Smarting under humiliating defeat in the by-election to Hisar Lok Sabha seat in Haryana, Congress on Tuesday rubbished the idea that the "Anna factor" had played a role in its drubbing and questioned the civil society members' silence on corruption in Mayawati-ruled Uttar Pradesh.
After the polling ends on Thursday evening, voters will seal the fate of 40 candidates who are in the fray.
The battle for Hisar has 40 candidates, but the real fight is between the big three -- Kuldeep Bishnoi of the Haryana Janhit Congress, Ajay Chautala of the Indian National Lok Dal and former MP Jai Prakash of the Congress.
Jannayak Janta Party chief Ajay Singh Chautala on Wednesday said his party worked with full honesty to fulfil the 'gathbandhan dharma' over the last four and half years of the alliance and his party was never power hungry.
Curfew was on Tuesday clamped in Mayyar village and its surrounding areas in Hisar district in Haryana after In view of the volatile situation, district authorities have sought the help of the Army, officials said, adding that additional police forces have been deployed in the violence-hit areas. Hisar's Deputy Commissioner Yudhvir Khaliya said curfew had been clamped in Mayyar and other sensitive villages to maintain law and order and help restore peace.
Veteran party leader Anil Vij will seek re-election from his Ambala Cantt stronghold.
Instead of harvesting the wrath against the BJP and using it to their advantage by opting for a collective form of leadership, the Congress decided once again to bestow their trust in the Hooda family who were given a free hand in the distribution of tickets. This turned out to be the biggest blunder and this faulty selection was the single over riding factor in the Congress defeat, explains Rashme Sehgal.
In spiralling violence, Jat protesters torched a police post and a judge's car and stormed the premises of Power Grid Corporation following the death of a person in Hisar, prompting authorities to seek army's help and close all educational institutions for three days in the district.
Did Team Anna member and Right to Information activist Arvind Kejriwal commit a criminal office when he appealed to Hisar voters not to vote for the Congress in the by-polls?
The campaign by Team Anna in Hisar Lok Sabha bypoll may have raised hackles of Congress, but the Election Commission on Tuesday said it did not violate any election law and the panel saw no reason for intervention.
It is a victory for Kuldeep Bishnoi in Hisar. But indirectly, the Bharatiya Janata Party has made roots into the fort of Bhajan Lal sympathisers.
A fact-finding committee has been set up by the Press Council of India to look into the attack on media persons by police personnel in Hisar district during clashes that erupted at the ashram of controversial 'godman' Rampal.
Singh targeted the Congress using a 'snakes and ladders' analogy, saying the party will fall to zero from 99 after being bitten by a snake -- referring to the grand old party winning 99 seats in the Lok Sabha polls.
"We are not going to hold any talk with the state government till the time our demand (of releasing those arrested) is met. There will also be no talks with the Khap leaders, who are only acting on behalf of the state government," All India Jat Aarakshan Sangharsh Samiti leader, Suresh Koth said.
The government said in an order that mobile internet services would be banned in Ambala, Kurukshetra, Kaithal, Jind, Hisar, Fatehabad and Sirsa districts.
Family members of Neelam, one of the two persons arrested for protesting outside Parliament on Wednesday, said she had earlier participated in several agitations including farmers' movement.
Haryana Janhit Congress chief Kuldeep Bishnoi, who was supported by the Bharatiya Janata Party, won the Hisar by-polls defeating Indian National Lok Dal 's Ajay Chautala. Congress' Jai Prakash was in the third position.
Delhi sweltered under intense heat as the Safdarjung observatory, considered the official marker of the national capital, noted a high of 43.8 degrees Celsius, four notches above the normal average.
The party fielded Maneka Gandhi from Sultanpur, while Uttar Pradesh minister Jitin Prasada has replaced Varun Gandhi in Pilibhit.
President Droupadi Murmu, Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar, Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud, Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi and several other famous faces were seen at polling booths, exercising their franchise in the sixth phase of the Lok Sabha polls on Saturday.
Only one male and five female wrestlers qualified for the upcoming edition. Here's a look at the strength and weakness of all the six contenders.
Rejecting Team Anna's claim of influencing the outcome in the Hisar by-election, Indian National Lok Dal chief Om Parkash Chautala on Tuesday said that people voted against the Congress to vent their anger against the ruling party. "Team Anna's claim of taking credit is wrong. People voted against the Congress to vent their anger against the ruling party. They were fed up by the misrule of Congress at the Centre and the state," he said.
'Arithmetic could decide the Haryana election given the presence of multi-cornered contests.'
A local court today sent six youths arrested on the charge of gang-rape of an 18-year-old girl to two-day police custody.
With the Congress pushed to a distant third in Hisar by-polls, Anna Hazare on Monday said the party should take cue from the result and ensure passage of Jan Lokpal Bill in winter session of Parliament or else he would personally campaign against it in upcoming Assembly elections.
Internal bickering in the Haryana Congress on Friday came to the fore with the party "unanimously" passing a resolution demanding action against all those who "sabotaged" the party nominees' chances in the Hisar Lok Sabha bye-election.
In a novel initiative aimed at increasing voter turnout in Haryana, the state election commission will send an invitation letter to every family in the state urging them to exercise their franchise in the Lok Sabha polls.
The three MLAs -- Sombir Sangwan, Randhir Gollen and Dharampal Gonder -- also said that they have decided to extend support to the Congress during the elections.
Industrialist and former MP Naveen Jindal quit the Congress and joined the Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday, saying he wants to contribute to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's agenda of 'Viksit Bharat'.
The Supreme Court on Monday issued notice to the Centre and the Haryana government on alleged assault by the police on media persons during an operation to arrest 'godman' Rampal in Hisar and sought their response on a plea of some journalists seeking judicial probe into the incident.
Many Dalits claim that an atmosphere of fear continues to prevail in the village after the attack and some Dalit families were reported to have fled from the village.
Police on Friday used tear gas to disperse Haryana farmers heading towards Khanauri on Punjab's border with the state where farmers, mostly from Punjab, have been camping since last week after their 'Delhi Chalo' march was halted by security forces.
'In the BJP I realised they are a different people with different mindset. They had a different ideology which was more rigid, and somewhere I was not comfortable.'
The lure of Bollywood made two minor girls of Hisar, Haryana -- both students of Class VIII -- to make a trip to Mumbai to meet mega star Shahrukh Khan and also try for roles in TV serials.
Six people hailing from different cities got together at a flat in Gurugram, a major satellite city of Delhi, after hatching a plan to intrude into Parliament on the anniversary of the December 13, 2001 attack on Wednesday.
Sources said the duo attackers -- Rohit Rathore of Jaipur and Nitin Fauji of Haryana's Mahendragarh -- had planned to flee the country and had been allegedly promised Rs 50,000 each to kill Gogamedi.
Haryana Janhit Congress-Bharatiya Janata Party alliance candidate Kuldeep Bishnoi won the Hisar by-poll by defeating nearest rival Ajay Chautala of Indian National Lok Dal by 23,617 votes.
Describing the passing of Lokayukta Bill in Uttarakhand as a "revolution" in governance, Team Anna member Kiran Bedi on Wednesday said their campaign in Hisar bypolls has paid dividends though some of them had to face "bitter" experiences due to it.
The Congress sought the imposition of President's Rule followed by fresh polls in Haryana.
'Dense' to 'very dense' fog prevailed in parts of Punjab, Haryana, west Rajasthan, Bihar, Delhi, west Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Odisha and Assam.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Investor Information - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances