is Ansari flagging a genuine concern? Is a rectification called for?' 'And finally: Do minorities matter?' asks Shekhar Gupta.
As their parties are locked in a fierce battle for Bengal, Tathagata and Saugata Roy, siblings who belong to the BJP and the TMC respectively, answer the same questions put to them about the assembly election.
'The debate, by being mostly in Hindi, lost much of its educative relevance to the southern states.' 'All the prime minister's debating skills and oratorical prowess went over the heads of the South Indian audience,' points out B S Raghavan, the distinguished civil servant.
If the Congress can simply go from 110 million to 130 million votes, it will yield a very different kind of NDA.
'The violence that shook Assam was a direct outcome of the state's ethnic problem... The tension that created a rift between the Bodos and the non-Bodos for years found a blood-spattered expression.' Former NSG chief Ranjit Shekhar Mooshahary, the Trinamool Congress candidate from Kokrajhar, speaks to Indrani Roy/Rediff.com about last week's carnage in Assam.
Even if they score administratively, state governments ruled by the party suffer from an inability to communicate positively, say observers.
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