Students, employees and other supporters of united Andhra Pradesh continued protests in the Rayalaseema and coastal Andhra regions on Tuesday, amid indications that the ruling Congress would take a decision in favour of separate Telangana.
The ruling Congress in Andhra Pradesh on Monday suffered a major blow in the urban civic body polls in the Seemandhra region, where opposition Telugu Desam Party put up a stellar performance, but stole the show in Telangana for whose statehood the party claims credit.
Normal life was disrupted for the second day on Tuesday due to the 72-hour bandh called in the Darjeeling hills by Gorkha Janmukti Morcha to demand Gorkhaland.
The Congress appears to be veering round to taking a call on the contentious Telangana statehood issue with party leader in charge of Andhra Pradesh saying consultation process is over and time for a decision has come.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday threatened the Palestinians with unilateral steps over their renewed statehood bid and asserted that Israel will not seek a peace deal "at any price".
Coupled with his administrative and organisational skills and experience, his loyalty to the party and RSS ideology seemed to have won the day for him.
In an exclusive interview with rediff at his New Delhi residence this week, former Union Home Secretary G K Pillai categorically stated, "Smaller states have the advantage of effective administration as well as speedy development."
Every general election since 2004 has been seeing the foray of one or two new parties into the political battlefield in Andhra Pradesh.
Ruckus over Telangana statehood issue and plight of Tamil fishermen disrupted proceedings in the Rajya Sabha for the third consecutive day on Friday, leading to two adjournments before lunch.
From belonging to an endangered tribe, somewhere along the line I had turned into a dangerous species myself; a lying, scheming traitor, who had let the country down -- in short, an anti-national, says Durba Dhyani.
He was merely responding to the changing currents in the region, which, unfortunately, are not favourable to the Palestinians, says P R Kumaraswamy.
Releasing its 70-point programme, Kejriwal called party's manifesto 'holy'.
Telugu Desam Party President N Chandrababu Naidu tonight urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to break his silence and take a "proactive role" in resolving the concerns and do justice to all over the proposed bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh.
As protests continues over the Telangana decision, the Congress is making attempts to pacify the leaders from the Seema-Andhra region by setting up a high-level committee headed by A K Antony to talk to them.
The Telangana government will be embarking on a week long celebration from Tuesday to observe its Formation Day.
The porposal is aimed at ensuring the safety of people of Seema-Andhra
Gandhi will embark on a 15-kilometre padyatra in Telangana's Adilabad district on Friday, highlighting the issues of farmers.
Although the Congress leadership and UPA has given its nod for Telangana, the road to the separate state is surely going to be a complicated one, reports Anita Katyal.
Telangana Rashtra Samithi chief K Chandrasekhar Rao on Monday met Rahul Gandhi, a day after he held consultations with Congress president Sonia Gandhi following the passage of the Telangana bill in Parliament.
KCR will continue as caretaker chief minister until the new government is formed.
In his fresh letter to Modi, Kejriwal urged him to end IAS officers' strike so that he can attend a meeting of NITI Aayog on Sunday.
Netanyahu's right-wing Likud party has claimed a stunning victory in the election.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his Bihar counterpart Nitish Kumr on Thursday jointly attacked the Centre calling it "anti-poor and anti-farmer" and asserted that the people will give it a "befitting reply".
'As of now, this one move seems to have precariously altered the balance of forces on the volatile ground, between separatists and the mainstream. 'The landscape today presents a fearsome picture of the future of mainstream politics in Kashmir. 'Conversely, the separatist ideology looks to have got an unearned boost,' points out Mohammad Sayeed Malik, the veteran commentator on Kashmir affairs
Pawar also disapproves Modi's criticism of Nehru during Parliament debate.
'The ideal thing that should be done in Kashmir is call for an election -- before the end of the year.'
K Chandrasekhara Rao is using politics to highlight an administrative and judicial issue, says B Dasarath Reddy.
Though the people of Andhra Pradesh seem to have more or less reconciled to the fact that bifurcation of the state is inevitable, political parties in Seemandhra are leaving no stone unturned to stall the proposed division process, at least till the 2014 elections.
"Our party was defeated in unambiguous terms," she says about the defeat to the Aam Aadmi Party in 2013.
Congress legislators from the coastal Andhra and Rayalaseeema would soon undertake a 48-hour hunger strike in Hyderabad in support of united Andhra Pradesh.
Sisodia said several meetings, attended by IAS officers, were held during the day.
The police suspect that left-wing extremists may infiltrate the "Chalo Assembly" protest and spark violence during the stir called by the Telangana Joint Action Committee on June 14.
While the United Progressive Alliance government is preparing to ignore the protests from anti-Telangana members of Parliament and push through the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Bill in Parliament on Tuesday, the Congress' grim internal assessment is that the move may not pay the requisite electoral dividends which it had originally hoped for, says Anita Katyal
Ameya Khopkar, MNS chief Raj Thackeray's close friend, defending his stance, says, "When our soldiers are being killed on the borders by Pakistan, why should we host their actors here?"
'Tomorrow AAP will say Dawood gave them money but they don't know anything about it!' Amit Shah tells CNN-IBN in an interview.
The Andhra Pradesh unit of the Congress is heading towards a major crisis. Several leaders of the party are reportedly planning to walk out after the Congress's dismal showing in the assembly polls in four states.
"Why did Congress oppose creation of Uttarakhand as a state? Those who cannot think well of the people here, how can they govern?" Prime Minister Modi said while addressing an election rally.
An all party-meeting to discuss legislative business in Parliament's monsoon session on Thursday saw a fierce debate on the issue of Telangana with the Bharatiya Janata Party demanding that a bill be brought on it in this session and some other parties fearing repercussions of the decision in other states.
Turmoil over Telangana statehood and a variety of other issues paralysed proceedings in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday prompting a comment from the Chair that he was "disturbed" and "disappointed" over lack of consensus to run the House.
