Bollywood has found its new mission...
At a time when elections, both Parliament and assembly, are round the corner, die-hard Shiv Sainiks believe that Uddhav Thackeray needs to reconcile with some important leaders, because they can make or break the party's performance, says Neeta Kolhatkar.
A Ganesh Nadar/Rediff.com visited many polling booths in Varanasi on polling day. This is what he discovered.
Whether to seek blessings for an upcoming release or personal happiness, often one catches glimpses of celebrity trips to places of worship in different parts of the country.
Showing that he was in full control of the party, Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray on Friday said that dissidents were free to leave; while senior party leader Manohar Joshi, who had criticised his leadership style recently, apologised.
For some of the business majors, the fund outgo for the 2019 elections has risen as much as 15 to 20 times, compared to the amount given to political parties five years ago.
Prasanna D Zore/Rediff.com reports from Shivaji Park and the MMRDA ground to sense the mood of Shiv Sena workers -- from the Uddhav Thackeray and Eknath Shinde camps.
The state has total 8,98,39,600 voters, including 1,06,76,013 in the age group of 18 to 25 years. A total of 6.5 lakh polling personnel have been deployed at 96,661 polling booths across the state.
The septuagenarian politician, once the right hand man of Bal Thackeray, is now battling irrelevance in a Balasaheb-less Shiv Sena
Eknath Gaikwad, the former Member of Parliament from Mumbai's South Central constituency reacts to his defeat.
It seems that the Maharashtra unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party is leaving no stone unturned to make grand the October 31 oath-taking ceremony of its first chief minister, Devendra Fadnavis, at the Wankhede stadium in South Mumbai.
He is now the first non-Congress chief minister to win a second term in office in the state, seen as a Congress bastion until just five years ago.
'If there is one message coming out of Delhi, it is that the country is ready for inclusive, bipartisan politics, not based on caste, community and religion, but based on issues of a modern India.'
Ahead of the 2022 assembly elections, Churchill Alemao 'merged' the NCP with the TMC. The 'merger' took place when Mamata Banerjee was in Mumbai talking to NCP supreme leader Sharad Pawar on how to forge Opposition unity!
Three journalists of China's state-run news agency Xinhua, who were denied extension of visa, have departed India, Lok Sabha was informed on Wednesday.
From son of soil to Hindutva and from the BJP to Hardik Patel, the Shiv Sena has changed its stand time to time to reinvent itself.
'Like it or not, the Congress is still the only party with the potential to challenge the BJP at a pan-Indian level,' says T V R Shenoy.
Congress stalwart Murli Deora passed away on Monday morning after battling a prolonged illness. He was a politician who shared rapport across the political and corporate spectrum.
With elections elsewhere in India showing that multi-pronged contests usually work to the BJP's favour, the party can gain if it hangs on stubbornly. In the meantime, any additional support helps. That is why the archbishop's comment attracted political traction in Kerala, observes Shyam G Menon.
Political observers feel that the outcome of the elections weighs in favour of the BJP which had won a massive mandate in the Lok Sabha elections, held earlier this year.
An Election Commission panel has held Congress candidates Milind Deora and Sanjay Nirupam among four Lok Sabha election candidates in Maharashtra guilty of resorting to paid news. In all, 84 complaints of paid news were received by a committee specially set up to keep a watch on paid news.
This was not Sharad Pawar or Prithviraj Chavan speaking. It was Uddhav Thackeray, the undisputed chief of the Shiv Sena!
Schools across Maharashtra resumed physical sessions for classes 5 to 12 on Monday after being shut for over a year-and-a-half in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, with students being welcomed back on campuses with flowers, balloons, sanitisers and social distancing protocols.
Senior Congress leader and former Union Minister Murli Deora passed away in Mumbai early Monday morning after prolonged illness.
The Congress party's first list of 194 Lok Sabha candidates released on Saturday night has no major surprises. Anita Katyal reports
The Lok Sabha election will be held in 7 phases, beginning on April 11, 2019 and ending on May 19, 2019.
'The foundation of the 2014 triumph was Narendra Modi's appeal to voters in the Hindi belt. The Bihar Vidhan Sabha polls will demonstrate if he continues to appeal to them,' says T V R Shenoy.
Sharad Pawar of the Nationalist Congress Party, Sharad Yadav of the rebel Janata Dal-United, D Raja of the Communist Party of India, Hardik Patel (Gujarat's Patidar leader), Dinesh Trivedi (Trinamool Congress) and Sushilkumar Shinde (Congress) attended the meeting and joined the march.
The BJP took a gamble and won; Uddhav Thackeray is down, but not out; Sharad Pawar accepts Modi's clout... The many meanings of the election results.
Sena MP Sanjay Raut, however, said his party was firm on a written assurance from the senior alliance partner over power sharing, including rotating CM's post for 2.5 years.
Party also plans over 35 virtual rallies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi
'George was a politician with a difference. He had the ability to stand alone, take a position, however extreme, and sustain that position,' remembers Arun Jaitley.
This divisiveness is upsetting social cohesion and can throw the bright young people thronging to Bengaluru with billion dollar ideas in their creative minds off balance, warns Shekhar Gupta.
943 candidates are contesting 71 seats spread across 9 states.
Given Narendra Modi's trust in him, Praful Khoda Patel is unlikely to back down in Lakshadweep.
Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut praised Rahul Gandhi saying there has been a substantial change in him over the last three years.
'One senior Congress leader told me: "As long as Rahul is seen arriving there is no harm done, but when he opens his mouth, oh God...",' reveals T V R Shenoy.
One of the most prominent leaders of the socialist movement in the 1970s, George Fernandes was a senior Janata Dal leader before he founded the Samata Party.
Many corporate figures, who are not full-fledged businessmen, have felt the need to make a change in the system. That's why they are joining the AAP, Captain Gopinath tells Rediff.com's Vicky Nanjappa
'India has decided - Democracy needs to be celebrated.'
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