A MEETING of newly-elected Congress MLAs to discuss the appointment of the next Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister began here on Friday evening amid a show of strength by aspirants to the post, a day after the party wrested power from the BJP. Chief Minister hopefuls Pratibha Singh, Mukesh Agnihotri and Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu reached the party office for the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meeting along with their supporters, who raised slogans in their favour. As the party’s central observers -- ..

THE Election Commission of India, on Monday gave the two contesting factions of Shiv Sena different names and allocated torch (mashaal) as election symbol to the Uddhav Thackeray faction. The EC asked the Eknath Shinde faction to submit three other choices for election symbol by 10 am on Tuesday, thus rejecting its first bunch of symbols suggested. In a late evening development, the EC gave the Thackeray faction the name “Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) to the Shinde faction, the EC gave ..

THE Election Commission on Saturday barred the Shiv Sena factions led by Uddhav Thackeray and Eknath Shinde from using the party name and its election symbol in the Andheri East Assembly by-poll. In an interim order over the claims by the rival factions for control of the organisation, the commission asked them to suggest by Monday three name choices for their groups, and also as many free symbols...

THE Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Saturday approached a special court here challenging the bail granted to Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav in the alleged scam involving the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC). Special judge Geetanjali Goel of the Rouse Avenue Court has issued a notice on the CBI’s plea seeking Tejashwi Yadav’s response in the matter. The RJD leader and his mother Rabri Devi were granted bail in the case in 2018. In one of its contentions, ..

THE Election Commission has asked the rival factions of the Shiv Sena, led by Uddhav Thackeray and Eknath Shinde, to submit documents by August 8 in support of their claims on the election symbol of the political outfit. Election Commission sources said the two sides have been asked to submit documents, including letters of support from the legislative and organisational wings of the party and the written statements of the rival factions. They said the requirement were made in line with the Paragraph ..

MNS LEADER Bala Nandgaonkar on Wednesday met Maharashtra Home Minister Dilip Walse-Patil over a letter threatening Raj Thackeray and demanded action. Speaking to reporters later, Nandgaonkar said there would be repercussions across the State if the MNS chief was harmed. His office received the letter, he said, adding that it was written in Hindi with a smattering of Urdu words and referred to Thackeray’s warning that the Hanuman Chalisa would be played in front of mosques if loudspeakers were continued ..

THE Congress Working Committee (CWC) will meet on Sunday to discuss the outcome of the assembly elections in five States where the party received a drubbing, the sources said. Congress Interim President Sonia Gandhi will chair the meeting of the party’s top decision-making body at its headquarters here at 4 PM on Sunday, they said. The Congress lost Punjab to the AAP and could not win any of the four other States - Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur...

AAM Aadmi Party chief ministerial candidate Bhagwant Mann on Thursday said the oath-taking ceremony of the new Punjab cabinet will be held at Khatkar Kalan, the ancestral village of legendary freedom fighter Bhagat Singh in Nawanshahr district. He also said that no Government office will display photograph of the Chief Minister. Instead, photos of Bhagat Singh and B R Ambedkar will be put on walls in Government offices “The oath-taking ceremony will not be held at the Raj Bhawan, but at Khatkar ..

THE Aam Aadmi Party on Thursday stormed Punjab, winning 92 of the 117 Assembly seats, decimating the Congress and the SAD-BSP combine and making leaders like CM Charanjit Singh Channi, Parkash Singh Badal and Amarinder Singh bite the dust. While AAP bagged three-fourth of the seats, the Congress won 18, SAD 3, BJP 2 and BSP 1. An Independent also emerged victorious. AAP will now form its second Government in the country after the one led by Arvind Kejriwal in Delhi. Kejriwal hailed the party’s performance ..

SEVERAL exit polls on Monday forecast a clear majority for the BJP in Uttar Pradesh and the Aam Aadmi Party in Punjab with some of them giving an edge to the Bharatiya Janata Party in Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur. Exit polls on CNN News 18, Times Now, India Today, Republic TV, News 24 and News X channels showed the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) getting anywhere between 326 and 211 seats, and its main challenger Samajwadi Party-led alliance getting anywhere between 160 and 71 seats in ..

THE Maharashtra Government on Thursday presented supplementary demands worth Rs 6,250.36 crore in the State Legislature on the first day of the Budget session. The amount of Rs 1,400 crore was earmarked for special grants to Municipal Councils ..

MAHARASHTRA Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and various other State ministers sat on a dharna here on Thursday to protest against the arrest of their Cabinet colleague Nawab Malik by the Enforcement Directorate in a money laundering case. NCP leader Pawar, whose party shares power with the Shiv Sena and Congress in the state as part of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), was the first to reach the protest site close to Mahatma Gandhi’s statue near the State Secretariat Mantralaya. He was later joined by ..

