SHIV Sena (UBT) President and former Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Wednesday paid a ‘courtesy’ call on Deputy CM Ajit Pawar – their first meeting after the latter split the Nationalist Congress Party, here on Wednesday afternoon. A relaxed Thackeray walked to the chamber of Ajit Pawar, along with Aditya Thackeray and several MLAs of the Shiv Sena (UBT). They exchanged warm pleasantries and the former Boss (Thackeray) and his second-in-command (Ajit Pawar) had a brief discussion...

THE ruling Trinamool Congress on Wednesday inched closer to a sweeping victory in WBengal’s violence-scarred rural polls, bagging more than half the seats and leaving its rivals trailing way behind in results declared till now by the State Election Commission. The TMC has won 34,913 Gram Panchayat seats, besides leading in 607 seats, according to the SEC as of 7.30 pm on Wednesday. In all elections are being held for 63,229 Gram Panchayat seats. The ruling party’s nearest rival BJP has won 9,722 seats ..

NATIONALIST Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar on Wednesday warned the Ajit Pawar-led faction that he would not let his party’s symbol and name fall into their hands. Pawar also objected to the Ajit Pawar faction using his photograph on their banners. “If they have gone there, why are they using my photo? I will not let our symbol and party name fall into their hands,” he said. Pawar senior was speaking at a party meeting organised here to show his strength after his nephew Ajit revolted against ..

THE startling political developments in Maharashtra where the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has witnessed a vertical split can deeply impact the Opposition plans to build a united front to fight the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 2024 ..

   SANTA CLARA/NEW DELHI, RAHUL Gandhi took a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday, describing him as a “specimen” who thinks he knows more than God and alleged that the idea of India is under attack, prompting ..

WEST Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee onTuesday assured her counterpart from Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal, that her party would support him in his fight against the Central ordinance to control appointments and transfer of bureaucrats in that city state. After a nearly hour-long meeting here,Banerjee told newspersons that a forthcoming vote in Rajya Sabha on a bill to convert the central ordinance on control of services in Delhi into law, will be a “semi-final before the 2024 elections.” Kejriwal who ..

KARNATAKA’S two chief ministerial aspirants Siddaramaiah and D K Shivakumar on Wednesday met Rahul Gandhi here separately amid hectic parleys in the Congress to decide on the candidate for the top post in the southern State. The meetings came a day after Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar held separate meetings with Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge at his residence and held discussions with him over government formation...

MAHARASHTRA Legislative Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar on Monday said that after the Supreme Court’s May 11 verdict, he will have to first recognise in the House which faction of the Shiv Sena is the political party before going ahead with any other decision. He was speaking to reporters here after returning from London. Narwekar said, “I will have to first recognise who represents the political party in the Assembly.Then the decision on the appointment of the chief whip will be taken.The petitions ..

FORMER Congress chief Rahul Gandhi on Saturday thanked the people of Karnataka on party’s expected victory and said that “market of hate has been shut and shops of love have opened”...

EKNATH Shinde will continue to be the Chief Minister of Maharashtra after the Supreme Court held on Thursday it cannot reinstate the MVA coalition Government headed by Uddhav Thackeray since the Shiv Sena leader chose to resign without facing the floor test in the wake of a rebellion in his party. The unanimous verdict by a fivejudge Constitution bench came as a relief for Shinde even as it censured former Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari over his decision calling upon Thackeray to prove ..

SPRINGING a surprise, Nationalist Congress Party president Sharad Pawar on Tuesday said he is stepping down as chief of the NCP, the political outfit he founded and has helmed since 1999. Pawar made the announcement at the launch of a revised version of his Marathi autobiography ‘Lok Majhe Sangati’ (People Accompany Me), prompting protests by party workers and appeals by NCP leaders to revoke the decision. While Maharashtra NCP president Jayant Patil and party leader ..

THE Aam Aadmi Party was recognised as a national party while the Trinamool Congress, NCP and the CPI were stripped of the coveted status by the Election Commission on Monday. In separate orders, the Commission also revoked the state party status granted to RLD in Uttar Pradesh, BRS in Andhra Pradesh, PDA (Manipur), PMK (Puducherry), RSP (West Bengal) and MPC (Mizoram). The NCP also lost the State party status in Goa, Manipur and Meghalaya. ..

FORMER Congress leader and great grandson of India’s last Governor General C. Rajagopalachari, on Saturday joined the BJP. In the last two days, Anil Antony, son of veteran Congress leader A K Antony, and former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy, also in the Congress earlier, have joined the BJP party. Kesavan had quit all the Congress posts in February this year. He was a media panelist of the Congress party in Tamil Nadu. In his resignation letter addressed to Congress President ..

TEN lakh jobs in Government and semi-government departments, free medical treatment of up to Rs 10 lakh, LPG cylinder at Rs 500 and 300 units of free electricity every month are some of the key promises that the Congress made in its manifesto for the Gujarat elections. In the manifesto released on Saturday, the grand old party, which has been out of power in the State for more than two decades, also promised unemployment allowance of Rs 3,000 per month, Rs 2,000 pension to divyangs, widows, senior ..

THE CBI on Saturday questioned the private secretary of Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav in connection with land-for-jobs “scam” in the Railways when his father Lalu Prasad was the Minister, officials said. Sanjay Yadav was summoned to appear before the agency on Saturday, a day after the CBI chargesheeted Lalu Prasad, Rabri Devi and their daughter Misa Bharti in the case, they said. Sanjay, who served as Tejashwi’s PS during his first tenure as Deputy CM in 2015 as well, was summoned earlier ..

FORMER Chief Minister of the erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir state Ghulam Nabi Azad has been elected the chairman of his newly formed Democratic Azad Party (DAP), a party leader said on Saturday. A resolution to this effect was passed at a founder members session, which was held both in Jammu and Srinagar, the leader said, adding the decision was unanimous. ..

EIGHT Congress MLAs in Goa, including former Chief Minister Digambar Kamat, on Wednesday joined the ruling BJP, in a body blow to the Opposition party which is now left with just three MLAs in the 40-member State Assembly. The MLAs joined the BJP in presence of Chief Minister Pramod Sawant and State BJP chief Sadanand Shet Tanavade. Asked about the breach of pledge they had taken in temple in January, Kamat said, before joining the BJP he had visited the temple again. “I went to the temple again and ..

IN A major setback to the Congress in Punjab, four of its leaders and former Ministers Raj Kumar Verka, Balbir Singh Sidhu, Sunder Sham Arora and Gurpreet Singh Kangar joined the BJP here on Saturday. Former Congress MLA from Barnala Kewal Dhillon and former SAD MLAs Sarup Chand Singla and Mohinder Kaur Josh also joined the BJP. Union Home Minister Amit Shah arrived in Chandigarh on Saturday for a meeting with party leaders and inaugurating the Khelo India Youth Games in Haryana’s Panchkula...