Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, convicted of rape and murder, has been granted a 40-day parole, marking the 15th time he has been released since his conviction in 2017.
In terms of MLA salaries, Odisha is followed by Telangana (about Rs 2.7 lakh), Maharashtra (Rs 2.6 lakh), Manipur (Rs 2.5 lakh), and Uttar Pradesh (Rs 2.4 lakh).
An interesting phenomenon of the UP assembly elections 2012 is the emergence of many small Muslim political outfits, says Dr Mohammad Sajjad
RJD president Lalu Prasad's daughter Rohini Acharya criticised her family members for allegedly destroying a legacy, hinting at internal conflicts within the party.
The Aam Aadmi Party is looking at taking a plunge into the political cesspool of Uttar Pradesh, where state assembly elections are to be held in 2017.
After demolishing the Left bastion in West Bengal, Trinamool Congress led by Mamata Banerjee is all set to make its electoral debut in the Hindi heartland of Uttar Pradesh in the coming assembly polls.
'Both Rahul and Modi are the same in the way they run their parties. Modi too wants faceless people and so does Rahul Gandhi.'
The draft electoral roll for Uttar Pradesh was published after a special intensive revision exercise, with 12.55 crore voters retained out of 15.44 crore listed earlier. Around 2.89 crore voters were excluded due to deaths, migration, or multiple registrations.
If the BJP wants to win 60 out of UP's 80 seats, it will need a jump of 30 percent in its vote share -- which is a mammoth task.
"I thank the high command for imposing their trust on me and assigning me this big responsibility," she said soon after the announcement.
'Favourable treatment to selected areas has been a pattern throughout the state.'
According to Election Commission data, Bhabanipur had 2,06,295 voters as of January 2025. The draft rolls now carry 1,61,509 names, indicating that 44,787 voters, nearly 21.7 per cent of the electorate, have been deleted.
Massive security in place to ensure free and fair polls in 18,083 polling stations in Eastern UP. Sharat Pradhan reports from Lucknow.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath announced that singing 'Vande Mataram' will be made compulsory in every school and educational institution of the state.
While the Samajwadi Party largely banks on its Muslim-Yadav support base, the Bharatiya Janata Party is trying to counter it with the Modi-Yogi combo in the state assembly polls.
''Women are coming into public spaces in larger numbers than ever before. They are educated, capable, opinionated, and determined.' 'But the more women push for access to public space, the harder they are pushed back -- through attacks like this, through discrimination, through the glass ceiling, through the deliberate denial of recognition.'
Abbas Ansari, the Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party MLA, was sentenced to two years imprisonment in a 2022 hate speech case by a special MP-MLA court on Saturday.
The Shiv Sena also demanded that those who allowed the concert to take place should be booked for anti-national activities.
Jammu and Kashmir BJP leader Jahanzaib Sirwal threatened to resign from the party, citing Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's "unacceptable" remarks and the state police's "vindictive" attitude against the Muslim community.
Last week, Nazarwala, our columnist who correctly predicted the 2007 Uttar Pradesh election outcome, said Chief Minister Mayawati's tally in the current assembly election would fall to double digits. Here he outlines what awaits the BJP in UP.
Amidst barbs flying back and forth, Rediff.com's Aslam Hunani lists all that you need to know about the fourth phase of the UP assembly elections, which will take place on February 23.
The failure of the Congress to win the hearts of even the Muslim victims of Muzaffarnagar riots exposes what's wrong with Rahul Gandhi's leadership. His statement that Pakistan's ISI was targeting the victims may have cost the party their trust. Rather, those who advise Gandhi are so brazen politically that they ask the UPA government to give reservations to the Jat community, perceived to be the aggressor by the Muslims of Uttar Pradesh.
The Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP), an NDA member, announced it will contest 153 seats in the upcoming Bihar elections after not being allocated any seats by the NDA. The party claims the BJP's Bihar unit provided a negative report regarding their strength.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah criticizes Kerala's ruling Left government over the Sabarimala gold loss case, demanding a neutral investigation and accusing the government of protecting the real culprits. He also signals the start of the BJP's campaign for the upcoming Assembly elections.
Pitching for her son and Sultanpur member of Parliament, Union Minister Maneka Gandhi has said that Uttar Pradesh would have benefited had there been a Bharatiya Janata Party led government in the state with Varun Gandhi as its chief minister.
It was speculated that Rohini was "unhappy" over the expulsion of Tej Pratap Yadav from the party. However, during the assembly elections, she was seen campaigning for Tejashwi.
On the eve of the sixth and penultimate phase of the marathon Uttar Pradesh elections, Rediff.com's Aslam Hunani reports on what's at stake.
Drawing lessons from security protocols of Parliament, the state is working closely with agencies like the Defence Research and Development Organisation and the Electronics Corporation of India Ltd to design a multi-layered safety mechanism.
Mundane as it may seem, this is in some ways a metaphor for the challenges facing the nation, argue Arvind Subramanian and Devesh Kapur in their new book, A Sixth Of Humanity.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Rahul Gandhi are set to address public rallies in Bihar on Wednesday in support of their respective party nominees. Other leaders will also campaign ahead of the upcoming elections.
Newly appointed Bharatiya Janata Party national working president Nitin Nabin on Monday termed his elevation as a blessing of the party and claimed that it is the only political outfit that allows its grassroots workers to thrive.
Posters announcing plans for an Ayodhya-style Ram temple complex in Salt Lake have appeared, escalating the political duel between religious groups ahead of the Bengal assembly polls. The proposed complex includes a school, hospital, and old-age home.
Janata Dal-United supremo Nitish Kumar is set to be sworn-in as Bihar chief minister for a record 10th time on Thursday, days after the National Democratic Alliance secured a landslide victory in the assembly elections.
Bhim denotes Dalit icon Bhimrao Ambedkar, while Mim denotes the letter 'M' in the Urdu alphabet; the party used the slogan effectively in the 2014 Maharashtra assembly elections
Each leader will look after six assembly constituencies.
Most of these leaders are known for their organisational skills and successful management of elections in their respective states.
Election Commission's Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voters' list commenced in nine states and three Union territories on Tuesday, amid objections from several parties with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee leading the anti-SIR offensive in West Bengal with a rally in Kolkata and alleging 'silent, invisible rigging' through the exercise.
Aditaynath alleged that the Congress, RJD and SP were "embracing" criminals in Bihar and allowing infiltrators to compromise with the state's security.
The salary hike for government employees is likely to put an additional burden of Rs 24,000 crore on the state excheque.
In a unique initiative to speed up the ongoing special intensive revision of electoral rolls, the Pilibhit administration has announced a set of incentives, including a family safari and lunch, for booth-level officers who fills up the maximum number of digitised forms in their respective assembly constituencies.
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