JUST two weeks ahead of Assembly polls in the Congress-ruled Punjab, party leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday announced incumbent Charanjit Singh Channi as the party’s chief ministerial face for the polls. State party chief Navjot Singh Sidhu, who was in the race, hugged Channi on the stage as Gandhi announced his name after over 45 minutes of his speech, televised across the 117 Assembly seats. Political observers believe the decision of the Congress to go to the polls in the State, which is witnessing ..

RELEASING the first list of 107 candidates for the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls, the BJP on Saturday fielded Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath from Gorakhpur Urban seat and his Deputy Keshav Prasad Maurya from Sirathu in Kaushambi as it expressed confidence of retaining power with a big majority. Except for Adityanath and Maurya, all the names are for 105 of the 113 seats which will go to the polls in the first two phases on February 10 and 14, with 44 of them hailing from Other Backward Classes and ..

THE BJP on Thursday finalised its candidates for 172 Assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh and is likely to field both Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya who are currently members of the Legislative Council, party leaders said. Polling in most of these 172 seats will be held in the initial phases beginning February 10 and the party is also considering fielding Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma and State unit president Swatantra Dev Singh. Addressing the media ..

AS SEVERAL leaders from its fold joined the Trinamool Congress (TMC) in the last few months, Congress has now decided to launch an all-out attack on the Mamata Banerjee-led party with its top leaders taking the charge. Mamata’s “there is no UPA” remark after a meeting in Mumbai with Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar, an ally of Congress in Maharashtra, evoked a strong response from the party, currently being led by interim president Sonia Gandhi. ..

THE BJP and its allies on Tuesday won 11 Assembly seats while the Congress bagged eight out of 29 seats in the latest round of by-polls, with results mostly favouring ruling parties in the States except in Himachal Pradesh, where the BJP lost all three Assembly seats and the prestigious Mandi Lok Sabha constituency to the Congress, and Telangana. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress got a ringing endorsement from the electors as it won all the four Assembly seats, including ..

SENIOR Congress leader Adhir Chowdhury has lashed out at Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo Mamata Banerjee for her comments against the Congress in Goa and said she was doing so to a party now that had always come out in her support and wondered if she was working as an “agent of BJP”. Continuing his diatribe, Chowdhury who is the WBPCC president, at a press meet on Saturday demanded to know why Banerjee, who is trying to cobble up opposition unity, had entered into an alliance with the BJP in the ..

THE Election Commission on Saturday barred the Chirag Paswan and the Pashupati Kumar Paras factions from using the name of Lok Janshakti Party or its symbol ‘bungalow’ till the dispute between the rival groups is settled by the poll panel. The commission also said that the two factions can use free symbols available to field their candidates for the by-polls to two Assembly seats in Bihar in the coming days. “Both the groups shall be known by such names by as they may choose for their respective groups, ..

AMID speculation of him joining the BJP, former Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh met Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday evening. The meeting lasted for around an hour at Shah’s official residence here. On Wednesday, Singh tweeted after the meeting with Shah: “Met Union Home Minister @AmitShah in Delhi. Discussed the prolonged farmers’ agitation against #FarmLaws & urged him to resolve the crisis urgently with repeal of the laws & guarantee MSP, besides supporting Punjab in crop diversificat..

SENIOR BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis on Saturday said ups and downs are part of democracy and hoped the BJP would get another opportunity to form its Government in Maharashtra again. Addressing a gathering of Mathadi workers in Navi Mumbai to commemorate the 88th birth anniversary of labour leader late Annasaheb Patil, the former Chief Minister called for a speedy resolution of issues concerning head-loaders. “We will again get an opportunity to come to power. Ups and downs are part of democracy, “ ..

CONGRESS President Sonia Gandhi will take a final call on inducting election strategist Prashant Kishor in the party as Congress leaders are divided over the issue. According to party sources, Sonia has already started the consultation process. Kishor has more recently worked with the Trinamool Congress and has been credited as the man behind the thumping victory of the party in the West Bengal Assembly elections. As Kishor wants a full-fledged role and decision making authority on election related ..

CONGRESS Interim President Sonia Gandhi on Friday urged Opposition party leaders to work together and plan systematically for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, saying, the goal is to give the country a Government that believes in the principles of the Constitution. Addressing a virtual meeting of various Opposition parties, she said that this is a challenge but expressed hope that “together we can” do it. “Despite our political compulsions, the time has come when interests of our nation demand that we rise ..