The dispute over imposition of President's Rule and holding a mid-term elections in Jharkhand has now been shifted from Ranchi Raj Bhavan to New Delhi after the state governor Syed Ahmed sent his final report to the Union home ministry following talks with the representatives of all political parties after withdrawal of support to Arjun Munda led NDA government by Jharkhand Mukti Morcha
"Only 38 MLAs (in the 82-member House) favour dissolution of the House while others favour formation of government. So allow us some more time as we are holding talks with other parties," sources quoted Soren as having told the governor.
Amid the ongoing political crisis in Jharkhand and efforts from the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha to form a new coalition government with the Congress, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday said that election is the only way to solve the problem in Jharkhand.
Jharkhand's caretaker Chief Minister Arjun Munda on Friday doubted the credential of his former ally Jharkhand Mukti Morcha's Christmas Day list that pulled down the Bharatiya Janata Party government on January 8 and said it could have been an excuse to create instability.
The Jharkhand unit of Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday night decided to consult its national leadership for the next course of action following the decision of by the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha to withdraw support to Arjun Munda-led govenment in the state pushing it to a minority.
With the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha announcing its decision to withdraw support to Arjun Munda-led Bharatiya Janata Party government in Jharkhand, the prospect of a ninth government in 12 years is looming large over the state created on November 15, 2000.
Jharkhand Chief Minister Arjun Munda on Thursday said he had in writing rejected major ally Jharkhand Mukti Morcha's claim that there was a purported power sharing deal between the Bharatiya Janata Party and the JMM.
The manner in which a large proportion of common people have mortgaged their rationality and questioning spirit to let hatred, prejudice, and bigotry take over their minds is a cause of worry, observes Mohammad Sajjad.
After successfully blocking construction at the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation's 2000 MW Lower Subansiri Hydro-electric Project at Gerukamukh in Dhemaji district of Assam, the anti-dam brigade comprising several organisations were on Thursday called for negotiation by the Assam government in Guwahati.
Gandhian Anna Hazare on Monday persuaded Right To Information activist and Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti leader Akhil Gogoi to end his fast unto-death against the construction of mega dams on rivers in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh without making a cumulative downstream impact study.
Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti general secretary and RTI activist Akhil Gogoi has resorted to a fast unto death in Guwahati demanding halt in construction of mega dam projects on various rivers in Arunachal Pradesh and Bhutan, including the mainstream of Brahmaputra river.
Terming the situation in violence-hit districts of Assam as 'deplorable', West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday said the state will provide shelter to refugees fleeing trouble-torn areas.
A day before United Progressive Alliance Presidential candidate Pranab Mukherjee's Jharkhand visit, the Congress on Wednesday said chances of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha President Shibu Soren supporting him are positive, though he has chosen to defer the date of announcement of his choice for the July 19 election.
The review plea has been filed by ministers from West Bengal (Moloy Ghatak), Jharkhand (Rameshwar Oraon), Rajasthan (Raghu Sharma), Chhattisgarh (Amarjeet Bhagat), Punjab (B S Sidhu) and Maharashtra (Uday Ravindra Sawant).
At a meeting convened by Congress chief Sonia Gandhi on a range of issues ahead of Monsoon Session of Parliament, the seven chief ministers unanimously agreed to the need for filing a review petition urging the Supreme Court to reconsider its recent order rejecting the postponement of the competitive exams.
The Central Bureau of Investigation on Friday conducted raids at the premises of 15 Jharkhand members of Legislative Assembly as part of its investigation into the allegations of horse-trading that led to countermanding of the March 30 Rajya Sabha polls.
Urging Team Anna to change its decision of joining electoral politics, prominent Team Anna member and peasant leader Akhil Gogoi on Saturday said, "Otherwise, the Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti will have to take an independent stand".
The jovial RJD chief, known for his earthy humours, apparently could not digest that his party drew a blank in its stronghold Bihar and also in the neighbouring Jharkhand.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in Jharkhand faced embarrassment on Thursday when their candidate S S Ahluwalia lost the Rajya Sabha elections, which was held afresh after being countermanded earlier as the Congress and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha bagged the two seats.
A month after the Election Commission countermanded the polls; elections for the two Rajya Sabha seats from Jharkhand began today even as last minute parleys were on, with ruling Jharkhand Mukti Morcha wooing its junior ally All Jharkhand Students' Union party to vote for its candidate Sanjeev Kumar.
The special investigation team of Assam police set up to probe the July 9 molestation case in Guwahati will send raw footages of the incident recorded by a private channel for forensic test.
