Though electoral verdicts have historically been accepted, even though grudgingly, by all parties, there has been a sharper edge to the questions being raised by Opposition parties this time over the polling process, including the Election Commission.
A win for SP could provide some consolation for Akhilesh Yadav after the defeat in the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections early this year and the loss of Azamgarh and Rampur Lok Sabha seats to the BJP in June bypolls.
In the first phase of the Lok Sabha polls, there were 135 women candidates while in the second phase, there were 100 women candidates, bringing the combined total for the first two phases to 235 women candidates.
Forty-two of the 102 Lok Sabha seats going to polls in the general election's first phase are constituencies that have three or more candidates facing criminal cases, according to a poll rights body.
Amid the raging feud in Samajwadi Party, its senior leader Shivpal Yadav reached Delhi on Wednesday evening to invite 'like-minded' socialists for the party's 25th anniversary celebrations on November 5, a move seen as an attempt to stitch an alliance for the state assembly polls.
According to BJP insiders, every Union minister has been given 3-4 seats to mentor and has been told to work hard on these constituencies in the next 20 months to ensure the party's victory.
Accompanied by his son Santosh Suman, Manjhi met Shah at his residence in New Delhi.
Voters, it is said, get the government they deserve. We will soon see what voters in Maharashtra choose. Till then, a sense of helplessness and scepticism hangs in the air, notes Ramesh Menon.
The Bharatiya Janata Party got a shot in the arm on Monday with two sitting Independent members of the Lok Sabha from Bihar -- Putul Kumari and Om Prakash Yadav -- joining the party ahead of the general elections.
Several BJP-backed state governments have unveiled schemes targeting the poor, women, farmers and students, following the party's setback in the Lok Sabha polls.
The winter session of Lok Sabha began on a stormy note on Thursday with members of Samajwadi Party and Rashtriya Lok Dal creating uproar over the demand for hike in sugarcane prices leading to adjournment of the House. As soon as the obituary references were over, SP Chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and RLD President Ajit Singh led their party members into the well of the House on the issue.
The April 11 polling will decide the fate of several political bigwigs.
Haryana Janhit Congress-Bharatiya Janata Party alliance candidate Kuldeep Bishnoi won the Hisar by-poll by defeating nearest rival Ajay Chautala of Indian National Lok Dal by 23,617 votes.
The 70-year-old leader attended a meeting of the floor leaders of NDA allies in both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha in the Parliament chamber of Opposition leader Lal Krishna Advani on Thursday.
The assembly bypolls in Bihar and Maharashtra, scheduled for November 3, are set to be the first electoral test of the popularity of the respective state governments after a change in the political alignment.
"If you see in the context of alliances and statistics, then this is the strongest alliance government," Modi said while addressing newly-elected MPs and leaders of the NDA from across the country following his election as leader of the ruling bloc ahead of his government's swearing-in on Sunday.
An adverse outcome against the BJP in UP can well be taken into its stride by the ruling combine at the Centre, argues Virendra Kapoor.
The country now has six national parties - Bharatiya Janata Party, Congress, Bahujan Samaj Party, Communist Party of India-Marxist, NPP and AAP.
Addressing a joint press conference after a meeting of 26 opposition parties in Bengaluru, Kharge said, "This was a very important meeting to save democracy and the Constitution in the interest of the people of the country."
'2019 was fought on delivery. But in 2024, you can see the before and after effects.'
Congress candidate Shafia Zubair won the Ramgarh assembly poll in Rajasthan, while BJP candidate Krishan Middha won over his nearest rival from the Jannayak Janata Party for the high-stakes Jind bypoll in Haryana.
She also holds the distinction of delivering the longest budget speech at two hours and forty minutes in 2020.
Indian National Lok Dal on Saturdayclaimed that it will form the government on its own in Haryana and said Bharatiya Janata Party, which parted ways with it, will bite the dust in the upcoming assembly polls in the state.
While the last Lok Sabha elections saw Rahul Gandhi making his electoral debut, this time his cousin Varun Gandhi and several other 'Yuvrajs' appear ready to join the race with political stalwarts involved in hectic lobbying to ensure tickets for their wards.
The first list put out for the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections has a total of 77 candidates with a criminal background. Topping this list are both the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party who have 13 candidates each with serious criminal charges against them.
Now, every state election -- first up, Maharashtra, Haryana and Jharkhand later this year, then Delhi in January and Bihar in September next year -- will be seen by his followers for evidence of his recovery, and by rivals of sharpening decline, points out Shekhar Gupta.
His son and party chief Akhilesh Yadav lit the funeral pyre. The former Uttar Pradesh CM had died aged 82 at a private hospital in Haryana's Gurugram on Monday.
Asked how many seats INDIA bloc will get, Gandhi said, "Have you heard Sidhu Moose Wala's song '295'? So 295 (seats)."
Actor-turned-politician Jaya Prada on Thursday said she wants to join the Bharatiya Janata Party as she is impressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's leadership.
Five days before the Big Opposition rally in Patna, one of the Mahagathbandhan's allies will walk out of the ruling alliance.
'The BJP will use Samrat Choudhary and Vijay Kumar Sinha to check Nitish Kumar.' 'They will not allow him to function freely as before.'
Three of the fence-sitters rule fairly large states Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Odisha that together send 63 members to Lok Sabha -- where the Congress or other opposition parties have been pushed to the margins.
Rampur Sadar and Khatauli in Uttar Pradesh, Padampur in Odisha, Sardarshahar in Rajasthan, Kurhani in Bihar and Bhanupratappur in Chhattisgarh are the assembly seats where the bypolls are being held.
Saini's elevation as Haryana chief minister fits in with a pattern that has gathered pace in the BJP after the Congress and its allies like the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh and the Rashtriya Janata Dal in Bihar began making an aggressive bid to woo the largest group of communities and politically most significant, especially in Hindi-speaking states, by pushing for a caste census.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah himself sounded more open to such a possibility in a recent interview.
'We all are united and intact. We have been working for the people and will continue to serve people. We have done a lot of developmental work in Bihar. From constructing good roads, bridges, electricity, and drinking water facilities to several other infrastructural projects, we have done a lot of work in the state. The electorate will make the final decision'
The 'Group of 23' leaders who participated included Ghulam Nabi Azad, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Anand Sharma, Mukul Wasnik, Prithviraj Chavan, Manish Tewari, Shashi Tharoor, besides Sibal who hosted the post-birthday dinner for them.
The suspension came minutes after the party core committee that met in Hubballi recommended his suspension to its national president and former prime minister H D Deve Gowda, who is also Revanna's grandfather.
Bharatiya Janata Party leader Sumitra Mahajan will be the Speaker of the 16th Lok Sabha with senior leaders from all parties, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, moving motions on Thursday proposing her name for the high office.
Bihar assembly Speaker Awadh Bihari Chaudhary on Sunday called on Rashtriya Janata Dal president Lalu Prasad Yadav, at a time when the state was witnessing a big political churn.
