Women came out in large numbers to vote on Wednesday despite terror attacks and repeated threats.
Wearing multiple identities of religious preacher, science student and terror accused, the saffron robed Aseemanand, once known as the most wanted man in India, was the alleged link between the series of three bombings that ripped through India in 2007.
The last leg of poll campaign saw many national leaders canvassing for their parties.
Promising Central Bureau of Investigation probe into mining, chit fund and other scams in Odisha, Congress on Friday said it would review all MoUs signed by BJD government in the state in last 10 years, provide pucca houses to landless and allowance to unemployed youths if voted to power.
Attacking the Mamata Banerjee government in West Bengal over the issue of development, Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said funds worth crores were sent from the Centre to the state but they never reached the people.
It's election season in Tamil Nadu and all political parties are tying themselves in knots over the banned jallikattu but none more than the BJP, says R Ramasubramanian.
'The BJP will be the ruling party.'
Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Friday claimed the 15-year-old Dalit boy who died in Sonipat had committed suicide and announced that job will be given to a family member, apart from compensation.
The South Carolina governor has become the first woman and minority to join Trump's administration.
Khan stressed on taking austerity measures, working on tax reforms instead of taking loans, rooting out corruption.
Digvijay Singh's questions on Rahul's leadership, Antony's on Congress's secularism are all red herrings, says Virendra Kapoor.
Tamil Nadu Governor K Rosaiah on Saturday invited Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa to form the government after she apprised him of her election as leader of All India Anna Dravida Munetra Kazhagam Legislature Party.
She, however, did not talk of the Congress-Samajwadi Party alliance and sought support for only her party's candidates.
The Karnataka CM with only 37 JD-S MLAs in the assembly is on shaky ground and overly dependent on the Congress for every decision, reports Bibhu Ranjan Mishra.
A shoe was on Monday hurled at Bihar Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi by a youth during his weekly public interaction programme 'Janata Durbar' at his residence in Patna.
'Unlike in other states, minorities form a significant number in Kerala. They have money and political power. In such a society, the emergence of a new communal power is not a healthy thing.'
Terming the Lok Sabha elections as a battle between two completely different ideologies, Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Monday alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party was dancing to the tune of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh whose "parochial and extremist" thought was aimed at dividing the society.
Meanwhile, the Archbishops secretary, Father Robinson Rodrigues said that such prayer campaigns took place before every general election.
Sheela Bhatt reports on the tortuous negotiations to form a Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress government in Maharashtra.
Anti-nuclear activist S P Udayakumar, who has been called a threat to the economic security of India by the Intelligence Bureau, speaks to A Ganesh Nadar.
More than 5.79 crore voters will seal the fate of 3,740 aspirants including arch rivals Chief Minister Jayalalithaa and Dravida Munnetra Kazagham president M Karunanidhi, as the stage is set for polling in 233 assembly seats in Tamil Nadu under tight vigil on Monday.
'A one party-State, with only one kind of Indian,' argues Mihir S Sharma.
The manifesto was unveiled by Jayalalithaa at a public rally, in a departure from usual practice of release at party headquarters in Chennai.
A day after total shutdown in Assam to protest against the CAB, fresh protests erupted in the state and neighbouring Tripura and other parts of the nation.
She asserted that all the regional anti-BJP parties were together and they should sacrifice for the country's benefit.
In its sway over national politics now, the Modi-Shah BJP is what the Congress was under Indira Gandhi. Why would they indulge coalition partners, their greed and egos now, asks Shekhar Gupta.
'There was a period when they questioned the flag and there were questions also against the Constitution.' 'That's long past.'
The home minister said eight people were killed -- six in Madhya Pradesh and one each in Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, during Monday's Bharat Bandh.
'If an election promise has to be credible, silence on practical questions doesn't help matters,' notes T N Ninan.
"The Congress has failed despite ruling for so many years," she said.
'What happened last Sunday is a great tragedy, an insult to humanity'
Modi also pitched for a social movement to ensure the safety of women and girls.
Rumours of a live power line having snapped triggered the stampede. The injured have been rushed to a local hospital, a BSP spokesperson said.
Addressing a rally in Karkardooma in east Delhi, Modi alleged that the AAP and the Congress were provoking people and misinforming them. They were keeping the Constitution and tricolour in the forefront, but the aim was to 'divert attention from the real conspiracy', Modi said ahead of the Delhi elections on February 8.
'In the name of pluralism-secularism, the kind of politics that was pursued revealed to many that it was basically a favour to Muslim conservatism and communalism -- a politics of minority-ism, rather than of secularism.' 'This is how significant sections of Hindus have been made to loathe the very idea of Indian secularism by now,' says Mohammad Sajjad.
BJP president and Union Home Minister Amit Shah said the prime minister shared his vision and commitment for the development of the people of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh region and and urged them 'to be a part of this historic journey'.
Over two dozen Muslims have been elected to the Lok Sabha. This shows that all is not lost for India's Muslims, suggests Mohammad Sajjad.
Khan's government will be the third consecutive democratic government in Pakistan since 2008.
The president-elect has vast public, social, and political experience which will help him better to discharge his duty as the First Citizen of India.
It claimed the officials were involved in 'espionage, subversion and supporting terrorist activities in Balochistan and Sindh'.
