The Telangana Rashtra Samiti's efforts to spread its wings to southern Telangana and showcase that the statehood sentiment is strong in the entire region received a setback as it could not win the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Council seat from the Warangal-Khammam-Nalgoda Teachers' constituency.
The Election Commission is confident of holding the five assembly polls due early next year, including in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab, on time as the poll panel has gained a lot of experience from the electoral exercise in Bihar, West Bengal and four other assemblies amid the coronavirus pandemic, Chief Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra has asserted.
The Samajwadi Party's Mainpuri district unit Thursday gave a written request to the party chief to contest from the Karhal seat and he agreed, sources said.
Apart from Urmila Matondkar, the names of Marathi actor and Shiv Sena leader Aadesh Bandekar, singer Anand Shinde, BJP-turned-NCP leader Eknath Khadse, farmer leader Raju Shetti are also doing rounds.
Amid speculation that he has been asked to come to the national capital by the high command, he said: "I have not received any call yet. Let's see."
Even as the two parties appeared confident that they have reached out to every voter and publicised their new symbols, experts suggested varying impact of the split and the symbols on the vote bank.
The MNS, which has one MLA, had backed the Bharatiya Janata Party in the last month's elections to the Rajya Sabha as well as state Legislative Council seats.
'We are here to reason it out with Shinde saheb.'
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) is likely to get a majority in the Rajya Sabha in April this year, once the remaining six vacancies under the nominated category are filled and those newly elected take oath.
In acute embarrassment to the Congress party and Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy in Andhra Pradesh, supporters of rebel leader YS Jaganmohan Reddy caused the defeat of a Congress candidate in the elections to the legislative council.
Some have been cherry-picked to assert the BJP's supremacy over its allies or, significantly, its leaders who charted an independent course in the recent past.
As the campaign for the Lok Sabha elections gathers momentum, Sharad Pawar and Uddhav Thackeray, the leaders of two prominent regional parties in Maharashtra, are fighting a battle for political survival.
Waltz after being elected as the Co-Chair of India Caucus in January last year had said that India is the world's largest democracy and an important strategic partner for the United States.
Underlining the importance of having a chief election commissioner who is "independent and a man of character", the Supreme Court on Wednesday wondered will it not be a case of "complete breakdown of system" if the CEC does not act against the prime minister in case there are allegations against him.
The chairman of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Khaplang faction) S S Khaplang has asked all the 12 elected legislators of the Tirap and Changlang districts of Arunachal Pradesh to quit the ruling government or face the consequences. The alleged letter categorically directed all the 12 MLAs to corner Arunachal Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu.
While the Shinde-led Shiv Sena will organise its event at NESCO ground in Goregaon in northwest Mumbai, the Shiv Sena-UBT will hold its event in Shanmukhanand Hall at Sion in central Mumbai.
Considered a close aide of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Arvind Kumar Sharma kicked off his political innings after taking voluntary retirement from the Indian Administrative Service and became a member of the UP legislative council.
The complainant alleged that Darekar posed as a labourer, which was later found wrong.
The BJP promised revival of the legislative council in Tamil Nadu, which was abolished decades ago by its ally, the ruling AIADMK, if their combine was voted to power in the coming assembly elections.
The Nationalist Congress Party, which is part of the Maha Vikas Aghadi government in Maharashtra, on Friday won Aurangabad and Pune graduates' constituencies of the state Legislative Council.
Forty-five cows, 20 calves and a double barrel gun with 50 cartridges are among the possessions of former Bihar Chief Minister Rabri Devi who is contesting the Lok Sabha polls as a Rashtriya Janata Dal candidate from Saran constituency.
Yogi expands UP Cabinet in attempt to balance caste, regional aspirations head of the assembly polls early next year.
The 1988 batch officer from Mau district in Uttar Pradesh is considered close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and had worked with him in Gujarat.
The value of the vote of a member of Parliament has gone down to 700 from 708 in the presidential poll scheduled for July 18 due to the absence of a legislative assembly in Jammu and Kashmir.
Senior BJP leader and Patnagarh MLA KV Singh Deo and debutant from Nimapara assembly segment Pravati Parida took oath as deputy chief ministers.
Though another 75 candidates are in the fray, the Elangovan-Thennaruasu fight has become a prestige battle for the DMK and AIADMK, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
Singh, who belongs to the backward Kurmi caste and played a crucial role in paving the way for the party's second consecutive win in the UP Assembly polls.
Congress veteran Kapil Sibal had on Wednesday filed his nomination as an SP-backed Independent candidate for the Rajya Sabha polls.
Samajwadi Party leader Swami Prasad Maurya on Tuesday resigned as the party's national general secretary accusing the leadership of discriminating against him and not defending him over his remarks.
The India-US nuclear deal was aimed at ending India's nuclear isolation and nuclear apartheid, recalls Rup Narayan Das.
The Maharashtra legislative assembly on Friday passed a bill empowering local tree authorities to allow the felling of all types of trees without referring matters to the State Tree Authority.
There are critics who say the Bommai's government was not able to counter the Congress narrative to paint his administration as corrupt, a factor that helped the Congress surge in the May 10 assembly elections.
Former Indian Administrative Service officer A K Sharma was on Friday named a Bharatiya Janata Party candidate for the Uttar Pradesh legislative council polls a day after he joined the party, fuelling speculation that he will get a ministerial post.
The Bharatiya Janata Party and its allies on Tuesday welcomed the Union Budget and said it focussed on youth, farmers, women, and has 'substantial allocations' for Maharashtra, but the opposition slammed the annual financial statement, claiming it neglected the western state and only seeks to please the saffron outfit's partners in Bihar and Andhra Pradesh.
The letter said the high-powered committee of the ministry, which was holding talks with representatives from Ladakh, will meet them next on December 3.
In the past five years, UP's Opposition remained passive and defensive against the BJP, a trend that does not augur well for the impending battle.
The Centre has granted absolute powers to the Delhi lieutenant governor to constitute any authority, board and commission such as the Delhi Commission for Women and the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission.
Former Karnataka chief minister Jagdish Shettar, who had quit the Bharatiya Janata Party to join the Congress ahead of the state assembly polls last year, rejoined his old party on Thursday.
About 2.34 crore voters, spread across 78 assembly segments of the 243-strong assembly, will decide the fates of 1,204 candidates, including the Speaker and 12 members of the state cabinet.
The BJP appointed Sunil Bansal, one of the party's key election managers, as its national general secretary and in charge of three opposition-ruled states -- West Bengal, Odisha and Telangana -- in run-up to the Lok Sabha polls in 2024.
