The Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday appointed Uttar Pradesh cabinet minister Bhupendra Chaudhary as the party's chief in the state.
Ansari's brother Afzal said they do not trust either the postmortem or the viscera reports.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi would have got a tough fight in Varanasi had Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra contested against him as Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) candidate, feel party workers from the temple town.
Voting for the second phase of Lok Sabha polls will be held on Friday for 88 seats in 13 states with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi seeking a second-straight term from Wayanad in Kerala.
Gandhi, then a newly appointed Congress chief, had staked claim to form the government at the Centre after the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had lost the vote of confidence in the Lok Sabha on April 17, 1999.
Counting began at 8 am under multi-tier security cover. At first, postal ballots will be counted and then EVMs opened.
The assembly polls in Maharashtra will be held in a single phase while Jharkhand polls will be held in two phases, the Election Commission of India announced on Tuesday.
Polling is scheduled in all 20 seats of Kerala, 14 of the 28 seats in Karnataka, 13 seats in Rajasthan, eight seats each in Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, six seats in Madhya Pradesh, five seats each in Assam and Bihar, three seats each in Chhattisgarh and West Bengal, and one seat each in Manipur, Tripura and Jammu and Kashmir.
The BJP, which rules the Centre, is in power in Uttarakhand, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Goa, Assam, Tripura, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, and is all set to get Madhya Pradesh back and snatch Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh from the Congress after today's vote count.
The curious onlookers that greet the candidates are, however, unaware about the importance of history. They are just there to catch a glimpse of 'Rani Ma' Amrita Roy or Mahua Moitra.
Raut's claims have drawn sharp reactions from the BJP, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Congress's candidate from Nagpur.
'The Congress's policy is it will take benefits from everybody, but when it gets an opportunity, it does not want to share it with others'
Coming down hard on the Election Commission for its response on 'vote theft' allegations, former chief election commissioner S Y Quraishi on Sunday said the poll body should have ordered a probe into Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi's charges instead of 'shouting' at him in a language that was 'objectionable and offensive'.
Against the Samajwadi Party's decision to field actor Jaya Bachchan and retired IAS officer Alok Ranjan as its candidates for the Rajya Sabha polls, Apna Dal (Kamerawadi) leader and party MLA Pallavi Patel on Wednesday said she will not cast her vote.
The meeting, which began around 10:30 pm on Thursday, lasted for more than four hours and was held at the party's headquarters in New Delhi.
The Congress on Friday said it will take a decision at an 'appropriate time' whether its senior leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Sonia Gandhi will attend the consecration of the Ram temple in Ayodhya on January 22.
Gandhi, who is seeking a second-straight term from Wayanad in Kerala, in a video appeal said this election is to save democracy and the Constitution.
"The voter turnout data for the first two phases of the ongoing 2024 Lok Sabha elections published by ECI on April 30 has been published after 11 days of the first phase of polling... on April 19 and four days after second phase of polling... on April 26.
President Droupadi Murmu on Saturday approved 139 Padma awards including seven Padma Vibhushans, 19 Padma Bhushans and 113 Padma Shris.
Nearly half of the MPs elected in the 2019 general elections in India were first-timers.
The government on Wednesday night exuded confidence to get the Lokpal and Lokayukta Bill passed in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday, despite not having a clear majority.
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"When I go to attend international conferences where there is a discussion on road accidents, I try to hide my face," Nitin Gadkari said on Thursday, underlining he had set a target to reduce accidents by 50 per cent when he first took charge as the Road Transport and Highways Minister.
'Modi has to lead the BJP. There is no alternative,' a senior BJP leader tells Rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt.
Congress president Rahul Gandhi and general secretary in charge of western Uttar Pradesh, Jyotiraditya Scindia, will accompany her.
Majority of these constituencies are in Uttar Pradesh and the party that is on the third slot even as the counting is still underway on several seats is the Bahujan Samaj Party, a party neither with the National Democratic Alliance nor the opposition INDIA bloc.
Officials have said an absence of drainage system and safety measures, and use of basement for commercial activities in violation of norms led to the death of three civil services aspirants at the coaching centre.
The 52-year-old, who joins her mother Sonia and brother Rahul as an MP in what is a rare instance of three members of a family together in Parliament, would visit Parliament as a teenager to listen to her father Rajiv Gandhi speak as prime minister.
While the Congress top brass has declined the invitation to the January 22 consecration ceremony at Ayodhya's Ram temple, the party's Uttar Pradesh unit plans to go ahead with its own event a week earlier in the holy town.
Yogi Adityanath was on Thursday unanimously chosen the leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party legislature party in Uttar Pradesh in the presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
There is speculation that the Congress may bring Priyanka Gandhi, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Randeep Surjewala and RPN Singh, among others, to the upper house.
The article had criticised the BJP for forming an alliance with the NCP.
"The voting percentage is likely to go upwards when reports from all polling stations are obtained as polling is scheduled till 6 pm in many constituencies. Final figures will be known on Saturday after the scrutiny of form 17A," the EC said.
Within four years of winning a single party majority in the Lok Sabha with 282 seats -- the first time it has happened in 30 years -- the BJP has lost it.
The BJP is leaning on Yogi's 'batenge to katenge' theme to weave a unifying narrative that transcends caste and communal lines.
The Samajwadi Party's Mainpuri district unit Thursday gave a written request to the party chief to contest from the Karhal seat and he agreed, sources said.
Parliamentary proceedings were disrupted for the third consecutive day in the Winter Session as opposition parties continued their protests over the Adani issue and violence in Manipur and Sambhal. Both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha were adjourned within minutes of convening, despite appeals from the Chair to engage in productive dialogue and refrain from disruption. The opposition members raised slogans demanding action against the perpetrators of violence in Sambhal, and sought discussions on allegations of irregularities against the Adani Group and the violence in Manipur.
Akhilesh said the alliance's decision was not informed by any seat-sharing math but its pursuit of victory.
While conditions have improved over the last decade in western UP, there are still unfulfilled needs.
BJP president JP Nadda said on Sunday that the party does not seek to control the Waqf Board but wants to ensure that those managing it operate within the bounds of law and adhere to established rules. He said the properties and funds of the Waqf Board should be dedicated to promoting education, providing healthcare and employment opportunities for the Muslim community. Nadda also highlighted the BJP's growth and achievements, emphasizing its commitment to national unity and cultural heritage.
