These measures are in addition to other proposals made earlier, including regulation of sale and consumption of liquor, free trips to certain religious places like Sabarimala and distribution of one lakh cows every year.
The BJP and TRS took digs at each other over the celebrations marking the annexing of the erstwhile Nizam-ruled Hyderabad state to the Union of India, with the former slamming vote bank politics behind the lack of official commemoration so far while the ruling party warned against communal forces trying to divide the society.
The Telangana Joint Action Committee, comprising of all political parties and a large number of people's organisations has set a deadline of January 28 for the central government to announce a time-bound program for the formation of Telangana state.
All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, the biggest Muslim political party in Andhra Pradesh has expressed serious reservations over the fate of the Muslim minority in case of the formation of Telangana state.
For Telangana Rashtra Samithi President K Chandrasekhar Rao, the metamorphosis from being the leader of separate statehood agitation by starting of with only a handful of supporters in 2001 to security majority on his own and occupying the chief minister's chair in Telangana is complete.
KCR, as Rao is popularly known, was administered the oath of office and secrecy by Governor E S L Narasimhan at a simple ceremony on the lawns of Raj Bhavan.
The prevailing political ground realities in Andhra Pradesh read with Union Home Minister P Chidambaram's statement in Lok Sabha on Wednesday make it clear that the central government appears to be in no hurry to take a decision on the contentious Telangana statehood issue.
Home Secretary G K Pillai backtracked on his statement given earlier on Friday where he said that Hyderabad would be the capital of the proposed Telangana state.
Is the unusually and unbearably scorching Sun and the general laxity, bordering on laziness, among voters, responsible, asks N Sathiya Moorthy.
Surat police commissioner Anupam Singh Gehlot identified the arrested accused as Maulvi Sohel Abubakr Timol (27), who worked at a thread factory as a manager and offered private tuition on Islam to Muslim children.
The resignation of 12 members of Parliament of various political parties from Telangana region in Andhra Pradesh has not been accepted by Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar.
The Congress said it does not want to indulge in speculation and slugfest for TRPs.
Home Minister P Chidambaram said four political parties in Andhra Pradesh -- Congress, Telugu Desam Party, Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen and YSR Congress -- are yet to make up their mind about their stand on Telangana.
Telugu Desam Party chief N Chandrababu Naidu blamed the ruling Congress for the present state of affairs in Andhra Pradesh and asked the party to bail the state out of the crisis. "This has become such a complex issue that divisions have taken place in political parties. Congress is responsible for this and they should solve the problem," Naidu, on a tour of West Godavari and East Godavari districts in coastal Andhra, said at Tanuku.
Over 65 Union ministers are likely to take oath, going by the visual of the meeting Modi held with his likely council of ministers.
Congress leaders and political analysts feel that Congress president Sonia Gandhi should have visited Telangana after the Parliament passed the Telangana Bill and after the Telangana Rashtra Samithi refused to ally with the Congress. Vicky Nanjappa reports
On the proposed Grand Alliance of the Congress and other parties in the state, Shah said the Telugu people had not forgotten how the Congress had treated their leaders like former (undivided) Andhra Pradesh chief minister Anjaiah and former prime minister P V Narasimha Rao.
It is in circumstances like this that the Constitution becomes extremely important. It reminds us that we have a commitment towards higher human values to fulfil, a path to get back to, suggests Shyam G Menon.Else, we risk being rudderless in an ocean of money and majoritarianism, suggests Shyam G Menon.
The Congress believes the Telangana Rashtra Samithi will decide in favour of a merger as the decision on statehood has deprived the regional party of its chief electoral plank and an issue that defined its identity. Anita Katyal reports
The announcement of creation of a separate state of Telangana was welcomed with jubilant celebration on Tuesday.
With many of its plans to break the impasse over the Telangana issue coming unstuck, the Congress is now reportedly toying with the idea of moving a resolution on the statehood demand in the next session of Andhra Pradesh assembly.
A resolution to this effect was passed at the party's general body meeting in Hyderabad, party sources said.
He said the people are looking for an alternative and the Congress' victories in Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka elections are clear proof of this.
TRS president and Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao is expected to announce the new name for the party on Wednesday, considered auspicious in view of Vijayadasami.
Even as JAC, comprising the Telangana Rashtra Samiti, Congress, Bharatiya Janata Party and other people's organisations met in Hyderabad to chalk out the future course of action, TDP President N Chandrababu Naidu lashed out at TRS holding it responsible for Thursday's attack on his senior party colleague N Janardhan Reddy.
The Odisha government told the assembly over 40,000 workers migrated from the state last year, with the highest number -- 26,151 -- from Balangir.
The second day of the bandh call for Friday on the Telangana issue stands withdrawn in view of Christmas, a joint action committee of Telangana leaders has announced.
She said despite being aware of adverse political consequences, the Congress went ahead and created Telangana, and paid the price in the elections that followed.
It would certainly help if in the first five or ten years the new state had a Telangana United Front government which included all political parties and which then would dedicate itself to bringing about fast development for the neglected region, says Gautam Pingle in the final part of a two-part series on the new state.
A maximum of 92,000 personnel of CAPFs are likely to be deployed in politically volatile West Bengal, where elections will be held in seven phases, followed by 63,500 personnel in militancy-hit Jammu and Kashmir, where polling will be held in five phases.
Rai also asserted that the Congress will win the upcoming Assembly elections in all five states.
BJP in Telangana alleged that the ruling BRS is behind the posters.
A day after his fans held an agitation, urging him to reverse his choice, the actor said he has already made known his decision and explained the reasons for it.
Amid criticism that the Congress had given a walkover to Irani in Amethi, sources said, the party in its wisdom believed that Rae Bareli's historical, emotional and electoral importance for the Gandhi family was higher than that of Amethi.
It will now take at least two more years to get a clarity on the priorities and policies of the leadership of the new state of Telangana.
Over the last five days, Modi visited all of south, held roadshows, made an aggressive bid for his party, and took on the rivals with full gusto, especially the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam in Tamil Nadu, and the Bharat Rashtra Samithi in Telangana that was in power for 10 years.
In renaming TRS and repositioning it as a 'national' party, KCR is also eyeing a pole position in opposition politics ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
The thumping electoral victory the Congress had dreamt about is now a distant reality, says Vicky Nanjappa
The Commission, under Justice (retd) Ritu Raj Awasthi, would recommend an amendment to the Constitution to add the "new chapter or part" on simultaneous elections, the sources said.
President Droupadi Murmu on Saturday conferred Bharat Ratna, the country's highest civilian honour, on former prime ministers P V Narasimha Rao and Chaudhary Charan Singh, agriculture scientist M S Swaminathan and two-time former Bihar chief minister Karpoori Thakur, posthumously at a ceremony held at the Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi.
