THE Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi on Tuesday announced its seat-sharing formula for the Lok Sabha polls with the Shiv Sena (UBT) getting the major chunk of 21 seats, while the Congress will contest 17 and the NCP (SP) 10 seats. The Congress gave up its claim on the contentious Sangli and Bhiwandi seats, which will now be contested by the Sena (UBT) and the NCP (SP), respectively. NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar said there are no differences among the allies over any seat and the distribution arrangement ..

CONGRESS leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday filed his nomination papers for upcoming elections from Kerala’s Wayanad Lok Sabha seat. Accompanied by his sister Priyanka Gandhi and other senior party leaders including AICC General Secretary K C Venugopal, Rahul submitted his nomination papers to the District Collector who is also the Returning Officer. After submitting the papers, he read out the oath to uphold the Constitution which concluded the submission process. Soon after filing papers, Rahul affirmed ..

MAHARASHTRA Navnirman Sena leader Raj Thackeray met Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday in an indication that the BJP is looking to ally with him for the Lok Sabha polls to boost its alliance in the western State. Senior MNS leader Bala Nandgaonkar said in Mumbai that the talks on Lok Sabha polls between the two leaders were “positive”, and details will be shared in a day or two. The meeting drew sharp reactions from the Maha Vikas Aghadi camp, with the Congress accusing the BJP of “betraying” ..

HARYANA BJP chief Nayab Singh Saini was on Tuesday sworn in as State’s new Chief Minister, hours after the surprise resignation of Manohar Lal Khattar from the post along with his Cabinet ministers. Five MLAs -- four from the BJP and one independent -- were also sworn in as ministers. However, former Home Minister and six-term MLA from Ambala Cantt, Anil Vij, has not found a place in the new Cabinet. Saini, the 54-year-old OBC leader, was administered oath by Governor Bandaru Dattatreya at the oath-taking ..

THOSE who have watched Madhya Pradesh politics for the past fifty years would certainly testify that such a peculiar situation did not exist ever. For, this is one condition in which old loyalties are breaking down, new loyalties are in the making, certified loyalties are asserting themselves — and all this is only adding to a great ideological confusion that actually never characterised MP politics. Until today, lines of loyalty were pretty clearly drawn. Today, those lines are only a maze of ..

THE Congress has been offered 17 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh, the Samajwadi Party said on Monday and asserted that its chief Akhilesh Yadav will join the Rahul Gandhi-led ‘Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra’ in Raebareli only if the proposal is accepted. “We have given a final offer of 17 Lok Sabha seats to the Congress. Akhilesh Yadav’s participation in the Nyay Yatra in Raebareli on Tuesday will depend on their acceptance,” Rajendra Chaudhary, the Samajwadi Party’s chief spokesperson, told PTI. He, however, ..

A SHIV Sena leader suffered multiple gunshot wounds and is in critical condition after a BJP MLA fired upon him over a land dispute in Maharashtra’s Thane district, prompting the Opposition to demand Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s resignation, citing deteriorating law and order in the state. Deputy CM and State Home Minister Devendra Fadnavis said he has ordered a high-level probe to find out what made the MLA open fire and under what circumstances. Kalyan MLA Ganpat Gaikwad of BJP opened fire on ..

JD(U) President Nitish Kumar on Sunday took oath as Chief Minister of Bihar for a record ninth time after a dramatic volte-face, ditching the Mahagathbandhan and the Opposition bloc I.N.D.I.A. and forming a new Government with the BJP, which he had dumped less than 18 months ago. Kumar was sworn in by Bihar Governor Rajendra Arlekar at Raj Bhawan in the presence of senior leaders including BJP national President J P Nadda, hours after he resigned from the post, saying “things were not working well” ..

IN A setback for Congress in Mumbai ahead of Lok Sabha polls, former Union Minister Milind Deora on Sunday quit the party “to walk the path of development” and joined the Shiv Sena led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, ending a “55 years old association” of the Deora family with the Grand Old Party. With Deora resigning just before the start of the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, the Congress alleged that the timing of the announcement of his departure from the party was determined by Prime Minister Narendra ..

Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy sent their uncle Y V Subba Reddy to dissuade Sharmila from throwing in her lot with the Congress, but in Sharmila’s case, blood proved to be thinner than water and so, it will be brother versus sister in Andhra Pradesh. ..

WEST Bengal Chief Minister and TMC chief Mamata Banerjee and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday proposed Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge’s name as the prime ministerial candidate of Opposition bloc INDIA, MDMK leader Vaiko said after the meeting of the grouping. However, the veteran Congress leader said it is important to win first and everything else can be decided later. Significantly, while Vaiko said Kharge’s name was proposed by Banerjee and Kejriwal, other leaders, on the ..

MAHARASHTRA Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has said Chief Minister Eknath Shinde will not be disqualified and in case that happens, he will be elected as an MLC and will retain his post. The Supreme Court on October 17 granted State Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar a final opportunity to give it a realistic timeframe for deciding the crosspetitions filed by rival factions of the Shiv Sena seeking disqualification of each other’s MLAs following a split in the party last year...

 ■ NEW DELHI,  Nupur was seen at the promotional event of Vivek Agnihotri’s upcoming movie ‘The Vaccine War’  ALMOST more than a year after she made controversial remarks against Prophet Mohammad, suspended..

IN A boost to the BJP in Karnataka ahead of 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Janata Dal (Secular) has decided to ally with the party following a meeting of its leader H D Kumaraswamy with Home Minister Amit Shah and party President J P Nadda. After the meeting, Nadda said on X, “I am happy that JD(S) has decided to be the part of National Democratic Alliance. We wholeheartedly welcome them in the NDA. This will further strengthen NDA and vision of Hon PM Narendra Modi Ji for ‘New India, Strong India’.” Shah ..

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 ..