In what has turned out to be an embarrassment for the ruling Congress party in Assam, three absconding persons accused in June 30 mob attack on Congress Member of Legislative Assembly Rumi Nath, 33, and her second husband Zakir in a Karimganj hotel in South Assam, were arrested from the official residence of another Congress MLA in the state assembly complex in Guwahati on Thursday night.
Top state leaders--Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, Congress' Siddaramaiah and DK Shivakumar and Janata Dal-Secular leader HD Kumaraswamy are contesting from different seats.
Seeking clarification, Karnataka Governor has sent back to the government a bill that sought to collect funds from temples with over Rs 10 lakh annual income, citing that a case concerning the earlier related act and amendments made to it is still pending in Supreme Court.
Nearly 4,800 elected MPs and MLAs will vote on Monday to elect the 15th President of India, with National Democratic Alliance candidate Droupadi Murmu having a clear edge over Opposition's Yashwant Sinha as over 60 per cent votes are expected to be cast in her favour.
Their lists show that a significant number of contenders are closely related to the current ministers, legislators or MPs, including their sons or daughters, wives and brothers or sisters.
In the 2017 state assembly polls, the Congress had emerged as the single largest party by winning 17 seats.
Nationalist Congress Party-Sharadchandra Pawar head Sharad Pawar and Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Monday separately visited the memorial of the state's first chief minister Y B Chavan in Karad and paid tributes to him on his death anniversary.
The AIMIM leader said that the party "laid certain conditions related to the development of our MLAs constituencies in Dhulia and Malegaon".
After Arunachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, discontent is brewing among Congress MLAs in Manipur.
After getting feelers from the Congress, Haryana Janhit Congress, which won six seats in the recent assembly elections in the state, has decided to be part of the next government in the state."At the first meeting of the Members of Legislative Assembly (after the results were announced), we have decided not to sit in the Opposition. We will be part of the government to work for the people of Haryana," HJC leader Kuldeep Bishnoi said.
A total of 19 legislators from the opposition Congress and Aam Aadmi Party were suspended from the Gujarat assembly for a day on Wednesday after they shouted slogans against the Bharatiya Janata Party government before walking out of the House over the issue of a fake trainee PSI found undergoing training at a state-run police training academy.
More than 60 Congress Members of Parliament, Members of Legislative Assembly and Members of Legislative Council from Telangana region on Wednesday met Home Minister P Chidambaram and demanded urgent steps for the creation of a separate state. The law makers, however, expressed "unhappiness" over getting "very little" time to meet the home minister and sat for more than two hours at a conference hall of the home ministry, apparently as a mark of protest.
However, in 950 booths, voting will end at 4 pm, though people standing in the queue at that time will be able to exercise their franchise.
With the four-day old Congress government in Uttarakhand facing a severe crisis, embattled Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna on Friday rushed to Delhi to seek party chief Sonia Gandhi's intervention.
An MLA from Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde's Shiv Sena faction and a legislator of the Nationalist Congress Party virtually came to blows in the Vidhan Bhavan premises in Mumbai on Wednesday after shouting slogans against each other.
Polling on three graduates and two teachers constituencies of the council was held on January 30 and counting of votes by ballot began on Thursday evening and was completed on Friday.
Hours after the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party put out its first list of 67 candidates for the Haryana Assembly polls, sitting MLA Lakshman Dass Napa quit the party while former minister Karan Dev Kamboj stepped down as state unit's OBC Morcha chief after being denied tickets.
Members of the Karnataka legislative assembly on Monday demanded a thorough probe into the death of chief of defence staff General Bipin Rawat along with his wife Madhulika Rawat and 11 others in a helicopter crash in Tamil Nadu's Coonoor on December 8.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Devendra Fadnavis on Friday welcomed the Supreme Court's judgment in which it termed the suspension of 12 BJP members of the Maharashtra legislative assembly as "unconstitutional" and "irrational".
In another display of the politics of threat in West Bengal, a ruling Trinamool Congress Member of Legislative Assembly openly threatened to "behead" a Congress leader in Birbhum district.
Left with just three MLAs, the Congress does not have the required one tenth of the legislative strength in the 40-member House to claim the Cabinet minister-level post.
Should the anti-defection law in India exist only to prevent democratically elected governments from being toppled?
Union Home Minister Amit Shah has cancelled his election rallies in Maharashtra and is returning to Delhi due to the volatile situation in Manipur. The home minister is likely to hold a meeting to review the situation in the northeastern state, where irate mobs have set fire to the residences of several BJP and Congress legislators. The incidents follow a series of killings and abductions by militants in the state.
