Barely a few hours after Telugu Desam Party chief Chandrababu Naidu said at a rally that his party would fight alone in Seema-Andhra, the TDP has gone into damage control mode and says the statement was misinterpreted.
While the BJP and the Congress have always supported the bill, opposition by other parties and demands from some for quota for backward classes within the women's quota have been key sticking points.
In what appears to be a major setback for the Bharatiya Janata Party's hopes in South India, the All India Anna Dravida Munetra Kazhagam supremo has entered into an alliance with the Communist Party of India. Vicky Nanjappa reports.
The Bharatiya Janata Party seems to have learnt a bitter lesson from its past mistake of letting down the people of Telangana for the sake of the Telugu Desam Party's support to the Atal Bihari Vajpaee-led National Democratic Alliance government. This time it is refusing to do the same.
If there is unity in the Opposition, it is only about regional parties other than the DMK not wanting Rahul Gandhi or any other Congress leader for prime minister, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Rahul said that the purpose of the party's 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' is to remove fear from the people's minds and highlight issues like price rise and unemployment.
The party, which was expecting to win at least three seats in the region this time, feels that the statements by senior leaders L K Advani and Sushma Swaraj on Thursday are counter-productive to their future plans. Vicky Nanjappa reports
The Bharatiya Janata Party has accused the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, which withdrew support from the ruling Congress government in Andhra Pradesh on Monday, of pursuing a politics of blackmail and adopting undemocratic methods. State BJP president G Kishan Reddy refuted MIM president Asaduddin Owaisi's allegation of connivance between the Congress government and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh Bharatiya Janata Party combine.
What some of our leaders were up to on the weekend.
Mihir S Sharma gives us a rundown of what could happen, depending on the number.
'Slaughter of cows will be opposed by all parties in UP, Gujarat, Rajasthan, etc while it is different in Kerala, Goa and the north east.' 'Every national party adapts and take a view on various issues depending on the local situation and the feelings of the local people.' 'So, the Kerala BJP will look at each issue from the Kerala perspective, and not that of UP.'
Alleging that ruling Congress is "not serious" about bringing Lokpal Bill, the Bharatiya Janata Party has said that the United Progressive Alliance government could have brought the anti-graft legislation long ago as there was consensus over the issue.
Smriti Irani will reprise her electoral battle with Rahul Gandhi from Amethi.
Political observers are keen to see if the BJP will now be guided by its more firmly entrenched ideological dominance in picking a face solidly identified with its core planks, or if it will choose a person tilted more to its electoral calculations. Or, whether its pick will be an ode to its core supporters or a outreach to relatively new groups of votaries.
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.
Former Bharatiya Janata Party President M Venkaiah Naidu on Monday said his party would bring an anti-conversion law if it comes to power at the Centre.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday accused the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government of acting in an "irresponsible and childish" manner on the Telangana issue and maintained that delay in formation of the state would harm the interest of both Andhra Pradesh and the Telangana region.
A nine-member Bharatiya Janata Party delegation led by party president Nitin Gadkari will leave for China on a five-day tour from January 20, its national secretary Dr K Laxman, said.
Unless controlled and contained, given the untested belief that the north Indian labour support and follow the Hindutva kind of political ideology, there is a potential in terms of ideological clashes with their Dravidian brethren in the local neighbourhoods, and it all escalating into violence, especially during election time, predicts N Sathiya Moorthy.
Repeated disruptions in Lok Sabha by Congress members from Andhra Pradesh over Telangana issue and suspension of eight MPs saw Bharatiya Janata Party and Left parties hitting out at the government for this unprecedented situation while the ruling party justified its stand.
'I do not want to get into the number game. This time, the BJP will get unprecedented seats and vote percentage in Gujarat.'
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YSR Congress Party chief Jagan Mohan Reddy's unexpected release on bail -- after spending 16 months behind bars on charges of corruption -- has set many tongues wagging.
The Congress may stand a better chance in the assembly polls if it followed the 'Himachal model', suggests N Sathiya Moorthy.
BJP on Friday announced candidates for 46 more Lok Sabha seats from the states of Kerala, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Punjab and Sikkim. After the breakup of its alliance with the Biju Janata Dal in Orissa, BJP announced the names of seven Lok Sabha candidates from the state. It also announced 43 names for the assembly election scheduled along with the Lok Sabha polls. Five candidates from Kerala were also announced today by the party.
There are indications that the BJP may not be as enthusiastic as it was on the Telangana issue now that the Congress has cleared the decks for the creation of the new state.
The Andhra Pradesh unit of Bharatiya Janata Party has demanded a judicial inquiry into the communal riots in Hyderabad, saying it will bring out the truth about a large-design behind it.
Naidu said that efforts are on to bring together all non-BJP parties and that he had met Congress president Rahul Gandhi to discuss measures on protecting democracy.
Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday announced the name of Vadodara deputy mayor Ranjan Ben Bhatta as its candidate for the Vadodara Lok Sabha seat vacated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Gandhi rued that the fourth estate was showing Prime Minister Narendra Modi's face round-the-clock and not raising issues like unemployment or inflation.
Daggubati Purandeswari is the only Union minister to have joined the BJP this election. 'Everybody knows Dr Manmohan Singh is a man of great integrity and I consider it an honour to have worked with him,' Purandeswari, the BJP candidate from Rajampeta, Andhra Pradesh, tells A Ganesh Nadar/Rediff.com
Adequate security and Covid safety measures have been put in place for the electoral exercise.
She is criticising what is perceived to be KCR's strongest point -- welfare -- by charging the government with corruption.
The win in UP is especially significant because UP assembly members carry the maximum value of votes in a Presidential election, given the fact that the state is India's most populous.
Kavitha has asserted that she had done nothing wrong and alleged that the BJP-led Centre was "using" the ED as the saffron party could not gain a "backdoor entry" in Telangana.
Top opposition leaders including Rahul Gandhi and Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday agreed to work together to prepare a common minimum programme.
Are these tableaus meant to clearly convey the message that Amitbhai -- and and not anyone else -- will be Narendrabhai's successor if the Pradhan Sevak ever decided to retire either as prime minister (if he wins the next general election, that is) or as BJP supremo?
The Bharatiya Janata Party is planning to lay a special focus on the southern states in the coming elections, given the fact that it had 132, or one-third of the Lok Sabha seats.
The national executive of the Bharatiya Janata Party met in Mumbai on May 24 and 25.It was not just any old meeting of the executive.
The Election Commission will start counting votes for Vidhan Sabha elections on May 23. The assembly elections were held in four states -- Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim -- simultaneously with the Lok Sabha Elections over April and May. The Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, and Sikkim Assemblies went to polls in the duration between 11 April and 19 May, and the Election Commission will declare the results for at least 534 assembly seats - which is almost as many as the Lok Sabha seats - on May 23.
The list of the 314 MPs, however, does not include Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, who is also a BJP MP, they said. The majority mark is 268.
