It was only a matter of hours before I would be declared persona non grata; all my work would turn to ashes, and I would be revealed as a typical untrustworthy Indian. I steeled myself for the axe to fall.

Having stuttered in the chase, Parag's yet another quickfire knock -- 95 from 65 balls with eight fours and five sixes -- revived East Zone's hopes of turning the tables on South Zone.

Shah Rukh Khan has expressed gratitude towards his Jawan team.

City completed the treble of Champions League, Premier League and FA Cup titles, matching Manchester United's feat in 1999 and drawing comparisons with Guardiola's 2008-09 Barcelona team.

PHOTOS of the IPL 2023 final between Gujarat Titans and Chennai Super Kings at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Monday.

Post-Karnataka, it would be a mistake to underestimate the BJP. It should be amply clear by now that the Right-Wing is more an elaborate theatre than a single scene, actor or play, warns Shyam G Menon.

The rising pitch of road shows and long rallies with hectoring pitches seem to have exhausted and numbed the audiences, rather than motivating them to vote for the party, observes Shreekant Sambrani.

Top state leaders--Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, Congress' Siddaramaiah and DK Shivakumar and Janata Dal-Secular leader HD Kumaraswamy are contesting from different seats.

The electoral fortunes of top leaders-- Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai of the BJP, Congress heavyweights Siddaramaiah and D K Shivakumar and JD-S' H D Kumaraswamy, among many others will be known on Saturday.

Several pollsters have predicted that the Congress may have an edge in Karnataka, which is BJP's southern citadel, in a hung assembly with a couple of them even projecting that the grand old party may get a majority on its own.

Voting came to an end for the Karnataka assembly elections on Wednesday at 6 pm with data showing a voter turnout of 65.69 per cent an hour ago.

Polling is being held for 224 seats in what is being seen mainly as a three-cornered contest between the ruling BJP, the Congress and former prime minister H D Deve Gowda's Janata Dal-Secular.

While the ruling BJP, riding on the Modi juggernaut, wants to break the 38-year jinx and retain its southern citadel, the Congress is seeking to wrest power to give the party much-needed elbow room and momentum to position itself as the main opposition player in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

PHOTOS of the IPL 2023 match between Gujarat Titans and Lucknow Super Giants at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Sunday.

The top guns of all the major political parties were on a campaign blitz across the state in the past few days, even as the ruling BJP has been striving to break the 38-year-old pattern of alternating governments and retain its southern citadel.

Images from IPL 2023 match between Rajasthan Royals and Gujarat Titans played at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur on Friday

They are languishing at the bottom and placed eighth in the points table after the first half of IPL 2023.

With seven overs to go and two new batters at the crease, it was MI's game for the taking. Instead of going for the jugular, some poor bowling allowed GT a passage back into the game.

India doubled its exports of smartphones to $11.1 billion (about Rs 91,000 crore) in 2022-23 (FY23) over the previous year's figure of $5.48 billion (Rs 45,000 crore), thanks largely to the Apple juggernaut, according to data from the India Cellular and Electronics Association (ICEA). Union Minister for Communications, Electronics & IT Ashwini Vaishnaw said: "With the doubling of exports of smartphones to over Rs 90,000 crore, India is well on its way to becoming a leader in the global mobile device market." On the flip side, despite the government prodding Chinese companies to export more, their smartphone shipments fell steeply by 26 per cent from $214 million in FY22 to $157 million in FY23.

For the May 10 assembly elections in Karnataka, the following are the 20 seats to watch out for.

Shah Rukh Khan's box-office juggernaut and other specials on the OTT menu this week.

Cricket Ireland confirmed that India will travel to Ireland in August for a three-match T20 International series.

Images from the WPL match between MI and Gujarat Giants.

The designer went deep-sea diving to find imagery for her 2023 Abyss ocean-accented collection

ATK Mohun Bagan entered the semifinals of the Indian Super League with a win over Hyderabad FC in Kolkata on Saturday.

I said to myself, why should the player suffer if he was innocent while I went about settling scores with the Board? If I didn't finish the enquiry in time, Shami's career would be harmed and perhaps irretrievably so. I decided to complete the probe within the stipulated time and got going right away.

The former Union minister drew the analogy of romance at a symposium he attended, besides Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav.

The court said the legal proceedings against the 11 accused were initiated in a 'perfunctory and cavalier fashion' and 'allowing them to undergo the rigmarole of a long-drawn trial does not augur well for the criminal justice system of the country'.

'I get scared. I feel insecure. I lose confidence many times in the day. But that is why I keep going because the weaker you are, the stronger you get'

It's doing better than two of the biggest entertainers from the south: Baahubali: The Conclusion and KGF: Chapter 2.

Ever since Nitish embarked on the slippery path of trying to unite the Opposition against the BJP, he has repeatedly rebutted suggestions that the exercise was aimed at bringing himself centre stage. The problem is: It is not enough if he says so. Others have to say so as well, especially Congress, observes Aditi Phadnis.

'The number of films released in cinemas in 2022 was closer to 1,200. It could cross 1,500 in 2023, since nearly all big stars in Hindi and regional languages have films lined up this year.'

Calendar 2022 will go down as a year when the real star was the Next Big Idea.

In the 21 editions of the World Cup over 92 years featuring 79 nations, there have still been only eight winners and only 13 have made it to the final. Spain were the last to join the elite group of champions in 2010 after France in 1998 and Argentina in 1978.

Though the Congress, AAP and other Opposition parties may have high hopes and some positive takeaways to seize on from the results, it is the BJP which has a big headstart and is firmly in the lead.

What these elections prove beyond any doubt (if ever there was one) that Modi's hold over public mind and Shah's mastery of election management are unparalleled. It doesn't seem likely that they will be matched any time soon in the Indian political scene, reaffirms Shreekant Sambrani.

The BJP launched an all-out and aggressive personalised campaign led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself, but voters went by local rather than national issues.

The BJP hopes that any vote AAP gets should only be from the Congress. At the same time, it does not want AAP to get too much of it. Because, a declining old opponent is a blessing as much as a rising new rival is a threat, points out Shekhar Gupta.

The 33-year-old centre back Lovren has faced Neymar on three occasions and lost every time, with the unstoppable Brazilian scoring four goals against him.

Aiming to breach the Bharatiya Janata Party's Gujarat bastion, the Aam Aadmi Party fielded its candidate to contest all 182 assembly seats and carried out a high decibel campaign in the run-up to the polls in Gujarat.