The best-case scenario is that the BJP will top out at around 50 seats in UP -- a drop of 12 from the 62 it had won in 2019. Taken in tandem with Maharashtra and Karnataka, this is what is likely to put paid to the BJP's ambitions of a third term for Modi, argues Prem Panicker.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a pitch for electing a strong and stable government in an uncertain world beset by geopolitical tensions as the Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday released its manifesto, prioritising development and welfare while shunning populist measures and contentious issues like the National Register of Citizens (NRC).
Bihar has fertile grounds for caste to emerge as an electoral issue.
A total of 11.45 lakh candidates out of 20.38 lakh have qualified the examination, up by 48 per cent from last year.
Delhi Finance Minister Atishi on Monday announced the 'Mukhyamantri Mahila Samman Yojana' for the 2024-25 fiscal, under which Rs 1,000 will be given monthly to women aged above 18 from the fiscal year 2024-25.
Kharge also targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying the people should not believe Modi's "guarantees".
Gandhi expressed confidence that a vast majority of the INDIA parties will support and push for a caste census.
'Can we force somebody to contest and fight an election when they don't want to contest an election?'
In the five years in politics Priyanka Gandhi has undeniably emerged as a thorn in the BJP flesh, notes Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay. It is time that this thorn is twisted a wee bit more when the elections have become far more uncertain than what it was when the Election Commission announced the poll schedule.
Oriental Bank of Commerce, which acquired Global Trust Bank last year, has filed 30 first information reports against GTB defaulters to recover Rs 1,300 crore (Rs 13 billion) of bad loans.
Activist Manoj Jarange, who has been sitting on an indefinite fast in Maharashtra's Jalna district over the demand for reservation to the Maratha community, has refused to get a health check-up done.
A five-judge bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud said there was no ground to reconsider the verdict.
The assembly also witnessed a brief adjournment after the ruling alliance members pointed to remarks of Jarange and alleged there was a conspiracy to create unrest in the state.
Oriental Bank of Commerce will shortly hire an international consultant to restructure and integrate the failed Global Trust Bank with itself by this fiscal end.
Five MLAs -- four from the BJP and one independent -- were also sworn in as ministers. However, former home minister and six-term MLA from Ambala Cantt, Anil Vij, has not found a place in the new cabinet.
'It is now the government's duty to find a way out of this impasse without hurting interests of any sections of Maharashtrian people.'
Mayawati alleged that the prime minister had crossed all limits of decency in terming the Bahujan Samaj Party her personal property.
The mahant, Raju Das, said that burning of pages from the Ramcharitmanas by the Akhil Bharatiya OBC Mahasabha in Lucknow on Sunday too was Maurya' work.
The group claimed that its members only burnt photocopies of pages allegedly carrying "objectionable comments on women and Dalits" in the Ramcharitmanas.
Mohan Yadav will take oath as chief minister of Madhya Pradesh in Bhopal on Wednesday morning, and the event will be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and the chief ministers of Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled states among others, a party leader said.
Here is a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis of the ruling Congress in Chhattisgarh.
Ending a week-long uncertainty, the government on Sunday directed all the centrally-funded elite educational institutions, including Indian Institutes of Management and Indian Institutes of Technology, to implement the Other Backward Classes reservation from this year. The Human Resource Development Ministry issued the directive to the Central Educational Institutions, after the Supreme Court on April 10 upheld the 27 per cent reservation for OBCs, excluding the creamy layer.
The percentage of households who live on less than Rs 6,000 a month or less than Rs 200 a day among the Scheduled tribe households (42.91 per cent) was almost the same as among scheduled caste households (42.78 per cent).
In Phase 6, indications are that the BJP, which is defending 40 seats, will lose in double digits and gain in single digits. Not good, if you are the ruling party scrambling to earn a working majority, with just one phase left to go, argues Prem Panicker.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Wednesday said the all-party meeting held earlier in the day decided that reservation should be given to the Maratha community without tampering with the existing quotas of other communities in the state.
In an effort to enhance the educational infrastructure, the age of superannuation for teaching positions in centrally-funded institutions of higher and technical education has been increased from 62 years to 65 years, the report said.
Gujarat Congress on Friday made scores of electoral promises targeting 75 per cent of the electorate which includes the OBC, SC-ST, minority, differently-abled and dalit voters.
The Union Cabinet and the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) on Thursday approved a slew of social sector initiatives, including treating the backlog of reserved vacancies of other backward classes (OBCs) as a distinct group not subject to the limit of 50 per cent reservation in a year.
The development comes in the wake of an indefinite hunger strike launched by activist Manoj Jarange in Jalna district on Wednesday to demand reservation for the Maratha community.
Police have booked more than 10 people for 'promoting enmity' after they allegedly burnt photocopies of the pages of Ramcharitmanas in the Vrindavan area of Lucknow on Sunday.
The Calcutta high court on Wednesday stayed Union Human Resource Development Ministry's notification for reservation to Other Backward Classes in post-graduate courses. The high court stayed an interview slated for Thursday for admission of OBC candidates to post-graduate courses in the Indian Institute of Management, Kolkata.
Every young diploma and degree holder in the country will have the right to apprenticeships in the private and government sectors, he said.
Thakur, popularly known as 'jannayak', served as chief minister from December 1970 to June 1971 and from December 1977 to April 1979.
While people voted in a fifth round that will set the tone as this election rounds into the straight, and while Modi on the stump chews the cud of personal grievances and hackneyed promises that have long since passed their use-by date, there is a rogue wave rising -- what damage it will do, we will know 16 days from today, observes Prem Panicker.
Vishnu Deo Sai, a prominent tribal face of the Bharatiya Janata Party, will be the next chief minister of Chhattisgarh where the saffron party returned to power after a gap of five years following the recently-concluded assembly polls.
Shah attended a function on renaming of Mughalsarai junction after Pt Deendayal Upadhyay.
Fasting Maratha quota activist Manoj Jarange has stopped taking intravenous (IV) fluids and liquid, intensifying his agitation as he on Monday appealed to all political parties in Maharashtra to stand with the community on the reservation issue.
Espousing an aggressive pro-backward and Dalit stance synchronising with the Maurya controversy, the SP has thrown down the gauntlet with Akhilesh upping the ante on the burning topic, reports Virendra Singh Rawat.
'...it gets a survey report that they are going to lose elections.' 'The fear of losing elections will make them immediately conduct a caste census.'
As soon as the House resumed at noon, Joshi said, "In protest against the action of their party's former president (Rahul Gandhi) and in your honour and in honour of the Constitution, we would participate in the Question Hour while remaining standing in silence. We request for your permission".
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