Here's what leaders from different political parties had to say as results were being announced from Assam, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry.
Counting of votes for the high stakes assembly elections in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Assam, Kerala and Puducherry began on Thursday morning with trends expected to be available by 11am.
The Congress government in Assam and the opposition, the Bharatiya Janata Party, are engaged in war of words over a purported visit of Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh to the troubled Assam-Nagaland boundary areas where situation is limping back to normalcy.
Curfew was relaxed for 12 hours in Assam's Golaghat district on Friday after the situation limped back to normal in wake of the August 20 mob violence and police firing.
He has also convened the first meeting of the extended CWC on July 22 to chalk out the party's future strategy.
FIR was registered against Assam CM Gogoi for poll code violation for holding a press conference when the second and final phase of assembly polls in the states were on
The union home ministry has rejected the ministry of external affairs's proposal to grant visa-on-arrival facility to Bangladeshi nationals and visa-free entry to citizens of that country under the age of 18 and over the age of 65.
The body of former President APJ Abdul Kalam, who died in Shillong on Monday evening, was carried to Delhi early Tuesday morning by a special aircraft from Guwahati.
A bandh called by All Bodoland Minority Students' Union and eight other non-Bodo organisations in protests against killing of at least eight innocent non-Bodo persons by Bodo militant group National Democratic Front of Bodoland (Sangbijit) since Friday has night paralysed life in the violence-affected Bodoland Territorial Autonomous District Council areas in Assam on Monday.
A bandh called by the All Bodoland Minority Students' Union and eight other non-Bodo organisations since Friday night has paralysed life in the violence-affected Bodoland Territorial Autonomous District Council areas in Assam on Monday.
A party leader, who is known to be close to Rahul, said he would be elevated "sooner than you think".
The death toll on Wednesday climbed to 68 in the series of attacks by suspected Bodo militants belonging to the National Democratic Front of Bodoland faction in Sonitpur and Kokrajhar districts of Assam while the Centre was rushing additional forces to the state.
The tragedy had struck the tea gardens of the twin districts of Golaghat and Jorhat after a large number of their workers consumed the spurious liquor on Thursday night.
The influential All Bodo Students' Union has given an August 13 ultimatum to communicate a date for holding tripartite dialogue on the union's demand for a separate state for the Bodo tribe in Assam.
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday said that the Centre would soon take pragmatic steps to effectively manage the country's borders with Myanmar and Bangladesh to check the movement of militants and arms.
The Assam police and security forces have seized 344 illegal weapons from extremists from the troubled Bodoland Territorial Autonomous District Council areas in Assam from 2012 to July, 2014.
The Congress leader said he had warned the people of Assam before the Assembly elections in 2016 that hard earned peace would be hampered if the BJP came to power.
The Assam government has raised demand for coordinated action in Arunachal Pradesh,Nagaland, Manipur and Meghalaya if training, arms supply transit routes of and shelters of militants are to be choked.
The government is learnt to have decided not to go ahead with the proposed National Counter Terrorism Centre after facing strong opposition from non-Congress chief ministers.
Strongly reacting to All India Congress Committee vice president Rahul Gandhi's purported remarks that Asom Gana Parishad was in power for a term allegedly with the backing of insurgents, the Asom Gana Parishad on Friday said it would initiate legal action him.
The outlawed United Liberation Front of Assam (independent), has fired a broadside at Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi for Assam government's decision to present coveted Srimanta Sankardeva Award to yesteryear's celebrated actress of Hindi cinema, Sharmila Tagore.
The Bharatiya Janata Party government's move to provide refugee and citizenship status to Hindu Bangladeshi migrants, who came to India to escape persecution, has evoked sharp reactions in Assam where illegal migration is a burning problem.
Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on Tuesday informed that 10 tribal militants involved in the killing of Hamren police district Superintendent Nityananda Goswami and his personal security officer Ratul Nunisa have been arrested during the intensified operation launched by the Assam police and paramilitary forces in Karbi Anglong hill district of the state.
Union minister Prakash Javadekar said the government has taken care of the interests of everyone and 'the interest of India'.
The Centre on Saturday made available additional forces to violence-hit Assam as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh condemned the "cowardly" terror attack and promised all measures to restore peace there.
Electioneering in Kaliabor Lok Sabha constituency in Assam, Congress candidate Gourav Gogoi, son of Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, has been asking the electorate to choose Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi over BJP's Narendra Modi.
A police case has been filed against Rahul Gandhi, Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi and APCC Chief Bhubaneswar Kalita in connection with the incident of a woman being allegedly killed by her husband for 'kissing' the Congress Vice-President at an interaction last month.
Modi asks states to focus on job creation.
In an unprecedented incident, a protestor from the Krishak Mukti Sangram Samity, a peasants' group led by Right To Information activist Akhil Gogoi, died after setting himself ablaze in front of the high-security state secretariat complex in Guwahati on Monday.
Congress supporters in Assam are upbeat about their party vice president Rahul Gandhi's upcoming road show in the villages along with a massive rally in the state during his visit on February 25 and 26.
A group of MPs from the northeast met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday and demanded an anti-racial discrimination law and judicial inquiry into the death of Aruachal Pradesh youth Nido Tania.
Getting ready to fight the next assembly election in Assam in 2016 on the 'U-turns' on state issues made by the Bharatiya Janata Party government in the Centre, the ruling Congress government in Assam has brought out a handbook for its party workers highlighting the 'failures' of the Narendra Modi government to fulfil promises made to people of the state.
Congress MP from Sultanpur Lok Sabha constituency in Uttar Pradesh Sanjoy Singh is one of the Congress candidates who have filed nominations for the February 7 election to the three Rajya Sabha seats from Assam.
Over 30 persons belonging to the Adivasi community were killed by the outlawed National Democratic Front of Bodoland (Sangbijit faction) or NDFB-S militants at four places in Assam ob Tuesday evening.
On the New Year's day, Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi will present the state's first bravery award to Gunjan Sarma, a 14-year-old girl and a Class VIII standard student of Nazira Central School in Sivasagar district of Assam for showing exemplary courage in saving lives of another children from her school who was taken hostage by a gunman on December 4.
A bandh called by various organisations in protest against the killing of a 14-year-old girl Purnima Rajak in a bomb blast on Tuesday evening, paralysed life in Dibrugarh city as well as the entire district on Thursday.
It is possible that the December clashes in Assam merely exploited an issue simmering for decades. The motivation, however, was something else, says Aditi Phadnis
Rumours of acute scarcity of salt triggered panic buying in half dozen districts of Bihar
The constituencies spread across lower and central Assam will have 12,699 polling stations where 1,04,35,271 voters will be able exercise their franchise.
Assembly elections in Assam used to be a quiet affair and people outside the state would take little interest in the outcome. This time, even in faraway Delhi, people are keeping tabs on political developments in Assam.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Investor Information - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances