Among the seven seats which witnessed a stiff contest between the BJP and the regional parties, the saffron party held three and the Congress two, while the Shiv Sena and the RJD had one each.
Leaders of several opposition parties including the Trinamool Congress, the Samajwadi Party, the Aam Aadmi Party, the Rashtriya Lok Dal and the Left assembled at Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar's residence in New Delhi on Tuesday and discussed various issues facing the country, amid intense speculation about the possibility of a third front against the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.
As most victims' bodies were charred beyond recognition, the authorities have decided to conduct DNA testing to identify them before handing them over to the relatives.
These meetings with Pawar has fuelled speculations about the possibility of opposition parties coming together to form a third front against the Bharatiya Janata Party.
The future challenger to Narendra Modi would be somebody who can bring the Hindus and Muslims together again. The Hindus as Hindus, not broken caste groups, asserts Shekhar Gupta.
Several legislators in states on Monday said they have cross-voted in favour of National Democratic Alliance nominee Droupadi Murmu by not following their respective party lines in the presidential election.
Apart from Sharad Pawar, the commission will also record the evidence of the then superintendent of police (Pune Rural) Suvez Haq, then additional SP, Sandip Pakhale and the then additional commissioner, Pune, Ravindra Sengaonkar, between February 21 and February 25.
The Opposition also asked the Prime Minister's Office to probe the incident, calling it "shameful.
Bharatiya Janata Party MP Kirodi Lal Meena moved for leave to introduce the bill to provide for the constitution of the national inspection and investigation committee for preparation of a Uniform Civil Code and its implementation throughout India and for matters connected therewith during the private member's business.
Campaigning came to an end on Saturday for the single-day election in Uttarakhand and Goa, two states known for political volatility where the Bharatiya Janata Party is attempting to retain power, and for the second phase of assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh on February 14.
Both the BJP and the Congress have banked on new and young faces, some of whom have been nominated by the parties for the first time.
'Since September 1, a senior cabinet minister has been to-ing and fro-ing between Jalna and Mumbai by chartered flight every single day with messages from the two deputy chief ministers and the chief minister to get Manoj Jarange-Patil to back down from his agitation.'
Ramesh, however, said it was too early to talk about all this right now as the Congress' first priority was the upcoming elections in Karnataka and the string of state polls this year.
Even though MLAs are required to show their ballot to respective party whips before casting their vote, all parties have ensured their MLAs are housed in five star hotels closer to the Maharashtra Vidhan Sabha where voting will take place on June 10.
In a stunning blow to the BJP on Wednesday, the party lost bypolls to all the three Lok Sabha seats it contested, including its bastion Gorakhpur, and Phulpur in Uttar Pradesh, besides Araria in Bihar.
"Pawar said April 4 in the afternoon will be convenient for him as Parliament session would be over by then. Accordingly, the Commission has summoned him on April 4," Malik told reporters at the state secretariat in Mumbai.
Opposition presidential candidate Yashwant Sinha on Monday filed his nomination papers for the July 18 election, with a host of leaders including Rahul Gandhi, Sharad Pawar, Akhilesh Yadav and Farooq Abdullah accompanying him.
Adani group stocks have taken a beating on the bourses after Hindenburg Research made a litany of allegations, including fraudulent transactions and share price manipulation at the Gautam Adani-led group. The group has maintained it complies with all laws and disclosure requirements.
As the Opposition held its first meeting on the Presidential polls and names of Farooq Abdullah and Gopalkrishna Gandhi also cropped up, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party reached out to several parties across the political spectrum to build a consensus choice with senior party leader and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh speaking to Sharad Pawar, Mallikarjun Kharge (Congress), Mamata Banerjee (Trinamool Congress), Akhilesh Yadav (Samajwadi Party) and Naveen Patnaik (Biju Janata Dal).
In the third phase of the Lok Sabha election on April 23, 116 seats spread across 13 states and two Union Territories, will go to the polls.
Maharashtra Government on Thursday suspended former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh and initiated disciplinary proceedings against him over "certain irregularities and lapses", an official said.
The Bihar unit of Samajwadi Party, which had protested over denial of seats in the grand alliance for Bihar Assembly polls, claimed to have fruitful talks with the alliance partners Rashtriya Janata Dal President Lalu Prasad and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar over seat sharing.
'People are questioning these highways and expressways in UP because ultimately, they want to get bread and butter first.'
To beat BJP, you either deny them a critical mass of Hindu vote or build a regional leader and party strong enough to protect their turf, observes Shekhar Gupta.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Friday urged top opposition leaders to rise above political compulsions to take on the BJP in the interest of the nation and start planning "systematically" to realise the "ultimate goal" of winning the 2024 Lok Sabha polls
The third phase will see the maximum number of seats going to the polls in this election spread across 12 states and 2 Union territories.
Gandhi met Pawar within hours of the BJP's defeat in the Gorakhpur and Phulpur Lok Sabha bypolls in Uttar Pradesh.
In a sharp attack on the UPA Government, the Left parties on Wednesday accused it of "aiding and abetting" Israel in its bloody offensive against Palestine and demanded snapping of military and security ties with it. Significantly, the CPI(M) was joined by CPI, Samajwadi Party and the NCP, a constituent of the UPA, in demanding that India should not have any relationship with Israel at the cost of the Palestine.
If there is unity in the Opposition, it is only about regional parties other than the DMK not wanting Rahul Gandhi or any other Congress leader for prime minister, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Announcing the name of candidates for the West Bengal assembly polls, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday said she will be contesting from the Nandigram constituency as announced earlier.
Opposition parties on Tuesday asked the government to call an all-party meeting to resolve the current impasse in Parliament, while sticking to their demands for a discussion on Pegasus snooping issue and a Supreme Court-monitored probe into the matter.
BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi is predicted to win both seats -- Varanasi and Vadodara. Kejriwal is places at number 2 in Varanasi, says the ABP News-Nielsen exit poll. Senior BJP leader L K Advani is likely to win the Gandhinagar Lok Sabha for the sixth time.
The Opposition alleged that without any provocation from the Opposition, "outsiders who were not part of Parliament security were brought in to manhandle the Opposition leaders and members, including women Parliamentarians who were only protesting against the Government's conduct, highhandedness and muzzling of the voice".
"All opposition parties should work together. It should be a one-to-one fight against the BJP. All opposition parties should help the strongest one in the state against the BJP," Banerjee said.
'Voters from the forward castes voted for JD-U because they feared Laloo Yadav's return, but since that fear is no longer there they may not see the need to vote for Nitish Kumar anymore.'
Some parties, including the Congress, also demanded immediate sacking of Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Kumar Mishra, following Samyukt Kisan Morcha's allegation that his son was travelling in one of the vehicles involved in the incident.
He said most of the states where farmers were committing suicide were being run by Congress or its United Progressive Alliance constituents. "We (NDA government) had left the country in a healthy economic state. Now things are bad," he alleged.
The police do not have it in them to confront the Hindutva groups in a country ruled by a Hindutva party. No wonder Munawar Faruqui feels this is the end for him, asserts Jyoti Punwani.
Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday said the "unfortunate" and "unprecedented" developments in West Bengal
Kanyakumari is the tip of India and will convey the symbol that from the tip of India, the Congress is on its way up.
