Jailed gangster and former member of Parliament Atiq Ahmad and his wife on Tuesday joined the All India Majlis e Ittehadul Muslimeen in the presence of its chief Asaduddin Owaisi, drawing a sharp reaction from the Bharatiya Janata Party which said Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath will not allow "Jinnah's jihadi mentality" to flourish in Uttar Pradesh.
'There is no hard evidence, but our MLAs have been getting calls from industrialists and mining mafia in the state to quit the Congress and join the BJP.'
Dr Kaushal Kishore Mishra, the prime accused in the assault case against Somnath Bharti, says he never attacked the AAP leader. He then explains the polarisation politics of Varanasi.
Kamal Nath said Sonia Gandhi spoke with him again after she received the letter and told him that 'well if this is your reason, fine'.
While eight children were taken out safely by people working in nearby fields, four, including a girl three-year-old girl, were charred to death, they added. Punjab CM Amarinder Singh ordered a magisterial enquiry into the incident.
Rahul hits out at Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for joining hands with the BJP.
Youth Congress and BJP workers staged protests in Delhi a day after a farmer committed suicide at an AAP rally.
Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday dared Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit for a public debate with him on issues relating to "inflated" power and water bills and women's safety among others.
At a poll rally on Monday, Prime Minister Modi said the protests against the new citizenship law in Shaheen Bagh and other areas in New Delhi are not a coincidence but an 'experiment' ('sanyog nahi prayog') and a political conspiracy to destroy the country's harmony. Taking on the PM, Priyanka Gandhi said a report recently said 3.5 crore jobs have been lost in the last five years in seven important sectors.
Leaders from all political parties welcomed the conviction of Congress leader Sajjan Kumar in a case related to the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.
A Delhi court Monday awarded death penalty to Ariz Khan for the murder of decorated Delhi Police Inspector Mohan Chand Sharma in connection with the sensational 2008 Batla House encounter case, saying the offence fell under the 'rarest of the rare category' warranting the maximum sentence.
'Imagine a situation where an upright officer refuses to carry out a chief minister's or a central minister's orders that he considers wrong.' 'Can he be summarily thrashed at a meeting at your residence, or in his own office?' 'If AAP legitimises political violence, there are many, many, tougher political leaders elsewhere to draw the wrong lessons,' warns Shekhar Gupta.
The issue of imposition of President's Rule in Uttarakhand echoed in Parliament on Monday with Congress members in both Houses storming the Well and party leader Mallikarjun Kharge staging a dharna in the Lok Sabha.
In this conspiracy, firearms, petrol bombs, acid bottles and stones were collected at numerous homes, police claimed.
Amid reports that her appointment as secretary in-charge of Punjab has left the Congress embarrassed, Kumari met Sonia and accused the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Aam Aadmi Party and the Shiromani Akali Dal of unnecessarily making an issue out of a 'non-issue'.
Abhishek Banerjee, Trinamool Congress MP and nephew of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, was questioned for about nine hours by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in New Delhi on Monday in a money laundering case linked to an alleged coal pilferage scam in the state.
Almost all the deceased were migrant labourers hailing from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.
The family of the teenage girl, who was killed after being molested and thrown off a moving bus belonging to the ruling Badal family in Punjab, has refused to cremate her till the administration fulfils their demands for compensation and cancellation of the transport firm's permit.
Hailing Uttarakhand high court's verdict which set aside President's rule in the state, the Congress and AAP took potshots at the Modi govt.
Oppn members went into the area of treasury benches carrying a black banner, which demanded Shah's resignation, as Speaker Om Birla continued with proceedings of the House.
A case has been registered in Hyderabad against Telangana Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Raja Singh for his remarks which allegedly defended the attacks on Dalits in Gujarat's Una and supported the cow vigilantes involved.
'Who will vote for and against who will be clear once the election results are declared on December 18.'
Kejriwal on Friday accused the state administration of colluding in the incident of attack on Dalit men by cow vigilantes as he met the victims and their families.
'Like Robespierre,' argues Syed Firdaus Ashraf, 'Kejriwal too talks of virtue, and the ones who speak out against him will encounter the terror of Kejriwal's wrath in the Aam Aadmi Party.'
After placating sitting MP Suresh Kalmadi who was sulking over denial of ticket, the Congress managers are confronted with a tough task of retaining the Pune Lok Sabha seat by overcoming the main challenge from a resurgent BJP in a quadrangular contest which is on cards.
Addressing a press conference in London via Skype, the man, identified as Syed Shuja, said the BJP would have won Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh elections if his team hadn't intercepted the BJP attempts to hack the transmissions in these states.
Gandhi had on Thursday hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi accusing him of "hiding behind the blood of soldiers".
Akhilesh was referring to the advertisement in which Bachchan is seen inviting tourists to visit the Wild Ass Sanctuary located in Little Rann of Kutch in the state.
Opposition MLAs flung paper balls at Governor Ram Naik and marshals frantically deflected the projectiles with files as the opening day of the maiden session of the new Uttar Pradesh assembly presented a spectacle of complete mayhem.
Throughout the governor's 35-minute address, Samajwadi Party legislator Rajesh Yadav blew a whistle.
The street-fighter is back and the introspecting, sparingly speaking avatar of Kejriwal has gone on an extended recess. In this grime of heightened Delhi politics, all the good work done by the Delhi government may go down the drain, warns Sudhir Bisht.
'The parents have seen the documentary. They have liked the documentary. They called me to say, "Aap log himmat mat hariye (You don't lose heart)".' 'After that I don't care what people think. I got goose bumps when they said, "Aap log piche mat hathiye (You people don't back off)".'
Pakistani-American terrorist David Headley, convicted in the US for his role in the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, on Thursday told a court in Mumbai that terror outfit Lashkar-e-Tayiba wanted to eliminate Bal Thackeray but the person who was assigned the job to kill the late Shiv Sena chief was arrested.
The 'Shatrughan Sinha of the South' plunges into politics.
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.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi continues to ride high with rock star gigs abroad and no challengers within or outside the party at home. With international oil prices dipping to unforeseen lows and inflation declining sharply, a perked-up economy provides the perfect backdrop as he strides the national and international stage.
At a time when the BJP is facing a perception battle, is Sambit Patra, its national spokesperson, helping the party's image?
'According to me, her finest hour was in 1983-1984 when she neutralised a combined US-Pakistan-British conspiracy to Balkanise India by creating an independent Sikh State of Khalistan,' says Colonel Anil A Athale (retd). A special assessment of Indira Gandhi on her centenary.
'Despite living in a free nation for so many years, if atrocities like rapes, public flogging, social boycotts are faced by Dalits, then conversion is the only option.'
The year threw up quite a few shockers, some rather rude one. Below are Rediff.com's 12 picks that made us sit back and think, 'Did that really happen?'
