Congress young guns take offence over old guard's utterances.
Sharing the stage with foe-turned-friend Ram Vilas Paswan, Narendra Modi on Monday attacked Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, saying Bihar has become a safe haven for terrorists as he has failed to act tough in his bid to win over Muslim votes.
Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and Left leaders Prakash Karat and A B Bardhan on Thursday courted arrest in New Delhi during the nationwide bandh against Foreign Direct Investment in retail and diesel price hike. They were later released.
The BJP and the Left have come out poorer, while the Congress was galvanised to push Pranab Mukherjee's into the race. The political permutations and combinations also indicate the possibility of a non-Congress, non-BJP 'third front' being in the fray for the 2014 general elections, says Praful Bidwai.
Notwithstanding exit polls giving a clear mandate to the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance the Telangana Rashtra Samithi on Friday said the party still prefers to support a Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government at the Centre.
After Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party took on the Election Commission, alleging that it was being biased, Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav dared the poll authority to bar him and accused it of failing to revoke its order against Azam Khan as he had spoken in favour of Muslims.
Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav today claimed that several BJP leaders have "contacted" him to prevent Narendra Modi from becoming the prime minister.
In an interview to television channel CNN-IBN, the Nationalist Congress Party chief said that the BJP will not be able to reap any benefits across the country by having Modi as its PM mascot.
In a major relief to Dr Manmohan Singh-led government, Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav on Friday ruled out the possibility of mid-term polls, adding that his party will support the United Progressive Alliance government as of now.
Though EPS has sworn peace for now, or so it seems, his camp is said to be considering the possibility of calling an early meeting of the party's general council, to get a mandate in his favour before things went out of control. Ground-level indications are that OPS had lost his limited base, which alone had forced him to patch up with the other, reportedly at the instance of the BJP ally at the Centre, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
In Gujarat, Amit Shah's tactic of spiriting away Congress leaders and MLAs is jocularly called 'shop-and-buy votes'. Although haemorrhaging the Congress is a vital aspect of his election blueprint, an aide said, "Amitbhai wants to win on our strengths and not by weakening the Congress."
Citing the Samajwadi Party's electoral victory in Uttar Pradesh, the Communist Party of India Marxist on Saturday revived the idea of a Third Front, pitching for the unity of Left and democratic forces to give the people another alternative to the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party.CPI-M general secretary Prakash Karat said people wanted an alternative to the Congress and the BJP as both of them had been defeated in the UP elections.
Amid murmurs of formation of a third front, Samajwadi Party and the Communist Party of India-Marxist on Tuesday sought to bridge the gap between the two following their bitter parting of ways with the SP inviting top Left leaders for the swearing-in of Akhilesh Yadav as Uttar Pradesh chief minister.
'Make no mistake, that nightmare is inching closer to reality. What should concern the BJP, CPI-M, and Congress is the manner in which they are losing -- often coming third -- and the states in which they are losing,' says T V R Shenoy.
Gowda said that the Congress will play a crucial role in forging opposition unity in the bid by the alliance to dislodge the BJP from power.
Fed up with the nine years of UPA "misrule", Left parties will work for the defeat of Congress in the next Lok Sabha elections, Communist Party of India-Marxist General Secretary Prakash Karat said in New Delhi on Friday.
'Let me narrate the background as to why Siddaramaiah was taken from my party to the Congress.' 'He belongs to a particular backward community. So by taking Siddaramaiah from my party, it was going to be more advantageous for the Congress.' 'Whatever may be the merits and demerits of the caste equation, it is a consideration for all the parties.' 'The BJP is also playing the caste guard.'
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Monday admitted there is a Narendra Modi effect on the Bharatiya Janata Party cadres but said to call it a wave in the country for its prime ministerial candidate would be an "exaggeration".
The alliance between the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Telugu Desam Party may have been cemented, but the story is not over for YSR Congress chief Jagan Mohan Reddy yet. "I will do business with anyone but the Congress," he said making his post poll intentions very clear, Jagan told mediapersons in Hyderabad, while saying that that he has big plans ahead for the new state of Seemandhra.
Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam leader Vijayakant is inclined to lead a Third Front to contest the April 13 assembly polls with the Left parties and Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam to be the likely constituents, DMDK sources said on Thursday
'A hugely dangerous game which she thought she had mastered has now found a stronger opponent,' points out Payal Mohanka.
The Akali Dal-BJP alliance won on four seats and the AAP bagged one.
West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has said that the decision of the Tata Group to withdraw from the Singur project was a colossal one.
"We will put our entire strength to prevent Narendra Modi from becoming the Prime Minister. It is in interest of the country to prevent the BJP from coming to power (in the next elections)," Mayawati told reporters outside Parliament.
Mihir S Sharma gives us a rundown of what could happen, depending on the number.
No-show against Sonia has payback in Delhi, SP tells followers.
The parties failed to make an impact with their voteshares getting restricted to 2 per cent or below.
Congress hopes to field upper caste candidates to eat into BJP voter base while SP-BSP focuses on consolidating Dalit-OBC votes in their favour.
It was a huge earthquake which put this nondescript town in Marathwada region on the news map. Sixteen years later, Latur is again in the news as it will decide the political fortune of Amit Deshmukh, son of Union Heavy Industries Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, in the October 13 Maharashtra assembly elections. Amit, Congress candidate from Latur (urban) constituency, is locked in a quadrangular contest.
Naveen Patnaik's guest list has been prepared with an eye on the forthcoming Lok Sabha and assembly polls, reports Archis Mohan.
'Gujarat is number one in public relations and marketing. Gujarat's PR is strong, it washes like a strong washing soap... The third phase is ours. It is our family and household elections, let him come there... Banaras and UP have taken on the challenge.' Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav tells Rediff.com contributor Neeta Kolhatkar how he plans to keep Narendra Modi at bay.
The equations would take change completely in case a third front forms the government. Many experts feel that banking, insurance and healthcare will not be impacted whoever forms the government.
Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav attacked the Congress over the food security ordinance, accusing it of indulging in vote bank politics and said its intentions were not good.
Accusing the Congress and third front of fuelling instability, Narendra Modi on Tuesday sought a clear-cut mandate, appealing to voters to give National Democratic Alliance at least 300 seats in the Lok Sabha polls for providing a strong and stable government at the Centre.
If the Third Front -- currently comprising nine parties opposed to both the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party -- manages to get more seats than the Congress, the Communist Party of India - Marxist led Left Front will work towards ensuring that the next prime minister is made from this bloc.But if the Congress' own tally turns out to be larger than the cumulative strength of the alternative-seekers, the Left will support a Congressman for the top slot.
Communist Party of India-Marxist general secretary Prakash Karat said though All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief J Jayalalitha could not join the meeting of leaders belonging to the Third Front but she was very much in touch with them."In fact she approved of the six point charter that formed the basis of Sunday's discussion," Karat said while addressing a press conference at the release of the first part of party's election manifesto in New Delhi.
With the Bharatiya Janata Party losing Biju Janata Dal as an ally in Orissa, the Congress on Monday gloated over the plight of its principal challenger alleging National Democratic Alliance was "virtually non-existent" and there was "no serious challenge" to the United Progressive Alliance in the Lok Sabha polls.
Bharatiya Janata Party prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi sharpened his attack on Nitish Kumar, saying the Janata Dal-United leader's "arrogance" and "ambition" to become prime minister drove him to split from BJP, and compared the socio-economic conditions of Muslims in Gujarat and Bihar to claim he practised "true" secularism.
The way things are going, India may have a no-limits free-for-all political contest rather than a three-horse race. Parties are approaching one another across the dividing lines of alliances, breaching conventional rules of the political game.
'Nitish's claims of development are false. He has only helped corrupt officials.' 'I want to remind Lalu that this is not the 1990s. This is 2015.' 'I am a bahubali for those looting society.'
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