State Congress chief Rajesh Kumar announced the launch of the drive at Bihar Congress HQ. Photo credit: X/@LambaAlka Ahead of the State Assembly elections in Bihar, the Congress is set to distribute five lakh sanitary pad packets to women, featuring party leader Rahul Gandhi’s photograph, a move that has drawn strong criticism from the ruling … Read more
RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav with Bihar Congress President Rajesh Ram and Vikassheel Insaan Party chief Mukesh Sahni speaks to the media after visiting the State Election Commission, in Patna, Friday, July 4, 2025. | Photo Credit: PTI A delegation of INDIA bloc leaders on Friday (July 4, 2025) met Bihar Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Vinod … Read more
CPI General Secretary D. Raja addresses a press conference in New Delhi on July 04, 2025. | Photo Credit: Shashi Shekhar Kashyap Underlining the danger that several lakh voters could face exclusion from the electoral rolls under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) being undertaken in Bihar by the Election Commission, Communist Party of India (CPI) … Read more
The BJP had raised a “serious issue” that those who called themselves socialists in Bihar were in reality “namazwadis”, and that ‘these people neither accept nor respect Babasaheb Ambedkar’s Constitution,” Gaurav Bhatia, BJP national spokesperson, said. | Photo Credit: The Hindu The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday (July 1, 2025) slammed Rashtriya Janata Dal … Read more
Rashtriya Lok Janshakti Party (RLJP) national president and former Union Minister Pashupati Kumar Paras on Thursday (July 3, 2025) claimed to have had positive talks with Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav. Photo credit: X/@PashupatiParas Rashtriya Lok Janshakti Party (RLJP) national president and former Union Minister Pashupati Kumar Paras on Thursday (July 3, 2025) … Read more
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh addressing the BJP State Working Committee meeting in Patna, Bihar on Wednesday. | Photo Credit: PTI PATNA Ahead of the Assembly election later this year in Bihar, senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh targeted the opposition Congress and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) on Wednesday, alleging that … Read more
RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav. | Photo Credit: PTI BJP MP Jagdambika Pal on Wednesday (July 2, 2025) launched a scathing attack on Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav, accusing him of attempting to mislead the people of Bihar ahead of the upcoming Assembly polls. Mr. Pal’s remarks came during a press conference in Mumbai, … Read more
The Election Commission of India on Tuesday (July 1, 2025) said that a meeting scheduled on July 2 with Opposition parties on the contentious Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar has been postponed as the parties did not provide confirmation for the same. Photo credit: X/@ECISVEEP The Election Commission of India on … Read more
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, right, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. File | Photo Credit: ANI In a move viewed as a significant gesture of alliance solidarity ahead of the upcoming Bihar Assembly elections, posters featuring both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar were prominently displayed inside and outside the Janata Dal … Read more
The Election Commission will soon upload the 2003 Bihar electoral roll on its website to facilitate the nearly 4.96 crore voters whose names figure on it extract the relevant portion to be attached with the enumeration form for the special intensive revision of the voters’ list. According to the instructions issued by the poll charge … Read more
Union Minister and Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) president Chirag Paswan on Sunday (June 29, 2025) pledged to transform Bihar while addressing an impressive crowd at the “Bahujan Bhim Sankalp Samagam” held in Nalanda’s Rajgir, the home district of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. It was Mr. Paswan first public rally after making a formal … Read more
An elderly voter receives the enumeration from a Booth Level Officer in Bihar’s Madhubani during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in the State. Photo: X@ECISVEEP via PTI Amid the ongoing Special Intensive Revision of Electoral Rolls for Bihar, the Election Commission of India on Monday (June 30, 2025) uploaded the 2003 voter … Read more
Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar on Tuesday, July 1, 2025, asserted that eligible citizens should register themselves as voters only in constituencies of which they are ordinary residents and not the place where they own a house. Photo credit: PIB With the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls underway in Bihar, Chief Election Commissioner … Read more
RJD chief Lalu Prasad leaves after filing his nomination papers for Rashtriya Janata Dal national president, in Patna, Monday, June 23, 2025. | Photo Credit: PTI Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad on Monday filed the nomination papers at the party office here for re-election as the party’s national president. He was the only … Read more
RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav addresses the Rashtriya Janata Dal State Council meeting in Patna, Thursday, June 19, 2025. | Photo Credit: PTI Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) supremo Lalu Prasad on Thursday (June 19, 2025) promised party workers and leaders that those working hard for the party with honesty would be made candidates in the … Read more
