Family feuds, in what are essentially family-run outfits, have cast a shadow over the reunification efforts of Janata Party.
Barring Maharashtra, the poll percentage in rest of the states was in excess of 60 per cent while in Puducherry it was 80.47 per cent.
'The debate, by being mostly in Hindi, lost much of its educative relevance to the southern states.' 'All the prime minister's debating skills and oratorical prowess went over the heads of the South Indian audience,' points out B S Raghavan, the distinguished civil servant.
Students' organisations and political parties are participating in the bandh to protest the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019, which seeks to grant Indian citizenship to non-Muslim refugees from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan if they faced religious persecution there.
He said it's an alliance between two families, one of which 'looted' the country and the other UP.
State governments want the Centre to direct the 14th Finance Commission to compensate states for implementing pay scales, to be recommended by the pay panel.
Aditi, a management degree holder from North Duke University, North Carolina, returned to India in 2013 and since then has been working for the constituency nurtured by his father, Akhilesh Pratap Singh, the sitting MLA.
Dubbing the next election a choice between governance and development on one side and chaos on the other, the prime minister cited the example of Karnataka, where the Congress-Janata Dal(Secular) alliance 'stole the mandate' to form government with 'development taking a back seat'.
Despite a massive decline in crude oil prices since 2012 -- Modi has been prime minister in six of these eight years -- petrol in Delhi has become 10 per cent costlier and diesel 97 per cent, as of July 2.
'In old India, there was no hatred, anger or lynching. New India is one where humans are enemies of each other'
The thrust will be on improving connectivity in economic corridors and remote and border areas with a view to hike trade and enable faster movement of cargo.
'Modi and the BJP don't want Delhi to function.' 'The LG is like a puppet of the BJP.'
Senior bureaucrats say the government has planned a 'feel-good' Budget after the 'pain' of demonetisation.
'I hope Prime Minister Modi will take the population bull by the horns,' says Sudhir Bisht.
Major focus will be on adequately funding existing schemes to ensure their timely completion before the next General Elections.
Demonetisation impact, earnings growth, central bank policies will get attention.
'With 27 days to go, the total bank deposits has come tantalisingly close to the Rs 14 lakh crores of banned notes which was in the financial system on November 8.' 'Black money hoarders may have actually laundered their black money into white,' argues Rajeev Sharma.
While all political parties have been talking about following in the footsteps of the debutant Aam Admi Party by fielding fresh faces in the coming Lok Sabha polls, Bihar Chief Minister and Janata Dal-U leader Nitish Kumar has set the ball rolling by deciding not to renominate his party's three sitting MPs in the coming biennial elections to the Rajya Sabha scheduled for February 7. Anita Katyal reports.
Chiefs of Army Staff in India have not been tactful about politicians. But they have stayed clear of politics, reports Aditi Phadnis.
Modi, who has stepped up his attack on Akhilesh in recent days, also said that the chief minister is to be blamed if people of the state which he ruled for five years do not see 'achche din'.
'Where they lose, you never ask why they failed there, like in Bihar and Punjab.' 'You are stuck on the UP victory, thinking they have the mandate to rule for all times to come.' 'The BJP has 282 MPs, but can I honestly say that the BJP is the party for everyone?'
Sensing defeat, the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party have launched a new game plan for a fractured mandate in Uttar Pradesh so that they can have bargaining power, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Monday.
Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, vice president Rahul Gandhi, Left parties and CMs of various states congratulated Kovind.
Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi attacked the Congress and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday for "failing" to ensure development of Northeast though he represented Assam for the last 23 years in the Rajya Sabha.
The situation is worse in the Gandhi family pocket borough -- Amethi and Raebareli.
'Delhi 2015 is a warning of an intensifying nightmare in the offing.'
The Opposition is putting up a symbolic fight for the presidential polls as it knows that the BJP has the numbers to get its candidate elected to the top post.
'We have to work for our victories.' 'We have to offer a better alternative governance model.' 'Not just criticise the current government.' 'You have to build bridges, learn from what has gone wrong and create a party for all people.'
Senior Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar also said that an alliance similar to the one stitched up in Bihar is needed at the national level for the next Lok Sabha elections.
Chief Minister Adityanath has total assets worth over Rs 71 lakh, while Deputy CM Keshav Prasad has total assets of over Rs 9 crore.
The assembly polls are seen as a test of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's popularity, especially in the wake of demonetisation.
'The issue of the larger homeland of Nagalim, the dream of the Nagas to hold sway over swathes of Manipur, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, is just that, a dream.' 'The NSCN has been told categorically that the government is not going to concede on this issue.'
'Hindu middle class doesn't like anti-Muslim rhetoric'
'The Congress has become two distinct parties, one of the durbar, the other of the field and if they keep drifting apart, death is a certainty,' says Shekhar Gupta.
Modi's NDA is good enough to give a psychological boost to the once 'untouchable' BJP and Modi but if the NDA doesn't get a majority on its own, then walking the last mile will be the greatest challenge of this election for Modi, says Sheela Bhatt/Rediff.com
The Goa Investment Promotion and Facilitation Board, the BJP's brainchild, has been able to create only 1,500 jobs
As many as 69 assembly constituencies in the Yadav heartland, considered crucial for the ruling Samajwadi Party in the state, went to the polls in this phase.
Even if they score administratively, state governments ruled by the party suffer from an inability to communicate positively, say observers.
'People feel concerned about the future, whether it is the land or the jobs.' 'The BJP came to power in Assam with promises of maati, bheti (home, hearth and identity), land, jobs and culture.' 'Are these going to taken care of? I think those are real concerns.' 'The Assam chief minister (Sarbananda Sonowal) was one of the leaders of the All Assam Students Union which fought for and is one of the signatories to the Assam Accord.' 'Today, his comrade-in-arms (Samujjal Bhattacharya, chief advisor, AASU) is leading the opposition in the streets.'
Responding to the donkey remarks made by Akhilesh, Modi said the criticism of donkeys by the UP CM only reflected his 'casteist mentality' and 'the feeling of hatred does not suit him'.
