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In the Indian Union, elections to Vidhan Sabha and Lok Sabha elections do not happen simultaneously at present. The assembly and parliamentary elections started simultaneously in the 1951-52 period, being the first elections with universal adult franchise in the subcontinent. After the republic was inaugurated in 1950, state governments and union government with separation of powers was conceived. That is the core of federalism. Thus, the elections to Vidhan Sabha and Lok Sabha are essentially elections to representative bodies that would represent the people’s views with respect to the specific and separate powers vested in the state and union governments. In time, Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabhas in various states developed a natural time course of their own, responding to the specific realities and contexts. Thus, mid-term elections for Vidhan Sabhas as well as Lok Sabha, various periods of President’s Rule and other political contexts decoupled the Vidhan Sabha elections from the Lok Sabha and the various Vidhan Sabha elections from each other. And that continues.

BHOPAL: While the Madhya Pradesh ruling Bharatiya Janata Party is making all out efforts to sort out problems arising out factionalism no such efforts are being made by the Congress. The main opposition party is not in a position to claim that they are a united party. The worst display of deep rooted factionalism came in the open when almost all the important leaders failed to turn-up for the meeting of the executive committee of the state Congress recently held in Bhopal.

The Tamil Nadu political crisis is somewhat resolved after the Governor Vidyasagar Rao allocated the portfolios held by the ailing chief Minister Jayalalithaa to her trusted deputy O. Pannerselvam who had been the chief minister twice when Jaya had to step down after conviction. With the frequent unconfirmed rumours spreading like wildfire amid fears that the hospital was not revealing the whole truth about the condition of the chief minister, there is indeed a need for a number two.

DMK leader Mr Karunanidhi has been making the most of political opportunism in an unexpected predicament in governance for the ruling AIADMK, with its charismatic Chief Minister Ms. Jayalalithaa in hospital since September 22 undergoing treatment for lung infection and being provided respiratory support.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: It is one of those shocking ironies of politics: That a government formed by the Left Democratic Front (LDF), which stormed to power in the State mainly on the plank of an anti-corruption battle, now faces charges of nepotism!

Leaders of the group of emerging economies, BRICS, are meeting in Goa and India being the host country has rightly planned and outreach programme with the leaders of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral and Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC). The initiative of inviting regional leaders for outreach programme began with South Africa in the 5th BRICS summit, followed by Brazil by inviting Latin American leaders in the next summit and subsequently Russia invited leaders of SCO and Eurasian Union at Ufa summit. The practice has given an unique opportunity to the leaders of BRICS that constitute Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa and represent four continents to interact with regional leaders of the host country.

The Income Declaration Scheme (IDS) 2016 to facilitate those opt to file declarations under it that was in vogue for four months from July to September 2016, as announced in the 2016-17 Budget by the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, fetched Rs 65,250 crore. The Finance Ministry has said that 64,275 people have declared black money, availing of the opportunity with the average amount of black income per declaration being at about one crore of rupees.

How long will Akhilesh Yadav accept the humiliation meted out to him by his father and uncle ? Or does he have a plan up his sleeve?

Despite a lot of publicity of India’s so-called ‘look east’ policy originally framed by the UPA government almost 12 years ago and pursued more seriously by the Narendra Modi-led NDA government since 2014, the country’s east still appears to be the least visible in India’s radar of economic and political diplomacy. The policy seems to have rather enthused the People’s Republic of China to expand its strategic presence in the whole of the region located in India’s immediate east – Bangladesh and Myanmar, in particular.

Road and river connectivity between India and Bangladesh has increased steadily following recent transit agreements and border trade is expected to increase substantially, according to West Bengal-based exporters.