'Because if a Dalit is made the chief minister, they ask who is taking the decisions in the Congress?'
Vast experience in running the government and mass appeal across the state have favoured Siddaramaiah in the tightly contested race for Karnataka chief minister.
Thousands of people gathered in Maharashtra's Beed city on Saturday to protest against the brutal murder of Massajog sarpanch Santosh Deshmukh as even MLAs from ruling parties demanded the sacking of Nationalist Congress Party minister Dhananjay Munde.
NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar has praised the RSS for its dedicated cadre and urged his party to create a similar base committed to progressive ideas. He attributed the NCP's recent electoral setbacks to complacency and a failure to communicate its work for the OBC community. Pawar also emphasized the need for social engineering to address caste tensions and announced that 50% of the tickets for upcoming local body elections will be given to new faces.
Rijiju's meeting with Bandyopadhyay came against the backdrop of the Opposition alliance's decision to pull out its members from the panel of chairpersons that will assist Mahtab in conducting the proceedings of the Lok Sabha till the election of the Speaker on Wednesday.
'Rahul Gandhi is going to turn 54 and in India political leaders peak when they are around 60.' 'This 'bhai-behen ki jodi' has done a wonderful job for the Congress.' 'Priyanka Gandhi was a very effective campaigner.'
The political fight for the Dalits' cause escalated on Thursday with Congress president Rahul Gandhi accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of having an "anti-Dalit" mindset and the Bharatiya Janata Party chief Amit Shah alleging the opposition party had a legacy of insulting the community.
The BJP is leaning on Yogi's 'batenge to katenge' theme to weave a unifying narrative that transcends caste and communal lines.
'Modi 3.0 will have more balanced policies like one saw in Modi's first term.'
Siddaramaiah's anti-urban bias, which he does not bother to hide, may become the Congress government's biggest weakness unless it is corrected.
In both of these Hindi heartland states, the straight contest between the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and the opposition Congress.
Days ahead of the opening of the new Parliament building, a controversy has erupted as the Congress on Monday accused the government of disrespecting constitutional propriety and demanded that President Droupadi Murmu should do the inauguration instead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Political observers lauded the SP's choices in fielding several non-Yadav and Scheduled Caste candidates, the party's alliance with the Congress, and Rahul Gandhi's campaign around the danger to the Constitution if the BJP won a big majority.
Aam Aadmi Party candidate Sushil Rinku on Saturday won the Jalandhar Lok Sabha by-election, defeating his nearest rival and Congress nominee Karamjit Kaur Chaudhary by a margin of 58,691 votes.
Months after winning the Lok Sabha polls from Sirsa, the former Union minister and the Congress' prominent Dalit face also indicated her desire to contest the upcoming assembly elections and said she wishes to work in the state but the high command will take a final call on the matter.
The Congress and BJP are apprehensive that AAP might eat into their votes among the Patel community, Kshatriyas, a section of minorities, and Dalits, thus delivering a fatal blow in the closely-contested seats. But the local BJP is elated over the entry of AIMIM as there will be a contender for minority votes apart from the Congress in seats like Bhuj and Mandvi, which have considerable Muslim electorate.
Shinde praised Gaikwad for conceptualising the statues of saints and other revered personalities in Buldhana.
The opposition party also alleged that Twitter acted in haste due to "pressure" from the Indian government and was "selective" in removing Rahul Gandhi's tweet and "suspending" his account for putting up pictures of the victim's family as no action was taken against some other handles which carried the same pictures.
Allahabad has seen some interesting battles, such as the Congress's Amitabh Bachchan defeating H N Bahuguna in 1984 or the 1988 by-poll that marked V P Singh's emergence as the contender for the PM post.
The row over Bharatiya Janata Party MP Anurag Thakur's remarks in Lok Sabha escalated on Wednesday with the Congress submitting a notice to move a privilege motion against Prime Minister Narendra Modi for posting on 'X' a video that allegedly also contained expunged portions of Thakur's speech.
This would give BJP the chance to explore Constitutional options for government formation if there is no clear-cut mandate, explains Sheela Bhatt.
Mayawati said both the BJP and the SP indulged in empty talks to win the votes of Dalits and Brahmins, but neither safeguarded their interests when in power.
'Siddaramaiah was openly taking on the BJP's communal agenda, which very few non-BJP politicians do.'
'Akhilesh Yadav made voters think why is the BJP asking for 400 paar.' 'They understood his words and believed the BJP wanted 400 paar only to demolish the Constitution and end reservations.'
Citing violation of party discipline, the state BJP has issued a showcause notice to Munirathna and asked him to clarify the allegations before a disciplinary committee within five days.
Without making two-thirds of the country's population a development partner, India's prosperity is impossible, the Congress leader added.
Taking the matter seriously, the Bharatiya Janata Party government on Wednesday night transferred collector S Vishwnathan, SP Nayak and IG Rajababu Singh.
Modi accused the JMM, Congress and RJD of using Bangladeshi infiltrators for "vote bank politics," facilitating their settlement in Jharkhand, which is a threat to the state's social structure.
...'hum decide karenge kaun banega mukhyamantri. This decision is not to be taken in Mumbai.'
The Congress seems to be heading for the Karnataka polls so far on the strength of its local leadership and focusing on issues concerning the state, making corruption a central theme of its campaigning.
Mevani, after his meeting with the Gandhi scion, said he would ask his community members to defeat the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in the Gujarat polls.
With Charanjit Channi's selection as Punjab CM, the Congress has got its opponents thinking seriously about their next move, notes Sanjeev Nayyar.
Congress says RSS was working for "Dalit-mukt Bharat" which was "sponsored" by BJP to polarise communities ahead of next year's Gujarat polls.
'The inauguration of the Ram temple was the pinnacle of the BJP's religious politics.' 'Politics is dynamic. What goes up has to come down.'
Thackeray said there was no certainty that people will vote for the ruling alliance even after schemes like the Ladki Bahin Yojana.
'The distrust of traditional political parties in Punjab is an advantage for AAP.'
From putting up a decent performance in the last Lok Sabha polls in Uttar Pradesh winning 10 seats stitching an alliance with arch rival Samajwadi Party, Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party drew a blank in the current general elections, dealing a severe blow to its reputation of representing the voice of Dalits in the state.
In India elections are never fought in a straight line. It's fought on many issues, at many levels, with multiple emotions and with a bit of good luck, too. Sheela Bhatt reports from Rajasthan.
Baalu said Murugan was a "traitor" who spoke against the interests of Tamil Nadu and added he described him as "unfit", which was not an unparliamentary word.
Uddhav Thackeray, who played the bold gambit of taking on the ally Bharatiya Janata Party in 2019 and forged an unlikely alliance with the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party, was on Saturday left struggling to make sense of his party's rout in the Maharashtra assembly elections.
