Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) won 15 of 20 seats up for grabs in the politically crucial province of Punjab on Sunday, dealing a major blow to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his 13-party alliance led by the ruling PML-N.
'Besides Ayodhya, the BJP lost in nine other constituencies with a Ramayana imprint; it tasted success only in Thrissur.' 'In Rameswaram, K Navaskani of the Indian Union Muslim League won with a 44% voteshare in a 84% Hindu constituency.' 'In the 21 seats in the Ayodhya and Varanasi regions, both crucial to the Hindutva project, the BJP won just 7.' 'It won just 3 out of 12 seats around Modi's constituency,' points out Krishna Prasad.
Pakistan's caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar has included Mishaal Hussain Malik, wife of jailed terrorist and Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chief Yasin Malik, in his cabinet.
Pakistan's embattled Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday summoned a special session of the federal cabinet amidst reports that two ministers belonging to the ruling coalition partner Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan have resigned after their party announced that it will support Opposition's no-confidence motion.
In Sialkot, people found five empty ballot boxes near Kashmir Park in the Cantonment area, the report said.
Veteran Pakistani diplomat and current Foreign Secretary Jalil Abbas Jilani is expected to be appointed the country's ambassador to the US ahead of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's visit to Washington this month.
With the maulana fully committed and PML (N) cadres prepared to court arrest, this would be the first time where both Punjabis and Pakhtuns would be standing up against the Pakistan army, notes Rana Banerji, who headed the Pakistan desk at the Research and Analysis Wing, India's external intelligence agency.
Speaking in the Delhi Assembly on Wednesday, Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party convenor Arvind Kejriwal slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party over the Supreme Court overturning the outcome of the Chandigarh mayoral poll.
Pakistan's Finance Minister Miftah Ismail on Monday said the government can consider importing vegetables and other edible items from India following the destruction of standing crops due to massive floods, three years after Islamabad downgraded trade ties with New Delhi over the Kashmir issue.
With Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan virtually losing the majority in the 342-member National Assembly after the defection of two key allies, backdoor efforts are underway to reach a deal between the premier and the joint opposition to dissolve the lower house, according to a highly placed source.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Monday said the state should stand firmly behind people in the Marathi-speaking areas of neighbouring Karnataka and appealed to political parties not to behave in a way that would hurt them.
This year saw no improvement in bilateral ties as India accused Pakistan of cross-border infiltration and re-activation of terror-launching pads near the LoC.
'The army has been open about its determination to keep the PML-Nawaz out of power at all costs.' 'Both the military and the higher judiciary have indicated a preference for Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehrik e Insaaf,' says Rana Banerji, who headed the Pakistan Desk at the Research and Analysis Wing, India's external intelligence agency.
Crucial reforms in Muslim personal law, especially laws related to inheritance and adoption, need to be initiated forthwith; historically speaking, without the State's backing, hardly has any reform taken place or allowed to prevail, asserts Mohammad Sajjad.
Is it is necessary to play divisive politics to succeed in the next general elections? asks Dr Sudhir Bisht.
As Chandigarh braces for a fierce contest between Congress candidate Manish Tewari and the BJP's Sanjay Tandon, its industry leaders harbour a fervent wish: Replicate the success of the National Capital Region model in this Union Territory.
Neither the BJP, nor the Congress before it, made any manifesto commitments on defence spending, even though allocations have plummeted from 4 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) in the late 1980s to less than 2 per cent today, points out Ajai Shukla.
The former chief minister urged the people of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh not to be disheartened or lose hope over the apex court's decision.
Zoramthanga's MNF is a part of the BJP-led North East Democratic Alliance and an ally of the NDA at the Centre.
This time Modi has no emotive message to take to the stump. Muscular nationalism doesn't work against the backdrop of China's successive inroads into Indian territory. Rising prices is a sore point that cuts across class and caste barriers; unprecedented levels of unemployment has the youth in a ferment. This has reduced the BJP campaign to a laundry list of recycled grievances and thinly veiled communal appeals, neither of which are working as well as they have in the past, argues Prem Panicker.
The 73-year-old leader castigated the judges for legitimising military dictators.
When I was leaving Pakistan and going abroad I had no feeling of happiness but today I am happy, Sharif said.
This election will be remembered for being the first election where the Election Commission failed to take action on gross violations involving the ruling party that repeatedly used religion, communal slurs, lies and undocumented allegations, observes Ramesh Menon.
Struggling to gain political traction on issues of corruption, the West Bengal Bharatiya Janata Party is shifting its focus to emotive topics such as the Ram Temple in Ayodhya and the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in a bid to achieve its target of securing 35 out of the 42 Lok Sabha seats from the state.
Xi made the remarks in a verbal message to Pakistani President Arif Alvi, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
His comments come against the backdrop of a campaign by Opposition parties, including the Trinamool Congress, which has claimed that applying for CAA would turn legal citizens into foreigners.
President Asif Ali Zardari has broken his silence on a stand-off between the government and the judiciary, saying parliament is the true representative of Pakistan's people and will continue legislating on all issues of public concern.
'There is a song that fits my father. It is from the Dev Anand film Hum Dono, which goes Main zindagi ka saath nibhata chala gaya...'
The BJP's top leadership will drop its MPs found to be facing anti-incumbency, according to its internal surveys -- a pivotal tactic to ensure the party achieves its target of winning 370 seats.
Opposition leader Imran Khan's political party on Monday decided to withdraw its lawmakers from the National Assembly and all provincial assemblies except Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, piling pressure on beleaguered Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to quit, even as efforts by the ruling PML-N to reach out to anti-government protesters failed.
"There was neither any talk of dismissing the army chief nor was this on the cards," Khan told journalists after chairing an emergency Cabinet meeting.
The review petition, filed through Dr Babar Awan and Azhar Siddique, named the Pakistan Peoples Party, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, Supreme Court Bar Association, Sindh High Court Bar Association and the Sindh Bar Council as respondents.
Senator Faisal Javed, who was injured when a bullet grazed his face, said that a party worker was killed during the attack, while another was severely injured.
Shehbaz Sharif, the joint opposition's candidate for the post of prime minister, on Sunday vowed that the new government in Pakistan want to 'move forward' and not indulge in 'politics of revenge'.
The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear on March 19 the pleas seeking a direction to the Centre to stay the implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Rules, 2024 till the apex court has decided the petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019.
Days after he vowed that Pakistan will take back entire Kashmir, the country's 'Gen Next' politician Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Wednesday attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying Pakistan can retaliate "unlike his victims from Gujarat".
Lambasting the Bharatiya Janata Party for allegedly bringing up the issues of NRC, CAA and Uniform Civil Code ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday asserted she would not allow anyone to take away the citizenship of people during her lifetime.
Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's wife and former premier Imran Khan's wife have financial assets worth more than their husbands.
The Taliban's main challenge comes on the financial and economic front and there Pakistan doesn't have the capacity to be of any meaningful help, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Congress sitting MLA Saleh Mohammad, is hoping to buck the trend of anti-incumbency in the seat, and believes people will vote for his development work and not along religious lines.
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