Most farmers depend on rainwater for farming.
The 10-day-long annual Ganesh Chaturthi festival began on a low-key note on Friday with several state governments prohibiting public celebrations due to the Covid pandemic and devotees taking the virtual route to pay obeisance and join the festivities.
Syed Firdaus Ashraf traces the trajectory of Lal Kishan Advani from the highs of the 1990s to the present, when he may have to watch the elections from the sidelines.
The 16 rebels, who the Congress alleged are being held captive by the Bharatiya Janata Party in Bengaluru, also offered to present themselves in the judges' chamber but the court rejected the proposal.
The reverses for the BJP in the Hindi heartland threw wide open the 2019 Lok Sabha elections which until a few months ago appeared to be in the grip of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's party.
'These poll results are not a reflection of the leadership of Rahul Gandhi. Certainly not! These are state elections, which are fought on state issues, and there were no national issues involved.' A reflective Digvijaya Singh speaks to Rediff.com's Vaihayasi Pande Daniel.
'They have brought out a provision whereby the medium of education in the Hindi speaking states will be Hindi even in higher education institutions like IIT, IIM, etc.' 'Think about the students from the south who get admission in the IITs in Kanpur or Delhi or the IIMs in various places.'
Shops, schools and other commercial establishments were closed in parts of Bihar, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab but the shutdown call by anti-reservation bodies had little impact elsewhere in the country.
Director General of Police R K Shukla announced the suspension of the four officials -- three inspectors and a sub-inspector -- for their alleged negligence which led to the delay in registering the offence.
Discussions to evolve a consensus on separate Telangana state is on and the Congress high command will take a final decision on it but it will take time, Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said on Tuesday.
People close to the erstwhile royal family underline that Jyotiraditya Scindia is neither as accessible nor as unpretentious as his father.
The Enforcement Directorate had last week arrested Chhagan Bhujbal's associate and chartered accountant Sunil Naik in connection with the case.
Farmers said a big reason for the anger was the sudden stopping of wheat procurement by the state government in some places, which had caused the prices to dip below the minimum support price.
Vice President Venkaiah Naidu, PM Modi, Rajnath, Advani, Sushma, Shah and several other leaders visited the AIIMS to enquire about the ex-PM's health.
Narendra Modi's stamp was written all over as the Bharatiya Janata Party announced its election campaign committee for 2014 polls on Friday including top leaders Murli Manohar Joshi, Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley who will work under him.
Thakur, 48, also set the tone for her high-profile poll battle in Bhopal againt Congress candidate Digvijay Singh, whom she accused of using words like 'Hindu' and 'saffron' terror.
Some BJP and Congress leaders believe the assembly building is filled with 'negative energy'.
Not only the BJP but key bureaucrats are also known to have hinted to the top leadership of the need to expand the Cabinet.
BJP candidate was attacked in West Bengal, EVM glitches were reported in New Delhi.
Official celebrations in most states were restricted to unfurling of the national flag and chief ministers and governors addressing the people, with fewer guests in attendance.
Bundelkhand is thought to be an area where Mayawati has some influence. Both Amit Shah and Shivraj Chouhan believe every weapon in the arsenal must be used to ensure victory.
Targeting Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party over alleged snooping on a young woman in 2009, Congress on Saturday said it was "brazen assault on civil liberty by state sponsored stalking" after the "Gujarat pogrom" and "fake" encounters.
Babulal Chourasia, who had quit the Congress six years back, re-joined the party on Thursday in the presence of its state unit chief Kamal Nath in Bhopal. The move comes ahead of the local body elections in the state.
UP and Bihar contributed 105 seats to the BJP's tally in 2014. It has now lost 8 Lok Sabha by-polls in the last four years, including three successive losses in UP and two seats in Rajasthan.
Accusing the Congress of indulging in corruption and non-performance, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday said there was a "severe anti-Congress wave" in the country and asserted that it would win in four poll-bound states, including Rajasthan.
Moitra on Tuesday stirred a controversy with her remarks that she has every right as "an individual to imagine Goddess Kaali as a meat-eating and alcohol-accepting goddess", as every person has the right to worship god and goddess in his or her own way.
Vadra, in his Facebook post on July 21, had taken a dig at the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government.
Reaching out to tribals, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday lauded their contribution to Indian culture through the ages and said Lord Ram drew inspiration from them during his exile as he slammed the Congress for "neglecting" adivasis during its previous rules.
Sarbananda Sonowal was on Tuesday sworn in as the 14th chief minister of Assam in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Bharatiya Janata Party president Amit Shah and other dignitaries at a huge public function at Khanapara field.