'Kejriwal could have easily deputed someone to step in as chief minister, but being the authoritative and self-centered personality that he is, he chose not to do it.' 'If the AAP loses Delhi, where it has a huge majority, the only one to blame would be Kejriwal,' asserts Ramesh Menon.
The ruling BJP in UP, however, lost Khatauli to Samajwadi Party ally Rashtriya Lok Dal.
A win for SP could provide some consolation for Akhilesh Yadav after the defeat in the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections early this year and the loss of Azamgarh and Rampur Lok Sabha seats to the BJP in June bypolls.
If the party's members aren't sure what it stands for, see no path to wealth or power, and endure control by a dynasty, which, almighty as it is within the party, cannot get them the votes, they are likely to explore options, notes Shekhar Gupta.
There is a strong possibility of opposition parties coming together to fight the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said on Monday, stressing that he has had good talks with them and many will join hands gradually.
A basic outline and roadmap for Opposition unity are likely to be deliberated upon with the contentious issue of seat sharing and leadership questions to be avoided for now.
'Rahul Gandhi should have prevented Nitish Kumar from going.' 'He must pacify Mamata Banerjee if he has a cause of Mohabbat Ki Dukaan.' 'He should bring this Mohabbat Ki Dukaan on the political canvas.'
'Bihar, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Bengal can be the game changers of 2024.'
With a significant number of Opposition leaders present at the swearing-in ceremony of the Congress government in Karnataka, Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal on Sunday said Opposition unity requires much more than optics of this nature and stressed the need for meeting of minds, a common agenda and sacrificing partisan interests.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his deputy Tejashwi Yadav on Wednesday met Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge in New Delhi in the presence of Rahul Gandhi.
Balwant Singh Ramoowalia, whom Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav earlier gave a berth in the Rajya Sabha, was the surprise entry even for senior ministers who were seen asking each other about the background of the man from Punjab.
The meeting of opposition parties has been called by Bihar Chief Minister and Janata Dal-United leader Nitish Kumar to chalk out a joint strategy to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
Shatrughan Sinha won't attend, citing 'important personal engagements.' Will L K Advani be present? M I Khan reports on a swearing-in ceremony the likes of which Patna may not have seen before.
The Uttar Pradesh government has accorded 'Y' category security to Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) president Om Prakash Rajbhar, an alliance partner of the Samajwadi Party, officials said on Friday.
The counting began at 8 am to decide the fate of the candidates contesting the polls, among whom all eyes will be on Dimple Yadav, Mulayam Singh Yadav's elder daughter-in-law and the wife of Akhilesh Yadav, who is contesting from the Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat, necessitated by the demise of Samajwadi Party veteran Mulayam Singh Yadav in October.
Most leaders agreed for early finalisation of poll plans for 2024 stressing that there was no time left with them and mere meetings would not help.
Rampur Sadar and Khatauli in Uttar Pradesh, Padampur in Odisha, Sardarshahar in Rajasthan, Kurhani in Bihar and Bhanupratappur in Chhattisgarh are the assembly seats where the bypolls are being held.
Akhilesh Yadav is now seeking to devote the remaining 18 months of his tenure in casting the state in a new mould.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Friday said a decision on whether to oppose the Centre's ordinance on the control of administrative services in Delhi would be taken before the Parliament session.
The Congress and the Left parties have not only extended support to the Samajwadi Party candidate but are also campaigning for him, in accordance with the spirit of the new opposition togetherness ahead of next year's general election.
While the opposition alliance is putting up a united front in Ghosi constituency in Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand's Dumri, Dhanpur and Boxanagar in Tripura and Uttarakhand's Bageshwar, its constituents are contesting against each other in Dhupguri in West Bengal and Puthuppally in Kerala.
As part of the efforts to bring several opposition parties together on a common platform to defeat the BJP in 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Pawar met Kharge on Thursday evening.
All political parties were asked at the dinner meeting on Monday night to suggest names for the alliance and the same would be discussed and consensus would be arrived at during the deliberations.
Panel chairman Thakur is believed to have informed Dev that the issue was not on the agenda for the meeting.
The SP workers' confusion began last month when Prateek Yadav's wife participated in a function organised by Shivpal Yadav and expressed her support for him.
The alliance would announce a coordination committee, which could be of 11 members from principal opposition parties.
Top leaders of the Opposition's Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) held talks in an informal setting in Mumbai on Thursday evening to chart out a concrete roadmap and evolve a structure for cooperation among the alliance partners to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
Firozabad Municipal Corporation Vineeta Agarwal and her husband Krishna Murari Agrawal had paid Rs 1.80 lakh for the infant as they wanted to have a male child though they had a daughter, the officials said.
Nineteen people have been killed in rain-related incidents in Uttar Pradesh in the past 24 hours, the state relief commissioner's office said Monday evening.
'This move rendered the chiefs of important investigative agencies to the status of daily wage earners. It undermined the autonomy and independence of the agencies.'
The opposition on Tuesday termed as an 'election jumla' the women's reservation bill brought by the government with many leaders raising questions over the proposed legislation, contending it doesn't account for reservation for OBC communities and that it will be effective at the earliest by the 2029 Lok Sabha polls.
Gangster-politician Mukhtar Ansari's alleged aide Sanjeev Maheshwari Jeeva was shot dead on Lucknow court premises on Wednesday, the police said.
Shiv Sena MP Priyanka Chaturvedi also joined Bharat Jodo Yatra in Seelampur.
Nitish Kumar has to eschew disastrous experiments with prohibition and reservations in the private sector. Unless he is dissuaded from pursuing these flawed measures, he will pave the way for Bihar to again become a part of the BIMARU group of sick states, says Amulya Ganguli.
The Uttar Pradesh Police on Wednesday arrested Bajrang Muni Das of Maharishi Shri Laxman Das Udasin ashram, days after he allegedly made a hate speech and issued a "rape threat" in Sitapur.
Sources said the opposition parties would look to avoid the prickly leadership question as of now and emphasise on building a common ground.
Several prominent opposition leaders including Nationalist Congress Party's Sharad Pawar, Bihar Chief Minister and Janata Dal-United leader Nitish Kumar and National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah will share the dais at a rally being organised by Indian National Lok Dal in Haryana's Fatehabad on Sunday.
Chandauli Superintendent of Police Ankur Agarwal said a team of police had gone to the house of a sand trader in Manragpur village of the Saidraja area on Sunday.
A video of supporter Shyamlal Yadav also surfaced on social media, in which he is seen describing himself as a 'star campaigner' of the party.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde was in element at the Gateway of India.
