GUWAHATI, April 1 — Population pattern plays a key role in determining the fate of political parties in several key Lok Sabha constituencies of Assam and there are constituencies where the Congress have traditionally done well even during the polls which were held amidst anti-Congress wave in the State. According to records available in the Election Commission of India website, in Dibrugarh constituency, dominated by the tea tribes, the Congress have been doing very well for years together and no party even came close to posing a serious challenge to the Congress in successive elections. In...

SHILLONG, April 1 – The regional political parties of Meghalaya are yet to release a common manifesto for the coming Lok Sabha polls, even as electioneering is picking up in the hill State. Four regional parties – United Democratic Party (UDP), Meghalaya Democratic Party (MDP), Hill State People’s Democratic Party (HSPDP) and Khun Hynniewtrep National Awakening Movement (KHNAM) have set up a consensus candidate, Loniak Marbaniang under the banner of Regional Parties’ Alliance (RPA) for the Shillong parliamentary seat.

Filing of nominations for the April 20 Lok Sabha elections in the State...

AGARTALA, April 1 – Battle lines are drawn for the elections to the two Lok Sabha constituencies in Tripura with candidates of the ruling Left Front, who won in the last general elections, looking to increase their margins when the elections are held in the State on April 22, reports PTI. In the 1999 elections, CPI-M candidate Samar Chowdhuri contesting from the West Tripura constituency defeated his nearest rival from Trinamool Congress Sudhir Ranjan Majumder, former Chief Minister of Tripura by a margin of 1,98,399 votes.

The same result was achieved by the CPI-M in the East Tripura...

GUWAHATI, March 31 – Disappearance of the full-grown tall nesting and roosting trees such as Kadam, Simul and Satiana (Devil tree) etc from the vital nesting sites, has been posing a serious threat to the adjutant stork species, said Dr PK Saikia of the Gauhati University (GU) Zoology Department. Adjutant storks, particularly the greater adjutant stork or hargila, are the only surviving largest wetland bird species on the earth. The largest colonies of the species in countries like Burma (Myanmar), Vietnam and Sundarban etc places have completely disappeared. But following identification of...

NEW DELHI, March 31 — On a day when Assam Government’s amnesty offer to fleeing militants from Bhutan expired, North East Coordination Committee on Human Rights (NECOHR), an apex body of human rights organisations, called on the Royal Government of Bhutan to publish the names of all those killed, detained and handed over to the Government of India. The bone of contention is the whereabouts of at least 19 cadres of outlawed ULFA and NDFB, who are traceless. The cadres reported to have been captured during the ongoing operation in the Himalayan Kingdom were not to be heard again, provoking deep...