In poll-bound Bihar, Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Siwan on Friday (June 20, 2025), and slammed Opposition parties Congress and Rashtriya Janata Dal for taking Bihar into the mire, all the while listing work done by the NDA government in the last one decade to take Bihar forward. Prime Minister Modi also inaugurated and laid … Read more
Bihar CM Nitish Kumar holds a review meeting named ‘ Mahila Samvad’ at the CM’s secretariat in Patna on Saturday. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement Ahead of the Assembly election, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Saturday (June 21, 2025) made a major announcement which would benefit 1,09,69,255 people in the State. Mr. Kumar has … Read more
Amid allegations by Opposition parties over alleged manipulation of voter rolls, the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Sunday (June 22, 2025) said it was contemplating intensive house to house verification for the revision of electoral rolls before the upcoming Bihar Assembly election. | Photo Credit: MOORTHY RV Amid allegations by Opposition parties over alleged … Read more
In its March 20, 2025 issue, The Economist lamented how “India is obsessed with giving its people unique IDs”. It mocked how various arms of the Indian state announce new unique IDs nearly ‘every month for everyone from doctors, teachers, athletes, judges, gig workers to even cows and buffaloes’. The Economist got it half wrong. … Read more
The battle to secure India’s democracy and safeguard its constitutional values cannot be won through politics as usual. The ruling party thrives on centralisation and subversion — of institutions, narratives, and decision-making. The Opposition must embrace the opposite: decentralisation, open dialogue, respect for norms, and a politics that listens before it speaks. The Bharat Jodo … Read more
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge urged the party’s district unit chiefs on Thursday (March 27, 2025) to work with unity and a long-term strategy to secure victories in the upcoming State elections. He asserted that while the party’s ideology is strong, it cannot be implemented effectively without being in power. Ga6789 Addressing the first of … Read more
The Election Commission of India (ECI) seems to have softened its stand about disclosing absolute numbers of booth-wise votes cast in elections. Last year, when the question arose in the midst of the multi-phase general election, the ECI took the position that it had no legal mandate to disclose details of Form 17-C, part one, … Read more
As political parties are repositioning themselves in response to changed circumstances, a realignment of politics appears to be underway, nearly a year after the general election in 2024. The non-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) parties, that assembled as a putative national opposition under the INDIA banner, do not have a shared goal now. In fact, the … Read more
DMK MP Dayanidhi Maran. File | Photo Credit: R. Ashok The Madras High Court on Friday struck off almost all the paragraphs, related to allegations of electoral malpractices, from a plaint filed in support of an election petition challenging the 2024 victory of DMK MP Dayanidhi Maran from Chennai Central Lok Sabha constituency, and consequently … Read more
The call at an all-party meeting chaired by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin, in Chennai on Wednesday (March 5, 2025), to freeze the strength of the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies for 30 years beyond 2026 might seem like pushing away a pressing problem into the distant future. The challenges in 2056, when delimitation … Read more
B. Manickam Tagore. File | Photo Credit: G. Moorthy The Madras High Court on Tuesday (March 4, 2025) refused to reject an election petition filed by Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK) founder Vijayakant’s son V. Vijaya Prabhakaran challenging the victory of Congress Member of Parliament (MP) B. Manickam Tagore from Virudhunagar Lok Sabha constituency … Read more
Even as State after State is splurging on cash transfers for women, the most vulnerable among them, pregnant women, continue to be deprived of their legal right to maternity benefits. Worse, whatever little used to be paid to them seems to be shrinking. The main responsibility for this lies with the central government. Under the … Read more
File picture of a model EVM with the NOTA option | Photo Credit: V. Sudershan The None Of The Above (NOTA) option in EVMs recorded its lowest percentage share in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls since its introduction in 2013, according to data shared by the Election Commission. The option was implemented in a … Read more
Representative image. File | Photo Credit: M. Karunakaran Pattali Makkal Katchi’s Samaya Samudhaya Nallinakka Maanadu’ (Religious and Community Harmony Rally), held in Kumbakonam on Sunday (February 23, 2025), marks a shift from the party’s earlier controversial approach of mobilising the Vanniyar community invoking caste-pride and alienating other communities, and instead using a ‘caste census’ … Read more
Congress’s Shashi Tharoor reported the highest individual expenditure of ₹94.89 lakh. File. | Photo Credit: PTI Candidates in the 2024 Lok Sabha election each spent an average of ₹57.23 lakh for campaigning, according to an Atlas on last year’s general elections released by the Election Commission of India on Wednesday (February 12, 2025). While … Read more