The brutal rape and murder of a Dalit woman at Perumbavoor is becoming campaign material for the May 16 assembly polls.
Kerala Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan on Wednesday said that he is deeply pained that a controversy has been raked up over his visit to slain National Security Guard commando Sandeep Unnikrishnan's house in Bangalore.Speaking in the state assembly, he said certain remarks were attributed to him and people have been misled by this.Achuthanandan made the statement in the Assembly during the Zero Hour, after the opposition United Democratic Front members raised the issue.
When public sector firms are run down as public fund-drenchers, several state-run enterprises in Kerala have made dramatic a turn-around, owing to a multi-pronged strategy of the Left Democratic Front government to bring back the loss-making units from the verge of collapse.
Shobha Warrier reports from Thiruvananthapuram where a former UN diplomat is battling a former governor for the Lok Sabha seat.
The Communist Party of India-Marxist state secretariat meeting held at the party headquarters AKG Centre in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, has finalized the name of party candidates fighting the ensuing Lok Sabha polls.
Two militants from the banned National Democratic Front of Bodoland were killed in an encounter with security forces at Mahendrapur, under Gossaingaon police station in Kokrajhar district, in Assam on Saturday morning.The entire state has been put on alert following a warning by intelligence agencies that the NDFB and United Liberation Front of Asom are planning to carry out blasts across Assam.A woman ULFA cadre and explosive expert Jonali Rajbonghi was arrested.
People from all walks of life in Assam on Friday remembered the victims of the serial blasts that had rocked the state on this day last year. However, prime accused in the serial blasts, the chairman of the banned National Democratic Front of Bodoland Ranjan Daimary alias D R Nabla, is still absconding and suspected to be hiding in a foreign country.
Four cadres of the outlawed National Democratic Front of Bodoland were gunned by security forces in two separate 'encounters' in the state early on Friday morning even as the operation against the outfit has been intensified in the state on intelligence inputs about its plan to trigger blasts in different parts of the state.
The Indian Army on Monday staged a flag march at violence-affected Bishwanath Chariali area in north Assam, where the death toll after the Sunday night's attack on villagers at Bhimajuli by the banned tribal militants of National Democratic Front Bodoland went up to 12.
The outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom on Wednesday called for a boycott of the Republic Day celebrations. In a joint statement issued here, the ULFA along with three militant outfits of the region -- Kamatapur Liberation Organisation, Manipur People's Liberation Front and Tripura People's Democratic Front-- called for a boycott and general strike from 1 am to 6 pm on the day to protest against India's military repression.
The CBI charge sheet, filed on Monday against 19 accused, said after the planning in July, NDFB cadres were detailed by Daimary to procure three used cars for the explosions here and the details were worked out on October 19. The blasts in Guwahati, Kokrajhar, Barpeta and Bongaigaon claimed 88 lives. Two of the accused are women, the CBI said.
'The Northeast is the biodiversity saviour of the country,' says Sikkim MP Prem Das Rai. 'Thirty to 40 per cent of the biodiversity of the country is housed in the Northeast. It is the battery of India. Not only oil and gas but it has a hydroelectricity capacity of 70,000 MW. It has so much colour and diversity within itself.'
The Kerala state advocate general, C.P.Sudhakara Prasad, has given his opinion in the multi-crore corruption case involving the Communist Party of India-Marxist state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan and has opined that the prosecution need not take any action against the former state electricity minister.
Finding accusing fingers pointed at it for the October 30 serial blasts in Assam, the proscribed National Democratic Front of Bodoland has sacked its fugitive chairman Ranjan Daimary in its general council meeting to save the current three-year-old peace process with the Government of India. The militant group has virtually split because general assembly's decision to replace Daimary with vice chairman Dhiren Boro alias B Sungthagra.
In an interview to Marathi daily Loksatta, referring to the decision of the Congress-led Democratic Front government to withdraw the security following his arrest in a case relating to attack on north Indian job aspirants, Raj Thackeray said, "The government's action was a foolish decision."
An Army colonel and a jawan were killed in a blast, suspected to be triggered by National Democratic Front of Bodoland militants, on the Assam-Arunachal Pradesh road at Bhalukpung on Monday morning. The Army vehicle, in which the official was traveling, was completely damaged due to the impact of the blast.Colonel S M Parimal was a doctor in the Army and based in Tenga Valley in Arunachal Pradesh.
The Assam United Democratic Front, a conglomeration of minority political groups, has decided to field a young Adivasi woman, who had hit the headlines in 2007 after being brutally assaulted in Guwahati, as one of its candidates for the forthcoming Lok Sabha election in Assam.The AUDF, led by perfume tycoon Badaruddin Ajmal, will field Lakshmi Orang from the prestigious Tezpur constituency in north Assam.
Congress general secretary and party youth icon Rahul Gandhi kick started the United Democratic Front election campaign by addressing the Kerala Raksha march conducted by the state party president Ramesh Chennithala. In his speech, he called upon senior party leaders to start a package for Keralites who are suffering after the global crisis hit the Gulf region which has led to several people from the state returning home.
