Politics

Ajay Chautala, lodged in the Tihar Jail in Delhi after being convicted in a corruption case, was granted furlough for two weeks on Saturday.

Siddaramaiah is purportedly heard saying Lingayats were now distancing themselves from B S Yediyurappa, and the Vokkaligas were disenchanted with the JD(S) and H D Kumaraswamy.

Burying the hatchet, West Bengal governor Jagdeep Dhankar recently expressed an interest in meeting Mamata Banerjee, who invited him to a Kali Puja celebration at her Kalighat residence in Kolkata.

In Kohima, people are going about their business despite fear and apprehension over the talks. Others are busy stocking up on ration in anticipation of a worst case scenario.

The SAD had contested the 2019 Haryana Assembly polls in alliance with Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), although Badal's party was is in alliance with BJP in Punjab and a partner of NDA at the Centre.

Selja said the 10 seats that the voters of the state gave to the JJP were a mandate against the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.

The NCP won 54 seats, more than ally Congress which had to be content with 44 seats in the October 21 elections.

Naina Chautala is the mother of JJP leader Dushyant Chautala and wife of Ajay Chautala, who is in jail after conviction in a teacher recruitment scam with father and former chief minister Om Prakash Chautala.

West Bengal governor Jagdeep Dhankhar maintained that he was more than happy to have got the invitation for the puja - held every year at the CM's Kalighat residence since 1978.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the Karnataka Congress, contended that the then Speaker K R Ramesh Kumar exercised his jurisdiction to disqualify the MLAs and his decision cannot be questioned.

Even among the turncoats, those who joined the BJP from the Congress and NCP fared better than those who joined the Shiv Sena.

Balasaheb Thorat said that if the Sena sends the Congress a proposal, he will discuss it with the party leadership in Delhi.

State Congress president Somendra Nath Mitra said the seat-sharing arrangement with the Left Front was essential to stop the TMC and BJP from making further damage.

In run up to the polls, he conducted several roadshows, foot marches and raised issues like cutting of trees in Aarey Colony and Mumbai's nightlife and said he wants to make the constituency a "model of development".

Taking a swipe at the BJP, former Union home minister P Chidambaram, who is in ED custody in a corruption case, said that miracles can happen if people shed their fear.

The former Haryana chief minister and a regional Jat leader also levelled allegations against the administration for unlawfully confining several independent MLAs who had won or were leading from their seats.