Veteran Communist leader and former Chief Minister of Kerala, V S Achuthanandan turned 98 on Wednesday.
The bodies of 13 people who were killed in a landslide at Plaupally in Koottikkal village (Kanjirapally Taluk, Kottayam District) were recovered.
'We each have our challenges, some tougher than the others...but, get through this...WE WILL...TOGETHER!!!'
As results pour in for the four states -- West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Assam -- and one Union Territory -- Puducherry - here's a glimpse at the leaders who are trailing and those who are leading.
The Army, the National Disaster Response Force, police and the fire force along with the locals began rescue operations on Sunday morning at Koottickal and Kokkayar panchayats where over a dozen people are listed to be missing due to numerous landslides accompanied by heavy downpour since Saturday.
An ardent admirer of the 'Father of the Nation", Mahatma Gandhi, he had actively participated in the Quit India movement.
Suresh and Sarith had moved a joint plea seeking protection from arrest in the case lodged by the police on the complaint of a ruling Left Democratic Front MLA's complaint alleging conspiracy behind her revelations against him, the chief minister and his family.
A recent interfaith marriage of a Muslim activist of the ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist's youth wing DYFI, has stirred up a political storm after the relatives of the Christian bride alleged "love jihad", with a senior left party leader supporting the charge, only to retract his statement later.
The apex doctors' organisation said it would knock the doors of the Supreme Court if the Kerala government does not enforce Covid-appropriate behaviour to curtail the rising menace of the viral disease by withdrawing this decision.
Senior AICC member and former Union minister K V Thomas, who has been at loggerheads with the party's state leadership, on Wednesday said he would campaign for the ruling Left Democratic Front candidate Jo Joseph in the upcoming by-poll in the Thrikkakara Assembly constituency, but reiterated that he would not quit the Congress.
A protest march of the SFI, the students wing of ruling CPI-M, against Congress MP Rahul Gandhi's office in Wayanadon Friday turned violent as a group of protestors allegedly entered the Lok Sabha member's office and vandalised it.
A Students Federation of India (SFI) activist was stabbed to death at the Idukki Engineering College here on Monday, allegedly by Youth Congress activists, police said.
Any adverse electoral fallout in Thrikkakara by-poll may have an impact on Rahul Gandhi because this falls in the state he represents as a member of Parliament and KC Venugopal because it is his home state, reports Shine Jacob.
The House preserves the hiding place at the rear of the 17th century canal house, known as the Secret Annex, where Anne Frank hid from Nazi persecution with her family and four other people during World War II.
Vijayan met Ghosh at Kerala House in New Delhi, expressed solidarity with their protest and also gifted her a book, 'Halla Bol: The Death and Life of Safdar Hashmi' by Sudhanva Deshpande. Ghosh had suffered head injuries during the January 5 attack on JNU students in the campus by a group of masked assailants.
While the CPI-M in a statement after the secretariat on Friday maintained that Balakrishnan, who is also a Polit Bureau member, had sought leave for further treatment which had been accepted, the leader of opposition in the state assembly Ramesh Chennithala dubbed the move as a delayed dawning of wisdom.
In a strongly worded letter, the governor has informed Vijayan that the former was ready to sign immediately if the latter brings an ordinance to amend the Acts empowering the chief minister to become the chancellor of universities.
The LDF government -- which has negotiated a series of crises in the form of natural disasters to the Covid pandemic -- cannot turn a blind eye to the accumulated debt of the state that now exceeds Rs 3 trillion and the need for more jobs, investment and industry.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi commissioned India's first indigenously designed and built aircraft carrier INS Vikrant in Kochi on Friday, that put India into a select league of countries with domestic capability to build such large war ships.
'For the UDF, it will depend on how far Rahul Gandhi will succeed with the goodwill he has.' 'That will make a difference.'
The ED case has been booked under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and the agency will record the statement of the accused. The central agency will investigate if proceeds of crime were generated by the accused by laundering of funds that were earned through the alleged gold smuggling racket.
Omicron has been detected in Maharashtra (20), Rajasthan (9), Karnataka (3), Gujarat (4), Kerala (1) and Andhra Pradesh (1) and Union Territories of Delhi (2) and Chandigarh (1).
UDF convener Benni Behanan said the Front has also decided to move a resolution against Speaker P Sreeramakrishnan and seek his resignation.
The anti-BJP parties have alleged that Patel unilaterally lifted restrictions on the use of alcohol in the Muslim-majority islands, banned beef products, citing Animal Preservation and demolished fishermen's sheds built on the coastal areas, saying they violated the Coast Guard Act.
People may line up to see Rahul Gandhi, given he is currently, the only major politician speaking of inflation and unemployment in an India bombarded daily by Right-wing delusion. The challenge is how to transfer the goodwill into votes when the object of curiosity is surrounded by usual suspects and sycophants, observes Shyam Menon.
"A first step in this direction is the new project launched by Kerala to eradicate extreme poverty. A survey, that is being conducted as part of it, will be completed within four months," the CM said.
Shah also said Kerala used to be known for development, literacy and for promoting tourism, but "with the ruling LDF and opposition UDF coming to power alternately has resulted in making the state a platform for political violence."
'Only when you are close to the party, will you understand what the BJP stands for.'
'The presence of Rahul Gandhi and his campaigning for the Congress will make a general difference, but whether it will make a saving difference, not sure.'
LIVE! Incessant rains: Red Alert in 5 Kerala districts
Personal competence, where it should have been acknowledged and appreciated, was sacrificed for that oft heard line: Party-is-supreme. It angered that at a time when lives are at stake amidst the pandemic, the government didn't deem continuity in leadership important for the health portfolio, observes Shyam G Menon.
About 16,000 Indians, mostly students, are stranded in Ukraine as Russia's invasion of the east European country entered its second day on Friday. Of the students, many studying medicine in Kharkiv and Kyiv, about 2,500 are from Gujarat and 2,320 from Kerala.
A 23-year old woman, daughter of a senior Communist Party of India-Marxist leader in Thiruvananthapuram, has accused her parents of forcefully having taken away her new-born child from her soon after its birth a year ago and approached the police seeking to get the baby back.
Eminent rocket scientist S Somanath has been appointed as the chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation as well as the space secretary, a personnel ministry order issued on Wednesday said.
Minutes after she concluded her press conference, she told a TV channel that her colleague Sarith PS, who also worked with her at HRDS India, had been kidnapped in broad daylight from her home by 3 or 4 unknown people.
22 bodies, 13 from Kottayam district and 9 from Idukki were recovered from various rain-hit areas while National Disaster Response Force teams continued their rescue operations.
"Congratulations to Mamata Didi for @AITCofficial's win in West Bengal. The Centre will continue to extend all possible support to the West Bengal Government to fulfil people's aspirations and also to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic," he tweeted.
Babu after reaching there, slipped and fell and got trapped between rocks on the mountain face
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said that the decision was undertaken to avoid the illicit flow of liquor in the state amid a partial lockdown to curb the spread of the deadly coronavirus after 67 confirmed cases were reported.
Stalin, like his father M Karunanidhi did in 2004, may play the king-maker in a way -- not the king, unless the 2024 post-poll circumstances throws up a situation where he alone becomes acceptable to the rest, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.