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.
SP president Akhilesh Yadav and ally RLD chief Jayant Chaudhary are unlikely to participate in the Yatra due to "preoccupation" with their party programmes, their party leaders said.
The former chief minister also sought to distance JD-S's alliance partner Bharatiya Janata Party and Prime Minister Narendra Modi from the case, amid attacks by the ruling Congress seeking their response on the issue.
The combine of the Congress and the Rashtriya Lok Dal will emerge as the single largest party in the forthcoming Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, according to yet another survey commissioned by the party. The survey also indicates that the real battle will be between the Congress and the BJP, with the latter making considerable gains since the last election and winning in 113 constituencies.
'One needs to understand what kind of means the BJP use to bring other party leaders in their party.' 'They are unscrupulous politicians and money plays an important role.'
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said he wants the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance to win 400 seats in the ongoing Lok Sabha polls to ensure the Congress does not bring back Article 370 in Kashmir and put a 'Babri lock' on the Ram temple in Ayodhya.
There is a view that heavyweight portfolios like home, finance, defence and external affairs besides education and culture, two ministries with strong ideological hues, will be kept by the BJP, while its allies can get anywhere between five to eight cabinet berths.
The TDP and JD-U will have a lot to answer inside Parliament, day after day, session after session, notes N Sathiya Moorthy.
A senior JD-U leader said Lallan Singh has expressed his desire to give up the top party post.
Sources said the opposition parties would look to avoid the prickly leadership question as of now and emphasise on building a common ground.
The Telangana Bill has been passed in the Lok Sabha after a voting and a heated debate on Tuesday. To ensure that none of the Members of Parliament use TV coverage to cause chaos and drama, Speaker Meira Kumar stopped the live telecast.
'Unless she joins one of the coalitions, she has a bleak future.' 'The NDA option is suicidal, but INDIA could help her.'
At the core of Nitish Kumar's decision was a cold political calculation. He assessed that the RJD's support base was unlikely to vote for JD-U candidates in the Lok Sabha polls. He was unsure of winning even half a dozen if he stayed with the RJD and the Congress.
The ruling BJP-led coalition ended Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan's over four-decade dominance in Rampur with its ally Apna Dal-Sonelal winning the Suar assembly by-election by a margin of 8,724 votes.
Congress leaders and workers from Kolar have been exerting pressure on the Congress legislature party leader to contest from there.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader and former president M Venkiah Naidu on Thursday welcomed the Centre's decision to move a resolution for the creation of Telangana state in the Andhra Pradesh assembly, saying smaller states could be better administered.He added that the demand for Harit Pradesh in western Uttar Pradesha, raised by Rashtriya Lok Dal leader Chaudhary Ajit Singh, and Gorkhaland in West Bengal raised by the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, will be strengthened.
Accepting its defeat in Maharashtra and Haryana assembly elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday said that the Congress had benefited from the division of votes of the opposition parties. "The Congress has benefited from the division of votes of the opposition parties. In Maharashtra, it is clear that the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena is a factor. Similarly, in Haryana, the Indian National Lok Dal and Haryana Janhit Congress divided the opposition votes.
Several candidates, including Taranjit Singh Sandhu, the BJP's Amritsar candidate, are promising resumption of India-Pakistan trade via the Attari-Wagah land route.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi would have got a tough fight in Varanasi had Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra contested against him as Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) candidate, feel party workers from the temple town.
Three Parliamentarians, including Bharatiya Janata Party's Maheish Girri, have asked the Lok Sabha Speaker to send Aam Aadmi Party MP Bhagwant Mann to a "rehab centre", alleging he comes to the House "intoxicated".
'What social justice is Tejashwi talking about?' 'Muslims in Bihar are asking we are 18%, and you are giving us 2 seats.'
Congress on Sunday won two assembly by-elections in Himachal Pradesh and Haryana appearing not to have been hit by the spate of scams rocking the United Progressive Alliance coalition at the Centre while the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party suffered a humiliating defeat in Karnataka.
Party's chief spokesperson K C Tyagi said Kumar has agreed to take over the mantle from Lalan Singh.
Modi can abandon the path of Hindutva only at risk to his position within his own fraternity. But if he pursues a hard line, he faces the risk of being hauled up by his coalition-partners. For the first time in a decade, Modi is not in enviable situation, observes Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
Since 1993, when the BJP came to power after a stint of President's rule, the state has alternated between the Congress and the BJP.
Bharatiya Janata Party and other National Democratic Alliance members were on their feet demanding an explanation from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the spat, which they said was "very serious".
Responding to the debate on the bill, Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said the ban commercial surrogacy was "the need of the hour".
The MPs suspended on Tuesday include National Conference's Farooq Abdullah and Congress leaders Shashi Tharoor and Manish Tewari.
Poonam Sinha is likely to file nomination on April 18.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday named 14 candidates for the upcoming Rajya Sabha polls including former Union minister R P N Singh and Sudhanshu Trivedi -- the only outgoing MP renominated by the party.
If the BJP gets only 200 seats and wants to remain in power, Modi will have to make way -- either for a proxy of his choice, or for an internal rival, predicts Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
The Bharatiya Janata Party faces an uphill task of repeating its performance of the last assembly election of winning 53 out of 58 constituencies in western Uttar Pradesh where polling will be held in the first phase on February 10.
Scenes from the National Democratic Alliance meeting at the Ashoka Hotel in New Delhi, July 18, 2023.
Rediff Labs analysed the 2014 assembly election results to develop a Sentiment Meter for the 2019 battle in Haryana.
Predicting a hung assembly in Haryana after the October 13 polls, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday did not rule out a post-poll alliance in the state to keep Congress out of power.
The BJP is far more prepared than the Congress as their pool of prospective candidates is much bigger, reports Prakash Bhandari.
Polling will be held in all 13 seats in Punjab and an equal number of seats in Uttar Pradesh, nine in West Bengal, eight seats each in Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, four in Himachal Pradesh, three in Jharkhand and the lone seat Chandigarh.
Voting will be held on Thursday in bypolls to seven assembly seats in six states -- a contest symbolic of the fierce turf war between the Bharatiya Janata Party and regional parties.
In Haryana, the split between the Bharatiya Janata Party and Chautala's Indian National Lok Dal worries the Congress.In Maharashtra the main problem of the Congress is the anti-incumbency against its alliance partner the Nationalist Congress Party.
Amid simmering tension in Mandya over the removal of Hanuman flag from a 108 feet tall flagpost, the Keragodu village Panchayat Development Officer has been suspended.
