About 2.34 crore voters, spread across 78 assembly segments of the 243-strong assembly, will decide the fates of 1,204 candidates, including the Speaker and 12 members of the state cabinet.
At many places, Kumar lost his cool and chided the protestors for "acting on behalf of political rivals".
SP chief Akhilesh Yadav said the future of the country should be better for all sections, including farmers and Muslims.
The passage of this major legislation comes ahead of the general election due early next year.
Stringent punishment for rape of a girl under 12 years has been provided with the minimum jail term being 20 years which may go up to life in prison or death sentence. Gangrape of a girl under 12 years of age will invite punishment of jail term for the rest of life or death.
Participating in an online session, a panel of Hindu-American women, from different walks of life, expressed their strong views in favour of President Trump.
If the Congress recovers some of its earlier influence among the Dalits, the BJP will be in a quandary since the Dalits were among the party's latest acquisitions. To lose them will be a disaster for the saffron camp not only in UP, but all over India, observes Amulya Ganguli.
"In 47 years, Joe did none of the things of which he now speaks. He will never change, just words!" Trump tweeted his first reaction to Biden's acceptance speech on Thursday.
The ground, which served as the battleground for the 51-year-old bureaucrat-turned-politician during the Anna Hazare-led India Against Corruption movement, is getting decked up and workers are busy making arrangements.
Insiders say the BJP is now concerned the LJP putting up a good fight against the JD-U would mean benefitting the MGB in those seats. Moreover, Chirag and Tejaswi are known to be friends, and the former is battling for his political survival.
A united Opposition in the Lok Sabha on Thursday pitched for referring the triple talaq bill to a 'joint select committee' of Parliament, claiming its provisions were unconstitutional.
Varma sought 'ideological clarity' from Nitish over extending alliance with the BJP beyond Bihar despite having expressed apprehensions 'in private' about the BJP-RSS leading the nation into a 'dangerous space'.
About 25 years after the incident, SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav on Monday said he "felt sad" for ordering firing on 'karsewaks' in Ayodhya in 1990.
Vora was admitted to the Escorts Hospital in Okhla a few days ago with a urinary infection. He also had a lung infection and was put on ventilator support, his family said.
Confrontation between government and opposition is set to escalate with Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan on Monday suspending 25 Congress members for five days for "persistently, wilfully obstructing" the House".
The opposition in Lok Sabha on Monday tore into the controversial Land Acquisition Bill
Trinamool Congress described it as "Black Monday" and a dark day for the country's constitution, the idea of India, and the Rajya Sabha
In an interview to Rediff.com's Anita Katyal, Shambhu Srivastava speaks about the need of breaking out of the communal-secular paradigm and focusing on the Congress party's poor performance and its track record in fuelling communalism.
'The Left is dying, but its economic ideology rules, unchallenged.' 'Modi is its newest standard-bearer.' 'Even in today's bitterly polarised politics, if there is one thing on which not just the BJP and Congress, but all other parties agree, it is that socialist economics is the only way to survive,' says Shekhar Gupta.
Stalin owes his victory this time, like in 2019, to the hate-campaign of the local Hindutva forces, which kept haranguing him, and even his dead father, notes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Ballot papers were posted out as voting opened on Monday to decide if veteran leftist Jeremy Corbyn will remain the head of UK's Opposition Labour party, amid deep divisions within the 116-year-old organisation over the leadership challenge triggered by the 'Brexit' vote in June.
Speaking at a special function organised at the Lohia Park in Lucknow to mark the 45th death anniversary of his party ideologue and highly rated socialist leader Dr Ram Manohar Lohia, the SP patriarch said, "I am keeping a vigilant eye on the activities of all ministers; and let it be loud and clear that any behaviour unbecoming of the high office they are holding, will not miss my attention."
'The minority community has been used only for political gains.'
Not only has the Mudra loan mela generated no jobs, it has frittered away trillions of taxpayers' money and it's time to bury the scheme, argues Debashis Basu.
The bill was taken up for consideration in the Lok Sabha after the Speaker rejected Opposition demands to refer the key reform measure to a parliamentary Standing Committee.
The RJD leader said he was being treated for anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury during the past month.
Intensifying its attack on Mulayam Singh Yadav, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday dared him to withdraw support to the United Progressive Allaince government if he was a true Lohiaite and ridiculed the SP chief for asking party workers to bag maximum Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh.
Opposition leaders asked all secular forces to field a joint candidate for presidential elections and have common minimum programme to challenge the Bharatiya Janata Party, reports Archis Mohan.
In a boost to the United Democratic Front ahead of assembly polls in Kerala next year, the Congress candidate K S Sabarinadhan on Tuesday won the Aruvikkara assembly by-poll by a margin of 10,128 votes defeating his nearest rival M Vijayakumar of the Opposition Left Democratic Front.
'Why did your generals try to grab a few square kilometres of Indian territory in Ladakh?' 'And what happened to the hard work that you and Prime Minister Modi put into the Wuhan and Mamallapuram meets?' Claude Arpi writes a letter to Xi Jinping, China's self-styled supreme leader, who turns 68 today, June 15.
Singh was widely regarded as an expert in the rural and agricultural landscape of the country and is credited with the conceptualisation and implementation of the NREGA (National Rural Guarantee Employment) Act.
Pranabda hasn't given us any indication of the tough period when he realised Sonia Gandhi had decided to give the presidency not to him, but to then vice-president Hamid Ansari. He wrested the presidency from her, and handed her the biggest defeat of her UPA years, observes Shekhar Gupta.
'If the leadership goes back to Rahul Gandhi, then there will be a perception problem about the drama about his exit a year-and-a-half ago.'
'Whoever whispered in his ears that go for demonetisation, misled him completely' and the PM lacked the sagacity to know that it would not work, Yashwant Sinha tells Archis Mohan.
The ruling People's Democratic Party on Tuesday welcomed the "historic peace accord" between the Centre and Nagaland's National Socialist Council of Nagaland-IM, saying a similar approach was needed in Kashmir and suggested that the four-point formula propounded by former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf could be used as a 'launching pad'.
Known for weighing his options carefully before making any move, Kumar, upon a closer look, comes across as a risk taker who has not shied away from going against the tide.
'Priyanka Gandhi is not Indira Gandhi, declares Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav. According to Yadav's confidant Azam Khan, if Priyanka formally joins politics and campaigns everywhere in UP, then political parties will treat her as a politician. Chief Minister Mayawati is also preparing a dossier on Priyanka and her businessman husband Robert Vadra to counter her charm offensive in the electoral battle.
Exploiting the killings to ratchet up the tension in the region and harden negotiating positions with the central government serves nobody, least of all the people of Nagaland. The peace process must not be stalled because of this incident or distracted by calls to repeal the AFSPA, argues Vivek Gumaste.
Akhilesh Yadav begins his campaign for next assembly election in Uttar Pradesh.
'This is the first time a majority ruling government is nominating a Dalit for President.' 'So, the moral credibility definitely will go with the BJP, particularly Narendra Modi.'
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