Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom was today sworn in as the 6th President of the Maldives, ending nearly two years of political turmoil that threatened to isolate the country internationally.
On its own or with allies the Congress has a strong presence in states that account for a total of 253 LS seats, or 20 short of the magic figure of 272 required to form a government at the Centre. So what is Mamata Banerjee talking about, asks N Sathiya Moorthy.
The Biden administration should expect continuity in Iran's policies under Raisi. This may not necessarily mean that strengthening of ties with the West will be Raisi's top priority, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
The Congress topped the list of pages with the highest spends for the week ended April 6.
His nomination was announced by the outgoing President, Anthony Wreford, at the MCC Annual General Meeting at Lord's in May this year.
A form carrying questions as part of the NPR exercise will be finalised soon, ministry officials said. The information available on the website of the office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner, however, says the NPR database would contain demographic as well as biometric details.
Trinamool Congress on Saturday stayed away from the all-party meeting convened by the state Election Commission in Kolkata to discuss the upcoming panchayat polls in West Bengal, prompting the opposition Congress and Communist Party of India-Marxist to accuse the ruling party of disrespecting a constitutional body.
To snatch a state government out of Congress hands is therefore a high-stakes game with national political implications, for it denies the party the essential fuel to run effective election campaigns, notes T N Ninan.
The biopic was originally set to release on April 12, but its producers had advanced it by a week, claiming 'public demand'.
Around 40,000 Delhi Police personnel, 190 coys (companies) of Central Armed Police Forces and 19,000 Home Guards have been deployed for smooth conduct of election in the national capital, officials said.
Rediff.com's George Joseph lists some of the compelling reasons that prompted American voters to re-elect President Barack Obama.
Prasad, who became chief minister of Bihar in 1990, had anointed his wife on the CM chair after he was sent to jail in 1997 over multi-crore fodder scam cases.
Back of the envelope calculations put government expense on each of the new schemes promised by the DMK and the AIADMK at tens of thousands of crores. But then, neither party has said how they are going to also address the mounting debt burden either, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
The rural parts of the Varanasi constituency have voted better compared to the urban areas. The Election Commission, which gives out an interim figure of the overall polling statistics, states that polling was anything between 55.34 to 57 per cent in the nigh-profile constituency.
'We were new in politics. We made a mistake. This time around, we will not resign.'
'If the Congress party wants to take on the BJP it cannot do it in this fuddy-duddy, grand old party, style.'
Congress is the only other horse in the race for national power, never mind how distant. Narendra Modi and Amit Shah know better than to take the Congress lightly, observes Shekhar Gupta.
A year after he took over as the Indian Boxing Federation's President, which was followed by its international suspension, Abhishek Matoria's election for the top post has been challenged by the very body he claimed to represent in the controversial polls.
He said the parties rejected by the electorate are pushing their own political agenda by misleading farmers.
'It may take the AIADMK much more convincing than already, not only to try and bring around even the one-time Muslim voters of the party. 'More importantly, the party leadership may find it even more difficult to convince traditional party voters and cadres, who had admired Jaya's nonchalance to the party and leader ruling the Centre,' says N Sathiya Moorthy.
The plea was filed by several opposition leaders seeking counting of voter verifiable paper audit trail slips of 50 per cent of electronic voting machines in each constituency before the Lok Sabha results are declared.
'Even though we are very religious and God fearing, we do not subscribe to the kind of Hindutva they practise, a very hierarchical, Brahmanical, Hindutva.'
'There is a design of fundamentalists that the north east must become an Islamic country.'
Brokerage Edelweiss Securities said if the NDA returns to power with a clear majority in line with exit polls, markets would rejoice the policy continuity.
Rediff.com does a quick checklist on what the two manifestos have to say on hot-button issues of the day.
Population is a touchy issue in India. Anybody will notice the crowded rat race we live in, notes Shyam G Menon.
'Anti-incumbency against sitting MPs and the government is a big issue here. We will win all seats in Mumbai'
'EVMs are absolutely credible, they are robust.' 'It's only a calculator with certain instructions. And the sim card inside an EVM is burnt and cannot be reprogrammed.' 'Besides, the machines are circulated among various states. No machine is allowed to remain in one state after an election.' 'By far, it is one of the finest innovations India should be proud of.'
The BJP believes that the only party still capable of leading a credible challenge against it is the Congress. Please note how BJP campaigners in states where the Congress may count for a cipher or thereabouts, mostly attack the Congress, observes Shekhar Gupta.
When it comes to a significant investment like a four-wheeler, many people end up paying high interest rates on car loans which can lead to high monthly installments.
'... while leaving the dirty work he orders to his subordinates.'
'Let the Congress high command decide who will replace Captain Amarinder because they are far wiser than I am.'
To counter any attempt by its rivals to woo voters through distribution of cash and liquor, the Aam Aadmi Party has installed 2,000 high resolution spy cameras in and around slums of Delhi and said it was their attempt to end the age-old practice of buying votes.
In keeping with the trend seen elsewhere in the country so far, an all-time-high 76.82 percent of the voters exercised the franchise in the two Lok Sabha constituencies of Goa on Saturday.
Congress hopes to field upper caste candidates to eat into BJP voter base while SP-BSP focuses on consolidating Dalit-OBC votes in their favour.
The Greek stock market has been shut since last week.
A day after over two lakh Mumbaikars, including several prominent personalities, were left disenfranchised after their names were found missing from the electoral rolls, the Bharatiya Janata Party asked the election authorities on Friday, to revise electoral rolls.
The former first lady urged those who did not come out to vote in 2016 to make their vote count this time.
'He spoke about 20 jawans in Ladakh, but he couldn't even name China.' 'He said the world had seen what had been achieved, even though we Indians don't know because Modi has himself said that nothing had happened and nobody had come,' points out Aakar Patel.
The 2020 assembly polls marked the coming of age of a politician who valiantly went down fighting an army of battle-hardened veterans.
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