'The larger story of systematic destruction, which can and has been quantified, goes mysteriously missing from any political and/or public discourse about the ongoing devastation in the Ghats,' notes Prem Panicker.
BJP heavyweights Smriti Irani, Arjun Munda, Ajay Mishra Teni and Kailash Chaudhary were among the 13 Union ministers who tasted defeat in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, as stunning losses in three Hindi heartland states forced the BJP to rely on allies to form the government.
Irani said that Rahul Gandhi's candidature from Raebareli is a "victory" for the people in Amethi.
24 hours was all it took for the Congress to overturn its decision to boycott the TV debates on the exit poll results. Sudhir Bisht offers an explanation.
Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan has written to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan seeking 'constitutionally appropriate' action against Finance Minister K N Balagopal for making a speech 'undermining unity', a demand turned down by the CM.
'The more educated a young person is, the higher the chances of him or her remaining unemployed.'
Voting for by-elections to seven assembly constituencies of six states, including Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Kerala, Tripura, West Bengal, and Jharkhand, started on Tuesday at 7 am.
What was the "locus standi" of Sonia Gandhi when she along with the then prime minister Manhoman Singh inaugurated legislative buildings in Manipur and Tamil Nadu, the Bharatiya Janata Party asked on Wednesday while countering the Congress's criticism over the inauguration of the new Parliament building by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Gandhi attacked the BJP by alleging that the saffron party has proved that hatred can be used politically and to win polls, but cannot generate employment.
Nothing is going to change in a hurry unless attitudes change and punishments are speedy and fair, notes Ramesh Menon.
The Centre has denied political clearance to Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann for his visit to Paris to support the Indian Hockey team at the Olympic Games, an official source said on Saturday.
In the event of the BJP's poor performance in the assembly polls this year and in early 2025, Modi's hold will get further weakened because he will no longer remain the invincible electoral persona tightly controlling the machine at his disposal, asserts Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
In fresh escalation of political violence in poll-bound Kerala, a 28-year-old Youth Congress worker was hacked to death allegedly by Democratic Youth Federation of India workers at Evoor in Alapuzha on Tuesday even as the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Communist Party of India - Marxist workers clashed in Thiruvananthapuram district leaving at least 30 injured.
The senior police officer said the four, after interrogation, revealed their roles and that the police now knows all the participants, conspirators and collaborators involved in the killing of the RSS leader.
'The 2024 election results will lead to much intense targeting of Modi, more intense debates, many more breakdowns in Parliament and many more movements on the streets.' 'The results have hit Modi's standing, and the politics of the Opposition parties will be sharply focused to ensure that Modi doesn't get back his charisma of being 'invincible' with help of State power.' Sheela Bhatt looks at the political situation through the prism of 2024 Lok Sabha election results.
'The situation in India is much more grave and serious than all of us think.' 'That's why it's important to defeat the BJP in 2024.'
ADGP (Law and Order) Vijay Sakhare told PTI that the police have also taken into custody a person suspected to be involved in the killing of RSS leader Sanjith in the district in November last year.
Announcing the party manifesto at the state headquarters in Thiruvananthapuram, Rajiv Pratap Rudy, national spokesperson for the Bharatiya Janata party said that the BJP will focus on the poor and the downtrodden in the state. He added that the party will be providing homes to the homeless if elected to power in the state.
The colourful rally galvanised the BRS workers who shouted slogans hailing the party-led regime's welfare schemes in Telangana and peppy political songs praised Rao's 'national' emergence.
The recent 'revelation' by TN fishers freed by Sri Lanka after they had paid up Lankan rupees 50,000 each in fines, that their hair was tonsured in prison and they were forced to remove their garments other than the underpants, and were also made to clean toilets, as if with vengeance, has touched a raw nerve this time, just as another issue or issues had done it ahead of the Jallikattu protests, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Stocks of smallcap and midcap companies, which had caught the fancy of retail investors, also feature in the portfolio of leading politicians in addition to bluechip stocks.
