In addition to CPI workers, activists of Congress, YSR Congress and other Opposition parties, who extended support to the bandh, held rallies and other forms of protest at different places in the state.
Winning an election may be a breeze for the BJP but the aftermath of victory isn't always painless.
The strong Bharatiya Janata Party-Telugu Desam Party combine in Seema-Andhra could upset the calculations of the YSR Congress in the region, but the TDP's biggest problem is rebellion from within. Vicky Nanjappa reports
'There is dissatisfaction and disaffection for the BJP, but there is no anti-incumbency against the government in UP.'
Extending its winning run in the south, the Congress on Sunday won 64 assembly seats to form government in the Bharat Rashtra Samiti-dominated Telangana, with the southern solace coming in the midst of a saffron sweep of the Hindi heartland where the Bharatiya Janata Party wrested two states from the grand old party and retained one.
...close to the 2024 general election. The BJP calling the Congress 'seasonal Hindu' is as laughable as the saffron party sparing itself the title of 'seasonal extreme Hindu.'
How else should one describe its election campaigns of the past years?
It was typically obsessive religion and personality cult with economic development for fig leaf, asserts Shyam G Menon.
The BJP's bandh call, separately endorsed by the Maoists, was meant to mark protest against the delay in the formation of separate Telangana state by the Congress-led UPA government. However, the bandh evoked mixed response though the BJP leaders and activists went around the towns and cities across Telangana to enforce the call.
In a last ditch effort, Telugu Desam Party chief Chandrababu Naidu on Tuesday appealed to Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi to "use his good office" to keep Andhra Pradesh united till an amicable solution is reached on the issue of creation of separate Telangana.
In view of the Andhra CM's resignation from the post and the Congress, party president Sonia Gandhi has requested Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to grant special category status to the Seema-Andhra for five years. Renu Mittal reports
Right to apprenticeship, legal guarantee for MSP, passing a constitutional amendment to raise the 50 per cent cap on reservations for SCs, STs and OBCs, a nation-wide caste census and scrapping of Agnipath scheme are among the promises made by the Congress in its Lok Sabha polls manifesto released on Friday.
The Enforcement Directorate on Friday arrested Bharat Rashtra Samiti leader K Kavitha after an hours-long raid at her premises in Hyderabad and brought her to Delhi for questioning in a money laundering case linked to the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy, agency sources said.
On one hand, South Indian states have been complaining about denial of a proportionate portion of the sharable funds from the Centre, based on population. On the other hand, they stand to lose Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha seats that again are based on population, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
Addressing a press conference, Pawar said the trends of the assembly polls (in five states set to be held in November) suggest the situation is favourable for the opposition, but added he had no authentic information to comment on whether there would be a change (in government) at the national level.
Ironically, rival Tamil Nadu governments expend the most on social welfare schemes, especially targeting women and youth and children, but that money comes only by selling more liquor. There is always the specious plea, which has been peddled very many times in the past, that without licensed liquor, drinkers would go after hooch and there could be more hooch tragedies and hooch deaths. No one is convinced, but no one can dispute it either, comments N Sathiya Moorthy.
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 party is better at winning elections than at governance and it remains intent on pushing ahead with its trademark social and political agenda observes T N Ninan.
Radha Mohan Singh appointed in-charge of politically crucial UP. Kailash Vijayvargiya will continue to be the in-charge of West Bengal and he will be assisted by BJP national secretary Arvind Menon and party national IT cell head Amit Malviya.
The talk of an anti-BJP front got revived after leaders of various parties and prominent individuals congregated at Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar's New Delhi residence last month.
It also asked why the data shared pertained to a period from April 2019 even though the scheme for anonymous political funding was introduced in 2017.
Addressing the party's national executive, Nadda also reached out to Sikhs, who are in majority in poll-bound Punjab, by listing a number of measures the Modi government has taken for the community, including expediting action against 1984 riots accused, facilitating foreign grants to gurudwaras and keeping langars outside the review of the Goods and Services Tax.
With the ruling Congress in Andhra Pradesh facing renewed heat on Telangana issue, besides internal troubles, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday threw its weight behind the demand to carve out the new state, eyeing the next assembly and Lok Sabha polls.
'If he has not achieved 'Congress mukt Bharat' even now, the question of his creating a 'DMK mukt Tamil Nadu' does not arise,' points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
In significant upsets, the Congress on Wednesday wrested a Lok Sabha seat in Karnataka and an assembly seat in Gujarat in two Bharatiya Janata Party strongholds after 15 years but it was routed in Andhra Pradesh due to the Telangana factor.
This will pave the way for emergence of 24,000 new panchayat-level leaders in Telangana, he said.
The Shiv Sena-Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray on Friday made a pitch for unity among opposition parties ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, stating that the Bharatiya Janata Party can be defeated if all key leaders of these political outfits keep aside their ego and stick to their current stance of not keen on becoming the next prime minister.
The prospect of an upset worries the ruling Congress in Andhra Pradesh as it faces a threat from a rebel candidate in the biennial election to Rajya Sabha slated for Friday.
Experts recommend awaiting the findings of the 2021 Census, which is yet to be conducted, before introducing population control policies.
Iconic composer Ilaiyaraaja, celebrated athlete PT Usha, philanthropist Veerendra Heggade and screenwriter V Vijayendra Prasad Garu were nominated to Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.
The Andhra Pradech CM asked party MPs to meet the President after Parliament is adjourned sine die.
The Communist Party of India-Marxist has decided to support the Telugu Desam Party in the May 29 by-polls in Andhra Pradesh.
Days before the first vote for the Lok Sabha polls is cast, the Supreme Court on Thursday asked the rival Nationalist Congress Party factions led by party founder Sharad Pawar and Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar to abide by its directions on the use of symbols, party names and disclaimers in publicity material for the elections.
The Bharatiya Janata Party's Tamil Nadu unit chief L Murugan was on Friday detained at Tiruttani near Chennai by the police when he tried to embark on a statewide 'Vel Yatra', defying a ban.
The Andhra Pradesh unit of the Congress is heading towards a major crisis. Several leaders of the party are reportedly planning to walk out after the Congress's dismal showing in the assembly polls in four states.
The accent on 'making the south feel wanted' was the reason why P Muralidhar Rao, who was dropped as general secretary, was partially reinstated in the central apparatus as prabhari in charge of Madhya Pradesh. 'Pressure from the RSS was brought to bear on Rao's return,' a source said. Radhika Ramaseshan reports.
Bharatiya Janata Party President Amit Shah on Friday said that the party is in talks with both the Peoples Democratic Party and National Conference and would like to form the next government in Jammu and Kashmir.
Leaders from Telangana and Andhra Pradesh gave an exhaustive account of the reasons for the party's defeat to party general secretary Digvijaya Singh on Monday and enumerated the steps to be taken for rebuilding the party. Rediff.com contributor Anita Katyal reports.
With polls to elect the 18th Lok Sabha approaching, district poll panels are fixing the rates for expenses as part of the election expenditure monitoring process.
The decision of its two oldest allies to walk out means that Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, who is also president of the Janata Dal-United, is now the oldest BJP ally besides being the most powerful.
Nineteen opposition political parties, including the Congress have announced a boycott of the ceremony on May 28, demanding that President Droupadi Murmu and not Prime Minister Narendra Modi do the inauguration.
As people in the Seeema-Andhra region hold the BJP as responsible for the bifurcation of the state as the Congress, the RSS feels the need to assure them that their needs are protected.
