Pinarayi Vijayan targets Jamaat-e-Islami alliance with Congress front

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has, for the first time, used his daily Coronavirus update to attack a newspaper’s coverage of the crisis in the first sign that the Left Front is worried about the work-in-progress alliance of the Kerala unit of Jamaat-e-Islami — which works to establish the Islamic way of life in India […]

AAP office-bearers in Kerala resign en masse to join Swaraj India

Swaraj India, the fledgling political party under the leadership of former AAP leaders such as Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan, announced that a large chunk of AAP’s office bearers in Kerala have joined the party. These include 77 elected State Coordination Committee members and around 700 volunteers, according to a statement from the party. Among […]

Muslim League suspends leader after anti-CAA protest

The Kerala Unit of Indian Union Muslim League — an ally of the Congress Party — has suspended a district-level functionary for participating in a major, state-wide anti-CAA protest on Sunday. KM Basheer, a vice president for the party’s Beypore assembly unit, has been suspended from his position after he participated in Sunday’s ‘Human Chain’ […]

Kerala to ban ‘non-mainstream’ superstitions

The ‘Law Reforms Commission’ set up by the Kerala government two years ago has come up with a draft anti-superstition bill that will target those superstitions that cause ‘bodily harm’ and are not part of an established religion. The draft was prepared on the request of the Kerala government. The draft law will target ‘freelance’ […]

Kerala minister sees Sangh ploy behind Trupti Desai’s visit

Kadakampally Surendran, the Kerala minister in charge of Devaswom affairs, called the move by Hindu groups to confine Trupti Desai to the Cochin Airport ‘barbaric’ and wondered if it was part of a conspiracy by the Sangh Parivar. He said Desai is close to both the BJP and the Congress in Maharashtra, and that it […]

Leaked tape shows Kerala BJP chief taking credit for Sabarimala protests

Kerala BJP state president Sreedharan Pillai has been shown bragging in a leaked video that the recent agitation by Ayyappa devotees in the temple courtyard was set off by a BJP worker, and that he considers the issue the ‘golden opportunity’ that the party has been waiting for in Kerala. Speaking at a convention of […]

Kerala Love Jihad: Ashokan says he’s not anti-Muslim

Ashokan Mani, who has accused the Popular Front of India of trying to kidnap his daughter into Syria, today said he had no problems with his daughter converting to Islam or marrying a Muslim. Ashokan, who has been asked by the Supreme Court to produce the girl Fadiya by Nov 27, said his problem was […]

VENGARA Election Results: Left Front vote up 20%, Cong, BJP down

The results of the bypoll held in Vengara assembly constituency in Kerala have confirmed the Congress-led UDF’s worries about losing support in the southern state. The results also showed that the BJP suffered a decline in popularity in Kerala in the last 18 months or so. The election, which comes a year-and-a-half after the last […]

CPIM activists attacked for arranging Hindu-Muslim marriage in Kerala

Tensions are on the rise between the ruling CPI-M and the Social Democratic Party of India in Ambalapuzha in Kerala after Left activists were attacked, allegedly for arranging the wedding of a Muslim boy and a Hindu girl. The SDPI is second only to the Indian Union Muslim League in terms of its vote-share and […]

Liquor shops in Kerala start installing token system

Kerala’s snaking long queues in front of its liquor shops — the state’s only source of alcohol after bars were banned in 2014 — are almost as famous as the backwaters and beaches, but some relief may be on the horizon for hapless liquor buyers. As there are only about 340 liquor shops in a […]

Arnab Goswami’s Republic TV gets derated by Malayalis

Republic TV, the channel launched by Arnab Goswami — the former editor of Times Now — has come in for a barrage of criticism on social media after Malayalis took offence to what has been portrayed as repeated attempts by the channel to tarnish the reputation of the state. The channel, which used to be […]

Malappuram bypoll election results: BJP fails to make headway

The Bharatiya Janata Party has failed to make much headway in Kerala over the last two years, going by the results of a by-poll in the Muslim-dominated Malappuram Lok Sabha constituency. With nearly 95% of the eight lakh votes counted, the BJP has seen its vote share decline from about 7.5% in 2014 to 7.1%. The […]

Left Front tries to tap anti-American sentiment with fat tax in Kerala

Kerala finance minister Thomas Isaac defended the new tax imposed on Western food items in Kerala even as it became clear that move could be open to a challenge on the lines on which Maharashtra’s beef ban was overturned. The communists of Kerala — not the biggest fans of American culture — imposed the ban […]

KERALA ELECTION: Why BJP is in as much trouble as the Congress

On the face of it, things went well for the Bharatiya Janata Party yesterday in Kerala. After decades of efforts at break into a two-party system, the saffron outfit finally managed to win its first seat in the state legislative assembly this time with party veteran O Rajagopal finding luck, and votes, in Nemom constituency near the capital […]

Left likely to form next govt, leads Kerala Assembly Election Results, BJP ahead in 2 places

The Left Democratic Front is indeed likely to form the next government in Kerala going by initial trends that give it a slight edge. According to official results, LDF is ahead in 88 out of 140 seats, followed by UDF or Congress in 50 seats and NDA in 1 seat. See the chart below: LEADS […]

After Shatrugnan, Lalu Prasad Yadav comes in support of Kanhaiya Kumar

Lalu Prasad Yadav, the leader of Rashtriya Janata Dal and partner in Bihar government, accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of cooking up the issue of Leftist students raising anti-national slogans in the JNU to divert attention from the suicide of Dalit student Rohit Vemula. Talking to the media, Prasad said Kanhaiya Kumar, who also hails […]