'Metro man' E Sreedharan, a much-admired technocrat who is credited with changing the face of public transport system in the country, will join the Bharatiya Janata Party giving a boost to the saffron party ahead of the assembly polls in Kerala.
As the curtain falls on the campaign for the Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha seat on Wednesday, April 24, a ringside view of the closing ceremonies.
Along with Modi, senior BJP leaders including Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah, Nitin Gadkari, Nirmala Sitharaman and S Jaishankar, all ministers in Modi 2.0 Cabinet, took oath as cabinet ministers at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. In all, 71 ministers were sworn-in along with Modi, taking the strength of the Union council to 72.
Bharatiya Janata Party's national secretary in-charge of Kerala, Muralidhar Rao, on Monday said that the national leaders of his party, including the leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushama Swaraj, will be camping in the state for the electioneering of the BJP candidates.
In a fresh flare-up of political clashes in Kerala's Kannur district, two BJP workers and a CPI-M activist were stabbed to death and one person was injured in separate incidents in Thalassery, triggering panic and tension in the politically sensitive belts of the town on Wednesday, the police said. Violence broke out after the stabbing of a BJP worker Sumesh (40) by suspected CPI-M workers at Narangapuram in the town at 3 pm. He suffered serious head injuries and one of hi
'The CPM is not in a mood to introspect, and their total failure on all fronts is being covered up by crimes such as maiming and killing political opponents,' alleges Bharatiya Janata Party's Kerala president V Muraleedharan on the eve of his rally to protest the murder of his party activists in Kannur.
Mamata Banerjee fended off a spirited challenge by a resurgent Bharatiya Janata Party in West Bengal with a landslide victory for her Trinamool Congress on Sunday for a third consecutive term and the saffron party and the Left Democratic Front were poised to form government again in Assam and Kerala respectively while the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam stormed back to power in Tamil Nadu after a gap of 10 years.
Six non-BJP ruled states -- West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telengana, Kerala and Jharkhand -- have not reduced the VAT on petroleum products, leading to higher prices of petrol and diesel there, Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on Thursday. Puri said in Lok Sabha that the central government has reduced excise duty on petroleum products and some other states, following cues, reduced their Value Added Tax (VAT). Six states -- West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telengana, Kerala and Jharkhand -- have not reduced the VAT, he said amidst vocal protests by the opposition members.
The Congress has consciously contested on a lesser number of seats in this Lok Sabha election as part of a strategy to keep the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) together and defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge has said.
In nearly 100 seats, the BJP stands almost no chance of winning. In 200 seats, it is a direct fight between the BJP and the Congress where the BJP has an upper hand. In 243 seats, the BJP is pitted against regional parties and it is not going to be easy. That is why 400 seats may end up as a pipe dream, states Ramesh Menon, author of Modi Demystified: The Making of a Prime Minister.
The police, in its plea, had contended that the veteran politician violated the bail conditions and, therefore, the bail was liable to be cancelled.
Rahul, the sitting MP of Wayanad, said that he was always ready to bring the issues being faced by the people of the hill constituency to the attention of the nation and the world.
The BJP often forgets that in Dravidian Tamil Nadu, the voter does not mix religion, which is personal, and politics that is in the public sphere, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
Sixty-eight Rajya Sabha members, including nine Union ministers, are completing their tenure this year, triggering a race of sorts among leaders across political parties to eye a six-year term in the Upper House of Parliament.
The appointments holds significance as a large number of senior leaders, who had no organisational post currently, have now been given new responsibilities.
'If such a practice were feasible, every state would seek additional funds, posing a significant risk to the overall health of the economy.'
The former Congress president also tagged a post by Tesla CEO Elon Musk in which he talked about eliminating EVMs.
Kishori Lal Sharma, a close aide of the Gandhi family, has been fielded from the Amethi Lok Sabha seat, the party said in a statement.
Stalin said one cannot and should not decide the mood of the entire country based on the results of one state elections.
