'The BJP's defining character is Hindutva. The party's political strategy is based on a combination of Hindutva+Development.'

The Congress on Saturday made a stunning comeback in Karnataka ousting the Bharatiya Janata Party from its lone southern citadel with a comfortable majority in a morale booster win that will be key for reviving its electoral fortunes ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

The Congress would also take inspiration from history as it was from Karnataka that an embattled Indira Gandhi had revived her dwindling political future by winning a Lok Sabha bypoll from Chikmagalur.

The Bharatiya Janata Party's comprehensive defeat to the Congress in Karnataka where the two parties ran a campaign of contrasts has left the ruling party much to ponder as the two rivals are facing a direct contest in three more state polls this year in the run-up to the all-important 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

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.

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.

There are 18 assembly constituencies in the border district which is a Lingayat stronghold and has been a BJP bastion in the last two decades.

Many IEDs explode even when the troops are on foot and their trigger mechanism gets activated just due to the pressure of the feet. These incidents have injured more than 100 personnel over the last two years, the officer said.

Shettar alleged that he had been humiliated by the BJP by denying him a ticket and that party is today in the control of "very few people."

They are the contenders, the leaders of parties that will finally form a government in Karnataka.

Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray on Wednesday slammed the Maharashtra government saying that "Mughal rule" was prevailing in the state, and declared that he would contest the next assembly election from Thane, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde's bastion.

A mahant at the Hanumangarhi Mandir in Ayodhya on Monday invited Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to stay on the temple premises after he vacates the government bungalow allotted to him as member of Parliament.

The BJP and Congress have already launched spirited campaigns for the elections.

The "venom" that the Congress leader has been spewing against the prime minister in his "political frustration" has now turned into an insult to the country, Irani alleged.

While Shivakumar is as usual contesting from Kanakapura, Siddaramaiah is returning to his home turf of Varuna in Mysuru district, which is currently represented by his son Dr Yathindra Siddaramaiah.

On his sixth visit this year to Karnataka, where assembly elections are due by May, he also asserted that the 'double engine' government is a necessity for the fast-paced development of the state.

Modi enthusiastically waved at a large number of cheering crowd, who had lined up on both sides of the route, as the ruling BJP appeared focused on winning a good number of seats in Old Mysuru region, where it is traditionally weak.

Major Ruchi Agarwal is commander of the United Nations Female Engagement Team in the conflict-ridden Democratic Republic of Congo.

According to reports Sumalatha, an independent MP, is likely to announce her decision to join the BJP in a press meet at Mandya on Friday.

The former Union minister also said the people in Maharashtra are looking for a change.

Congress candidate Elangovan secured 1,10,156 votes (64.58 per cent), which is 20.29 per cent more than the 2021 assembly election as the then INC candidate secured 66,300 votes and won the seat.

The winning momentum is important for the BJP as the crucial state of Karnataka is next headed for assembly polls, expected in May, followed by Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Telangana and Mizoram later this year.

Stakes are high for the Bharatiya Janata Party ahead of the counting of votes on Thursday for three state assembly polls, as the results will signal if it has deepened its roots in Tripura, a Left bastion captured by the party in 2018, and made further inroads in Meghalaya and Nagaland, or if the opposition has managed to dent its influence.

AAP national convenor and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will visit Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh next month to launch his party's foray into these states that are slated to go to polls later this year.

It is a sea of men clad in veshtis with distinctive party colour border design seeking votes with a smile and folded hands for their party candidates. The town is abuzz, with electioneering at its peak, and teeming trendy cars criss-cross the busy roads and bylanes bringing in more and more leaders from elsewhere for campaign.

It had organised its 83rd anniversary event last year in Jammu after the government asked all paramilitary or CAPF to hold these events outside the national capital.

Pilot said "opportunist" people are ruling at the Centre after taking votes on emotions but they have failed the country on all fronts.

The seats held by the non-BJP parties in the state are Bijnor, Amroha, Moradabad, Sambhal, Raebareli, Ghosi, Lalganj, Jaunpur, Ambedkarnagar, Ghazipur, Shravasti, Mainpuri, Saharanpur and Nagina. Of these, Raebareli is held by Sonia Gandhi of the Congress.

I challenge the thief to come out on the field with a bow and arrow and we will counter it with a flaming torch, Thackeray said.

In a four-cornered fight, the real battle is between Union minister Pratima Bhoumik and CPM's Kaushik Chanda.

What is the independence of the judiciary if independent and fearless judges are not being appointed, SC judge Rohinton Fali Nariman said.

The government decided to form an oversight committee which will investigate the allegations of sexual harassment of women wresters by WFI president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in a white t-shirt in the biting cold has been a hot topic of discussion -- and not just in top political circles.

As the curtain come down on 2022, Roshmila Bhattacharya flashbacks to some of the year's news-makers and events.

HD Kumaraswamy, former chief minister, will contest from Channapatna where he had won the election defeating local heavyweight CP Yogeshwar in 2018.

Your favourite model has been bridge hopping!

Dimple Yadav, who was elected to the Lok Sabha in a by-election in Mainpuri, Uttar Pradesh on December 9 -- an election caused by her father-in-law Samajwadi Party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav's death -- took the oath as a member of the House of the People on Monday, December 12, 2022.

Some of our leaders were busybusy over the weekend.

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.

The BJP has done extremely well in the Patidar-dominated constituencies of the state, winning almost every seat that has significant Patel population.