To help the country emerge as a true welfare State, political parties must put the country's interests first before strategising to win elections and short-term goals, argues Ramesh Menon.
As Rose Valley resurfaces, Sudip Bandyopadhyay and Tapas Pal's arrests marks the end of the bonhomie between the TMC and BJP.
The final phase saw voting in all 13 seats of Punjab and an equal number of seats in Uttar Pradesh, nine in West Bengal, eight seats each in Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, four in Himachal Pradesh, three in Jharkhand and the lone seat Chandigarh.
Ghosh suffered minor injuries when a group of women allegedly attacked her when she tried to take one BJP agent inside a polling booth.
Trinamool Congress on Saturday stayed away from the all-party meeting convened by the state Election Commission in Kolkata to discuss the upcoming panchayat polls in West Bengal, prompting the opposition Congress and Communist Party of India-Marxist to accuse the ruling party of disrespecting a constitutional body.
In a jolt to the AAP government, President Pranab Mukherjee has refused to give assent to a legislation that protects 21 party MLAs, who have been appointed parliamentary secretaries, and face the prospect of disqualification.
A total of 23 tableaux would be on display at the ceremonial parade, with 17 of them belonging to various states and UnionTerritories.
'Of all the election skirmishes, it is the one between Mamata and Modi that has hit the nadir.' 'Obviously, the prize catch is Bengal where the BJP is determined to make inroads while Mamata is equally determined to keep them out,' notes Saisuresh Sivaswamy.
In the first such move involving Narendra Modi during the current poll campaign, the Election Commission on Monday ought the CD and transcript of his speech in West Bengal in which he raised questions on the sale price of a painting of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
Assembly polls in Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal, Odisha and Sikkim will also be held simultaneously, the Election Commission said.
'Modi is still immensely popular and, therefore, he can sustain any number of policy failures.' 'Modi himself has worn multiple faces so it would be naive to think that the Modi of 2021 will be the same Modi that will be campaigning for re-election in 2024.'
Addressing BJP workers at a felicitation function after the Bharatiya Janata Party's victory in Bihar elections and various bypolls, he asserted that the only mantra for his party's victory was 'Sabka saath, sabka vikas and sabka vishwas' and also launched a veiled attack on the West Bengal's ruling Trinamool Congress, saying those who cannot challenge the saffron party democratically have resorted to 'murdering' its workers to realise their goals.
Three Congress workers were killed ahead of Monday's fourth phase of panchayat polls in four districts of West Bengal and at least 100 houses vandalised and looted in South 24-Parganas district on Sunday.
By presenting the battle in Bengal as one between Mamata on one side and Modi-Shah on the other, the saffron camp has projected the former as a larger-than-life figure, a portrayal which has the potential of turning her into Modi's main competitor in 2024, predicts Amulya Ganguli.
Leaders of 22 opposition parties met the Election Commission and demanded verification of VVPAT slips of randomly-selected polling stations before the counting of the votes.
'Badle ki bhavna (revengeful politics) was never seen in Maharashtra and Indian politics, but now we are witnessing all that today.'
Narendra Modi on Friday accused Congress and its chief Sonia Gandhi for resorting to "low-level" politics and raising issues from his personal life to his caste in their bid to prevent him from coming to power.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has positioned himself as a credible partner for Bangladesh. He has scored by getting West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to travel with him to Dhaka, says Srinath Raghavan
The overall average till 5 pm was 84.24 per cent.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin on Thursday warned the Bharatiya Janata Party not to 'provoke' the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, saying it will not be able to 'bear the consequences' and that his party also knows 'all types of politics', escalating his attack on the saffron party after the arrest of his cabinet colleague V Senthil Balaji.
The BJP IT cell has held meetings right down to booth levels and these volunteers have been working for the past six months already.
A clash broke out between the workers of the TMC and the CPI-M in the Arambag area of Hooghly. One CPI-M worker is said to be injured in the incident.
Indians are election junkies, and that includes all of us -- political parties, aspirants for seats, pollsters, pundits parsing straws in the wind, says Shreekant Sambrani
Rather than a blind reproduction of the government template, a more productive way of enforcing affirmative action in the private sector could be to emulate an American model, suggests Kanika Datta.
Ahead of Lok Sabha polls, the Centre today reviewed the security situation in Naxal-affected states and directed security forces to foil any attempt by the rebels to disrupt the election process.
In January Amit Shah launched the 'Bhag Mamata Bhag' programme in West Bengal. On Monday Prime Minister Narendra Modi rolled out the red carpet for Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. What changed in two months?
Veteran Communist Part of India-Marxist leader Mohammed Salim in an interview with Rediff.com's Indrani Roy speaks about volatile atmosphere in Bengal this election season, the prospects of the Left and more. Edited excerpts:
'Mamata is synonymous with Bengal, its culture, language, traditions.'
On one hand, South Indian states have been complaining about denial of a proportionate portion of the sharable funds from the Centre, based on population. On the other hand, they stand to lose Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha seats that again are based on population, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
The high court dismissed the party's plea, saying since the electronic voting machines would now carry photographs of the candidates.
'The BJP's modus operandi is not just to be intolerant of dissent, it is to create mistrust and doubt between communities and the electoral process itself.'
The dinner was followed by a meeting in which nearly two dozen allies facilitated Prime Minister Modi.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Ram Nath Kovind was appointed as the new governor
This time however, the poll panel did not share the overall polling percentage at its briefing.
The DMK leadership may now have to deal with a demand for more seats from its Congress ally in the Lok Sabha polls, predicts N Sathiya Moorthy.
Six persons, including a woman, were killed and 18 were injured in violence and CRPF firing in the fourth phase of the West Bengal panchayat elections on Monday. Polling in four districts saw a voter turnout of 25 per cent.
'Though federal, the Constitution is unitary in nature. All matters relating to revenue are centralised. It is necessary that matters related to finance have to be decentralised... States need more freedom in designing schemes with their interest in mind. There has to be a Constitutional amendment to give more powers to the states. A special session of Parliament should amend the Constitution, especially the 7th Schedule,' Kerala Finance Minister K M Mani tells Rediff.com's Shobha Warrier.
The membership drive, which had begun in November, ends on Thursday midnight.
Rajeev Kumar, the Kolkata police commissioner, is known for his impeccable investigating and electronic surveillance skills.
In a country where 'booth-capturing' and open intimidation of voters used to be a part of the poll processes until not very long ago -- and remains a factor even now - postal vote can challenge the very credibility of the electoral process as a whole, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
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