If the Congress is contesting fewer seats than ever before, the BJP is set to contest its highest-ever number of Lok Sabha seats.
The Election Commission on Monday rescheduled from November 13 to November 20 the assembly bypolls to all nine and four seats in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab, respectively, and one seat in Kerala in view of festivals, an official statement said.
Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi are majority shareholders of Young Indian with 38 per cent shares held by each one of them. They were questioned for hours by the ED in this case a few years back.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi had on Tuesday asked its state unit chiefs in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa, Punjab and Manipur to put in their papers after the party's drubbing in the recently held Assembly polls in these states.
Singh had fought the 2019 Lok Sabha election unsuccessfully from the South Delhi constituency as a Congress candidate.
Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said that she has been admitted to hospital due to an illness and hence would not join the party's Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra on Friday.
The Uttar Pradesh government has said that over 65 crore people visited the sacred site in Prayagraj since the Maha Kumbh began on January 13.
The counting of votes for the bypolls to 46 assembly seats in 13 states and in the Lok Sabha segments of Nanded in Maharashtra and Wayanad in Kerala, a crucial electoral exercise since the parliamentary polls in April-May, will begin at 8 am on Saturday.
With its age-old fascination for education, southern states have done better than the North. Start-ups, IT hubs, and industry majors setting up shop have changed the face of the South. Nearly 79% of global offices set up by international conglomerates in India are in the South. Almost 46% of tech unicorns are from the South. The GDP per person in the South is 4.2 times higher than the North. None of these indicators can be ignored by any central government, whatever the political compulsions, notes Ramesh Menon.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has decided to cut short his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra in Uttar Pradesh by skipping western part of the state and saving five days, a party leader said on Monday while citing board exams.
The Congress party has accused the BJP of engaging in "damage control" after the party distanced itself from comments made by two of its MPs, Nishikant Dubey and Dinesh Sharma, criticizing the Supreme Court. Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh stated that the BJP's clarification was merely an attempt to mitigate the damage caused by the MPs' remarks and that the party's actions were hypocritical, given the silence of the BJP president on similar comments made by other party members.
Kishori Lal Sharma, a close aide of the Gandhi family, has been fielded from the Amethi Lok Sabha seat, the party said in a statement.
Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday said the passengers onboard the bus that fell 150 metres into a river in central Nepal were from Jalgaon district in the state as per preliminary information, and efforts are on to bring them back.
A salute to Sarojini Naidu freedom fighter, poet, women's right activist on her 146th birth anniversary.
The Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Congress's alliance in Uttar Pradesh came under scrutiny as both parties did not hold a single joint campaign for the bypolls to nine assembly seats. While both parties maintained that the alliance is strong, BJP ally Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) claimed a crack in the alliance. The Congress opted out of the bypolls and announced coordination committees for all nine seats to support the SP. However, the absence of joint rallies raised questions about the alliance's strength. The SP campaign was spearheaded by its chief Akhilesh Yadav, while the Congress cited its leaders' busy schedules in Maharashtra and Jharkhand for the lack of joint campaigns. The bypoll results will be announced on November 23.
At least 30 people were killed and 60 others injured in a pre-dawn stampede at the Sangam area of the Maha Kumbh early on Wednesday as crores of pilgrims jostled for space to take a holy dip on the occasion of one of the most auspicious days of Mauni Amavasya, officials said.
Gandhi said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the "champion of corruption".
Priyanka said 40 per cent of the Congress candidates are women and another 40 percent are youth and by doing so the party is making a new and historic beginning.
Indicating his keenness to contest the Lok Sabha elections from Amethi, Robert Vadra, businessman and husband of Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has said that the people of Amethi expect him to represent their constituency if he thinks of becoming a member of Parliament.
A US military aircraft carrying 104 illegal Indian immigrants landed in Amritsar on Wednesday, the first such batch of Indians deported by the Donald Trump government as part of a crackdown against illegal immigrants.
"You are seeing my face everywhere," the Congress leader added while addressing a press conference to release the party's 'youth manifesto' along with her brother and former president Rahul Gandhi.
Samajwadi Party MLA Abu Asim Azmi, suspended from the Maharashtra assembly over his remarks praising Mughal emperor Aurangzeb, will be '100 per cent' put in jail, Chief Minister Minister Devendra Fadnavis said in the legislative council.
The government and opposition parties on Monday reached an agreement to break the impasse in Parliament with dates announced for discussions on the Constitution in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha.
Kanugolu had also made forays in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh following a directive from the party's central leadership but regional satraps Ashok Gehlot and Kamal Nath reportedly were not on the same page as the poll strategist.
The Gandhi-led yatra will pass through Amethi on Monday. It will then enter Raebareli, where the Samajwadi Party chief had earlier said he would join.
The incident sparked a political blame game in the state where bypolls to nine assembly seats will be held on November 20. Opposition parties blamed the BJP government in the state and said the deaths raise serious questions about the negligence of the administration.
The deadly stampede at the Maha Kumbh, leading to the deaths of at least 30 people, resonated in both Houses of Parliament on Monday, with Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge and other Opposition leaders demanding a list of the deceased.
Delhi Police has registered a first information report (FIR) against Trinamool Congress Lok Sabha MP Mahua Moitra for her 'derogatory' social media post on National Commission for Women chief Rekha Sharma.
The birth anniversary of Dr Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, whose political influence has surged with the passage of time, on Monday was marked by bitter trading of charges between the ruling BJP and opposition parties as they fought for his legacy.
Tamil Nadu Governor R N Ravi has sparked controversy by asking students at a government-aided college in Madurai to chant "Jai Shri Ram". The State Platform for Common School System-Tamil Nadu (SPCSS-TN) has demanded his removal, alleging that he violated his oath of office and secular principles. The group claims Ravi's actions were against the Constitution, which outlines India as a secular country and emphasizes the importance of upholding secular values in education. The incident follows a recent Supreme Court ruling that overruled Ravi's decision to withhold 10 Bills passed by the Tamil Nadu government, highlighting ongoing tensions between the Governor and the state administration.
Shiv Sena MP Priyanka Chaturvedi also joined Bharat Jodo Yatra in Seelampur.
Campaigning for May 13 elections in 96 Lok Sabha constituencies across 10 states and Union territories including all seats in Andhra Pradesh, where assembly elections are also being held concurrently, and Telangana concluded on Saturday evening.
Vadra has been questioned multiple times by the federal probe agency in a different money laundering case.
The Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee is keen to field senior leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra from Varanasi and will soon send a proposal in this regard to the top leadership, said newly appointed party's state president Ajay Rai on Sunday.
An Uttar Pradesh government spokesperson said a formal order for all eateries along the Kanwar Yatra route in the state was likely to be issued soon.
'All senior Muslim leaders of the BJP are left behind.' 'Doodh mein se makhi jaisey nikaal dete hain.'
There is little doubt that the prime minister's own charisma exceeds that of his party, but 2024 is proof that no party can ultimately depend on one person to deliver victory all the time, points out R Jagannathan.
'Congress leaders are ready to lose the election and not form the government, but are never ready to share seats with others.'
A bench headed by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud on Friday deferred the hearing on Khera's plea to March 20 after taking note of submissions that senior advocate A M Singhvi, appearing for the Congress leader, was unavailable.
A resident of Jainabad in the Chinhat area in Lucknow, Mohit Kumar was arrested in connection with a case on Saturday.
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