A seasoned politician and two-term Member of Parliament, Dr Shakeel Ahmad, who has served as a Union minister and senior Congress leader, resigned from the Congress party, marking the end of his decades-long association with an organisation that his family has been part of for three generations. In an interview with Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff he speaks why he quit the party.
With the Bharatiya Janata Party a clear winner in the Delhi assembly elections, meet the BJP aspirants for the chief minister's post.
Following the UDF's victory in local body polls, KPCC Chief Sunny Joseph suggests Kerala Congress (M) consider rejoining the UDF. He also discusses expanding the UDF base and potentially including Trinamool Congress leader P V Anvar.
If women voters are mobilised in big numbers to the voting booths on November 6 and 11 by the Nitish Kumar-led NDA, then it will be quite difficult for the Tejashwi Yadav-led Mahagathbandhan to defeat the incumbent government, points out Sheela Bhatt.
Former Rajya Sabha MP Sabir Ali, who was expelled from the JD-U 11 years ago for praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi, was on Saturday named the party's candidate from Amour assembly seat in Bihar.
The six constituencies of northeast Delhi affected by the 2020 riots saw a close contest between the BJP and AAP, with both parties winning three seats each. AAP's Chaudhary Zubair Ahmad won Seelampur by a margin of 42,477 votes, defeating BJP's Anil Kumar Sharma. AAP also won Babarpur and Gokalpur, while the BJP won Mustafabad, Karawal Nagar and Ghonda.
The Punjab Congress has suspended Navjot Kaur Sidhu from its primary membership after she made a controversial remark about the chief minister's chair costing Rs 500 crore.
Janata Dal-United supremo Nitish Kumar is set to be sworn-in as Bihar chief minister for a record 10th time on Thursday, days after the National Democratic Alliance secured a landslide victory in the assembly elections.
The ruling BJP-led Mahayuti alliance appeared set to retain power in Maharashtra, and was leading in 214 of the 288 assembly seats, as per the latest figures by the Election Commission.
The BJP registered emphatic victories in seven municipal corporations in Haryana, while its nominees were leading in two other civic bodies in the recently held elections. The Congress, which was hoping to improve its electoral fortunes after a defeat in the 2024 Assembly polls, suffered another setback. The BJP candidates won with large margins in Faridabad, Gurugram, Hisar, Karnal, Rohtak, Sonipat, and Ambala. The BJP was also leading in Yamunanagar and Panipat. In Manesar, an Independent candidate, Inderjeet Yadav, won the mayoral election. The results are seen as a major setback for the Congress, which has been facing internal turmoil and factionalism.
32 years ago, CPI-M activists hacked both the legs of Sadanandan Master, a former party member who has moved over to the RSS. Master learnt to walk using prosthetic legs and rebuilt his life. Today he is the BJP candidate highly-sensitive Koothuparamba constituency of Kannur. He told Shobha Warrier/Rediff.com his story.
Bihar voted in the first phase of assembly elections on Thursday for 121 seats.
'Prashant Kishor is forgetting that the BJP will field a strong candidate against Tejashwi from Raghopur.' 'His entry will force a three corner contest in Raghopur, an easy battle for the RJD.'
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis addressed concerns about discriminatory fund allocation and reports of a rift with Deputy CM Eknath Shinde, dismissing both as unfounded.
The BJP won the Chandigarh mayoral election on Thursday, defeating the AAP-Congress alliance. Harpreet Kaur Babla of the BJP was elected as the new mayor, while the AAP-Congress alliance won the posts of senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor. The victory of the BJP candidate indicated that cross-voting took place during polling. The Supreme Court had previously overturned the result of the 2023 mayoral poll, which had seen the BJP candidate win despite allegations of tampering with ballots. The court had ordered prosecution of the returning officer for the poll, Anil Masih, a BJP leader, for his "misdemeanour." The court had also declared defeated AAP-Congress alliance candidate Kuldeep Kumar as the new city mayor. This latest victory is a significant win for the BJP in the city and represents a setback for the AAP-Congress alliance.
