Gearing up for the assembly polls next year, the Congress on Wednesday constituted the election committee for Uttar Pradesh, which includes state unit chief Ajay Kumar Lallu and former Union ministers Salman Khurshid, Rajeev Shukla and R P N Singh.
Can ordinary citizens counter this backward march? Can peace activists ensure that the two communities retain their bonds? Do they have a choice, asks Jyoti Punwani.
Banerjee said the prime minister will now have to move around the country and also abroad with two crutches.
Dominic Xavier wonders if the Congress will ever see happy days again.
Yashpal Arya and his son, along with their supporters, joined the Congress in the presence of senior party leaders Harish Rawat, K C Venugopal and Randeep Surjewala in New Delhi.
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.
This would give BJP the chance to explore Constitutional options for government formation if there is no clear-cut mandate, explains Sheela Bhatt.
Close to half of the total 543 Lok Sabha seats are bracing for multi-cornered fight this time, making the contest way more interesting and intense than it was in the 2019 elections.
The ruling BJP in UP, however, lost Khatauli to Samajwadi Party ally Rashtriya Lok Dal.
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 Congress, which wanted to contest as many as 121 seats, has reportedly now settled for 105 seats.
A group of supporters stopped the vehicle of former Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan outside the swearing-in ceremony site for the newly designated Madhya Pradesh CM in Bhopal on Wednesday, chanting slogans and expressing support with cries of 'mama, mama'.
Shah asserted that the BJP will once again form the government in Uttar Pradesh with a comfortable majority.
Early trends from counting of votes on Tuesday threw up disappointing results for the BJP-led NDA in the Lok Sabha elections, which appears to be losing heavily in its strongholds of Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Rajasthan although it is expected to form the government with about 290 seats.
Mayawati said that in case of a tie-up with the Congress in the past, the party did not benefit.
For renomination to the Rajya Sabha, Nadda will have to look for a seat outside his home state of Himachal Pradesh as the Congress is in power there.
The decision was announced by Ghulam Nabi Azad in New Delhi at a press briefing.
Congress veteran Kapil Sibal had on Wednesday filed his nomination as an SP-backed Independent candidate for the Rajya Sabha polls.
Taking note of complaints of indiscipline and anti-party statements, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge approved Nirupam's expulsion from the party for six years with immediate effect, an official communication from the party said.
The notable names in the BJP's first list include Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Varanasi, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh from Lucknow, Hema Malini from Mathura, Ajay Mishra Teni from Kheri, Smriti Irani from Amethi, Lallu Singh from Faizabad (Ayodhya) and Mahendra Nath Pandey from Chandauli among others.
Accompanied by Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, Chaudhary reached Uttar Pradesh assembly premises in the morning to file his nomination.
The ministers who failed to find places in the second term of the BJP government in the state included Dinesh Sharma, Satish Mahana, Ashutosh Tandon, Shrikant Sharma, Siddharth Nath Singh, and others.
Congress leaders Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Rahul Gandhi are likely to contest the Lok Sabha election from Rae Bareli and Amethi seats, respectively, sources said on Thursday.
The share of candidates who were successful among the BJP was 56.5% in 2019. It was 5% for the Congress.
The government had earlier announced the country's highest civilian honour for L K Advani and Karpoori Thakur.
'Rahul is a seasoned player of politics and chess. He makes his moves after careful consideration.
Soon after meeting, Raut hinted at a pre-poll alliance with the Congress in UP and Goa, stating that the parties are thinking of working together in both the states that are scheduled to go to assembly polls early next year.
According to a police official, they have come across a viral post on social media in the name of an alleged member of the Lawrence Bishnoi gang claiming responsibility for Baba Siddique's murder.
Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Ltd made a number of electoral bond purchases close to the date of bagging crucial projects, including the all-weather Zojila tunnel that is being constructed at an estimated cost of Rs 4,500 crore in Jammu and Kashmir.
A day after the Congress's second straight defeat in the national election, resignations were flying.
Samajwadi Party leader Naresh Agrawal said Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav was offering 100 seats, but the Congress was not ready for less than 120 seats.
"Ladki Hoon, Lad Sakti Hoon is a slogan but Congress didn't give me a chance to fight," she added.
'There is a huge constituency that upholds this ideology.' 'Hindutva will remain relevant in our public life in the near future as an ideology and in politics as well.'
"You don't change party leadership for losses in one or two elections. The leadership is ideology. They make teams. Our team failed there (in UP)," he said.
Rajeev Chandrasekhar said in a post on X that his 18-year-long stint in public service has come to an end.
An eighth BJP candidate on Thursday filed his nomination for the Rajya Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh, setting the stage for a contest with the Samajwadi Party on February 27.
BIf you know this BJP, it will now go forward to Jharkhand and Maharashtra as if June 2024 never happened, notes Shekhar Gupta.
'The tragedy with Indian Muslims is that they do politics from the heart, not from the head.'
Police have launched a probe into the killing of former Maharashtra minister Baba Siddique from different angles, including a possible contract killing, business rivalry or threat over a slum rehabilitation project, officials said on Sunday.
If Meena resigns, it is likely to put pressure on other ministers whose areas also saw poor performance in the general elections.
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