Invitees to the 'pran pratishtha' consecration ceremony at the Ram temple started arriving Sunday in Ayodhya -- once a sleepy town now resplendent with new infrastructure and gripped by heightened religious fervour on the eve of a seminal event in India's political and religious history.
Throughout its 155 minutes, every scene is doused in blaring background music and melodrama. Disappointment alone won't do, it must feel like a full blown catastrophe, observes Sukanya Verma.
Campaigning continues for the final three phases of the Lok Sabha election.
Besides the national capital, polling will be held Saturday in 14 seats in Uttar Pradesh, all 10 seats of Haryana, eight seats each in Bihar and West Bengal, six seats in Odisha, four seats in Jharkhand and one seat in Jammu and Kashmir. Simultaneously, polling will be held for 42 assembly constituencies in Odisha.
A day after Chief Minister Nitish Kumar formed the government in Bihar in alliance with the National Democratic Alliance, hectic lobbying started for the post of assembly speaker, and other legislators to be included in the council of ministers.
The Congress has not released a poll manifesto but a declaration of appeasement.
"I did not want to take the photograph of Lord Ram but etch his image in my heart instead," said Amit Pathak, a resident of Tulsinagar in Ayodhya, a day ahead of the 'pran pratishtha' ceremony at the Ram temple.
'Shankaracharyas look at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP through a political prism. This temple is not built on politics but on religion. Ram is our God'
Manjhi's son Santosh Suman, who is a minister in the Nitish Kumar cabinet, made the statement a day after reports emerged that a seat-sharing formula has been arrived at in the National Democratic Alliance, and the HAM was likely to get only one of the state's 40 constituencies.
In the morning, he offered prayers at the Dashashwamedh Ghat and the Kaal Bhairav temple in Varanasi.
The death of the 74-year-old leader, who was identified with the state's Dalits for over five decades, so near the polls will mean that none of the LJP's rivals will like to attack the party and its young president strongly.
Malavika Sangghvi gives us fascinating glimpses from Dilip Kumar's life.
There is a view that heavyweight portfolios like home, finance, defence and external affairs besides education and culture, two ministries with strong ideological hues, will be kept by the BJP, while its allies can get anywhere between five to eight cabinet berths.
In Delhi, Kumar's family lives in the Majnu Ka Tila area and they are engaged in small-time business. He said a total of five people got Indian citizenship in his locality on Wednesday. Over a hundred had applied for it, he said.
The meeting came a day after the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teertha Kshetra, set up recently to oversee the construction of a Ram temple in Ayodhya, met for the first time on Wednesday.
Four times more liquor has been seized in the 2024 election than during the 2019 polls.
'One small twitch of his eye could convey more than a thousand words.'
While 30 of them were suspended for the remainder of the Winter Session, three were suspended pending the report of the Privileges Committee.
The 69-year-old, who also served as Nagaland governor and led the investigation into the Aarushi Talwar murder case, left behind a note saying he was "embarking on a new journey", officials said.
In a ghastly incident that has sent shock waves across Bihar, former state minister Mukesh Sahni's 70-year-old father was found stabbed to death at his native home in Darbhanga district, a top police officer said.
The Hindu litigants claim the mosque holds signs suggesting that it was a temple once.
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Congress leader Kanhaiya Kumar on Wednesday claimed the Bharatiya Janata Party's 1990 rath yatra was for seeking "satta (power)", but the Congress's 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' is for "satya (truth)".
Defending champions Mumbai got their Ranji Trophy campaign back on track with an emphatic nine-wicket win over Maharashtra in their second group A league game in Mumbai on Monday, offsetting the heavy loss to Baroda in the opening game.
A round-up of the Ranji Trophy matches played on Saturday.
'There must have been some wonderful genetic disorder due to which I was attracted towards filmi songs.'
'It does not understand economics. The entire focus of this government is skewed.'
The RJD polled the highest vote share in Bihar, but it was not reflected in the number of seats it won.
For them it was a late Diwali, as the tunnel collapse happened on November 12, the day of the the festival.
Moderate to high turnout was recorded in 13 assembly constituencies across seven states where bypolls were held on Wednesday amid sporadic incidents of violence in Uttarakhand, Bihar and West Bengal.
Film stars are beloved in our cinema-obsessed country. Stars are not only watched and worshipped on screen but also talked about with much fondness.
Sources in both the BJP and the Janata Dal-United suggested such a possibility but it remained unclear if Kumar, the unquestioned leader of his party, has finalised a deal with the BJP top brass.
The NGO challenges the validity of a provision of the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners Act, 2023.
Eight Union ministers, two former chief ministers and one ex-governor are among those who are set to test their electoral fate in the first phase of elections on April 19 when 102 seats across 21 states and Union territories will go to polls.
Announcing it on X, the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister said she has taken the decision in the interest of the party and the movement and till the time Anand gains "full maturity".
The Vishwaguru who addressed the maximum rallies and boasted of being blessed with divine energy, who promised guarantees in his own name, turned out finally not invincible, points out Jyoti Punwani.
'They know that if they do not tie up with the Congress, then the minorities will move to the Congress.'
Atishi will have a brief tenure in office as assembly elections in the national capital are due in February.
The court in Panchkula had convicted Ram Rahim and four others -- Krishan Lal, Jasbir Singh, Avtar Singh and Sabdil -- in the murder case on October 8.
Modi's presence at the evnt would open wounds, the Hyderabad MP said.
