For the villagers of Anjani, a not-so-small village tucked away in north Bihar's Vaishali district, India's ambitions mean little. Anjani is yet to see the light, literally so.
What is Change really like in Bihar? Once seen as India's basket-case, what is its turnaround story like? Archana Masih reports from India's other most talked about state.
'He has emerged as a formidable leader who cannot be ignored anymore, who cannot be mocked.'
Ahead of the day-long Opposition meeting on Friday, Samvad Bhavan, Rajkiye Atithisala and Sadaquat Ashram have got a facelift.
Ten sensitive installations in six states and one Union territory have been declared out of bounds for the general public, with the Centre saying any information with respect to certain activities carried out at these premises may be useful to India's enemies.
The minister was on his way to Motihari to attend PM Modi's rally. He never made it.
Unless controlled and contained, given the untested belief that the north Indian labour support and follow the Hindutva kind of political ideology, there is a potential in terms of ideological clashes with their Dravidian brethren in the local neighbourhoods, and it all escalating into violence, especially during election time, predicts N Sathiya Moorthy.
According to insiders, their lack of enthusiasm is showing on the ground. There is nothing to suggest that their enthusiasm will return in the final four phases of polling, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
The cold wave sweeping north India continued to disrupt normal life for the sixth consecutive day on Thursday and the death toll due to the extreme harsh weather is now reported to be over 195. Approximately 31 more deaths were reported from the various districts in Uttar Pradesh with Agra recording a temperature of 5.4 degree Celsius, the coldest in the state.Seven more deaths were reported from Bihar taking the death toll in the state to 21.
The Congress 'Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra', led by Rahul Gandhi, is scheduled to enter West Bengal from Assam on Thursday, amid political ripples within the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) in the state.
Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray on Tuesday launched a fresh attack on north Indians, singling out the arrest of terrorists from Bihar, in the 13/7 serial blasts case.
Transcending ideological barriers, political parties in Bihar on Friday slammed Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray for his reported statement that influx of North Indians was one of the reasons for growing terror attacks in Mumbai.
'Corruption has to be removed from the police force... government hospitals should improve to take care of the poor...' Biharis express their expectations from the chief minister.
Farmers on Saturday evening ended their three-day 'rail roko' stir that hit the movement of trains, causing inconvenience to passengers in Punjab and Haryana.
'I found it unbelievable that L&T said 45,000 jobs were waiting to be filled because of unavailability of suitable skillsets.' 'So, when the Opposition sweepingly says there are no jobs, I'm sorry... I'm not saying it's raining jobs, but there are jobs. The (skill) gap has to be bridged.'
As various social media content of alleged attacks on migrant workers from Tamil Nadu have turned out to be fake, Chief Minister M K Stalin has alleged the "lies spread" regarding such assaults in the state was a fallout of his recent call for opposition unity to dislodge the ruling BJP at the Centre next year.
The people of West Bengal have lost faith in the state police and therefore their demand for deployment of central forces, Nayak said.
'The clearest interpretation of the November 8 mandate is that the backwards, Dalits and minorities, and a huge proportion of women cutting across caste and class, displayed massive consolidation to the extent that despite chipping of votes by the Left Front, by the Third Front and by the BSP, Mahagathbandhan candidates won, and in many cases by huge margins,' says Mohammad Sajjad.
Following the party's sweep of assembly elections in three Hindi heartland states against the odds, the BJP's brain trust is now busy game-planning as to how it can improve on its 2019 Lok Sabha election tally of 303 seats.
Several states of the country are battling grim flood situations that have affected lakhs of people and have also resulted in loss of life and property.
It is not in the improved roads or in being able to visit the cinema and restaurants without fear or in the increased spending on education. The biggest change in Bihar is the distinct feeling of optimism -- that something good is finally happening in the state.
The BJP, which rules the Centre, is in power in Uttarakhand, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Goa, Assam, Tripura, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, and is all set to get Madhya Pradesh back and snatch Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh from the Congress after today's vote count.
Utkarsh Mishra's impressions of the Narendra Modi roadshow in Varanasi.
Given the reality of the disparity and the enormous shift over the last 50 years, this can be done without an open and frank conversation with the people, something that has not begun and, knowing the style of our leader, is not expected to begin, asserts Aakar Patel.
In Phase 6, indications are that the BJP, which is defending 40 seats, will lose in double digits and gain in single digits. Not good, if you are the ruling party scrambling to earn a working majority, with just one phase left to go, argues Prem Panicker.
Tax devolution shares, which threaten to create a north-south divide among states, may have more to do with per capita income, and not so much with population.
While 67 per cent of India's population is 39 years old or younger, states are governed by chief ministers who are 70 or older.
The Rajya Sabha MP said for electoral success 'it is essential that the ideology of Hindutva is never lost sight of'.
'We were children and could not distinguish freedom from bondage, but we could understand that a momentous and happy event was imminent.'
The probe committee comprises principal chief security commissioners of the Western Railway and the Central Railway, principal chief commercial manager of the North Western Railway, principal chief medical director of the North Central Railway and principal chief personnel officer of the West Central Railway.
The attack on North Indians in Maharashtra generated major uproar in the Lok Sabha on Monday, with demands that Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray be detained under Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act and that he be disenfranchised. Members from Janata Dal-United, Rashtriya Janata Dal and Samajwadi Party, most of them belonging to Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, expressed grave concern over the attack on North Indians in Maharashtra.
This time Modi has no emotive message to take to the stump. Muscular nationalism doesn't work against the backdrop of China's successive inroads into Indian territory. Rising prices is a sore point that cuts across class and caste barriers; unprecedented levels of unemployment has the youth in a ferment. This has reduced the BJP campaign to a laundry list of recycled grievances and thinly veiled communal appeals, neither of which are working as well as they have in the past, argues Prem Panicker.
'We can save 70 patients out of 100, if they reach a hospital well within time.' 'The most crucial aspect is time.'
The alliance would announce a coordination committee, which could be of 11 members from principal opposition parties.
Muslim youth are neither meant for being indoctrinated and hired by any destructive foreign agency like the ISI, nor are they meant for being fired by their own security agencies, says Mohammad Sajjad.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has announced an ex-gratia of four lakh rupees to the kin of those killed in the incident.
Ironically, rival Tamil Nadu governments expend the most on social welfare schemes, especially targeting women and youth and children, but that money comes only by selling more liquor. There is always the specious plea, which has been peddled very many times in the past, that without licensed liquor, drinkers would go after hooch and there could be more hooch tragedies and hooch deaths. No one is convinced, but no one can dispute it either, comments N Sathiya Moorthy.
At least 66 people were killed and over two hundred people injured when a severe nor'wester with a windspeed of 125 km per hour ripped through North Dinajpur district in West Bengal and four neighbouring districts of Bihar.
'The consecration of Ram Lalla in Ayodhya has demoralised them.' 'And, now it is reflecting in their individual reactions as they are losing hope to take on the BJP in 2024.'
'He should not come to Kerala and fight against the CPI which is an integral part of the INDIA alliance'
