The BJP is focusing determinedly on the seats it lost in 2019, with the hope of winning these either independently or with the aid of its allies.
Even as the schedule of Andhra Pradesh legislative assembly polls is likely to be announced in a week's time, all the major political parties have already gone all out with sarcastic television advertisements targeting their rivals.
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.
'The Congress's allies won't be left behind in looking out for their own interests. Some will demand a bigger share of the ministerial or electoral pie, others will simply jump ship,' says T V R Shenoy.
Andhra Pradesh Home Minister P Sabita Reddy and Roads and Buildings Minister D Prasada Rao, who were named as accused in disproportionate assets case involving Kadapa member of Parliament Y S Jaganmohan Reddy, submitted their resignations to Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy late on Sunday night.
Counting of votes for the high-profile by-elections to the Kadapa Lok Sabha and Pulivendula constituencies in Andhra Pradesh commenced in Kadapa on Friday morning amidst tight security.
'Modi's charisma may have weakened as last year's Lok Sabha poll results showed but in the eyes of the Sangh Parivar, it has not waned.' 'Minus a strong BJP government at the Centre for another decade and more, there is apprehension that an anti-Hindutva government could reverse many of the ideological gains that the Modi dispensation has achieved through its three terms,' points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
With the Congress all set to accept the long-pending demand for a separate state of Telangana, the matter is slated for discussion at the party's working committee meeting to be convened before the monsoon session commences on August 5
In UP and Bengal, it is willing to sacrifice its interests to stop the BJP and would work towards ensuring the BJP did not win incremental seats in Odisha and Telangana.
The MPs sealed their mouths with black bands to register their protest.
BJP and RSS leaders are once again pushing to remove the words 'secular' and 'socialist' from the Constitution's Preamble, showing a deeper effort to change India's identity from a diverse, multi-religious republic to a Hindu-first nation, even though they don't have the numbers in Parliament to officially change the Constitution, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Stepping up its investigation into liquor syndicates in Andhra Pradesh, the Anti-Corruption Bureau has issued notices to three sitting members of Legislative Assembly, one of them from ruling Congress, and others asking them to appear before the ant-graft agency.
Andhra Pradesh IT Minister Ponnala Lakshmaiah on Thursday appeared before the Central Bureau of Investigation in connection with a case pertaining to alleged illegal assets involving YSR Congress president Y S Jaganmohan Reddy, even as the agency continued for the fifth day the custodial interrogation of the Kadapa member of Parliament.
According to the report, there are 16 sitting MPs and MLAs who have declared cases related to rape under Indian Penal Code Section 376, which carries a minimum sentence of 10 years and can be extend to life imprisonment.
Pawan should draw a cautionary lesson or two from his brother Chiranjeevi who, despite a fan base which was three times bigger, failed to make it in politics on his own, says Vicky Nanjappa
At its Jaipur meeting, the BJP will focus on this year's assembly elections in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh while the Congress's Chintan Shivir in Udaipur will discuss how it can resurrect itself.
The Communist Party of India-Marxist has decided to support the Telugu Desam Party in the May 29 by-polls in Andhra Pradesh.
YS Vivekanand Reddy, uncle of YS Jaganmohan Reddy who resigned from the Congress on Monday in the wake of differences with the party high command, has joined the new cabinet in Andhra Pradesh.
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.
Anita Katyal explains why the Congress party is virtually in a Catch-22 situation in politically significant Andhra Pradesh over the sensitive Telangana issue.
Twenty people were gunned down in Andhra Pradesh's Chittoor district in a police operation said to be against red sanders smugglers that came under severe attack from the government and political parties in neighbouring Tamil Nadu, which claimed 12 victims were labourers from their state.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister K Rosaiah will be visiting New Delhi on Wednesday amid mounting pressure on the Congress to resolve the Telangana issue.
Telugu Desam Party President N Chandrababu Naidu has appealed to Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy to immediately remove the tainted ministers who allegedly have links with the liquor mafia.
The K Rosaiah government in Andhra Pradesh finds itself under immense pressure from not only Opposition parties but also a section of Congress leaders to find out an early solution to the Telangana crisis.
Lashing out at Congress President Sonia Gandhi for "playing with the lives of Telugu people" and "murdering democracy in broad daylight", YSR Congress chief Y S Jaganmohan Reddy on Saturday called on Telugu people to give 30 Lok Sabha seats to his party in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections to stop the division of Andhra Pradesh.
With many of its plans to break the impasse over the Telangana issue coming unstuck, the Congress is now reportedly toying with the idea of moving a resolution on the statehood demand in the next session of Andhra Pradesh assembly.
The Telangana Rashtra Samithi is all set to move a No-Confidence Motion against the ruling Congress government in Andhra Pradesh on Wednesday.
The force "never faced any problem with regard to participation of candidates due to language problems," the spokesperson said.
Serious trouble is brewing in the ruling Congress party against Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy as a fall out of the ongoing probe by the Anti-Corruption Bureau in the alleged nexus between some ministers and the powerful liquor cartels across the state.
The party's decision to pullout from the Centre and the Andhra government will spell big trouble for the Congress. Mohammed Siddique reports
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy on Tuesday held discussions with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde on the issue of Telangana.Reddy, who was called to the capital by the Congress high command on Monday, is understood to have briefed Dr Singh about the prevailing political and law and order situation in the state.
In an unprecedented action in state legislature history, Andhra Pradesh Assembly Speaker Nadendla Manohar on Friday night disqualified 16 MLAs of ruling Congress who had voted against the party government during a no-trust motion in December last year sailing with expelled Congress leader Y S Jaganmohan Reddy.
The setback could derail Rao's ambitions to expand the BRS's influence beyond Telangana and establish a national presence.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister K Rosaiah on Wednesday resigned ahead of the Congress Legislature Party meeting in Hyderabad.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Home Minister P Chidambaram on Saturday elicited the views of their junior cabinet colleagues and Congress leaders from Andhra Pradesh on the Telangana statehood demand, which has virtually divided the party on regional lines.
Meanwhile, the AP CM said that the TDP is ready to bring no-trust motion against Centre as last resort.
Kerala Chief Minister and CPI-M leader Pinarayi Vijayan, Andhra Pradesh CM N Chandrababu Naidu, West Bengal CM and Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee, and Karnataka CM Kumaraswamy lent support to the Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party government's fight with the Centre.
The development amid the crisis in the state over the Telangana statehood issue triggered demands that the 86-year-old Governor resign or be dismissed and also protests by women activists outside the Raj Bhavan where security was beefed up after the private Telugu channel aired the footage.
The no-confidence motion moved by the opposition Telugu Desam against the N Kiran Kumar Reddy-led Congress government in Andhra Pradesh is by no means of only academic interest. Though the government is unlikely to fall -- as the numerical strength of the ruling and opposition parties suggest -- the outcome of the division on the motion is likely to have a far reaching impact on the politics of the state.
