A SWOT analysis of the INDIA bloc, led by the RJD-Congress combine, as Bihar prepares for Assembly elections. Examines strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats facing the opposition alliance.
Justice Surya Kant is set to become the 53rd Chief Justice of India, bringing extensive experience and a record of significant verdicts on key issues.
The Election Commission of India (ECI) has announced that it will set up mobile phone deposit counters at polling stations to ensure that voters do not have to carry their phones inside the polling booth. This decision was taken after it was observed that several voters were concealing their phones in their clothes due to the absence of a facility to deposit it. The ECI has also rationalized the permissible norms for canvassing in line with the electoral laws to 100 meters from the entrance of the polling station.
Maharashtra is set to hold local body elections on December 2 for municipal councils and nagar panchayats. The polls are seen as a test of the ruling coalition's strength after their recent assembly election victory.
The Supreme Court has warned that it will set aside the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar if any illegality is found. The court is reviewing the validity of the Bihar SIR and its potential impact on a similar exercise across India.
Government employees in Bangladesh locked down the main gate of the Bangladesh Secretariat in Dhaka, protesting a new service law that allows for easier dismissal of officials for misconduct. The protest, which lasted for about half an hour, disrupted government operations. The employees also threatened to continue their protests until the ordinance was scrapped. Meanwhile, the protest by employees of the Dhaka South City Corporation, demanding the installation of BNP leader Ishraque Hossain as its mayor, has brought administrative services to a halt. These protests, coupled with concerns raised by the business community and the military, highlight a growing sense of unease in Bangladesh over the policies of the interim government.
The Supreme Court has directed the Election Commission to provide details regarding the approximately 65 lakh voters removed from the draft electoral rolls in Bihar, a state preparing for elections. The court's order comes in response to a petition filed by an NGO challenging the Election Commission's Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls.
'Judges have transmitted a terrible message to citizens across the nation. All right-thinking individuals will be disturbed by what the Delhi high court judges have done.'
The Election Commission has assured the Supreme Court that no voter's name will be deleted from the draft electoral roll in Bihar without prior notice and a fair hearing. The EC also clarified that it is not required to share separate lists of those not included in the draft rolls.
Bangladesh's Election Commission has announced that general elections will be held in the first week of February 2025. The announcement comes amid concerns about ensuring a free, fair, and impartial election. The BNP is expected to participate, potentially without its former ally, Jamaat-e-Islami.
The Supreme Court has stated it will intervene if there is mass exclusion in the special intensive revision of electoral rolls in Bihar, emphasizing the Election Commission's role as a constitutional authority.
Election Commission officials defend the intensive revision of Bihar's voters' list as 'inclusive' amid criticism from opposition parties, who claim it will disenfranchise voters. The Supreme Court is set to hear petitions challenging the revision.
The Election Commission (EC) had, in 2019, flagged its concerns in the Supreme Court on the changes made in several laws relating to political funding to facilitate the electoral bonds scheme, saying it will have 'serious repercussions' on transparency.
The Supreme Court has begun hearing petitions challenging the Election Commission's decision to conduct a special intensive revision exercise in Bihar ahead of elections, raising concerns about voter exclusion.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched a sharp critique of the RJD, emphasizing the hardships faced by women in Bihar under its governance. He highlighted the current government's initiatives for women's empowerment and urged them to prevent the RJD's return to power.
'Corporates who donated to political parties were guaranteed by the electoral bond scheme that their names and to who they were donating funds will be not disclosed.'
If the TVK joins the NDA, there is every likelihood of the AIADMK winning an absolute majority in the 234 seat assembly and wanting to form a stand-alone government. In turn, it could mean that the BJP especially and the TVK equally so, will want to restrict the AIADMK's seat share closer to the cut-off figure, if only to ensure that EPS won't get the absolute majority that he desires (if the NDA won, that is) and will have to settle for a coalition government, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Democracy does not begin and end with elections and the integrity of election process is pivotal for sustaining the democratic form of government, the Supreme Court said on Thursday while striking down as unconstitutional the electoral bonds scheme for political funding.
