'We would do well to encourage all Indians to participate in democracy by contesting and laws that prevent or deter individuals and parties should be relooked at,' says Aakar Patel.
Amid demands for getting the long-pending Women's Reservation Bill passed, the government on Wednesday said it is ready to extend the last session of the 15th Lok Sabha if the House agreed.
The high octane campaign marked by vitriolic attacks and counter-attacks by political leaders and use of derogatory language and objectionable remarks that forced the Election Commission to step in ended at 6 pm.
The delay in finalising a seat allocation agreement among the Maha Vikas Aghadi allies for the upcoming Maharashtra assembly elections has ignited concerns among smaller constituents as the nomination process commenced on Tuesday.
'No one can ignore PK's prediction about Nitish Kumar's party.'
Opposition members, including from the Congress and the TMC, started raising slogans and showing placards to attack the government on the snooping issue as soon as the House met for the day at 11 am.
The National Alliance of Women's Organisations released the 'Womanifesto' for consideration of all political parties for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
The Congress high command has intervened to manage discord within the DMK-Congress alliance in Tamil Nadu, following controversial remarks by state leaders regarding power-sharing demands.
The Jan Suraaj Party announced its second list of candidates for the Bihar assembly elections, covering 65 constituencies. The party has kept its choice for the Raghopur seat, where founder Prashant Kishor is expected to contest, under wraps. The list includes candidates from various sections of society, including the extremely weaker sections, Other Backward Classes, and Muslims.
Congress leader V D Satheesan has accused Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan of targeting Rahul Gandhi to curry favour with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, alleging blackmail and compromised investigations.
The death of Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar has created a leadership crisis within the NCP, raising questions about the party's future and potential reunification with the Sharad Pawar-led NCP (SP).
If the Congress is contesting fewer seats than ever before, the BJP is set to contest its highest-ever number of Lok Sabha seats.
AIMIM leader Imtiaz Jaleel supports colleague Sahar Shaikh's controversial statement about turning Mumbra green, claiming the party intends to do the same across Maharashtra. This follows Shaikh's victory in Thane civic polls and subsequent backlash over her remarks.
As soon as the Zero Hour commenced at noon, AIADMK and TDP members trooped in the Well, raising slogans and carrying banners demanding stalling of a dam on river Cauvery and special state status to Andhra Pradesh respectively.
In Jhalawar, which her only child Dushyant Singh represents in the Lok Sabha, Vasundhara Raje, the BJP's chief ministerial candidate, told reporters, 'I thought we would win 120, 125 seats, but it is going to be more than that.' Shahnawaz Akthar reports.
The Aam Aadmi Party on Saturday declared their third list of candidates for 20 Lok Sabha seats with prominent names being Savita Bhatti, wife of late comedian Jaspal Bhatti's, who has been given a ticket from Chandigarh, and Anand Kumar, a professor from JNU, from Delhi.
The leaders of the two parties discussed the possibilities of seat sharing but did not divulge any details.
According to the latest head count by Congress's managers, the United Progressive Alliance has only 271 seats in the Lok Sabha, though the requisite majority in the 545-member House is 273. For the ruling party, the issue is not about saving the government, but about crossing the majority mark to send the decisive signal that the UPA enjoys a clear majority and has the moral right to continue in power, say sources.
Rebel Trinamool Congress member of Parliament Kabir Suman, whose sympathetic stance towards Maoists and outbursts against alleged in-house corruption had embarrassed his party, backtracked on his threatened resignation, saying he would not quit from the party and the Lok Sabha.
Sushma Swaraj on Tuesday formally took over as the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, occupying the seat hitherto held by senior BJP leader L K Advani.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi alleges that the Election Commission is colluding with the BJP to manipulate elections, citing data analysis from a Karnataka constituency. He claims evidence of 'vote chori' and demands transparency from the EC.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi termed the Bihar Assembly results as "truly surprising" and said "we could not achieve victory in an election that was not fair from the very beginning". He added that the Congress and the INDIA bloc will conduct an in-depth review of the poll results.
Bharatiya Janata Party leader Sumitra Mahajan will be appointed Speaker of the 16th Lok Sabha on Friday. Other key parliamentary posts like that of Leader of Opposition, deputy Speaker, chairman of the Public Accounts Committee and head of the all-important standing committee on finance will be keenly contested.
Mumtaz Patel said that she will continue to work to make the party stronger along with the party cadre in Bharuch.
This is important because he is to be seen as a sure winner before criss-crossing the state to campaign for candidates of the party or an alliance, highlights N Sathiya Moorthy.
Although the Disaster Management Act for Covid containment measures, considered a hindrance in conducting the census, was withdrawn in March this year the Centre has not taken any further action on conducting the much-delayed population enumeration.
Senior party leader and prime ministerial candidate L K Advani will contest from Gandhinagar constituency in Gujarat. Other prominent names announced in the first list include Navjot Singh Sidhu (Amritsar), Vinod Khanna (Gurdaspur), Shripad Y Naik (Panaji), Anurag Thakur (Hamirpur) and T P S Rawat (Pauri).
Ajit Pawar, who was the finance and planning minister, would have tabled his budget for 2026-27 next month when the state legislature's budget session begins in Mumbai on February 23.
A home ministry team reviews the security situation in Leh as curfew continues for the third day following violence related to demands for statehood and extension of the Sixth Schedule.
The NC has won every assembly election in Budgam whenever it has fielded a candidate from the Shia-dominated segment. The only time the seat was not represented by the NC was in 1972 when the party had boycotted the polls across J-K.
The Maharashtra minister alleged that Muslim voters were convinced that Uddhav Thackeray had "forsaken" Hindutva ideologies and the ideals of Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray which led to them coming together to help the Congress and Shiv Sena-UBT candidates.
'When Narendra Modi was here, he spoke only about development and what the BJP wanted to do in Kerala. That kind of sober rhetoric or argument is acceptable to the people here.'
A total of 13 motions were moved in support of Birla.
Will voters in Ernakulam take to the Communist MP who asked 447 more questions and took part in 162 more debates than your average MP? Will Arun Jaitley's wish come true? Krishna Prasad, the renowned journalist and Outlook magazine's former editor-in-chief, reports from Kochi.
The Congress party is intensifying its efforts to strengthen its organizational base in Uttar Pradesh, with plans to contest all 403 seats in the 2027 Assembly elections. Senior leaders emphasize grassroots preparations, voter outreach, and public meetings to regain political ground in the state.
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has strongly refuted Rahul Gandhi's claims of collusion between the LDF and BJP in the upcoming Kerala Assembly elections, accusing the Congress leader and his party of being the BJP's 'B-team'. The Congress has retaliated, alleging that Vijayan is trying to appease Prime Minister Modi and Home Minister Shah.
Stealing a march over other political parties, All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam supremo and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on Monday announced candidates for 40 Lok Sabha constituencies in the state and Puducherry.
The modalities for seat-sharing would be worked out later after AGP had talks on a similar arrangement with other opposition parties, he said. Stating that various problems of the state were discussed at the meeting, Patowary said, opposition leader Advani was urged to raise in Parliament the issues concerning the people here to pressurise the centre for solving them.
'The prime minister didn't come to Parliament.' 'But the BJP MP is charging that you wanted to assault the prime minister.' 'Only a person who has the intellect and ideology of the BJP can come up with such bizarre charges.'
A whopping Rs 30,000 crore is likely to be spent by the government, political parties and candidates in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, making it by far the most expensive electoral exercise in Indian history.
