Observing that the name and photographs of Sharad Pawar cannot be used by the Ajit Pawar faction for political gains, the Supreme Court on Thursday sought a response from the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) faction led by the Maharashtra deputy chief minister on a plea of the veteran Maratha leader alleging misuse of his popularity by the rival camp.
I watched from my balcony and found that during the next eight hours up to 5.30 pm, not one prospective voter was seen to go to the Congress table, notes Rashme Sehgal. The rush was all around the BJP table.
Narendra D Modi and his party campaigned in these elections uncharacteristically without any big ideas. Of course, winning each election at all costs could be a big idea as well, observes Shekhar Gupta.
The two major parties offer the United States choices that are basically unacceptable and the bench strength, such as it is, is not entirely capable of winning popular acclaim, notes Shreekant Sambrani.
Mohammadpur Umri, a small village in Uttar Pradesh near the Indian Air Force's Bamrauli base in Prayagraj, is called a 'village of twins'.
The Lok Sabha contest in Thiruvananthapuram is shaping up to be a significant battle involving key candidates like Shashi Tharoor, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, and Panniyan Ravindran. This three-cornered fight highlights the political dynamics in Kerala's capital city, with each candidate bringing their own vision and promises for the region's development, notes Rajeev Srinivasan.
'Not just Maharashtra, the Congress has not fielded even one Muslim candidate from Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Goa.'
Indications are that the DMK combine will win more seats than the AIADMK and BJP, but is facing a tough fight in about half a dozen from the rest, predicts N Sathiya Moorthy of the electoral contest in Tamil Nadu.
'The BJP is doing politics 24x365, but the Congress revs up only during elections.'
The All India Football Federation (AIFF) on Friday got a former player as its first president in its 85-year history with Kalyan Chaubey beating the legendary Bhaichung Bhutia in the election for the top post.
Rediff readers tell us about their first jobs and salaries.
In the coming days, unless Modi tones down the communal spiel, it will be clear that anxiety continues to drive his mind and clouds his judgment, observes Modi biographer Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
'A robust electoral democracy provides the institutional basis for the generation and regeneration of political hope.'
The decision to repeal the Act was taken at a late-night cabinet meeting on Friday as it is an obsolete pre-Independence Act of the British for the then province of Assam, the CM said.
Incumbent DMK MP T Sumathy alias Tamizhachi Thangapandian will face-off former Telangana Governor and BJP leader Tamilisai Soundararajan, while the the AIADMK has fielded ex-MP Dr J Jayavardhan, who won from here in 2014.
Religion matters. Aspirational India is still poor. India admires strong leaders. India values decency. Shreekant Sambrani highlights the reasons why the BJP pulled off improbable victories in the Hindi heartland.
'Chavan's political clout began declining since his Lok Sabha defeat in 2019.'
'These betrayers don't realise that their exit opens up vast new opportunities to those whose growth they have always stunted'
Villagers of Shantipur and Phulia brought to Rao's notice names of voters in the list who were no more.
'One of the principles of the MCC that you should not make hate speeches and create hatred between communities on the basis of religion was violated on a scale that was never seen before.' 'Religious symbols were very liberally used and speeches were made to polarise people on the basis of religion.'
The action was taken upon a plea filed by Congress Vikasnagar runner-up candidate Navprabhat on alleged tampering of electronic voting machines.
Where other Indian states cry for women representatives in assemblies and other elected bodies, Rajasthan has highest number of women legislators and sarpanchs (village heads), but the recent electoral list shows drastic decline of female voters in the desert state.
Responding to a question, Abdullah said elections can be held whenever the government wants.
While the BJP demanded that the polls in the Raja Rajeshwari Nagar constituency are countermanded, the Congress alleged that the apartment belonged to a BJP leader.
Stoking controversy, Bharatiya Janata Party Lok Sabha candidate and one of the members of Legislative Assembly booked in Muzaffarnagar riots cases Hukum Singh said on Thursday he would oppose riot refugees from voting in his constituency Kairana as they were living "illegally" on government land.
The election tamasha that was successfully taken online by the BJP during the 2014 general elections is playing out in a bigger avatar, reports Sanjay Jog
In violence-hit Manipur, the general buzz associated with elections and the related paraphernalia of posters, banners and rallies are missing but it is the presence of these brown boxes with pictures of guns that is symbolic of the strife-ridden society struggling to return to normalcy.
Most politicians and even non-politicians have been honoured because of what they were purported to be electorally worth for the ruling party of their time, argues N Sathiya Moorthy.
Deriving from Narendra Modi's continuing charisma, the proposed scheme, if and when implemented, can cut both ways. That is to say, if Modi can win, he can lose. Or, someone else in his place, later on, could lose as much as he could win in his time, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
Addressing the party's national executive, Nadda also reached out to Sikhs, who are in majority in poll-bound Punjab, by listing a number of measures the Modi government has taken for the community, including expediting action against 1984 riots accused, facilitating foreign grants to gurudwaras and keeping langars outside the review of the Goods and Services Tax.
Jogi is a slice of current history, and unlike another recent film that does not need to be named, never resorts to sensationalism. Reminiscent of Schindler's List in spirit, it is the story of good overcoming evil, which is what keeps hope alive in dark times, observes Deepa Gahlot.
In a jolt to the Centre, the Supreme Court on Thursday stayed the notification setting up a fact-checking unit under the Press Information Bureau (PIB) to identify fake news about the Union government.
The SEC claimed that BSF could not provide central forces to more than 10,000 booths.
The modus operandi for immunising the country's 1.35 billion population in stages has been thrashed out in more than one meeting among top government officials in the health ministry and the Prime Minister's Office.
The figure was estimated on the basis of a standard population-voter ratio in UP, the country's most populous state.
'I want us not to underestimate Indian voters. They can tell good work from bad.'
Delhi BJP spokesperson Harish Khurana claimed that permission was taken for Gambhir's event.
In a historic judgement, the Meghalaya High Court has said that Bangladesh nationals who have settled in this north eastern state before March 24, 1971, should be treated as Indians and they be enrolled in the voters' list.
In Phase 6, indications are that the BJP, which is defending 40 seats, will lose in double digits and gain in single digits. Not good, if you are the ruling party scrambling to earn a working majority, with just one phase left to go, argues Prem Panicker.
Kerala's election discourse operates surreptitiously. Its explicit face focuses on important national and local issues. At the same time, it seeks to secure apt communal equations to ensure votes, notes Shyam G Menon.
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