Protests continue in Kolkata against attacks on minority Hindus in Bangladesh. BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari threatens a large-scale protest if the attacks are not stopped.
Several leaders of the BJP and its allies are of the view that the NDA this time is unlikely to follow the instincts that made it pick Dhankhar and will be more conventional in its search for his successor.
'If Nitish Kumar were to depart from this alliance, it would signal substantial instability in central government politics.'
'It is something like traditional Indian families.' 'The family might be run by younger people, but if the patriarch says that you should consider someone for some task, it is very difficult for the others to ignore it.'
According to an FIR registered at Edachery police station, around 200 people marched towards the Congress office carrying dangerous weapons and vandalised the building, causing damage estimated at around Rs five lakh.
'The seats which we would be contesting have been identified. Respective candidates have also been finalised. Four non-performing sitting MLAs will be replaced with fresh faces.'
'...in comparison to his presence in the previous election campaign where he looked robust and vibrant.' 'His television and social media interviews looked dull and predictable.' 'There could be a different kind of fatigue of being out of power for a long time at work here.'
On November 1, most of the star campaigners cancelled their campaign programmes as their helicopters remained grounded at Patna airport due to poor visibility and strong winds.
'A tally less than 150, even if it is 120 or 130, shall be a defeat for me'
Bharatiya Janata Party MP Nishikant Dubey emphasised the crucial role of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the party's electoral success, stating that the several sections which did not vote for BJP earlier now support the party and it has broken new ground in many states.
Donation boxes kept for the proposed Babri masjid-style mosque by suspended Trinamool Congress MLA Humayun Kabir in West Bengal's Murshidabad district are nearly full, with cash-counting machines whirring through the night as donations continue to pour in both physically and online.
Bharatiya Janata Party's Parvesh Verma emerged as a giant-slayer on Saturday with his victory against Aam Aadmi Party supremo and former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal in a fierce contest from the New Delhi seat by a margin of 4,089 votes.
Former poll strategist Prashant Kishor's Jan Suraaj Party fails to win any seats in the Bihar assembly elections, while his prediction about JD(U)'s performance proves inaccurate. The article analyzes Kishor's political journey and future prospects.
iyush Goel, Dharmendra Pradhan, Pralhad Joshi, Ashwini Vaishnaw and Biseswar Tudu are the 5 Union minsters.
The central leadership will decide on who it will be, BJP's Delhi president Virendra Sachdeva said.
Votes will be counted on January 16 and the outcome will be keenly watched as the BJP-led Mahayuti will seek to stamp its supremacy in urban landscape, especially in Mumbai, while the Opposition parties will try to redeem themselves after last year's rout in assembly polls.
The swearing-in ceremony was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP national president J P Nadda and several other top leaders of the NDA.
In an embarrassment for Ramdev, the yoga guru was caught on TV camera murmuring to Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Mahant Chandnath not to talk about money when mics are on after the latter told him that he was running short of money during electioneering in Alwar constituency.
Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) chief ministerial candidate Tejashwi Yadav on Sunday asserted that the opposition coalition was certain to form the next government in Bihar, and the swearing-in will take place four days after the results of assembly polls are declared.
Confusion prevailing in the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) showed little signs of let up on Saturday, with just two days to go before the filing of nomination papers for the second and final phase of assembly elections comes to a close.
'The question for the TMC is not whether it can hold its bastions, but whether it can expand effectively into regions where the BJP already possesses a good ecosystem.'
More than 40 per cent of the 908 candidates contesting the assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir are Independents, leading to claims that a large number of them have been propped up by the Bharatiya Janata Party to divide votes.
Counting of votes for the Lok Sabha elections has begun across states and Union Territories, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar told PTI.
'Rahul Gandhi's problem is that he doesn't think big.' 'He looks more like an activist, while politics is like a game of chess. You attack and then defend and have a game-plan.'
A total of 4,140 candidates were left in the fray for 288 Maharashtra assembly seats after the deadline for withdrawal of nominations ended on Monday, a poll official said.
