Campaigning ended on Wednesday evening for 102 Lok Sabha seats across 21 states and Union territories which will go to polls in the first phase on April 19 with top leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance and the opposition Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) making a last-gasp effort to woo voters.
A bench of Justices A M Khanwilkar and A S Oka was informed by senior advocate Kapil Sibal, who was appearing for the petitioners, that a similar event is scheduled on April 17 in Himachal Pradesh.
Uttarakhand Governor Krishna Kant Paul on Saturday asked Chief Minister Harish Rawat to prove his majority on the floor of the state assembly by March 28 as the political crisis escalated with the Bharatiya Janata Party, claiming the support of rebel Congress MLAs, stepped up efforts to form its government.
One would have expected Rashtrapati Bhavan and not the Delhi police to settle the Unidentified Feline Object issue. In its absence, the four legged-visitor spanned in imagined identity, anything from a domestic cat familiar with the palatial surroundings to a swashbuckling Puss in Boots visiting from the outside or indeed a Bagheera from Jungle Book, notes Shyam G Menon.
If the Congress reached 90, it would have a pretty good chance of holding the BJP below the 272 mark. A hundred seats will rock national politics, argues Shekhar Gupta.
Here are the 10 key issues likely to be the centre of discussion in the seven-phase general elections that begin on April 19.
Chief Minister Harish Rawat lost both seats he contested.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday constituted a Cabinet committee to oversee reconstruction and rehabilitation in flood-ravaged Uttarakhand.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was on Tuesday poised to form the government for a third consecutive term with the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance getting a majority in the Lok Sabha, notwithstanding crushing losses in three Hindi heartland states after a bitterly fought election that was projected as a referendum on his popularity.
A total of 800 people, belonging to 237 families, have so far been shifted to safety by the district administration
There is no use of the BJP targeting the likes of Mamata Banerjee and M K Stalin, directly by the party's political bosses, both in Delhi and the respective state capitals, or even using the Raj Bhavans to fire those salvos from. Successive elections have proved that it's counter-productive, if anything. But the BJP is yet to understand it, acknowledge it, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
The apex court sought to know whether the governor could have sent a message in the present manner under Article175 (2) to conduct a floor test and if delay in the floor test can be a ground for the proclamation of President's rule in the state.
The government on Thursday said no outbreak of any water, food or air-borne disease has been reported from the flood-affected areas of Uttarakhand.
He further said that the "focus is on horizontal drilling" as rock formation has created challenges for vertical drilling.
The home minister held discussions with chief secretary and other state officials on the situation arising due to the forest fire and offered all assistance from the Centre.
Seven persons, including a woman were killed, when three houses were buried in a landslide following heavy showers in the wee hours of the day, taking the toll to 24 in rain-related incidents in two days in Uttarakhand.
Nearly 80% of the inmates are undertrials; UP district jails have twice the numbers they were built for.
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.
An official from East Delhi district said the evacuation process began on Monday night after floodwaters entered some areas.
The WFI will resume national camp from March 27, after after almost 16 months with Sonepat and Gandhinagar in Gujarat to be the likely venues for men and women respectively.
Authorities in New Delhi intensified security arrangements on Tuesday to stop the farmers' march from entering Delhi as the Singhu and Tikri borders were shut while the Red Fort complex was closed temporarily after peasants on their way to the national capital clashed with the police at the Shambhu border between Haryana and Punjab.
Munde expressed confidence that the BJP, which won 34 seats and fell short of majority by just one seat in the 70-member state assembly with an effective strength of 69 would prove its strength in the House.
Two days after he advised VIPs not to visit Uttarakhand, Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde did a U-turn on Wednesday saying that anyone, including Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, could go to the rain-ravaged state now as the situation has changed there.
The administration started preparing for the demolition of two precariously standing hotels in subsidence-hit Joshimath in Uttarakhand on Tuesday, but faced protests from their owners and locals on the issue of compensation, while more families were evacuated from the danger zone as the number of affected houses rose to over 700.
'Akhilesh Yadav made voters think why is the BJP asking for 400 paar.' 'They understood his words and believed the BJP wanted 400 paar only to demolish the Constitution and end reservations.'
By March 17 it would be clear on who will be anointed to the post.
In a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Thursday said when the elections are over, people will only remember him as the PM who indulged in 'divisive and communal speeches filled with lies' to avoid an inevitable defeat.
The speaker had disqualified nine Congress MLAs under the anti-defection law hours after imposition of President's rule in the state on March 27, a day before the state government was scheduled to go for a floor test in the assembly.
This election will be remembered for being the first election where the Election Commission failed to take action on gross violations involving the ruling party that repeatedly used religion, communal slurs, lies and undocumented allegations, observes Ramesh Menon.
A delegation of Bharatiya Janata Party leaders from Uttarakhand on Monday met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and demanded the imposition of President's Rule in the flood-ravaged state on the grounds that the Congress government there had failed to deliver. The delegation, led by former Uttarakhand Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank and comprising Tehri Garhwal Member of Parliament Mala Rajya Lakshmi Shah among others met, Dr Singh for 30 minutes.
The advisory, issued by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, also told private television channels to be sensitive in their reportage, especially while putting out headlines and videos of the rescue operations, considering the psychological status of family members of the trapped workers.
Rat-hole mining may be illegal but the talent and experience of rat-hole miners were used in the rescue operation to save the 41 workers trapped in the Silkyara tunnel, a National Disaster Management Authority member said on Tuesday.
Earlier, on Monday, hot Khichdi was sent through this 6-inch pipeline to the stranded workers for the first time since they were trapped.
In a relief to thousands of people facing imminent threat of demolition of their houses in winter, the Supreme Court on Thursday stayed the Uttarakhand high court order for removal of encroachments from 29 acres of land claimed by the railways in Haldwani, terming it a 'human issue' and saying 50,000 people cannot be uprooted overnight.
Rescue workers on Tuesday were close to breaking through the 60-metre stretch of rubble of the collapsed Silkyara tunnel in Uttarakhand in which 41 workers are trapped for the last 16 days, officials said.
Besides the national capital, polling for the sixth round of the marathon seven-phase elections will be held Saturday in 14 seats in Uttar Pradesh, all 10 seats of Haryana, eight seats each in Bihar and West Bengal, six seats in Odisha, four seats in Jharkhand and one seat in Jammu and Kashmir.
According to estimates, a total of 11.80 lakh polling stations would be required to be set up across India for Lok Sabha polls this year.
The decision was taken in a high-level review meeting chaired by principal secretary to prime minister PK Mishra.
Reacting to the statement, Uttar Pradesh BJP chief Bhupendra Singh Chaudhary said "insulting the Sanatan Dharma again and again" has become the habit of the Samajwadi Party and its leaders.
The incident regarding Chinese troops entering the border district of Chamoli in Uttarakhand is that of "transgression" and not "incursion", the government said on Thursdy.
