The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in Gujarat was unable to end its 18-year jinx in Visavadar as it lost the bypolls to Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party despite a strong campaign.
'Arundhati Roy is like a ballerina performing on a high wire, cool, supremely at ease but conscious of all the adoring eyes on her,' notes P Vijaya Kumar.
Glimpses from India and around the world that will make you smile and cry.
He ruled out an electoral alliance with any party and said next year's Assembly poll will be a straight contest between his TVK and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam.
This negated the gain of more than a dozen seats in Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and Kerala.
A string of populist promises, including extension of the free ration scheme announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Mahadev betting app issue and the Hindutva card are among key factors that have catapulted the Bharatiya Janata Party to power in Chhattisgarh after five years.
The 62-year-old former deputy chief minister was first elected the party president in 2008. His re-election at the outfit's general delegate session in Amritsar comes barely four months after he quit after he was declared 'tankhaiya' (guilty of religious misconduct) by the Akal Takht for "mistakes" committed by the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and its government from 2007 to 2017.
EPS has had its way on most things, alliance-wise. A week earlier, he reiterated that he would not re-admit OPS and Sasikala Natarajan back in the party. It was a message not just to detractors in the AIADMK. It was even more so for the BJP leadership in Delhi. Even more important for the AIADMK was their demand for accepting EPS as the chief ministerial candidate of any alliance that the party would form, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Besides Hooda, his son Deepender Singh Hooda, Kumari Selja and Randeep Surjewala are also being seen as chief ministerial aspirants.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi accused the BJP of rigging the Maharashtra assembly elections and expressed concerns about similar tactics being used in the upcoming Bihar polls. He alleged that the special intensive revision of electoral rolls in Bihar is an attempt to manipulate the election process.
Moderate turnout was recorded in the first four hours of polling across five assembly constituencies across Punjab, West Bengal, Gujarat and Kerala where bypolls are underway on Thursday.
Even after 50 years, Sholay remains a lasting reminder of unity, shared memories and the joy of cinema, notes Mohammad Asim Siddiqui.
'I want to ask the entire nation and the opposition. Can a Chief Minister, Prime Minister, or any leader run the country from jail?'
The Election Commission suspended four officers and a casual worker in West Bengal for alleged dereliction of duty and lapses in preparing electoral rolls. The action follows allegations of electoral roll compromise at the behest of the ruling Trinamool Congress.
Congress does unto AAP what Kejriwal's party had done to it in Haryana.
'You can say it was a moment that can be described as unimaginable or unbelievable.'
In the last 11 years, India and the world witnessed what he stood for, what he promised and did not deliver, and what he actually stood for and practised without fearing how history would judge him. Modi's tenure has been punctuated with headline-grabbing decisions, symbolic gestures, and stage-managed moments that continue to define his leadership and India's politics, points out Ramesh Menon.
Mouni Roy attends luxury jewellery brand Chopard's event at the Cannes Film Festival.
An average voter turnout of 20 per cent was recorded in the first four hours of voting in the bypolls to 15 assembly seats spread across Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Kerala and Uttarakhand on Wednesday amid an incident of stone pelting in a village in UP's Meerapur and allegations of police personnel deterring voters from casting their ballot.
'Modi's charisma may have weakened as last year's Lok Sabha poll results showed but in the eyes of the Sangh Parivar, it has not waned.' 'Minus a strong BJP government at the Centre for another decade and more, there is apprehension that an anti-Hindutva government could reverse many of the ideological gains that the Modi dispensation has achieved through its three terms,' points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
The Supreme Court has directed the Election Commission to provide details regarding the approximately 65 lakh voters removed from the draft electoral rolls in Bihar, a state preparing for elections. The court's order comes in response to a petition filed by an NGO challenging the Election Commission's Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls.
Nicholas Pooran led the charge, dishing out a taste of SRH's own medicine with his ferocious hitting, while Mitchell Marsh provided perfect support.
'To everyone voting for Trump, I have only this simple question: Would you let him have lunch with your daughter or sister or wife or mother?' 'Then why would you let him have our lunch (and so much more) for four more years?', asks Sree Sreenivasan.
He said Gujarat wants to move forward but is unable to see the way ahead, and the Congress is unable to show it the way.
Call it a charismatic show by the power couple -- Hemant Soren and Kalpana Soren -- whom the Bharatiya Janata Party had dubbed as 'Bunty aur Babli', Jharkhand's Jharkhand Mukti Morcha is on track to secure a second consecutive term as part of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA).
The ruling Mahayuti members in both houses of the Maharashtra legislature condemned state Congress head Harshvardhan Sapkal's remarks comparing Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to Mughal emperor Aurangzeb and demanded strict action against him. Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar said the remarks will be verified and action will be taken accordingly as per the law. The state legislative council witnessed an uproar after the ruling Mahayuti members raised the issue of Sapkal's remarks, and the proceedings were suspended for 10 minutes. BJP group leader Pravin Darekar said comparing the chief minister to Aurangzeb is a highly condemnable act and an insult to Maharashtra. He also demanded that a case be filed against Sapkal and strict action be taken to set an example.
There has been speculation within state's political circles, especially within the ruling Congress, for some time now about the CM change later this year, citing the power-sharing agreement involving incumbent Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar.
The Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) is poised to form the first elected government in Jammu and Kashmir, having secured a victory in the assembly elections by securing 49 out of 90 seats on which polls were held for the first time since the abrogation of Article 370 five years ago.
'Tell me you're in Cannes without telling me you're in Cannes.'
'No political party can antagonise Ambedkarite voters, particularly the neo-Buddhists.'
'Earlier, we used to talk about a deficit economy. There is a deficit in democracy' 'If you read superficially Gandhi and Ambedkar and Nehru, some misconceptions and misunderstanding come to mind, as if they were at loggerheads and they differed radically in their views' 'India is one nation. There is only one citizenship. No citizenship for South India and no citizenship for North India and another for the Northeast'
The current situation in Kerala politics is perhaps best described as a case of the state's traditional two front politics now seeing a third front (the BJP) muscling in with the potential outcome being either a messy three front affair or a renewed endorsement of the two front pattern but with one of the old fronts compromised or quashed, observes Shyam G Menon.
The BJP and Congress have called out the 'Delhi model' as a hoax, built on sustained propaganda when the ground reality is different.
The posters of Siddhant Chaturvedi and Malavika Mohanan's new film, Yudhra, are out, and they are looking very good.
Clue: She was in Mumbai to attend the ZeeCine awards 2025 on Saturday May 17.
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal on Monday hailed the party's performance in the Gujarat and Punjab bypolls, calling them a 'semi-final to 2027' and a clear sign that voters would reject both the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress.
'They wanted the city to be a great business hub. They didn't like the fact that taxes collected in Bombay would go outside the city.'
Trump is confident the US will eventually emerge the winner from whatever turmoil his policies cause, notes T T Ram Mohan.
Chavan, however, made it clear that if the NCP merger happens and if that party goes with the National Democratic Alliance, it would become difficult for the Congress to continue the alliance with them in Maharashtra.
Long denied the right to vote, members of the Valmiki community exercised their franchise for the first time in the Jammu and Kashmir assembly elections on Tuesday and termed it as a "historic moment".
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