As part of the efforts to bring several opposition parties together on a common platform to defeat the BJP in 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Pawar met Kharge on Thursday evening.
The BJP held a meet amid hints that the central leadership may bring in new faces at key positions in the state.
Addressing a rally in West Midnapore district, Banerjee asserted that she would rather stay in jail than "remain silent or put up with BJP's misrule".
The ruling BJP is confident of bettering its 2017 performance, especially with the new UP party chief, Bhupendra Chaudhary, at the helm of affairs, reports Virendra Singh Rawat.
"The TMC wants to defeat BJP and will do whatever necessary. We want to ensure that BJP does not win or form a government through the backdoor," Moitra said when asked about a possible pre-poll alliance with the Goa Forward Party (GFP) and Congress.
No major glitches in electronic voting machines were reported and the voting passed off peacefully with high security observed at the 3,360 critical booths in 493 locations where more than 25,000 police personnel, nearly 13,000 home guards and 100 companies of paramilitary forces were deployed, officials said.
The Congress and BJP are apprehensive that AAP might eat into their votes among the Patel community, Kshatriyas, a section of minorities, and Dalits, thus delivering a fatal blow in the closely-contested seats. But the local BJP is elated over the entry of AIMIM as there will be a contender for minority votes apart from the Congress in seats like Bhuj and Mandvi, which have considerable Muslim electorate.
While Tripura unit of TMC described it as an "attack on democracy" and said they were confined to their hotel by the police, Manik Das, Superintendent of Police, West Tripura, claimed members of the 22-member I-Pac team are being questioned in a Agartala city-based hotel, as part of a routine check-up.
Union Home Minister and top Bharatiya Janata Party leader Amit Shah on Thursday set a target of 200 out of the total 294 seats in the 2021 West Bengal assembly elections and to come to power in the state, party sources said.
'Many times when Khalistan slogans are raised, it is from those who feel alienated, not because they want a separate state.'
'Removing Biplab Deb and replacing him with Manik Saha is a fruitless exercise that the BJP national leadership has indulged in.' 'It is foolish to think that people will forget what these two have done to the state and its people in the last four years.'
The Congress Working Committee, the party's top-decision making body, would soon meet to deliberate further on the Chintan Shivir plans, the sources said.
There is something very compelling about the story Harry and Meghan have been telling through the first three parts of this limited series, feels Vaihayasi Pande Daniel.
Regional films may have prevailed over the country, but regional leaders still have far mountains to climb to reach Delhi, asserts Shreekant Sambrani.
'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.
The RJD supremo Lalu Prasad slammed Nitish Kumar-headed NDA government for "corruption and misrule" in Bihar and gave a call to the people to overthrow the 'tainted' regime.
"In May 2014, the BJP won 282 Lok Sabha seats. In four years, BJP government is down to 271, losing its simple majority in Lok Sabha minus its allies - considering the fact that PM Modi has suspended Kirti Azad and virtually disowned their most truthful, fiercely independent Patna Sahib MP," Surjewala tweeted.
'If the Modi government doesn't act now, it will demoralise and hurt the people who voted in hope of a better times,' argues former BJP MP Tarun Vijay.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader and party's candidate for Karimpur assembly bypoll Jay Prakash Majumdar was on Monday allegedly beaten up by Trinamool Congress activists at Phipulkhola area of Nadia district when he was entering a polling booth.
What these elections prove beyond any doubt (if ever there was one) that Modi's hold over public mind and Shah's mastery of election management are unparalleled. It doesn't seem likely that they will be matched any time soon in the Indian political scene, reaffirms Shreekant Sambrani.
For MP, the SP is open for an alliance with the Congress, but decision in this regard will be taken at the right time, SP sources said.
'Aurangzeb, who had destroyed the Hindu temples of Mathura and Kashi and many others in the north, was a very different ruler when he came to Maharashtra.' 'He did not touch a single temple in Maharashtra.' 'It was possibly the greatest triumph of Shivaji's statesmanship,' notes Colonel Anil A Athale (retd), the well known military historian.
Chidambaram, who is the Congress' senior election observer for the Goa Assembly polls, also hit out at the Trinamool Congress for its barbs at the Congress for not forging an alliance with it, saying the party continued to poach Congress leaders, despite making an offer of a tie-up.
In an interview with PTI, Chidambaram also stressed that no Congress MLA elected in the upcoming assembly polls can be poached by the Bharatiya Janata Party in Goa this time, saying 'our house is well-guarded' and though the 'thief' is still out there, the people 'will teach him a lesson'.
If the BJP is set to return to power in UP, Uttarakhand, Manipur and even Goa, it is not because of the party's performance or the quality of governance. No. It is essentially Modi's popularity, observes Virendra Kapoor.
He also said the governments of the Bharatiya Janata Party, the BSP and the SP that have ruled Uttar Pradesh in the last 32 years, when Congress was not in power, failed to live up to the expectations of the people and the Congress was set for a comeback in the state.
Yoga guru Baba Ramdev has said that the Bharatiya Janata Party was "over-enthusiastic" ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, and warned it against infighting within the party.
By all accounts, India's poor, mostly in rural areas, can look back to a 10-year period when their lot clearly improved.
Sanjay Singh Masani said the state needs Congress's chief Kamal Nath not Chouhan as the CM.
Cairo's Tahrir Square, which has become synonymous with protests, has witnessed passionate demonstrations and some fireworks, literally, in the last few days.
On possible alliances for the upcoming state polls, the SP president said, "Doors of our party are open for all small parties. Many smaller parties are already with us. More will come with us."
Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu today crossed the 800-kilometre milestone in his ongoing 'Vastunna Meekosam' foot march, when he reached Budera village under Andhole Assembly constituency in neighbouring Medak district.
Instead of highlighting their achievements, most parties in Karnataka will be pointing fingers at the misdeeds of their opponents. Vicky Nanjappa reports.
The party will meet Governor Najma Heptullah soon to stake claim for forming government.
Announcing the decision at a press conference in Panaji, BJP spokesman Shahnawaz Hussain said, "BJP will launch a jail bharo andolan from June 17 to June 22."
The AAP swept the municipal bypolls in Delhi winning four of the five seats while the Congress bagged one and the BJP drew a blank, prompting AAP chief and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to assert that the victory is an indication of the expected outcome of the MCD elections next year.
According to Modi, the TMC's 'political syndicate' rules in the land of 'Vande Mataram' and 'Jana-Gana-Mana' and pursues appeasement and vote bank politics.
'Metroman' E Sreedharan's decision to join the Bharatiya Janata Party has given a boost to the saffron's hopes to make huge electoral inroads in Kerala, one of the toughest political terrains for the party, in the assembly polls likely to be held in April.
Joining the growing clamour to award death penalty to perpetrators of rape, Rashtriya President Lalu Prasad Yadav on Monday said his party would advocate for capital punishment for rapists in the Delhi gang rape case in the next Parliament session.
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday launched the final leg of his campaign for the Gujarat assembly elections after offering prayers at the famous Somnath temple at Veraval.
