Assembly Elections 2011

• Buddhadeb skips CPI-M Polit Bureau meeting

  The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), the party's highest decision making body is meeting today in Delhi to discuss the party's performance in the recent Bengal and Kerala polls, but caretaker West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee is not attending the meeting.Though the CPI-M claimed that the decision was pr...

• LDF will be tough Opposition: Achuthanandan

  The outgoing Kerala Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan, whose Left Democratic Front (LDF) lost power to the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) in the state assembly polls, said they would now function as a "tough opposition" working for people's benefit."We will function as a very tough opposition with the only objective of doing good for the ...

• Opinion polls predict Left rout in West Bengal

  Election surveys by television channels on Tuesday gave a unanimous clean sweep for Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress in West Bengal, predicting the end of the Communist rule, while they were divided on the outcome in Tamil Nadu and Kerala.Polls conducted during the polling in the states over the past month by Headlines Today-ORG, CNN-IBN-The We...

• ULFA calls strike against PM's Assam visit

  The Paresh Baruah faction of ULFA has called a 12-hour Assam bandh this Monday to protest the visit of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to campaign in Assam for the Assembly polls. The Prime Minister has "failed" to keep his written promise to discuss all the core issues for political solution of the Assam-India conflict, the outfit said in an e-...

• BJP releases manifesto; comes down on DMK, AIADMK freebies

  Coming down heavily against promise of freebies by DMK and AIADMK for the April 13 Tamil Nadu assembly polls, BJP today assured the people it would provide an "honest" and "transparent" government if voted to power.Releasing BJP manifesto, former party national President Bangaru Laxman said the ruling Dravidian parties through the years had failed ...

• CM's next round of campaigning from Mar 30; to end it on Apr11

  DMK President M Karunanidhi, who launched his party's poll campaign on March 23 from his home turf Thiruvarur, will start his next round of campaigning from March 30 and round it off at his constituency Thiruvarur on April 11.According to his campaign schedule released by DMK headquarters Anna Arivalayam, the 87 year-old leader will tour various ci...

• Do not accept money from parties and cast votes: Collector

  District Collector U Sahayam today asked people not to accept money from political parties and cast their votes, saying it was not good for democracy."It is the duty of the voter to vote without taking money from any party," he said speaking at a function at Lady Doak College on "voting is a fundamental right", where he reminded students that the E...

• Tamil Nadu polls: Karunanidhi's latest sop - Free laptops

  A huge wave of applause and cheer ran across the crowds as their Chief Minister said, "All those in Tiruvarur are my relatives."As the DMK president M Karunanidhi launched the party's election campaign on Wednesday from his hometown Tiruvarur - a constituency the DMK has won five times including the last three times in a row - he expanded the list ...

• Comedian Jagadish to campaign for UDF in Kerala

  Ace Malayalam comedian and character artiste Jagadish will campaign for the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) candidates in the April 13 assembly polls in Kerala.Jagadish told IANS that since his student days he has always been a supporter of the Congress."It is going to be practically impossible for me to physically reach all the 140 cons...

• NCP forges alliance with Trinamool, gets one seat

  The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) Tuesday forged an alliance with the Trinamool Congress for the April-May assembly polls in West Bengal. The NCP will field its candidate from Dinhata constituency, the party said.In another development, Trinamool ally Socialist Unity Centre of India-Communist (SUCI-C) declared that it will field 19 candidates - ...

• Central forces not to camp in schools for polls

  Chief Election Commissioner S.Y. Quraishi Tuesday said that central forces on poll duty will not camp in schools and colleges during the April-May West Bengal assembly polls."This is for the first time we have taken up this initiative. The central forces on poll duty will come to schools or colleges only on the polling day and will go back with the...

• BJP accuses Congress of relying on paid news in Assam

  The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Tuesday filed a complaint before the Election Commission accusing the Congress of indulging in the "paid news" malpractice in Assam by using a news channel to beam its electoral propaganda.In a letter to Chief Election Commissioner S.Y. Quraishi, the party alleged that the Congress was misusing a private news channe...

• 91-year-old JSS leader creates Kerala poll history

  With her candidature finalised Friday, 91-year-old KR Gouri Amma has made history in Kerala's electoral politics by becoming the only candidate to contest all the assembly elections since the state first went to polls in 1957.The leader of the Janathipathiya Samrakshana Samithy (JSS) will contest the April 13 elections from Cherthala constituency i...

• Former top cops to fight polls as Trinamool candidates

  Four former Indian Police Service (IPS) officers will take on the ruling Marxists, for whom they had once worked, as Trinamool Congress candidates in the West Bengal assembly elections.The candidates list announced by Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee included former director general of police Hyder Aziz Safwi, former additional director gen...

• AIADMK working out patch-up formula with allies

  Tamil Nadu's major opposition party AIADMK Friday inked seat sharing deals with seven of its allies and also held marathon discussions with other allies upset at the party's declaration of 160 constituencies for the polls.AIADMK general secretary J Jayalalithaa met the leaders of MNMK, SMK, AIMMK, RPI, TNKYF, Communist Party of India (CPI) and FB a...