Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha on Tuesday accused the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)-led Punjab government of indulging in "vendetta politics" and misusing the state machinery to target the MPs who recently quit the party and merged with the BJP in the Rajya Sabha. Chadha, along with three other MPs, met President Droupadi Murmu on Tuesday and submitted a representation alleging harassment and "politically motivated" action against them following their exit from AAP. "All those MPs who exercised their constitutional right to express disagreement with the Aam Aadmi Party and chose to leave it, and all these incidents and developments, have been presented today before the President of India. I also want to tell the Aam Aadmi Party that as long as we were obedient, we were considered cultured. The moment we left, we were branded corrupt," Chadha told reporters here after the meeting. He alleged that several former AAP MPs who have joined the BJP are facing intimidation and coercive actions from .
In an election that has upended West Bengal's entrenched political arithmetic, the BJP's sweeping victory has drawn its decisive momentum not merely from traditional strongholds but from unexpected gains in Muslim-dominated districts, where a fractured minority vote quietly rewrote the script that had long favoured the TMC. For over a decade, the TMC's dominance in districts such as Murshidabad, Malda and Uttar Dinajpur rested on a near-complete consolidation of Muslim votes, a bloc that accounts for 50 per cent or more of the population in large parts of this belt. That group, forged in the aftermath of the Left Front's decline in 2011 and reinforced during the polarised 2021 election, appears to have splintered this time with far-reaching consequences. The numbers tell a stark story. Of the 43 assembly seats spread across these three districts, the BJP has surged from just eight seats in 2021 to 19 now. The TMC, which had dominated with 35 seats, has been reduced to 22. The ...
The delimitation of constituencies to reduce the impact of minority candidates in their earlier strongholds is one among the many factors that led to the NDA's stupendous performance in the Assam polls, securing a record win of 102 seats in the 126-member assembly. The 2023 delimitation exercise, which redrew and realigned constituencies with some earlier Muslim-majority seats getting reserved for indigenous communities, played a significant role in the increase of seats for the BJP and its allies in the just-concluded assembly polls. The minority votebank played a key role, particularly for the Congress and AIUDF, in all previous assembly polls in 35 seats but delimitation reduced its influence to less than 25. The 24 seats that the opposition won, mostly in constituencies unaffected by delimitation, include 22 Muslim candidates with both the Congress and AIUDF showing a sharp decline in their erstwhile bastions. The realignment led to the fragmentation of Muslim-majority ...
Incidents of arson and vandalism at offices of the Trinamool Congress were reported across West Bengal on Monday as BJP workers celebrated their landslide victory in the state. Police said TMC offices in Kolkata's Tollygunge and Kasba, in Baruipur, Kamarhati, Baranagar in the suburbs, and in Howrah and Baharampur in the districts were vandalised by mobs since Monday afternoon. An Election Commission official said strict action will be taken against those involved in the rampage and assault, and reports have been sought from the local police to initiate follow-up action. BJP Leader Rahul Sinha, however, rejected the charge that any of his party's workers were involved in vandalism, saying it might be the handiwork of rival factions within the TMC, who were letting out their frustration at party leaders following the election results. At the Bijoygarh-Netajjnagar area in Tollygunge, the election office of TMC candidate and former minister Aroop Biswas was seen vandalised by a mob. So
Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, accompanied by party MLAs, departed for Delhi on Tuesday morning to meet President Droupadi Murmu regarding the recent defection of seven Rajya Sabha MPs to the BJP. On April 24, the Aam Aadmi Party suffered a jolt when seven of its 10 Rajya Sabha MPs -- Raghav Chadha, Ashok Mittal, Sandeep Pathak, Harbhajan Singh, Rajendra Gupta, Vikramjit Sahney and Swati Maliwal -- quit and merged with the BJP, alleging that the party had strayed from its principles, values and core morals. Six of the seven MPs who left AAP were from Punjab. Mann is scheduled to meet the President at 12 noon at the Rashtrapati Bhavan on Tuesday. While departing for Delhi, Mann affirmed that all AAP MLAs stand united with the party. "Only I have been given time for the meeting," Mann said while speaking to reporters here. "The President is the guardian of the Constitution. She is the constitutional head of the country," he added. The MLAs and ministers gathered at the chief .
Strained Centre-state relations had long made investors wary, a sentiment reinforced by Trinamool leader Mamata Banerjee's rise on the back of a land agitation in Singur and Nandigram
BJP-led NDA heads for a third straight term in Assam, crossing the 100-seat mark, while Congress records its worst-ever showing amid polarised campaigning and welfare push
The BJP's commitments are expansive, ranging from ₹3,000 monthly transfers for women and unemployed youth to implementing the 7th Pay Commission and raising dearness allowance
The prime example of this is MGNREGA, which has now been replaced by the new Viksit Bharat-Guarantee for Rozgar and Aajeevika Mission (GRAMIN) or VB-G RaM G
You'd err if you credit or blame the BJP success only on Hindutva. It's more than that. It is Hinduised-nationalism
The Rangaswamy-led NDA is poised to secure a majority in Puducherry, while Vijay's TVK makes a notable electoral debut with two seats and a significant vote share
BJP will form its first govt in the state after winning 207 seats, way past the majority mark of 148, to end TMC's 15-year rule. Mamata Banerjee's party managed only 80 seats
West Bengal Assembly election results: BJP crosses majority mark with strong gains, while TMC suffers losses as vote share dips and key regions swing towards BJP in 2026 polls
Counting trends showed the BJP racing past the majority mark in the 294-member Assembly, signalling the end of the 15-year rule of the Trinamool Congress
Ecstatic BJP workers broke into celebrations in across West Bengal as the party took early lead in the state assembly polls.
Vote counting is underway in West Bengal, with BJP ahead in 194 seats as of 2 pm. Counting began at 8 am across 77 centres for 293 constituencies in 23 districts
Initial trends showed the ruling Congress in Karnataka was ahead in Bagalkot, while opposition BJP has maintained a lead in Davanagere South assembly segment, as the counting of votes for by-elections is underway on Monday. The voting for the by-election was held on April 9. The polls were necessitated by the deaths of senior Congress MLAs H Y Meti (Bagalkot) and Shamanur Shivashankarappa (Davanagere South). According to the Election Commission, Congress party's Umesh Meti was ahead of BJP's Veerabhadrayya Charantimath by a margin of 5,016 votes. In Davanagere South, BJP's Srinivas T Dasakariyappa was leading ahead of Congress party's Samarth Mallikarjun by a margin of 577 votes. Nine and 25 candidates were in the fray, respectively in the Bagalkot and Davanagere South Assembly segments. Although the outcome of these by-elections is unlikely to have an immediate impact on state politics, the contest is seen as a matter of prestige for both the ruling Congress and the opposition .
Mamata Banerjee urged TMC workers to stay at counting centres, alleging BJP and the Election Commission were hiding TMC's real lead as Bengal trends showed BJP ahead
Police resort to lathi charge at Jai Hind Bhavan polling booth in Bhabanipur after BJP candidate Suvendu Adhikari alleges attack by TMC workers.
The Commission's decision effectively annuls the earlier voting in the constituency, with fresh polling now scheduled later this month