The Telangana issue assumed centre stage on Thursday night as Union Law Minister Veerappa Moily held consultations with Congress members of Legislative Assembly and members of Parliament. Though a lot of hope was pinned by the Telangana leaders on this meeting there was absolutely no decision taken on issue of statehood, say insiders. However, the mass resignation programme by these elected representatives will be put on hold till the assembly elections in five states.
He also charged Prime Minister Narendra Modi with being silent on price rise, unemployment and corruption in the state during his series of public meetings while campaigning for the elections taking place today.
Sacked Rajasthan minister Mahipal Maderna was on Friday grilled for the second day in Devi abduction case by the Central Bureau of Investigation which also questioned his wife and another Congress member of Legislative Assembly even as the agency filed a status report on its probe in the Rajasthan high court.
The Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) has shifted its focus back to Hindutva after suffering significant losses in the recent Maharashtra assembly elections. The party has been vocal about attacks on Hindus in Bangladesh and has taken a stance to "protect" a Hanuman Temple in Mumbai. Observers say this move is an attempt to regain its core voter base and counter the BJP's narrative on Hindutva, ahead of the upcoming civic polls. Analysts believe the party's "secular" stand may not be effective in the BMC elections and that its return to Hindutva is a sign of frustration from electoral setbacks.
Congress demanded a judicial inquiry by a sitting high court judge.
Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray on Monday sacked senior leader Ramdas Kadam and former MP Anandrao Adsul for indulging in 'anti-party' activities.
As the CBI tightens the net around Jagan Mohan Reddy over a corruption case, and the YSR Congress chief claims that he is a target of political vendetta, Rediff.com's Priyanka reviews the probe agency's case against the powerful Andhra leader
The Bharatiya Janata Party's tally in Rajya Sabha has dipped below 90 for the first time in several years but the party and its allies are expected to not only recoup the their losses but also make some gains when by-elections to fill the existing vacancies are held in the coming weeks.
The government also termed the alleged insult to the farmer as an infringement on "dignity and self-respect", and said it cannot be tolerated.
The muscle-flexing by 140 Members of Legislative Assembly of the Congress in Andhra Pradesh, demanding the appointment of late AP Chief Minister Y S Rajshekhara Reddy's son Jaganmohan Reddy as the next CM, has come as a rude jolt to the Congress leadership, according to highly placed sources in the party.The party has realised that the entire power structure in a state should not be handed over to one individual or faction.
The ruling Congress suffered a setback in Andhra Pradesh on Thursday as three Members of the Legislative Assembly from the coastal region quit the party in protest against the bifurcation of the state.
A protester was killed in firing during a clash between security forces and a mob vandalising properties in Manipur's Jiribam district. The incident occurred late on Sunday night when agitators were protesting the killing of women and children abducted by militants. The deceased has been identified as K Athouba, who was in his twenties. The offices of the Congress and BJP, and a house belonging to Jiribam's Independent MLA were ransacked by a group of agitators. Meanwhile, an uneasy calm prevailed in Imphal Valley, where curfew remained enforced and internet services suspended after agitators vandalised and set ablaze properties belonging to several ministers and legislators.
Biju Janata Dal president and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Wednesday appealed to all members of the Odisha assembly to support the National Democratic Alliance candidate Droupadi Murmu in the upcoming presidential election, describing her as the daughter of the state.
The Congress legislators have been camping in the Vidhana Soudha inside the Assembly Hall and have been sleeping there in the night.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday returned to power in Delhi after more than 26 years to sweep away the Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party with a two-thirds majority on the back of a hyper localised campaign and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'AAP-da'(disaster) blitzkrieg.
The Central Bureau of Investigation on Wednesday quizzed YSR Congress chief YS Jaganmohan Reddy in an alleged disproportionate assets case for the fourth day and questioned Congress Member of Legislative Assembly Dwarampudi Chandrasekhara Reddy in the same case for the second day.
The ruling Congress party in Andhra Pradesh is caught in a state of confusion on how to deal with the resignations of its 24 members of Legislative Assembly, who are loyal to YSR Congress president Y S Jaganmohan Reddy. For the record, the party has been saying that by-elections are inevitable in those 24 constituencies and two others from where Telugu Desam Party rebel MLAs have also resigned in support of Jagan.