The National Sports Governance Bill has become an Act after President Droupadi Murmu gave her assent to the landmark legislation that promises to revamp India's sports administration.
Government unlikely to bring in an ordinance to address the developments arising out of the Supreme Court order.
The National Sports Governance Bill was on Tuesday passed by the Parliament with Rajya Sabha giving its nod a mere 24 hours after Lok Sabha.
Former chief justices of India, who have conveyed their views to a parliamentary committee on the bill proposing simultaneous polls, have endorsed the constitutionality of the 'one nation, one election' concept but have raised concerns over its various aspects, including the power given to the Election Commission, and offered suggestions.
Mrs Gandhi's power ebbed and peaked with the times. Mr Modi's has almost been constant, barring the few months of hard dip after the 240 seats of 2024, points out Shekhar Gupta.
Incumbent Ajay Singh was on Thursday re-elected President of the Boxing Federation of India (BFI) for a third consecutive term after his comprehensive victory over Jaslal Pradhan in the long-overdue polls.
In a landmark judgment that delivered a big blow to the government, the Supreme Court on Thursday annulled the electoral bonds scheme, saying it violates the constitutional right to freedom of speech and expression as well as the right to information.
The courts in Pakistan have been flooded with petitions as candidates, mostly backed by jailed former prime minister Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), challenged the results of Thursday's general elections, alleging rigging.
A five-judge Constitution bench of the Supreme Court is scheduled to commence a crucial hearing from Tuesday on a batch of pleas challenging the validity of the electoral bonds scheme for funding political parties.
The Congress on Tuesday filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court challenging the recent amendments to the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961 and expressed hope that the apex court will help restore the 'fast eroding' integrity of the electoral process.
Salient features of the National Sports Governance Bill that promise to overhaul several aspects of sports governance and the grievance redressal system for athletes and administrators alike in the country.
'Modi's charisma may have weakened as last year's Lok Sabha poll results showed but in the eyes of the Sangh Parivar, it has not waned.' 'Minus a strong BJP government at the Centre for another decade and more, there is apprehension that an anti-Hindutva government could reverse many of the ideological gains that the Modi dispensation has achieved through its three terms,' points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
A bench comprising Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and Justice PS Narasimha said the petitions raise three separate issues and hence, the need to hear them separately.
A voter's right to know is 'far too important' in democracy than the privacy of a donor, Supreme Court judge Justice Sanjiv Khanna said on Thursday as the apex court scrapped the 2018 electoral bond scheme for funding political parties.
The Centre has told the Supreme Court that imposing fixed timelines on governors and the president to act on bills passed by a state Assembly would amount to one organ of the government assuming powers not vested in it by the Constitution and lead to a "constitutional disorder".
Justice Bhushan Ramkrishna Gavai, India's 52nd chief justice and its first Buddhist one, has played a key role in shaping the judicial landscape, penning about 300 verdicts, including landmark rulings on constitutional issues, liberty, and perhaps most important against the executive's 'bulldozer justice'.
In a significant development, the Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Election Commission of India to provide details of cases in which it had either removed or reduced the period of disqualification from electoral rolls of leaders post their conviction in criminal cases.
Former Sports Minister Anurag Thakur's bid to contest the Boxing Federation of India's presidential election was reinstated by the Himachal Pradesh High Court.
Seeking a third straight term, Modi is not just looking to stamp his electoral dominance on India but also chasing history with another consecutive victory equalling first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru's record.
Some of his directives had the Supreme Court judges disclose their assets whereas the row over the discovery of cash from a sitting judge's official residence paved way for inquiry.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday said it will consider whether the pleas challenging the validity of the electoral bond scheme for political funding of parties can be referred to a Constitution bench for an "authoritative pronouncement".
In the last 11 years, India and the world witnessed what he stood for, what he promised and did not deliver, and what he actually stood for and practised without fearing how history would judge him. Modi's tenure has been punctuated with headline-grabbing decisions, symbolic gestures, and stage-managed moments that continue to define his leadership and India's politics, points out Ramesh Menon.