Maharashtra police on Tuesday raided the homes of prominent Left-wing activists in several states and arrested at least five of them for suspected Maoist links. Near simultaneous searches were carried out at the residences of prominent Telugu poet Varavara Rao in Hyderabad, activists Vernon Gonzalves and Arun Farreira in Mumbai, trade union activist Sudha Bhardwaj in Faridabad, and civil liberties activist Gautam Navalakha in New Delhi. Subsequently, Rao, Bhardwaj and Farreira were arrested. Although Navalakha was also arrested, the Delhi high court ordered police not to take him out of the national capital at least until Wednesday. According to unconfirmed reports, others whose residences were raided are Susan Abraham, Kranthi Tekula, Father Stan Swamy in Ranchi and Anand Teltumbde in Goa. The raids were carried out as part of a probe into the violence between Dalits and the upper caste Peshwas at Koregaon-Bhima village near Pune after an event called Elgar Parishad, or conclave, on December 31 last year. Here are their brief profiles:
Right To Information activist and Team Anna member Akhil Gogoi was attacked and critically injured by suspected youth Congress activists in Assam's Nalbari district on Friday.
Noted Right to Information activist and secretary general of Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti, Akhil Gogoi was seriously injured when he was allegedly assaulted by a group of Youth Congress members at Chamota in flood-affected Nalbari district of Assam on Friday.
The KMSS and the All Assam Students Union are opposing the NHPC's dam project at the lower Subansiri site and are blocking the movement of men and materials related to the project at Gerukamukh on the Assam-Arunachal Pradesh border.
The Krishak Mukti Sangram Samity, an organisation spearheading protests against a proposed dam in eastern Assam, has called for an indefinite bandh in Lakhimpur and Dhemaji districts from Tuesday. The bandh has been called to protest 'police atrocities' on agitators who were forcefully evicted from the demonstration site at Ranganadi in the wee hours of Monday. Akhil Gogoi, general secretary of KMSS, claimed that police personnel resorted to unprovoked lathi-charge.
The Supreme Court on Friday admitted a petition questioning whether a person of foreign origin can hold public office.
These parties also asked the Centre to present a revised comprehensive economic package that will be a 'true stimulus' and sought reversal of all unilateral policy decisions, especially pertaining to labour laws, as they put forth a 11-point demand charter before the government during a virtual meeting, called by the Congress to discuss the situation arising out of the pandemic as well as the lockdown.
After losing the Rajya Sabha election in Jharkhand by three votes, senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader SS Ahluwalia hinted that horse-trading led to his defeat.
Close to 50,000 people on Thursday thronged the sprawling Assam Rifles ground in Agartala to hear 'Bangabandhu's daughter' and Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina speak at the civic reception organised on her honour by the Agartala Municipal Council.
The state government has also taken a decision to keep all schools shut for the day.
Every student of Classes 9 and 10 will receive Rs 2,200 and that of Classes 11 and 12 Rs 7,500 as scholarships, said the manifesto, which was released by Prasad in Ranchi, in the presence of Chief Minister Raghubar Das, Union Tribal Minister Arjun Munda and BJP's state unit president Laxman Gilua.
The money play in Jharkhand in the Rajya Sabha elections appears to be destabilising the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government, with its ally Jharkhand Mukti Morcha even threatening to pull it down if its candidate loses.
The re-nomination of Ahluwalia, Rajya Sabha MP from Jharkhand whose term expires on April 2, was never in doubt. The BJP leadership, however, made it clear to him on Monday that alliance partner Jharkhand Mukti Morcha leader Shibu Soren was unwilling to share the Rajya Sabha seat.
The on-going mass agitation against the construction of 2000 MW Subansiri lower hydroelectric project along the Assam-Arunachal border has intensified. Anti-dam protestors have resisted the movement of two turbines meant for the mega dam project that is being constructed by National Hydroelectric Power Corporation at Gerukamukh at the foothills of Arunachal Pradesh.
A mass protest mobilised by anti-dam protestors from Krishak Mukti Sangram Samity (KMSS), All Assam Students Union (AASU) and Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuva Chatra Parishad (AJYCP) on Thursday stopped a turbine component that was being transported to the 2000 MW Lower Subansiri Hydro-power Project in Dhemaji district of Assam.
Varma sought 'ideological clarity' from Nitish over extending alliance with the BJP beyond Bihar despite having expressed apprehensions 'in private' about the BJP-RSS leading the nation into a 'dangerous space'.
Faced with pressures from its allies the Janata Dal-United and the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, the Bharatiya Janata Party has relented and given up its demand of fielding its full share of candidates for Rajya Sabha from Bihar and Jharkhand, and also denied a ticket to its Deputy Leader in the Upper House S S Ahluwalia for another term.
At a time when finding out who is paying for labourers' train tickets is a task for Sherlock Holmes, Hemant Soren's Jharkhand government has flown in stranded workers from Ladakh, and is probably the only state that has tried to give 'migrant workers' a modicum of respect, observes Debashish Chatterjee.
Fifteen-year-old Sangita Bauri never feared her parents and society when she opposed her forcible marriage in a remote village in West Bengal but she trembled when she was honoured in New Delhi by President Pratibha Patil for her feat.