Scripting history, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday stormed to power in Assam bagging a government in the north east for the first time dethroning the Congress which also lost Kerala while Jayalalithaa and Mamata Banerjee retained power in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal with spectacular victories.
Modi said this time 'a third decisive strength is emerging in Kerala and I am seeing this', thanking the thousands of people who stood braving the scorching heat.
'Mamata wanted the Congress in alliance with the BJP in Bengal against the Left Front government.' 'Pranab Mukherjee opposed it, stating it would amount to compromising on secularism.' 'In 2021, Mamata defeats the BJP and becomes a champion of secularism.'
With the government moving a resolution in the Lok Sabha to set up a Joint Parliamentary Committee on the 2G spectrum issue, the battle lines between the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance and the Bharatiya Janata Party have become more tightly drawn with the Congress preparing its ammunition to target the BJP during its National Democratic Alliance government, in a bid to expose the actions of their telecom ministers.
Shobha Warrier reports from Thiruvananthapuram where a former UN diplomat is battling a former governor for the Lok Sabha seat.
The Supreme Court on Monday reserved its verdict on whether to refer the matters pertaining to the ban on entry of women aged between 10 to 50 years at Kerala's Sabrimala temple to its constitution bench.
The victory of the ruling Congress-led United Democratic Front in 12 of the 20 Lok Sabha seats in the state has made Chief Minister Oommen Chandy stronger as Kerala is one of the few states that bucked the anti-Congress trend in the country.
'The path of militant Hindutva that the BJP's national leadership chose as its main electoral plank literally dug the grave for the party in Kerala,' says M K Bhadrakumar.
With Pinarayi Vijayan set to be chief minister, what will be the role for party patriarch V S Achuthanandan? And what are the key takeways from the election results in Kerala?
The way things are going, India may have a no-limits free-for-all political contest rather than a three-horse race. Parties are approaching one another across the dividing lines of alliances, breaching conventional rules of the political game.
Having kept it alive for four years with outside support, the Left on Tuesday branded the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government as 'no different' from its predecessor National Democratic Alliance government, on the economic and foreign policy fronts.The Marxist leader said Left parties, at their joint meeting in New Delhi on May 23, will further review the performance of the UPA government and take appropriate position.
In a boost to the United Democratic Front ahead of assembly polls in Kerala next year, the Congress candidate K S Sabarinadhan on Tuesday won the Aruvikkara assembly by-poll by a margin of 10,128 votes defeating his nearest rival M Vijayakumar of the Opposition Left Democratic Front.
The last leg of poll campaign saw many national leaders canvassing for their parties.
Temple priest performed a 'purification' ritual for an hour before the doors were opened again.
Raja attacked the BJP over the attack on Christians in Orissa, and said that democratic parties should join the Left parties to oppose the menace of communalism posed by the BJP and pro-Hindutva forces.
A national opinion poll conducted by a television channel has predicted 215 to 235 seats for the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance and 165 to 185 seats for the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance in the Lok Sabha polls. The poll, conducted by the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies for CNN-IBN, has predicted that the UPA alliance will have a vote share of 36.6 per cent while the NDA combine will cobble up 29.4 per cent votes.
The results are a ringing endorsement of Modi's popularity, his government's achievements in the last five years and his campaign, which centred around national security, nationalism and Hindutva.
Voters are disillusioned with the two rival fronts in the state and there are no effective alternatives either. G Sreedathan explains
It is an ode to his politics that believed in building bridges across social or political divides that he was one of the most liked state leaders among the upper castes even as he drew his support mostly from Dalits, a group which at times shared antagonistic relations with the more prosperous communities due to a number of social and political reasons.
The BJP leader was referred to as 'Smt Sushma Gandhi' in an NDA press release.
On his first visit to Srinagar post the abrogation of Article 370, Home Minister Amit Shah claimed that incidents of terrorism have declined and stone-throwing incidents too have ended in Jammu-Kashmir.
If New Delhi finds itself out in the cold in Afghanistan, both the Congress-led UPA and BJP-led NDA have only themselves to blame. Each has been in power for a full decade from 2001, without reaching out to the Taliban, points out Ajai Shukla.
Kisan Baburao Hazare is supporting Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress and attempts are afoot to form an alternative Third Front. Will these alliances really work, asks Bharat Bhushan.
She said there were attempts to communalise the guru's teachings and this amounts to 'betraying' him.
'We just cannot accept the interference of the government in matters concerning religion and faith.'
"I congratulate the people of Kochi on the proud moment," the PM said.
The Congress has been reduced to a C player in national politics thanks to its inability to read the pulse of the people, says Rashme Sehgal.
The BJP's rediscovery of its allies, including the PM touching the feet of Parakash Singh Badal, would be interpreted as the party's efforts to keep its flock together if it falls short of the majority mark on May 23.
Releasing the manifesto titled 'Badlav Ka Sankalp' (commitment to change) in the presence of All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala and other Mahagathbandhan leaders, Tejashwi Yadav said their government, if elected, would first approve the process for appointments on about 10 lakh jobs in the government.
The year 2015 was a mixed bag for the Grand Old party --with the performance in Bihar being a consolation while the the National Herald case came back to haunt its leadership.
'It is wrong to assume that it is only after 1991 that we started following this ritual.' 'Ayyappan himself instructed where the temple had to be built, the rituals that had to followed and the route that had to be taken by devotees to the temple.'
Shah said the government was committed to ensure development in the country.
Harivansh, a Janata Dal-United MP, is likely to get the support of 126 members in the Upper House, which has an effective strength of 244 MPs, sources in the Bharatiya Janata Party said.
Gandhi said he has "received tremendous love and affection from people of Tamil Nadu and it is my duty to stand with people of Tamil Nadu and protect their history, their culture and their language."
Pattali Makkal Katchi founder S Ramadoss said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should meet the expectations of the people that prices will go down if he took over and 'it is the duty of the new government to do that.'
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi alleged that Modi's move was aimed at helping a few of his 'crony capitalist friends' and had 'destroyed' the Indian economy, prompting a strong response from the BJP which said the exercise was an 'attack' on corruption and black money that were rampant during the 'lost decade' of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government.
The list of the 314 MPs, however, does not include Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, who is also a BJP MP, they said. The majority mark is 268.
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