Rama Rao's appointment was necessitated as Chandrasekhar Rao will have to concentrate on national politics and also focus on various developmental activities in the state, a release from the chief minister's office said.
Kickstarting her party's Lok Sabha campaign from a mammoth rally in Kolkata, Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee on Thursday said her party would go it alone in the polls and renewed her call for a federal front.
Claiming that Congress was in "coma" and Bharatiya Janata Party would be unable to form the government after Lok Sabha elections, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday said it was time for "like-minded forces" to capture power at the Centre.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar Thursday did not rule out emergence of a Third Front, which was also favoured by the Samajwadi party, after the Bharatiya Janata Party-Janata Dal-United face-off triggered the possibility of a non-Congress, non-BJP grouping to fight the next Lok Sabha polls.
Terming West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's call for a Federal Front as a "ploy" to increase her bargaining power with Congress and BJP before the 2014 polls, the Left parties feel it cannot be successful without a common minimum programme.
Shadow of elections may overshadow political consensus at GST Council meetings.
Claiming that Trinamool Congress would decide the fate of next government at the Centre, party general secretary Mukul Roy on Monday said the Mamata Benerjee-led outfit was all set to emerge as the third largest party after the Lok Sabha elections.
Reacting to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's recent comment -- that he was not ruling out a future alliance with former partner Trinamool Congress -- party Member of Parliament Derek O'Brien on Sunday said they would prefer to go it alone in the next Lok Sabha polls as the people of the state were firmly behind them.
BJP's best bet lies in the TDP and the TRS striking a deal with the Congress and framing the battle as a UPA versus NDA clash, reports Radhika Ramaseshan.
The victory in the assembly elections, the first in Telangana after its formation in June 2014, might well act as a springboard for the leader, often accused of perpetuating family rule and promoting nepotism, to realise his ambition of playing a greater role in national politics.
Banerjee said the two leaders discussed the current political scenario and strategies to oust the BJP in assembly and Lok Sabha elections at the 20-minute meeting at Gandhi's residence.
The Bharatiya Janata Party is likely to emerge as the single largest party in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls with 217 seats while Congress will be reduced to about 73 seats, an opinion poll has predicted.
The party's gamble to go in for early elections paid rich dividends.
A convincing win for either of JD-S's two chief rivals, the Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party, in the Karnataka assembly polls, could inevitably lead to a life-threatening split in the JD-S, with several of its leaders joining either of the two national parties.
'UP, Maharashtra, AP (including Telangana), Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, MP, Bihar, Karnataka and Kerala.' 'We chose these nine not only as being among the biggest, but also because in these states radical change is possible,' explains Shekhar Gupta.
In a counter attack on Rahul Gandhi for asking Narendra Modi to "stop fooling" the people, BJP leader Arun Jaitley today said voters are not ullus (fools) if they exercise their vote against the Congress.
The JD-U also used the meeting to call for a joint Opposition candidate for the election to the President's post and urged Gandhi to take the lead in the matter.
From hobnobbing with the likes of Jacqueline Kennedy and Mick Jagger, the reclusive author-turned-politician has come a long way, says Anita Katiyal
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Thursday made his prime ministerial ambitions known, saying he is more qualified and experienced than those "roaming around" for the top job.
Kisan Baburao Hazare is supporting Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress and attempts are afoot to form an alternative Third Front. Will these alliances really work, asks Bharat Bhushan.
'Despite the BJP's successes at the state-level, replicating their 282-seat majority in 2019 is going to be an uphill climb.'
'The question of survival depends on several factors because this country is divided vertically and horizontally.' 'There will always be demands and ups and downs.'
In the latest string of attacks, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday said that Narendra Modi becoming prime minister is a 'fantasy'.
The Congress-led UPA government was a sinking ship and would not return to power while the Left would face further rejection by the people, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said on Monday.
The Congress has been reduced to a C player in national politics thanks to its inability to read the pulse of the people, says Rashme Sehgal.
The Congress and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh are talking about secularism only to cover up their failures in governance and corruption, senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader M Venkaiah Naidu alleged in New Delhi on Tuesday.
In terms of electoral fortunes, in all likelihood, the status quo is not going to change in any significant manner. These six seats from Bihar are unlikely to give any clear signal to UPA, NDA or Federal Front.
As the Lok Sabha election draw closer, a weary Congress is gradually getting reconciled to the idea of a stint in the opposition even though its strategists are convinced that the party will win up to 140 seats. Anita Katyal reports.
In Tamil Nadu politics J Jayalalithaa is the queen of all she surveys today, But there are some ground realities that may still dent her high ambition. Rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt's fascinating new column where she reveals the ground realities in the Battle for India.
Given her penchant for obfuscating issues Mamata is encouraging the false perception, parroted by her political hangers-on, that all refugees from Bangladesh would face the brunt of deportation once the BJP came to power. In fact, Didi's theatrics and those of all her extras, in the last few days, have been based on propagating this falsehood, says Dr Anirban Ganguly.
'The numbers have been scaled down for the Trinamool Congress. Today, the upper number of victories seems to be 30, with 25 seats being the realistic option. The Trinamool Congress may still be the largest non-BJP, non-Congress party in the next Lok Sabha, but it may not make it to the Cabinet table, leave alone sit in the top chair,' says T V R Shenoy.
There is indeed a Bengal Model but it is one which negates generational aspiration, generates animus, thrives on bloodletting and political vendetta, reiterates outdated ideas of vote bank politics, is shorn of any vision or roadmap for reconstruction and is fast depleting the levels of a legitimate tolerance, says Dr Anirban Ganguly.
As Narendra Modi files his nomination in Varanasi, Praful Bidwai believes 'a straight contest against Priyanka would have put Modi on the defensive and forced him to concentrate on Varanasi.'