'The political situation in the country will depend on the electoral outcome in Maharashtra.'
'If people don't see you, they might be hesitant, but once they see you, they are confident that this is the person they will vote for,' says political debutant Shambhavi Choudhury, 25, alumnus of the Lady Sriram College and the Delhi School of Economics.
Jharkhand Mukti Morcha leader Hemant Soren on Sunday met Jharkhand Governor Santosh Kumar Gangwar and staked claim to form the government, soon after leaders of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) in the state unanimously elected him as the legislature party leader.
Delhi is set to get its third woman chief minister, after Congress' Sheila Dikshit and Bharatiya Janata Party's Sushma Swaraj, as Aam Aadmi Party leader Atishi has been chosen to succeed Arvind Kejriwal.
A petition was filed before a court in Bihar on Monday against Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin and his son Udayanidhi Stalin over the latter's controversial remarks against Sanatan Dharma.
It also cautioned that if the legislation is passed, the "two crutches" on which the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government is running at the Centre would not be able to escape responsibility.
A Mumbai court on Monday remanded the third person arrested for the killing of Nationalist Congress Party leader and former Maharashtra minister Baba Siddique to police custody till October 21.
'Chirag Paswan's game plan would be to push out Nitish Kumar from this alliance, but that is only possible if the BJP wins about 90 seats and the LJP wins between 25-30 seats.'
At a time when the BJP's stars are at the top on the eve of the Lok Sabha polls, the Puri-Joshimath Sankaracharyas may have kick-started a row whose efforts might be to divide Hindus, not in the name of castes, but on what passes for greater belief, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
'There is a strong possibility that the BJP's seats are going to be much higher compared to the JD-U and this would be the turning point for the BJP.'
Poll strategist-turned-politician Prashant Kishor on Wednesday asserted that if the newly formed 'Mahagathbandhan' government in Bihar provides five to 10 lakh jobs in the next one or two years, he would withdraw his 'Jan Suraj Abhiyan' and extend support to the Nitish Kumar dispensation.
'Dynastic politics has become a tool of convenience for political parties. The BJP does not hesitate to accept it when it comes to its own alliance or party candidates. The same goes for the others.'
The PM said the Congress and its allies should not encourage the "Pakistan agenda" and speak the language of separatists.
If Nitish is as shrewd a practitioner of realpolitik as he is billed to be, we'd like to see if he can do the unthinkable -- break up the BJP legislature party in Bihar.
'I have been a spokesperson of the party for the last 41 years and now I think some other party member should take up my post,' JD-U's K C Tyagi tells Rediff.com about his resignation from the post of party spokesperson.
This election has some striking resemblances to the landmark one of 1977, with sub-caste combinations and antipathies still the bedrock of measures
'They think quick fixes like internship in the private sector will help. 'In fact, internships have been going on for the last one decade.' 'In 2014-2015 itself, we had a ministry of skill development. None of the programmes have yielded results, still they are continuing with such schemes under some other name.' 'We don't see any seriousness on the part of the government to attack the problem of unemployment.'
As the race for Maharashtra chief minister enters the last lap, Hemant Waje looks at several scenarios which can play out.
With some variations, all regional political formations, whether in power presently or out of it, share some common features: Tight family control of the political apparatus, key members in elected or appointed positions, obvious wealth but not quite known sources of income, and family factionalism, sometimes open and bitter, notes Shreekant Sambrani.
The Opposition on Tuesday termed the Union Budget as a 'kursi bachao budget' driven by political compulsions and claimed that it ignored opposition-ruled states in a bid to 'appease' Bharatiya Janata Party's allies.
KC Tyagi also spoke on special status for Bihar, which has been a demand of the party and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
Those joining Prime Minister Narendra Modi's council of ministers for the first time include three former chief ministers -- Shivraj Singh Chouhan (Madhya Pradesh), Manohar Lal Khattar (Haryana) and H D Kumaraswamy (Karnataka).
According to a police official, they have come across a viral post on social media in the name of an alleged member of the Lawrence Bishnoi gang claiming responsibility for Baba Siddique's murder.
Kumar, whose NDA-allied Janata Dal-United has won 12 of the 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar, has emerged as a key player in government formation
A bench of Justices MR Shah and JB Pardiwala allowed the petitioner to approach the Patna high court and directed it to decide the petition expeditiously.
The delegation also interacted with the workers and told them not to believe in rumours and fake videos.
Nishant is an engineer like his father. He is tech-savvy and likes to visit religious places as well.
If only the Congress could rebuild on its strengths and develop a modern enough ideology, we could again be moving towards a clearer two-party political landscape, asserts Shekhar Gupta.
The move came even as deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav, while speaking in the state assembly earlier in the day, sought to go by the version of the Tamil Nadu DGP who has rubbished reports of attacks on Hindi-speaking people in that state.
There is nothing of the level of Yes Minister, House Of Cards, Madam Secretary or Veep but there are at least 10 Hindi series and an OTT-released film or two, to whet the viewer's appetite for power-mongering, corruption and intrigue.
After the Mahagathbandan rejected his overtures, the need for political survival forced Pashupati Kumar Paras to stick with the NDA. The BJP may reward him with a governor's post after the election.
Rashtriya Janata Dal president Lalu Prasad Yadav on Tuesday said he was in favour of extending reservation benefits to Muslims but emphasised that it should be based on social backwardness and 'not on the basis of religion'.
One of the world's oldest seats of learning, the ruins of Nalanda University are a true wonder!
'They were as late as June 2023 and they did not follow it up with concrete measures immediately in terms of a secretariat or common minimum programme, working group or seat sharing etc.' 'They continued to have periodic meetings after a gap of weeks where they had tasty dinner and coffee, but beside that they did nothing else.'
As Bihar decides its fate on Sunday, political leaders from across the spectrum weighed in.
The order for Mohan's release follows the cabinet nod for amending the prison rules under which, previously, those involved in serious cases like the killing of a government servant could not be released even after the elapse of 14 years.
Speaker Awadh Bihari Chaudhary took a grim note of the unruly behaviour of some of the BJP MLAs who had entered the well and placed chairs on the table of the reporting staff.
With challenges such as raising the legal age of marriage for women, combating malnutrition among women and children, and addressing women's safety issues, the new ministers face a formidable agenda.
Lok Janshakti Party-Ram Vilas leader Chirag Paswan has decided to return to the National Democratic Alliance, Bharatiya Janata Party chief J P Nadda announced on Monday, hours after Paswan met Union Home Minister Amit Shah, a day before the crucial meeting of the ruling coalition.
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