Behind the usual posters of election campaign lies well-planned strategy for maximum impact

Parties say they have no funds-but are hiring aircraft.

Laloo Yadav's son leads from the front, gives pre-poll sermon on communalism and social justice to party's MLAs.

His gallant death fighting militancy was rewarded with the Ashok Chakra, but his widowed mother must live with the pain.

Earlier this month, the BJP launched its new website. All was well until somebody chanced upon an article titled "The Sangh is my soul", apparently written by A.B. "Everybody loves me" Vajpayee.

The non-Congress parties are forced to rethink their electoral strategies following Sonia Gandhi's unexpected offensive on Bofors and Babri Masjid.

As political parties get into full-fledged election mode, a team of INDIA TODAY correspondents looks at their style and substance in the run-up to the polls.

Is it all caste and class, as we have always believed? Do vote banks exist? Yogendra Yadav explodes some myths surrounding the social basis of voting behaviour in India, and analyses where parties draw their support from.

Sonia Gandhi is banking on the truth about the bribes never emerging from the legal web it is trapped in.

Men still reign supreme in India. They corner the jobs, the money - even kidneys. Studies conducted in northern India reveal that the majority of kidney donors are female and most recipients male.

Statistics show that the incidence of breast cancer among Mumbai women has gone up in the past two decades. But there are fewer women succumbing to cervical cancer now as compared to 1965.

New book releases are The Story of a Panther, Puppets and Enslaved Daughters: Colonialism, Law and Women's Rights.

An anti-racial theory on Maths becomes controversial.

There was more than just the painstaking translation that went into former Karnataka deputy chief minister S.M. Krishna's Kannada version of Sonia Gandhi's speech at Bangalore.

Post-Dhaka rating of the new cricket talent.

When Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijay Singh, accompanied by three cabinet colleagues, called on I.K. Gujral, the security staff at the prime minister's residence denied him entry.

Officials dealing with the Bofors investigation seem to be jinxed. This time, it is N.R. Wasan, a DIG in charge of the probe, who is in trouble.

Imagine Mayawati, the feisty former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, striding across a 70 mm screen. Improbable, but true. A docu-drama on the Dalit leader's life is getting the finishing touches.

Modern life is not easy. Ask Shovana Narayan. The well-known choreographer and Kathak exponent is not so well known as a senior officer in the Indian Audits and Accounts Service. Fewer still know of her latest avatar as a diplomat's wife and hostess.

Nearly 400 boats of various shapes and sizes with some 4,500 fishermen, chikoo farmers and die-makers navigated their way to the high seas off the Dahanu coast, near Mumbai, last week to protest against the Maharashtra Government's move to set up the country's largest port there.

For former Punjab Police chief K.P.S. Gill, it was a case of double ignominy. Soon after a court upheld his conviction in the bottom-pinching case, another bombshell dropped on the "supercop".

Before it launched its election campaign, the United Front's Core Committee met - for the first time outside Delhi - at Hyderabad's five-star Krishna Oberoi hotel.

Calcutta's Consular Corps, a body of diplomats which meets frequently to discuss matters of common interest, was surprised to learn recently that the state Government had withdrawn the exemption.

When Additional Director-General of Police C.D. Kainth shot himself with his service revolver at his Raj Bhavan Colony residence on January 18, it appeared to be a case of a senior officer falling victim to his unfortunate ways.

Doctors in Uttar Pradesh now have at their service a novel scheme designed to cover the financial losses that they may suffer as a result of litigations.

In a Satyagraha that had Delhi holding its breath, a young man climbed a tower near New Delhi Railway Station to protest against his wife's alleged abduction by her family they're opposed to the match.

Guess who's tickling the Brits these days? It's Meera Syal, MBE.

If you must do a part-time job, this is the way to do it. Dr Santwana Bordoloi is a paediatrician by profession; in her free time, she's a movie director.

Tourism department of the Govt of India celebrates 50 years of Indian Independence.

On show are a series of images that reflect Ananda Moy Banerji's growing concern - even consternation - about the murder, mayhem and misery happening around us, and often spilling into our lives. A thought provoking exhibition.

Unlike his predecessors, Governor Bimal Jalan does not wait for state intervention but reintroduces controls on his own to check the further fall of the rupee.

If you look at the Indian election jamboree, you wouldn't think we are a poor country. Parties hire planes for their leaders and advertising agencies for their campaigns. This is no surprise.

If the team is freed from over-interfering selectors, victory will be a way of life.

That Sonia is Italian is upsetting; so is her love for sycophancy and socialism.

Are Darjeeling, Kalimpong and the Dooars part of India?

The ancien regime is looking to Sonia Gandhi.

Infrastructure tie-ups and sharing of natural resources could boost economic ties but political compulsions prevent Hasina from making the right moves.

An auto-freak's collection of columns appears dated.

Today's granny believes in doing her own thing - aerobics, discos, and no babysitting.

Television serial director Ravi Rai has reason to be truly happy, at last.

Equipped with dozens of exciting games, all under the same roof, family entertainment centres are set to redefine wholesome fun-for a price.

Here's news for sports buffs: DD has acquired the rights to televise some of this year's major sports events, including the Football World Cup.

Adult channel to grant marketing rights to Global Internet Ltd,  making tough to crack channel's revenue sources

What's it about the Chopras and Chandraprakash Dwivedi? After B.R. Chopra's glamorous, if loud, Mahabharat, Dwivedi made his version (Ek Aur Mahabharat) for Zee.