Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor has written to the party's central election authority chairman Madhusudan Mistry seeking the publication of electoral rolls for the upcoming election to the post of All India Congress Committee president, sources said.
In the first part of an interview to rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt, Bharatiya Janata Party General Secretary Arun Jaitley spoke of his party's election campaign and the performance of the United Progressive Alliance government.
An Indian student has claimed that he was disqualified from the London School of Economics (LSE) Students' Union elections as a result of a deliberately orchestrated smear campaign because of his Indian and Hindu identity.
'Farmers have been sent notices in which the government is threatening that if you will join the movement, then we will impound your ancestral properties.' 'We will seal your bank accounts.' 'We will revoke the passports of your kids.'
'He's charismatic, a populist, very popular, and indeed a cult of personality.' 'That ensures a powerful reaction from his support base -- even if it's not sustained, it will be quite intense, and that's worrisome for stability.'
Freebies promised by political parties in their election manifestos shake the roots of free and fair polls, the Supreme Court on Friday said and directed the Election Commission to frame guidelines for regulating contents of manifestos.
Debates on changing the name of India to Bharat continue to spark a crisis of identity without answering moot questions that stare us in the face. Ramesh Menon asks a few of those questions that do not have easy answers.
'From what evidence has come up, General Bajwa somehow managed to tell the Americans that I was anti-American.' 'And so, it [the plan to oust me] wasn't imported from there. It was exported from here to there.'
Top leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday met the Election Commissioner to lodge their protest against the Centre's announcement of the direct cash transfer scheme ahead of Gujarat elections and demanded its withdrawal. Led by party leader L K Advani and Leaders of Opposition Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley, the BJP delegation questioned the timing of the announcement and demanded its withdrawal to ensure free and fair elections in Gujarat.
They all seem to forget that the Music Academy is as much an independent institution as T M Krishna is an individual musician. In drawing those red lines for the Academy management, they do not even seem to recognise that they too have crossed a red line themselves, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
Member of Parliament Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday said the president was the "supreme authority' in the Congress and whoever got elected to the post would decide on the way forward (for the party).
'For the first time since the War of 1812, the United States Capitol was breached today'
BJP candidate Akash Saxena defeated his Samajwadi Party rival Asim Raja by 33,702 votes.
Hours before his arraignment, former US president Donald Trump sent an email to his supporters, which he claimed was the last one before his arrest, saying that the United States is becoming a "Marxist Third World" country and went on social media questioning the fairness of the judiciary.
What is most troubling is that not a single party that is part of INDIA has talked about any kind of reform and economic sense, argues R Jagannathan.
The northeastern state is set to witness a triangular fight this time, with the BJP-IPFT coalition seeking to retain supremacy, the Left-Congress combine looking to wrest power, and regional outfit Tipra Motha making its debut at the hustings after its stunning performance in the autonomous council polls.
'We are very close to become a theocratic State where Hinduism is the official religion of the government.'
Restoration of peace and the normal routine of daily life, compared to the past, stands out as its most significant achievement, observes Mohammad Sayeed Malik, the veteran commentator on Kashmir affairs, four years after the abrogation of Article 370.
For now, the BJP's strategy for Khushbu seems to be one of denial -- denying the rival Congress in the state and also at the national-level a Muslim voice acceptable to Hindu audiences and TV news-watchers. This is much less than the induction of DMK veterans like Duraiswamy and Selvam, who still have a greater chances of winning assembly seats,, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
'In some quarters it has been suggested that there will be an 'official candidate' backed by the leadership but on the contrary, it has been repeatedly stressed by Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra in my conversations with them over the last two weeks that the Nehru-Gandhi family welcomes these elections'
In a bid to ensure free and fair elections and curb the use of money power, the Election Commission has disqualified as many as 2,171 candidates for failing to furnish details of expenditure incurred while contesting Parliamentary and assembly polls.
A delegation of the Progressive Party of Maldives led by its presidential candidate, Abdulla Yamin Abdul Gayoom called on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday.
The newly-elected National Assembly, the lower house of Parliament, is meeting to elect the prime minister.
Polling was held for over hundred civic bodies in Punjab on Sunday amid stray incidents of skirmishes at some places.
During the first of the three presidential debates in Cleveland, Ohio, Trump and Biden clashed over each other's personality, past record, family and their visions.
Polling will take place in 3,328 polling booths, out of which 1,100 are sensitive and 28 are categorised as critical.
He also launched a strident attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying he was 'globe-trotting', afraid of facing questions over the Manipur violence.
Ram Varadarajan and California Cricket Academy have filed a lawsuit against United States of America Cricket Association,Inc(USACA) alleging history of electoral delays and manipulation at the USACA present board members.
'For the politics of patronage in West Bengal, it has always been important to have territorial control.'
Jawan springs a real surprise when it boldly and directly points fingers at the ineffective government and appeals to recognise the power of the finger and vote. Six months before the next general Indian election, this is no coincidence, observes Sukanya Verma.
'And when the floats go by in the parade garlanded and decorated with the posters of gun toting assassins and murderers and martyrs, you look the other way.' 'And in return we will bring you 10,000 votes because the people of the gurdwaras will vote as we tell them to vote.'
Hundreds of opponents of Russian president-elect Vladimir Putin on Monday gathered at Pushkin Square in downtown Moscow to attend a rally, denouncing his victory at the presidential polls as illegitimate.
'Many Indians are not voting mostly on the basis of issues like the economy and their own well-being as measured by data provided by the government.' 'They seem to be as concerned and perhaps more concerned about other things, especially those that have to do with the harassment of India's minorities,' asserts Aakar Patel.
Demanding a free and fair election in Maldives, the country's ousted President Mohamed Nasheed has said he does not want to topple the government of the day.
According to a senior Election Commission official in Chandigarh, Panwar got 36 votes, while Sharma got 23 first preference votes and six transferred from the BJP, taking his tally to 29.
'Siddaramaiah was openly taking on the BJP's communal agenda, which very few non-BJP politicians do.'
"I will keep you in suspense," said the Republican as he refused to commit to accepting the election result if he loses, in the third debate against Hillary Clinton.
As he demits office on Sunday, happy and contended, outgoing Chief Election Commissioner S Y Quraishi hopes that paid news, which of late has emerged as a big threat to free and fair elections, will be made a cognisable offence.
These officers will oversee the entire poll processes as eyes and ears of the commission on the ground to ensure free, fair and voter-friendly elections.
With the much-awaited elections to the Archery Association of India (AAI) drawing closer, the national convenor of Clean Sports India B V P Rao, who will be challenging incumbent president V K Malhotra, has raised several issues to ensure that the elections are free and fair.
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