Aditi Phadnis predicts frequent stand-offs between the Centre and states in the future.
In spite of his trying hard he is unable to connect not only with ordinary voters but with most party colleagues as well, observes Virendra Kapoor.
It said that Congress' strategy to pursue 'fringe and disruptive politics' in Parliament was only for political reasons and opposition to the development agenda of the BJP government, which has been rejected by the people in the four large states of Assam, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Kerala.
'The future looks quite bleak unless we ramp up testing and start vaccinating on a war footing.'
The Janata Dal-United on Tuesday became the third major ally after the Shiv Sena and the Akali Dal to snap ties with the Bharatiya Janata Party after 2019.
According to state government sources, not only did the governor insert some corrections, but he also initialled the final draft after those corrections had been made, reveals N Sathiya Moorthy.
Given the politics behind it all, one possibility is for binding the governor to act according to the decisions of the state government and clarifying his position vis a vis bills and resolutions passed by the state assembly -- or, re-enacted if returned, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
Congress candidate R Selvaraj defeated the CPI-M's F Lawrence by a comfortable margin of 6,334 votes in the June 4 bypoll whose outcome has come as a morale-booster to the one-year old Oommen Chandy ministry. Selvaraj had resigned as CPI-M member of the assembly in March this year citing serious differences with the party leadership, causing the byelection, before joining Congress
Comparing a state like Kerala with a nation like Somalia shows disconnect unbecoming of a prime minister, says Uttaresh Venkateshwaran.
The youth wing of the Bharatiya Janata Party in Assam on Monday claimed its activists have filed more than 1,000 complaints against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi at various police stations in the state over his tweets that left the Northeast out of India's geographical expanse while he talked about the country's unity.
"The Central government thought that the COVID-19 pandemic has ended and they were also applauded by the World Economic Forum. However, they didn't know that there would come a stage when there would be no testing and there would be no oxygen," said the senior Congress leader.
Shobha Warrier accompanies Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on the campaign trail.
Emerging from a meeting with Banerjee at the state secretariat, Yadav said that the first priority of his party was to stop the Bharatiya Janata Party's progress in West Bengal.
The LDF lost Kochi and Thrissur corporations but managed to retain power with a wafer-thin margin in Thiruvananthapuram and held sway over Kollam city civic body with a comfortable majority.The UDF swept the municipalities in Malappuram, Kottayam and Idukki district and also put up an impressive performance in Ernakulam, Wayanad and Kasargode.
The party president also said that India's self-confidence, pride and scale of ambition have grown manifold in three years.
Our political history tells us this has never worked. A united Opposition does work in some specific, limited situations, especially in the states. But never as some brilliant pan-national collection of diverse interests with no ideological or political core, asserts Shekhar Gupta.
'What she did so far and what she will do now is secondary; the most important thing is a person from the Adivasi community has reached the top-most position in the country.'
Party leaders list three clear positive outcomes -- an activated Congress which has hit the ground running leaving the past inertia behind, an interactive top brass which is directly engaging the people, and a mobilised organisation which was dormant for many years.
Petrol price on Friday crossed the Rs 100- per-litre mark in Chennai as well as in some places in Punjab and Kerala after fuel prices were hiked yet again. Petrol is priced at over Rs 99 a litre in Delhi and Kolkata -- the only metro cities which haven't seen the Rs 100 mark yet. Petrol price was hiked by 35 paise per litre on Friday but there was no change in diesel rates, according to a price notification of state-owned fuel retailers.
Mother and son refuse to go away despite indications blowing in the wind that their leadership is ringing the death knell of the party, observes Ramesh Menon.
Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday urged party leaders in Kerala to shed their differences and fight the coming assembly polls unitedly
A sizeable number of MLAs from across state assemblies cross-voted in support of President-elect Droupadi Murmu, defying their parties' stated support to Opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha, sources said on Thursday.
'Can you believe Ashok Chavan was with me in the senior leaders' meeting one day, and next day morning, he switched sides!'
Kerala Finance Minister K M Mani resigned on Tuesday night after pressure mounted on him from the ruling Congress-led United Democratic Front to quit.
With an eye on assembly elections in Kerala, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi mounted an attack on the Communist Party of India-Marxist in its stronghold, accusing it of indulging in "politics of violence" on Monday.
It comes a day after party chief Sonia Gandhi proposed, at a meeting of the Congress Working Committee, the formation of a group to assess the party's losses in Kerala, Assam, West Bengal and Puducherry.
In the normal course, a high turnout reflects anti-incumbency but there is no correlation between high turnout and advantage to the National Democratic Alliance, says Dharmendra Kumar Singh.
Chief ministers of 3 Congress-ruled states, other national and state party leaders are also likely to accompany Rahul to the court.
The first bench refused to restrain the media, both electronic and print, from publishing the oral observations of the judges relating the role of EC in holding elections to four states and the Union Territory of Puducherry in the country during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Pinarayi is exploring the potentials of 'socialism with Indian characteristics'. The next five years under Pinarayi's watch will be a transformative period for Kerala's development, observes M K Bhadrakumar.
A local leader of Shiv Sena-Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray faction confirmed they painted the buses.
The Tamil Nadu Toddy Movement had met both Chief Minister Palaniswami and Stalin to seek their intervention in lifting the ban on toddy-tapping and had submitted petitions, but there it remained. So the matter is being taken to the people's court.
The total income of the 87-year-old leader, who entered the fray from Malampuzha segment on Thursday, was shown as Rs 3,43,994 as per the income tax returns filed for 2009-10.
Opposition leaders believe this entire plan has been put in place to ensure that Mamata Banerjee is kept out of office in West Bengal.
Tandon, who reviewed the situation in Kerala and elicited views of major political parties, said the state government had suggested two-phase polling for Kerala.
The court of Justice Hemant Prachchhak, however, said no interim protection can be granted at this stage.
Away from the distraction of its new high-profile politics, Wayanad's worries seemed very down to earth, discovers Shyam G Menon.
The incident of two Italian marines allegedly shooting dead two Indian fishermen off Kerala's coast in February and the subsequent legal and diplomatic issues made headlines throughout 2012, which also saw many developments on the state's political arena.
The Left's decline will adversely change the complexion of Indian politics by pushing its centre of gravity further to the right. This would be tragic, says Praful Bidwai.
Kerala Chief Minister and Communist Party of India-Marxist veteran V S Achuthanandan filed nomination for contesting the assembly elections from his sitting seat Malampuzha in Palakkad district on Thursday. Achuthanandan filed his papers before joint registrar (co-operatives) A N Pradeepraj, who is the returning officer for the segment.