Clash of the two richest titans, a celebrity and a 'royal', is on the cards in Himachal Pradesh's Mandi Lok Sabha constituency, known for electing erstwhile 'royals' maximum number of times.
A land-owning class, the Jats are a powerful community and account for 28 per cent of Haryana's population. The time, they believe, has now come for them to take revenge.
Even as parleys continue in both states, the grand old party is expected to contest less than 110 seats in the November 20 polls for the 288-member Maharashtra assembly.
On June 26, for the likes of me, the music died. Any impression of potential change held forth by the outcome of the 2024 general election, was vaporised, reveals Shyam G Menon.
The preferred format would be for the top BJP leadership in the government to reach out to the alliance leaders on a case-to-case basis.
In the event of the BJP's poor performance in the assembly polls this year and in early 2025, Modi's hold will get further weakened because he will no longer remain the invincible electoral persona tightly controlling the machine at his disposal, asserts Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
'Some of his ministers have performed abysmally, and Bommai has faced an unwanted campaign of religious polarisation imposed by national BJP leaders.'
Here are glimpses of famous faces who got their fingers inked.
Nitish slammed the opposition and expressed confidence that they will be defeated in the next Lok Sabha elections.
Aam Aadmi Party's Delhi state convener Gopal Rai on Thursday said his party's alliance with the Congress was only for the Lok Sabha elections and hinted that the ruling party in the city will go solo in next year's assembly polls in Delhi.
"I want to send you my good wishes that you prepare so much that you get a chance to bring a no-confidence again in 2023," he had said while replying in Lok Sabha to the no-confidence motion in 2019, ahead of the general elections.
Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav will contest the Lok Sabha elections from Kannauj, the party announced on Wednesday, two days after it had declared another candidate for the Uttar Pradesh seat.
The Election Commission will announce the schedule for the Lok Sabha polls on Saturday.
Five Parliamentarians from Karnataka including Janata Dal-Secular leader and former chief minister H D Kumaraswamy, Bharatiya Janata Party leaders Nirmala Sitharaman and Pralhad Joshi, who were part of the previous Cabinet, on Sunday took oath in the new National Democratic Alliance Council of Ministers headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The party has fielded Parvati Das for the by-election to the Bageshwar assembly seat in Uttarakhand and Lijinlal G for the Puthuppally assembly seat in Kerala.
Bharatiya Janata Party MP Nishikant Dubey on Sunday accused Trinamool Congress's Mahua Moitra of taking 'bribes' from a businessman to ask questions in Parliament and urged Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla to constitute an 'inquiry committee' to look into the charges against her.
The Maharashtra legislative council on Tuesday unanimously passed a resolution to rename seven stations on the Mumbai local train network.
For now, Modi's government appears singularly focussed on demonstrating that it is not in any way inhibited by the BJP's loss of a majority, and will continue along its patented path of bulldozing all opposition and doing just as it likes, asserts Prem Panicker.
That he hasn't done so yet, has continued to be active on the political street, in public debate and on social media, signals an important change. It will give his party hope. Maybe the achievement of reducing Mr Modi well below the majority mark will now motivate him to stay committed, observes Shekhar Gupta
'Someone who cannot even take his cabinet into confidence, how will he take the NDA alliance into confidence?'
Over 60 per cent voter turnout was recorded on Monday in 49 constituencies in six states and two Union territories in the fifth phase of Lok Sabha elections, with Baramulla in Jammu and Kashmir recording its highest-ever voting percentage.
The Maharashtra minister alleged that Muslim voters were convinced that Uddhav Thackeray had "forsaken" Hindutva ideologies and the ideals of Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray which led to them coming together to help the Congress and Shiv Sena-UBT candidates.
The opposition caused repeated disruptions in Parliament Friday over the NEET paper leak issue, with both Houses being adjourned for the day without transacting much business apart from the Rajya Sabha taking up the Motion of Thanks for the President's address amid protests including by the Biju Janata Dal, which almost always supported the BJP in the previous Lok Sabha.
Sanjay Jha's importance lies in his connections to senior BJP and RSS leaders to maintain a smooth relationship within the NDA government in Bihar and at the Centre and to contest the 2025 Bihar assembly elections together under Nitish Kumar's leadership.
Moody's Analytics said that the reduced political stability and the need for consensus building that is inherent with a coalition government, might erode investor confidence in the near term.
Embroiled in a battle for survival, Left parties marginally improved their performance in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, leading in eight to 10 seats according to vote counting trends.
The JD-U leader's outbursts met with disapproval from the RJD as well as ally BJP, leaving the party to fend for itself.
Despite failing to secure a simple majority in Parliament, we will continue to see him on TV, newspapers, magazines, bill boards, vaccination certificates, railway stations, bus shelters, airports, sea ports, on the highway and on rural roads, sighs A Ganesh Nadar.
Hours after he resigned as Haryana chief minister along with his cabinet ministers, senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Manohar Lal Khattar Tuesday hinted that he may be fielded by the party in the coming Lok Sabha polls.
The Samajwadi Party and Congress have announced that they will contest together under the INDIA bloc.
The conduct of the Opposition is an "insult" to Parliament and the Constitution, Joshi said, quoting the prime minister.
Modi will stay in Patna overnight after the road show and address election meetings on May 13 in three Lok Sabha constituencies: Hajipur, Vaishali and Saran.
Officials have said an absence of drainage system and safety measures, and use of basement for commercial activities in violation of norms led to the death of three civil services aspirants at the coaching centre.
Congress leader Sonia Gandhi was elected unopposed to Rajya Sabha from Rajasthan on Tuesday, officials said.
Kangana later apologised saying she didn't mean to hurt anyone, and it was a harmless joke about Biden being friends with the Dalai Lama.
Demonetisation is not the end but the beginning of a "long, deep and constant" battle against black money and corruption and will benefit the poor and the common man, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said as the BJP parliamentary party passed a unanimous resolution endorsing his "great crusade".
Among the 30 Sensex companies, Tech Mahindra, HCL Technologies, State Bank of India, NTPC, Infosys, Larsen & Toubro, Tata Consultancy Services and Wipro emerged as the biggest gainers. Hindustan Unilever, Asian Paints, Mahindra & Mahindra, Nestle, IndusInd Bank and Sun Pharma were among the laggards.
The coming weeks are sure to have a lot of drama unfolding in Maharashtra, predicts N Sathiya Moorthy.
The meeting with Naidu is significant as the BJP parliamentary board is meeting later on Tuesday to discuss the BJP-led NDA's choices for the new president.
Rebel Bharatiya Janata Party MP Ram Jethmalani, who had been critical of the BJP leadership and had revolted against the then party chief Nitin Gadkari, was on Tuesday expelled from the primary membership of the party for six years on charges of "breach of discipline".
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