Bharatiya Janata Party nominee S Selvaganapathy was declared elected unopposed to the lone seat in Rajya Sabha from Puducherry, the first time the saffron party has got representation in the Upper House from the Union Territory, while Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam's two nominees, Kanimozhi N V N Somu and K R N Rajeshkumar, were elected without contest from Tamil Nadu.
Days before the first vote for the Lok Sabha polls is cast, the Supreme Court on Thursday asked the rival Nationalist Congress Party factions led by party founder Sharad Pawar and Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar to abide by its directions on the use of symbols, party names and disclaimers in publicity material for the elections.
In his post, Gandhi urged people to elect the Congress and said, "Rajasthan will choose free treatment. Rajasthan will choose cheaper gas cylinder. Rajasthan will choose interest-free agricultural loan. Rajasthan will choose English education. Rajasthan will choose OPS. Rajasthan will choose caste census."
'In India, political parties want to portray their leaders as cinematic heroes critical of their opponents.' 'This is where memes come into play.'
A Maldivian minister, who was suspended in January for her derogatory remarks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has now mocked the Indian flag after including parts of the flag in an altered campaign poster of the opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), according to a media report on Monday.
In 2023, this number has dropped to 90, nearly 39 per cent of the 230-member House, an ADR report said.
Not ordering disclosure of details of electoral bonds prior to April 12, 2019, was a "conscious choice" by the Constitution bench, the Supreme Court said on Monday while refusing to entertain the submissions of ASSOCHAM and CII against the disclosure of bond details on the ground of their plea not being listed.
The party would consider aligning with any party after assessing the post-poll situation, she said.
The poll panel has asked state Congress chief Govind Singh Dotasra to respond to the notices by 3 pm on Thursday and 7 pm on Friday, respectively.
Lok Janshakti Party leader Chirag Paswan on Thursday rejected his uncle Pashupati Kumar Paras's election as the party president, saying the meeting organised in Patna was 'unconstitutional' and lacked even minimum attendance of its national executive members.
Collectively, these companies spent Rs 628 crore (Rs 6.28 billion) on political contributions in the past five years, according to their annual reports.
Announcing the first list of candidates, Left Front chairman Biman Bose said that of the 16 names announced, 14 are new, of whom three are women.
While the warring groups blamed the other side for the ruckus, there was no immediate reaction from the JNU administration.
Megha Engineering and Infrastructures Limited was the top donor to the Bharatiya Janata Party at Rs 584 crore and the Bharat Rashtra Samiti at Rs 195 crore.
'Today's engineering graduates have to learn the skills to solve problems which is actually a higher order skill.'
2019 was the Bharatiya Janata Party's breakout year, when it stretched the boundaries of what was thought possible and ended up with 303 seats on its own steam. Now it is forced to play defence, on a pitch queered by too many variables, asserts Prem Panicker.
'The tragedy with Indian Muslims is that they do politics from the heart, not from the head.'
In its verdict last month, the top court directed the SBI to furnish the details to the Election Commission (EC) by March 6.
Shehbaz Sharif, the younger brother of former premier Nawaz Sharif, is expected to become Pakistan's new prime minister as the coalition of leading political parties led by them is set to comfortably cross the simple majority mark to form the next government after elections produced a split mandate.
'This Lok Sabha election is more of a trial for GenAI content.'
The serial defeat in elections has earned him the title of "Indori Dharti Pakad", drawing the name from late Kaka Joginder Singh aka 'Dharti Pakad', from Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh who had contested and lost several elections in the country.
The one-year-old Himachal Pradesh Cabinet headed by Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu was expanded on Tuesday with the induction of Rajesh Dharmani and Yadvinder Goma as cabinet ministers.
Electoral bonds have been pitched as an alternative to cash donations made to political parties as part of efforts to bring transparency to political funding.
The ECI data covers 20,421 bonds worth Rs 12,769 crore. The ADR data, however, collated information on 27,811 bonds worth Rs 16,492 crore. The gap is nearly Rs 4,000 crore and involves over 7,000 bonds.
'If one looks at it closely, this reflects the BJP's frustration and its fear of defeat'
Former BCCI president Narayanswami Srinivasan who has been at the centre of attention following Supreme Court's decision to allow modifications relating to the age-cap of 70 years for representation to the International Cricket Council.
Crucial reforms in Muslim personal law, especially laws related to inheritance and adoption, need to be initiated forthwith; historically speaking, without the State's backing, hardly has any reform taken place or allowed to prevail, asserts Mohammad Sajjad.
The Election Commission had pegged the cost of procuring additional Electronic Voting Machines and paper-trail machines for holding synchronised Lok Sabha and assembly polls at nearly Rs 9,300 crore.
During the hearing, petitioner Upadhyay submitted that while individuals cannot seek vote in the name of religion or caste, political parties can be formed using religious connotations which cannot be permitted.
The student was detained three days after the ISIS India head Haris Farooqi alias Harish Ajmal Farukhi and his associate Anurag Singh alias Rehan were arrested in Dhubri district after they had crossed over from Bangladesh.
'In Western UP, last time a lot of Dalits voted for the BJP.' 'This time, there is a rethink among Dalits about the extent of their support for the BJP.'
The Election Commission of Pakistan has announced that independent candidates, a majority of them supported by the PTI secured 101 seats, followed by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) with 75 seats, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) getting 54 seats, and Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) bagging 17 seats.
Former MLA Ram Dayal Uikey, the BJP nominee from Pali-Tanakhar seat in Korba district, was present in the vehicle when the cash was seized from there, the police official said.
Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal will attend the meetings of the committee as a special invitee, while legal affairs secretary Niten Chandra will be secretary to the panel.
Do not, however, enter expecting quick returns.
The AAP on Wednesday last had posted a video story on 'X' featuring industrialist Gautam Adani and Prime Minister Modi. The next day, the party posted a picture of Adani and Modi, and alleged that the prime minister works for the industrialist and not the people.
PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif is still in the race for the prime ministerial slot despite his party not securing a simple majority in the Feb 8 general elections in Pakistan, some PML-N leaders said on Monday.
'What happens in the real estate market is that once the prices go up it goes on to stay at that level.' 'It might not increase and at the same time the prices will not come down too.'
Senior advocate Prashant Bhushan, who appeared for the petitioners in the court, said at least 30 shell companies purchased electoral bonds worth over Rs 143 crore.
In the Interim Budget, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced that a high power committee would be set up to consider the challenges arising from 'fast population grown and demographic changes.' 'But who wants data? It pays to feed people's fears, insecurities and apprehensions. If such fears don't exist, they must be created,' her husband Parakala Prabhakar says in this fascinating excerpt from his book, The Crooked Timber of New India: Essays on a Republic in Crisis.
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