With Pinarayi Vijayan set to be chief minister, what will be the role for party patriarch V S Achuthanandan? And what are the key takeways from the election results in Kerala?
The former tax representative's stepping down comes in the wake of Democratic front-runner for presidential nomination Barack Obama vowing to work for ending the influence of lobbyists in Washington. Obama, analysts note, has not accepted money from the lobbyists, but the top corporate bosses have contributed to his campaign and his opponents point out that the bosses employ lobbyists.
The tripartite agreement was signed by Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, top leadership of the four factions of the NDFB, ABSU, Joint Secretary in the Home Ministry Satyendra Garg and Assam Chief Secretary Kumar Sanjay Krishna in presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
Democratic front-runner Barack Obama's White House bid received a fresh momentum on Friday as he secured the support of three more superdelegates, including a former backer of his rival Hillary Clinton. According to an AP tally, the superdelegate count is now Clinton, 271.5, and Obama, 266, a huge shift since the days when the former first lady boasted about a 60-plus lead in the crucial voting bloc. Hillary Clinton is refusing to concede defeat.
The Congress high command is expected to face a ticklish task in choosing the next Chief Minister of Maharashtra if the party-led Democratic Front returns to power for a third time in a row in the assembly polls whose counting is scheduled on October 22.
The Congress leadership, which knows that there is a fairly good chance of sweeping the polls given the lackadaisical performance of the Left Democratic Front government and the infighting in the Communist Party of India-Marxist, does not want the advantage to slip away from it.
Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on Monday claimed that over 300-odd cadres, belonging to the banned United Liberation Front of Asom and the anti-peace talks faction of the outlawed National Democratic Front of Bodoland, were hiding in Bangladesh. He claimed that at least ten top ranking leaders of the ULFA had taken refuge in the neighbouring country and were operating from there.'ULFA chief Paresh Barua and NDFB chief Ranjan Daimary keep shifting their locations,'Gogoi said
A resident of village Betadur in Dharwad district of Karnataka, the Madras regiment soldier was pulled out alive from under 30 ft of ice-and-snow debris where he lay buried for six days on the unforgiving Siachen glacier.
Governor B P Singh administered the oath of office and secrecy to the 59-year-old chief minister and his ministerial colleagues at Raj Bhawan in Gangtok.
Fifteen persons, including six militants and a Congress leader and his family, were killed in Assam's troubled Karbi Anglong and N C Hills districts on Tuesday, where a goods train was also attacked and 20 houses burnt.
Union minister Prakash Javadekar said the government has taken care of the interests of everyone and 'the interest of India'.
Union Home Minister P Chidambaram on Friday said the Centre would take a decision of further extension of the ceasefire agreement with the banned National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB), a Bodo tribe militant group in Assam within some days.
The party managed only 52 seats on its own and many of its top leadership, including Rahul Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge and Jyotiraditya Scindia were defeated in the polls.
ULFA's fugitive chairman, Arabinda Rajkhowa, stated, "We call upon the entire people of our region to boycott and prevent the celebration, in any manner, of India's Independence Day in our Region on 15 August 2008 to consolidate our solidarity in the struggle for liberation from Indian colonial occupation. On this day, a general strike shall be observed throughout the Region from 01:00 am to 6:00 pm.
Kerala Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan, whose head may be on the chopping block, has decided to go hammer and tongs against his bitter rival in the Communist Party of India-Marxist, Pinarayi Vijayan. While answering questions on the party secretary's comment about the inclusion of a new nominee from the Janata Dal in to his cabinet, the Chief Minister said that it was not the party secretary (Vijayan) but the Left Democratic Front which is the ultimate decision maker.
Five militants were killed in an encounter with army in lower Assam's Sonitpur district in the wee hours on Monday. Troops of the Red Horns division exchanged fire with the insurgents belonging to National Democratic Front of Bodoland and the Muslim United Liberation Tigers of Assam late on Sunday night at Akabasti, 8 km southeast of Lokra, army sources said.
A joint team of army and police gunned down hardcore militant Elion Daimary alias Engarlang affiliated with the Bodoland mutant.
After the 18-member 'Assam Advisory Committee' suggested the two organisations to form a political party, a source close to the development said the new outfit will be launched within the next 10 days.
As V S Achuthanandan came under attack for his controversial remarks against the family of slain National Security Guard officer Sandeep Unnikrishnan, the United Democratic Front tried to raise the issue in the Kerala Assembly, but a discussion on it was put off for Wednesday as the Chief Minister was not present in the House. At the beginning of Zero Hour, Opposition leader Oommen Chandy sought to move an adjournment motion on the issue.
The intelligence wing will have 650 field and staff agents to gather actionable information.
Thackeray would be taking over as chief minister more than a month after results of the Maharashtra Assembly elections were declared on October 24.
Mainstream political parties in Sikkim have thrown their weight behind the separate Gorkhaland state issue for which the state has witnessed a series of agitations with its economy paralysed. The state's main political force -- the ruling Sikkim Democratic Front -- has openly supported the creation of a separate Gorkhaland state to fulfil what it says the aspiration of the Gorkha people.