The Congress leadership on Friday held separate meetings to review its performances in the assembly polls in Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, and said its defeat in the two states at the hands of the BJP was unexpected.
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.
In a major cabinet reshuffle, Arjun Ram Meghwal has replaced Kiren Rijiju as the Union law and justice minister, a communique from the President's Secretariat said on Thursday.
Though electoral verdicts have historically been accepted, even though grudgingly, by all parties, there has been a sharper edge to the questions being raised by Opposition parties this time over the polling process, including the Election Commission.
Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee will soon decide the fate of the 19 Members of Parliament who defied their party whips during the trust vote on July 22. These MPs can be disqualified under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader and the tribal face of the party, Vishnu Deo Sai, on Wednesday took oath as the chief minister of Chhattisgarh, 10 days after the saffron party returned to power after a gap of five years by unseating Congress in the assembly elections.
The Congress is sending Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, senior leaders Bhupinder Hooda and Rajeev Shukla to Himachal Pradesh on Thursday with the possibility of the party getting a majority in the hill state.
A rotating chief ministership as a way to appease factions can work only if there is a credible guarantor, explains Aditi Phadnis.
The political circle in the state was abuzz with speculation that the legislators have gone to express their support to Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel.
What are the political equations, the challenges, and the threats?
'The dialogues and language used in this movie are indecent. In Tulasidas' Ramayana, Lord Ram was portrayed as 'Maryada Purushottam' and decent language was used. In Adipurush, dialogues of characters are of very low level'
As trends indicated a comfortable win for the grand old party in Himachal Pradesh, Shukla said the party was happy that it is getting an opportunity to form the government in the state and asserted that the party will do everything to fulfill the 10 guarantees made to the people of the state and would provide better governance to people.
Some candidates in these two states have been provided security till the poll process ends.
In its complaint against Shah, the Congress told the EC that the home minister claimed in a speech in Chhattisgarh's Rajnandgaon on October 16 that "...Bhupesh Baghel's government, for appeasement politics and vote bank politics, lynched Chhattisgarh's son Bhuneshwar Sahoo and got him killed..."
Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel on Saturday returned to Raipur from Delhi, a day after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi met him for the second time in a week in a bid to resolve the power tussle between him and state health minister T S Singh Deo.
Voting for the second phase of Lok Sabha polls will be held on Friday for 88 seats in 13 states with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi seeking a second-straight term from Wayanad in Kerala.
'Every Indian who is concerned about the unity, integrity and the map of India should be worried about this growing divide.'
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday announced Prime Minister Narendra Modi will fight again from Varanasi in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections as it named 34 Union ministers in the first list of 195 candidates.
From the morning itself, Congress MLAs made a beeline to Cecil Hotel in Shimla where the party's central observers -- Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel and former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda -- were staying.
The Congress rebels are seeking to install a person of their choice as the new chief minister of the state.
Singh, who headed the UPA coalition government between 2004 and 2014, turned 88 on Saturday.
On the implementation of the old pension scheme, Baghel said Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh have written to the Central government to return the people's money with the National Pension System to implement the old pension scheme, but they refused.
Excited to witness the first professional boxing in the state, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel said: "Promoting sports for the current and next-generation is extremely important for the state of Chhattisgarh.
Former prime ministers Manmohan Singh and H D Deve Gowda will not attend the G20 dinner hosted by President Droupadi Murmu for world leaders on Saturday due to 'health reasons'.
The two tribal dominated divisions of Surguja and Bastar having 26 assembly seats that contributed hugely to the Congress' landslide victory in Chhattisgarh in 2018 have swung to the Bharatiya Janata Party this time.
Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel has claimed the movie portrays half truth and only shows violence without conveying any message.
External affairs ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said that the birthday greetings by the prime minister to the Dalai Lama should be seen in this overall context.
The development is being viewed by many as a show of strength but sources in the Baghel camp insisted that the MLAs were reaching Delhi on their own accord and there was no show of strength going on.
The unprecedented incident happened soon after the proceedings were adjourned at 1120 hours amid vociferous protests by the opposition over the demonetisation issue.
Populism gains momentum during election periods, and this trend is evident in at least four states: Telangana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
As many as 624 candidates are in the fray in this round of voting being held in Pilibhit, Lakhimpur Kheri, Sitapur, Hardoi, Unnao, Lucknow, Rae Bareli, Banda, and Fatehpur districts.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday conducted raids at over a dozen locations in Chhattisgarh including at premises linked to state Congress leaders as part of an ongoing probe into the alleged coal levy scam, officials said.
The scam-ridden Congress government in Chhattisgarh has become a model of misrule and people have decided to root it out in the upcoming assembly elections, he said.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Friday said the views of the newly-elected MLAs in Himachal Pradesh were being sought to bring out a consensus on who will be their leader.
The session, which was earlier scheduled to conclude on April 3, is now likely to be adjourned sine die on March 23, sources said.
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav attacked its INDIA block ally Congress on caste census, reminding them that the party did not conduct a caste census when it was in power.
'Rahul should have learnt so much in the last 20 years. But give him a mic and he begins to talk without thinking about its consequences.'
Gaurav Gogoi will head the screening committee for Rajasthan with Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and former deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot included among the ex-officio members of the panel.
Kharge also targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying the people should not believe Modi's "guarantees".
In his maiden foray in the state election, Yadav won from the Karhal assembly seat by a margin of 67,504 votes.
