If the BJP doesn't do as well as it is expected to, it might have to seek Upendra Kushwaha's help in forming a government for a price: the chief ministership
With four seats each won by junior allies Hindustani Awam Morcha-Secular and Vikassheel Insaan Party, the NDA bagged 125 seats in its kitty, three more than the number required for a simple majority.
Political observers say Banerjee is fast emerging as the face of the Opposition and would be a force to reckon with in the next general elections in 2019.
China's national health commission said 39,452 new cases were reported on Monday, including 36,304 local asymptomatic cases, as authorities scrambled to contain the fresh surge in infections.
There are reports that the government may try to physically prevent opposition members and nearly two dozen PTI dissidents from reaching the Parliament House through protestors.
'Is the idea of a committed judiciary once again being floated, though surreptitiously, unlike in the past when it was direct?'
Political parties were bracing for the assembly election results on Thursday in the crucial state of Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and politically volatile Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur, sending out feelers for possible post-poll tie-ups.
Today beef, tomorrow namaz, the third day Sunday mass the fourth day hijab, the fifth day halal, the sixth day love jihad will always be the issues on hand, asserts Aakar Patel.
Here are 8 factors to watch out for, says psephologist Yogendra Yadav.
'What needs to be watched is that the border incidents at Dokalam in 2017 and Galwan in 2020 are triggering nascent Chinese nationalism against India,' asserts Srikanth Kondapalli, the leading China expert.
Speaking with Shekhar Gupta, the Editor-in-Chief and Chairman of The Print, on his Off The Cuff show, the former soldier and two-time chief minister of Punjab Captain Amarinder Singh expressed 'personal' hurt over the way the Gandhis treated him and asked for his resignation.
Presence of Fadnavis will be keenly watched in view of recent tug of war between his home state Maharashtra and Bihar over death of Sushant Singh Rajput, a Patna born Bollywood actor.
Gen Bipin Rawat's appointment, first as army chief superseding two other army commanders, and then as CDS, was the consequence of his close personal rapport with National Security Advisor Ajit Doval. Now, with General Rawat gone and nobody named to replace him as CDS, it is evident that no other top military officer enjoys that relationship with Doval, observes Ajai Shukla.
'Congress and BSP are in the fray, but not in the contest.'
"I pledge to be a president who seeks not to divide, but to unify; who doesn't see red states and blue states, only sees the United States," Biden said in his victory speech on Saturday night.
As per the report, out of 612 candidates, 168 (27 per cent) are crorepatis.
While many exit polls have given either the Bharatiya Janata Party or Congress a majority in Uttarakhand, several of them have predicted a close fight between the two major players or a hung assembly -- a scenario in which the role of winning independents and candidates of regional outfits like the Aam Aadmi Party, the Samajwadi Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Uttarakhand Kranti Dal will become significant in government formation.
Following her spat, 'Aunty National' Irani took to Facebook to speak out against her detractors. Here's the Facebook post in response to her critics which Rediff.com represents verbatim:
Tearing into the BJP and terming the ongoing elections as a fight of ideologies, she accused the party of destroying the democracy.
More than 25,000 National Guards have been deployed along with thousands of local police personnel and those from other security agencies. The area in and around Capitol Hill, a large part of Pennsylvania Avenue and the White House has been made out of bounds for the general public with eight-feet high iron barricades being erected.
The election commission had upped the expense limit for Lok Sabha elections from Rs 40 lakh to Rs 70 lakh per candidate in big states but a new report states that 537 MPs declared expenses of less than 50 per cent of the limit. Vicky Nanjappa/Rediff.com reports
Having emerged as the face of opposition resistance to the Narendra Modi juggernaut after the TMC's triumph in the assembly elections, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is locked in an unequal battle as she squares off with "lightweight" rivals in her own lair--Bhabanipur.
Driving a Tata Nano covered with banners about his son's killing by the Mumbai Police, Kundan Prasad Singh is fighting his first election to get justice for a dead son.
India will either have to create a system in which certain geographical areas will wind up being permanent political outsiders at the Union level or it will have to create a system in which certain votes are weighted more heavily than others, observes Mihir S Sharma.
Names of at least half a dozen leaders, including Dhan Singh Rawat, Bhagat Singh Koshyari, Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank and Satpal Maharaj, are doing the rounds to replace Trivendra Singh Rawat, who resigned as the chief minister of Uttarakhand on Tuesday.
The SLPP, led by prime minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, has won in 145 constituencies, bagging a total of 150 seats with its allies, a two-thirds majority in the 225-member Parliament, according to the results announced by the election commission.
Other strong men have stopped Modi and his hordes in states before, but none of them with a footprint or battle cry to shake up New Delhi, observes Saisuresh Sivaswamy.
It has bolstered the home team's medal chances at the 14-day event, which is expected to see massive participation from more than 150 countries.
If you love India, you cannot weaponise religion to stay in power, asserts Ramesh Menon, author, Modi Demystified: The Making Of A Prime Minister.
With the BJP continuing to be the constant combatant, centrifugal pressures will rise. Fractured relations between the Centre and the states as between BJP and non-BJP ruled states is a sizeable risk owing ahead, warns Shekhar Gupta.
'The Reserve Bank's independence has remained a work in progress, an enduring challenge that the nation has been grappling with on an ongoing basis,' says RBI Deputy Governor Dr Viral Acharya.
Two whole weeks after he landed on his feet in unfamiliar territory, Patrick Ward records what it is to be a parachute journalist in the chaos called India
Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com tracks Prime Minister Narendra Damodardas Modi's project-launching spree with just about three months to go for the assembly election in India's most populous state.
It was the first reasonably free and fair national election held there since 1990, when Aung San Suu Kyi's fledgling National League for Democracy won a landslide victory.
Noted poet K Satchidanandan has alleged that he was restrained by Facebook from liking, commenting and sharing posts for 24-hours after he tried to upload online a satire video on the Bharatiya Janata Party's defeat in the recently concluded Kerala assembly polls.
In the first address as United States Vice President-elect, Kamala Harris thanked people of the United States "for turning out in record number" and said Americans have ushered in a "new day" for the country.
The poll panel has cited its April 10 order, banning a biopic on Modi, to place a similar bar on the web series.
A BJP victory in the high-octane West Bengal election could have turned the fortunes in rival Kailash Vijayvargiya favour, reports Sandeep Kumar.
'To those who wreaked havoc in our Capitol today, You did not win. Violence never wins. Freedom wins. And this is still the people's house.'
Trump, 74, who faces a formidable challenge from former Democratic vice president Joe Biden, 77, is scheduled to deliver his acceptance speech from the South Lawn of the White House on August 27.
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