The Calcutta high court on Tuesday directed that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) be handed over the case of attack on Enforcement Directorate officials at Sandeshkhali and the custody of suspended Trinamool Congress leader Shajahan Sheikh, as it slammed West Bengal Police for 'totally biased' conduct and said every attempt is being made to delay the probe to 'protect' the accused.
As the final five phases of polls draw closer, rift among Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) partners, Congress-Left combine and the Trinamool Congress, which are fighting separately has intensified, triggering a fierce contest across half of the remaining 36 constituencies in West Bengal driven by local issues such as Sandeshkhali and the SSC scam.
Among the seven seats which witnessed a stiff contest between the BJP and the regional parties, the saffron party held three and the Congress two, while the Shiv Sena and the RJD had one each.
Priyanka Gandhi in large part was at the centre of the Congress's action, giving a number of enduring images from this election campaign.
Gujarat will go to polls in two phases on December 1 and 5 with the counting of votes on December 8 along with that of Himachal Pradesh, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar announced.
On Monday, Shashi Tharoor met Sonia Gandhi and expressed his intention to contest the upcoming AICC chief polls.
Vijayan said that the trailer of the Hindi film, at first glance, appears to be "deliberately produced" with the alleged aim of creating communal polarisation and spreading hate propaganda against the state.
In a further setback to deposed All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader O Panneerselvam, the Madras high court on Friday dismissed his appeals against the 2022 general council meet of the party, which among others had elected his rival Edappadi K Palaniswami as interim chief, besides expelling OPS and his aides.
Bhupendra Patel can never really break free of intervention from New Delhi. But if he can win over the Gujaratis and improve the BJP's tally substantially, he will have proved that he should be taken seriously.
BJP candidate Kedar Prasad Gupta defeated Manoj Singh Kushwaha of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal-United by 3,645 votes in Kurhani.
The Centre would support the Indian judiciary to be independent, Rijiju said.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party has managed to contain dissent in most areas in the run-up to the Goa assembly polls scheduled for February 14, but four seats, including the prestigious Panaji constituency, continue to be a cause for worry.
It also issued notices to the four people who had originally moved the high court against the execution of the MoU on various grounds including that the settlement breached Article 3 of the Constitution.
Chairman of central election authority Madhusudan Mistri will be available in Congress headquarters in the national capital to take the nomination papers as returning officer of the election.
The party also rejigged its Central Election Committee and included former Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, Union Minister Bhupender Yadav, Om Mathur and its women wing chief Vanathi Srinivasan.
Voting for 10 constituencies was held from 7 am to 3 pm in 10 seats and from 8 am to 5 pm in the rest 10 segments under a thick security blanket of police and paramilitary personnel in the Naxalite-hit Bastar division.
The Shinde faction, which is now named as 'Balasahebanchi Shiv Sena', will be able to use the symbol for the Andheri East assembly bypoll, should it decide to contest the election scheduled for November 3.
JD-U leaders contend that R C P Singh may have misled the BJP leadership into believing that Nitish Kumar was ready for a smaller share in power at the Centre.
In the coming days, unless Modi tones down the communal spiel, it will be clear that anxiety continues to drive his mind and clouds his judgment, observes Modi biographer Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, the Centre's key counsel in defending the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution, said on Monday the Supreme Court verdict upholding the government's August 5, 2019, decision will go down in history as the one that corrected a "Himalayan constitutional blunder" of gigantic proportions.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused urgent hearing on a plea seeking Army protection for minority Kuki tribals amid ethnic violence in Manipur.
Like Nitish, Mamata and KCR have prime ministerial ambitions, but, unlike Nitish who has established a rapport with Sonia, both Mamata and KCR are cold towards the Congress president, points out Virendra Kapoor.
Chopping of trees started on Friday night, hours after the Bombay High Court dismissed petitions challenging Tree Authority's decision to axe trees in Aarey to make way for the rake depot.
An AIADMK survey estimates that the party will get between 25 and 30 of Tamil Nadu's 39 seats. This makes Jayalalithaa a major player in New Delhi, if not a contender for the prime minister's post.
The submissions were made by the CBI in a short written reply while opposing the senior Aam Aadmi Party leader's bail plea, which it said was devoid of any merit and was an attempt to misuse the intricacies of law to thwart the progress of investigation in the case.
If elected, he will be the second All India Congress Committee president from Karnataka after S Nijalingappa, and also a Dalit leader to hold the post after Jagjivan Ram.
In an interim relief to Aam Aadmi Party MP Raghav Chadha, a Delhi court has directed the Rajya Sabha secretariat to not evict him from a Type-7 bungalow in Lutyens' Delhi, which is usually allotted to lawmakers who are former ministers, chief ministers or governors, till the pendency of his application and without following the due process of law.
Congress sources said internal surveys indicate that the party is likely to get a majority in Himachal polls leading to increasing the number of contenders for the chief minister's post.
The Tamil Nadu assembly on Wednesday passed a resolution urging the Centre to extend the benefits accorded to Scheduled Castes also to those among the SCs embracing Christianity.
'I think some of us, like Mukesh Ambani, myself and those of us who head industrial units, ought to really focus on what we can really do to make the world a safer place, maybe 50 or 100 years from now.' 'For instance, how can we deal with climate change and global warming, right now?' 'The effects of it may not be felt now; in fact, we may pay a price for it today, but it will help the generations to follow.'
For now, the DMK can be expected to sound the bugle for Opposition unity at the national level, predicts N Sathiya Moorthy.
Amid a buzz that Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar may emerge as the opposition's prime ministerial candidate, his party Janata Dal-United said on Friday if other parties want so, then this is an option.
Sidhu and Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi are the main contenders for the chief ministerial candidate. Both have assured Gandhi they will stand by the party's decision.
How Pakistan army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa deals with the ensuing reshuffle of lieutenant generals would be interesting to watch, notes Rana Banerji, who headed the Pakistan desk at the Research and Analysis Wing, India's external intelligence agency.
Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde's faction on Thursday told the Supreme Court that pleas related to the June 2022 Maharashtra political crisis fell within the realm of politics and judiciary cannot be asked to adjudicate the issue.
The opposition on Tuesday termed as an 'election jumla' the women's reservation bill brought by the government with many leaders raising questions over the proposed legislation, contending it doesn't account for reservation for OBC communities and that it will be effective at the earliest by the 2029 Lok Sabha polls.
The Congress high command has so far maintained that the party will fight the February 20 elections to the 117-member assembly under a "collective leadership"
The leaders attacked the BJP, accusing it of trying to create "Hindu-Muslim disturbances" to benefit politically and making false claims and promises.
Tharoor also said the Congress must decentralise authority and truly empower the grassroots office-bearers of the party.
Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank' will also participate in Uttarakhand BJP legislative party meeting in Dehradun later on Wednesday.
