2019 was the Bharatiya Janata Party's breakout year, when it stretched the boundaries of what was thought possible and ended up with 303 seats on its own steam. Now it is forced to play defence, on a pitch queered by too many variables, asserts Prem Panicker.
The share of such voters has shrunk to 1.9 per cent of registered voters in 2024 from 2.7 per cent in 2014.
He also said it was wrong on her part to go to Pakistan without informing anyone. The woman, Anju (34), was born in Kailor village in Uttar Pradesh and lived in Alwar district of Rajasthan. She and Pakistani national Nasrulla (29) became friends on Facebook in 2019.
With communal clashes claiming six lives in parts of Haryana close to Delhi, the Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered enhanced deployment of security personnel in sensitive areas and a crackdown on hate speech, but refused to stop the proposed rallies by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal in the National Capital Region.
Once a wanted criminal with a reward of Rs 7 lakh on his head, Sandeep from Sonipat got a six-hour parole for his wedding from a Delhi court.
The BJP finalised its candidates for 172 assembly seats in UP and is likely to field both Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya who are currently MLCs.
Does he (Channi) not know how many people from Bihar live there (in Punjab) and how much they have served that land, asks Nitish.
Greeting people, the prime minister tweeted a media report about ongoing work at the expansion and beautification of the temple at the saint's birthplace in Varanasi, also his parliamentary constituency.
The Supreme Court on Monday said nobody except the accused, victims' representatives and their lawyers shall be present in the court conducting the trial in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence cases in which Union minister Ajay Kumar Mishra's son Ashish is among those facing prosecution.
Uttar Pradesh Special Director General of Police Prashant Kumar on Wednesday said it would not be appropriate to say if Pakistani citizen Seema Haider, who entered India illegally in May and is staying with her partner in Noida, is a spy "unless we have enough proof".
Healthcare services remained affected at state-run hospitals in West Bengal as junior doctors continued their cease-work protest.
BIf you know this BJP, it will now go forward to Jharkhand and Maharashtra as if June 2024 never happened, notes Shekhar Gupta.
According to the FIR filed on June 7, Pahalwan was accused of making the video of the incident. The UP Police had earlier denied any communal angle in the case.
Unusual means of connecting with the electorate are also being adopted by ministers in the Yogi Adityanath government, who are doing their bit to reach out to the voters.
The Congress on Sunday demanded a thorough probe into Siddique's murder and said Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and his deputy Devendra Fadnavis, who holds home portfolio, should take moral responsibility for law and order "failure" and resign.
The Congress said it does not want to indulge in speculation and slugfest for TRPs.
The court asked the state government to mention how many people died during anti-CAA protests and complaints registered against police. The court also asked whether truthfulness of media reports in this regard has been examined or not.
Seema's questioning also comes at a time when a little-known right-wing fringe group in Greater Noida has threatened a protest if Haider, who illegally entered India with her four children, is not evicted from the country 'within 72 hours'.
'There was a strong undercurrent of deprivation, and also frustration against misuse of power and authority.' 'This election was an opportunity for the manifestation of this discontentment.'
It added that in any examination, there are competing rights that are created whereby the interests of a large number of students who have taken the examination without adopting any unfair means must not also be jeopardised.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday said it does not want freedom of press to be muzzled but it cannot create a separate avenue for journalists to approach it directly for quashing of FIRs lodged against them.
When it comes to the Congress and Wayanad, the only way the scepticism in the minds of some in Kerala may be addressed is by the Gandhi family proving that they are more than a passing caravan in town, reports Shyam G Menon.
'This is against the Constitution and we will oppose it tooth and nail.'
Akhilesh's fielding candidates from a broad spectrum of castes, not just Yadavs, and with the BJP losing in several seats in Purvanchal, suggests that smaller OBC communities shifted from the BJP to the SP in the region.
The vehicle used by the attackers of Dalit leader and Bhim Army chief Chandra Shekhar Aazad was recovered from a village in Uttar Pradesh's Saharanpur district, the police said on Thursday.
As the 240-seater prime minister attempts to moderate his image of hardline hero, he has made room for others to elbow in and that is what is happening. And that it what will continue to happen from inside the BJP, notes Aakar Patel.
The tractor-trolley, carrying about 50 people, was on its way to Ghatampur after the passengers attended a "mundan" ceremony at the Chandrika Devi temple in Fatehpur.
In his maiden foray in the state election, Yadav won from the Karhal assembly seat by a margin of 67,504 votes.
The health minister said the Centre has taken timely measures ahead of the summer season to address heatwave-related illnesses.
The man who fired the first shot at Umesh Pal, a key witness in the killing of former Bahujan Samaj Party legislator Raju Pal, was gunned down in an encounter with Prayagraj police early Monday, officials said.
Kumar's comment comes days after a section of JD-U leaders in Uttar Pradesh announced that they would join the Congress' 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' in the state.
For now, Modi's government appears singularly focussed on demonstrating that it is not in any way inhibited by the BJP's loss of a majority, and will continue along its patented path of bulldozing all opposition and doing just as it likes, asserts Prem Panicker.
'The CM wants to develop a Film City that would provide the entire value chain of film-making services and infrastructure in one place.'
A video of a constable bursting into tears and sitting on a dharna over the 'poor' quality food provided by the mess at the police lines in Firozabad has prompted the department to order an inquiry.
The 34-year-old Indian woman was staying at her 29-year-old Pakistani friend Nasrullah's home in the Upper Dir district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. They became friends on Facebook in 2019.
In Phase 6, indications are that the BJP, which is defending 40 seats, will lose in double digits and gain in single digits. Not good, if you are the ruling party scrambling to earn a working majority, with just one phase left to go, argues Prem Panicker.
The Uttar Pradesh police will get a psychological test done on Ahmad Murtaza Abbasi, accused in the attack on security personnel outside Gorakhpur's Gorakhnath temple, a senior official said on Thursday.
Asaduddin Owaisi's AIMIM, which is going to contest next year's Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls on the promise of creating leadership among Muslims, has created unease in the political parties that so far considered the members of the minority community as their core "vote bank".
'Leave aside the negative fallouts of phraseology like 'urban Naxals' and 'terrorists', both the BJP and the Congress have to re-discover themselves in the context of the 2024 election results, including those of the upcoming ones for Maharashtra and Jharkhand,' observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Gag orders have a "chilling effect" on the freedom of speech, the apex court said while refusing to accept the submission of the counsel representing Uttar Pradesh that Zubair be barred from tweeting when he is on bail.