This management team will coordinate with all state units of the BJP and its allies for the presidential election and is also expected to guide its elected voting representatives on the voting process.
Do you know that Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's monthly salary is way higher that Gujarat Chief Minister and BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi? Rediff.com takes a look at the salaries of India's ruling elite
Hinting that it was open to aligning with the Third Front after the Lok Sabha polls, the BJD has said that it will not support either a Congress-led or a Bharatiya Janata Party-led government at the Centre.
South Korean steel major Posco will start construction of its 12 million tonne, Rs 51,000-crore mega steel project near Paradip in Orissa on April 1, 2008.
Call it the art of staying rooted yet bending with prevailing political winds. With Telangana going to the polls in December, and assembly and Lok Sabha elections in Andhra and Odisha scheduled next year, what factors have influenced parties' recent moves?
The debate over Presidential candidate picked up further momentum with Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad pitching for Vice President Hamid Ansari while other parties kept the cards close to their chest.
Hosts India drawn with England, Spain and Wales in Pool D of FIH World Cup
Unfazed by protests from various quarters, including a ruling BJD MP, the state government gave its nod to the Odisha Cricket Association to host the ICC women's World Cup matches involving players from Pakistan at Cuttack.
A day after Bajrang Dal asserted it was opposed to participation of Pakistani women cricketers in the World Cup, BJP student wing, ABVP, on Saturday, threatened to dig up pitches ahead of the team's matches at Cuttack next month.
The breakaway faction is led by former Union minister Dilip Ray.
Though flood situation in Odisha's five northen districts triggered by Cyclone Phailin and resultant rains slightly improved on Wednesday, people of 647 villages continued to be marooned, while the death toll in the twin calamities stood at 28.
The Election Commission will start counting votes for Vidhan Sabha elections on May 23. The assembly elections were held in four states -- Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim -- simultaneously with the Lok Sabha Elections over April and May. The Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, and Sikkim Assemblies went to polls in the duration between 11 April and 19 May, and the Election Commission will declare the results for at least 534 assembly seats - which is almost as many as the Lok Sabha seats - on May 23.
The parties which gave chief ministers and sent scores of MPs to Parliament, drew a blank this time.
Erstwhile Team Anna will gherao the residences of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and BJP chief Nitin Gadkari in New Delhi on Sunday on the coal block allocation issue even as prominent member Kiran Bedi voiced her disagreement over targeting the main opposition party.
The ruling Biju Janata Dal in Odisha on Sunday announced that it would abstain from voting in the vice-presidential election scheduled to be held on August 7.
The Airports Authority of India on Saturday announced plans to upgrade the Biju Patnaik airport in Bhubaneswar to international standards by investing Rs 250 crore (Rs 2.5 billion).
Nobody should be surprised if the Congress-led alliance at the Centre now makes favourable policy overtures to Naveen Patnaik also, like it has done for Nitish Kumar and Mamata Banerjee, in the hope of strengthening its prospects after the next general elections, says AK Bhattacharya
Has the country lost its secret weapon for competing with growing countries like China and Brazil? Mayank Mishra reports
Raja Shree Mohanty, son of former Odisha Law Minister Raghunath Mohanty, was arrested on Sunday, three days after his wife slapped a dowry torture case against his family members, a senior police official said.
The Centre will try its best to get a nod from chief ministers to set up the controversial anti-terror hub National Counter Terrorism Centre at Saturday's crucial meeting which is expected to witness fiery scenes.
With the fate of kidnapped Jhina Hikaka still unknown after almost three weeks the Odisha government is exploring back-channel negotiations with the Maoist group, which has imposed tough conditions for the release of the ruling Biju Janata Dal tribal member of Legislative Assembly Jhina Hikaka.
Odisha on Monday got its first fast-track court here to deal exclusively with cases of sexual offences against women.
On an important governance measure, there is a Nitish Kumar effect, a Naveen Patnaik effect, but no Modi effect.
Samal also claimed that the Odisha BJP was confident of winning both the polls.
Close to 60 MoUs have been signed including the $12 billion deal with Posco -- the largest foreign direct investment, FDI, in the country.
As many as 11 newspersons have died of the infection in Odisha since the beginning of the pandemic, sources said.
In a bid to suppress dissidence, Biju Janata Dal supremo and Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Wednesday suspended Jagneswar from the regional outfit on charge of anti-party activities.
Intensifying operations against the Naxals and chocking the flow of funds to them were the two key issues discussed at a high-level meeting chaired by Union home mAmit Shah and attended by six chief ministers and top officials of four other states here on Sunday, sources said.
Suspended Biju Janata Dal MLA Prabhat Biswal's vote in presidential election was rejected for allegedly showing the ballot paper after voting as polling in the 147-member Odisha assembly was under way today.
Lok Janshakti Party chief Ramvilas Paswan on Sunday said his party would support United Progressive Alliance candidate for Presidency.
A day after his release from Maoist captivity, Biju Janata Dal member of Legislative Assembly Jhina Hikaka on Friday did not rule out the possibility of resigning his membership of Odisha assembly and said he had twice written to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on the issue.
The Odisha government on Saturday said it will release five of the six rebels the Maoists have demanded for release of the Italian hostage, while another Naxal group holding MLA Jhina Hikaka extended the deadline to April 10 and demanded that five more persons be freed.
Fresh talks were held on Friday between the Odisha government and the Maoist mediators, a day after the government named the 27 jailed people to be freed in return for the release of Biju Janata Dal member of Legislative Assembly Jhina Hikaka and Italian Paolo Bosusco taken hostage by two separate Naxal groups.
Bowing to Maoists' demands, for securing the release of a Biju Janata Dal MLA and an Italian from the captivity of ultra-Left activists' captivity, Odisha government on Wednesday said it would facilitate the release of 27 persons, including 8 Naxals, from jails.
The Odisha government on Wednesday hoped Maoists would soon name their negotiators for talks for release of Biju Janata Dal MLA Jhina Hikaka, a day after it invited them for parleys, even as intervention of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik was sought by mediators in the Italian captive's case.
Odisha government, grappling with the hostage crisis, on Tuesday said some demands made by Maoists like halt to combing operations, have been conceded as prospects of the release of the lone Italian national seemed to have brightened.
The Odisha government is examining the demands made by abductors of ruling Biju Janata Dal MLA Jhina Hikakaka, which includes release of jailed ultras, amid indication that talks with Maoist mediators for release of the second Italian will soon yield positive results.
Though two days have passed since the Maoists abducted ruling Biju Janata Dal member of Legislative Jhina Hikaka, the Odisha government is yet to receive any information on the whereabouts of the young tribal legislator.
Unless the Naxals put a stop to violence, Operation Green Hunt will continue, Union Home Minister P Chidambaram told mediapersons at Kolkata's Writers' Building on Tuesday.
Union Home Minister, P Chidambaram said on Friday that the progress of the on-going operation against the Maoists in the Naxal-hit states was "satisfactory"."The joint operation against the Naxalites is few weeks old and the progress has been satisfactory," Chidambaram told media-persons after a high-level meeting convened in Raipur to review the operation.
