Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday dubbed the electoral bonds as the 'world's biggest extortion scheme' and alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the 'champion of corruption'.
The BJP got the benefit of a split in Muslim votes in some seats of western UP, and its candidates registered wins from Muzaffarnagar, Kairana, Meerut, Bulandshahr, Baghpat and Aligarh Lok Sabha seats.
India's poverty has started to decline due to efforts of the BJP-led government, Modi said.
Bharatiya Janata President Amit Shah's visit to Mumbai on Wednesday has been cancelled, a party spokesperson said in Mumbai.
"Am I needed to weaken the Congress? Isn't Rahul Gandhi enough," he quipped when asked to comment on allegations levelled by political rivals that his AAP was weakening the Congress and acting as a B-team of the BJP to help the saffron party win elections.
Chouhan and Raje were overlooked by the BJP for the chief minister posts in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan respectively despite ensuring the party's return to power in the assembly polls held recently.
Navigating a history of animosity and mistrust, negotiations for a potential Congress-Trinamool Congress alliance in West Bengal face significant challenges while addressing the shared adversary of the Bharatiya Janata Party, with the Bengal Congress unit appearing reluctant to engage in an electoral pact.
He will be around for another crack at the elections, and a clear majority, predicts Saisuresh Sivaswamy.
Rashtriya Janata Dal president Lalu Prasad Yadav had thrown barbs at the prime minister over his having no family.
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.
The seat-sharing issue is being discussed with the central leadership, Maharashtra BJP chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule told PTI.
'Wait for 2019, there will be no space for the BJP in UP.'
Could a grand alliance between the Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party and Congress -- built along the lines of the successful Bihar mahagatbandhan of 2015 -- have changed the outcome of the Uttar Pradesh election?
Modi claimed the Congress, when in power at the Centre, had drawn up plans to allocate 15 percent of the total budget to minorities.
The Mahagathbandhan's seat-sharing announcement comes a day after the filing of nomination papers for the first phase of Lok Sabha polls was over.
Leaders of the West Bengal Congress unit, which has an alliance with the CPI-M-led Left Front in the state, were seen welcoming the Left leaders.
The RJD chief also hailed the Samajwadi Party-Bahujan Samaj Party alliance in Uttar Pradesh.
As he snapped ties with the Bharatiya Janata Party, Bihar's caretaker chief minister Nitish Kumar has once again been pitched as a prime ministerial candidate for the 2024 elections by some, but a majority of the Opposition still view the Janata Dal-United leader with suspicion citing his numerous 'U-turns'.
Mohan was released from the Saharsa jail on April 27 following an amendment in Bihar's prison rules.
Asking the people of Bihar to bring their own government to power, the post made a veiled reference to the alleged high handedness of bureaucracy under the JD(U)-BJP rule but fell shy of a frontal attack on Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, his arch rival, or the near hegemonic saffron party which considers him a bete noire.
Chhatrapati Yadav, the MLA from Khagaria Sadar, has shot off a letter to Congress high command, demanding that he be considered, by virtue of his caste, for a berth in the new cabinet headed by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
He is likely to have the support of grand alliance partners Rashtriya Janata Dal, Congress, Nationalist Congress Party and Jitan Ram Manjhi's Hindustani Awami Morcha.
Gohil, who is also one of the party's national spokespersons and a Rajya Sabha member from Gujarat, made the disclosure on his official twitter handle. 'Due to personal reasons, I have requested our party high command to allocate me lighter work for next few months and to relieve me ASAP as #Bihar in charge,' Gohil tweeted, tagging his party, its units in Bihar, Gujarat and Delhi besides a number of colleagues.
In private, questions are being raised about the wisdom of a 'dual-SIM' leadership during the long run-up to the 2026 assembly polls where 'family rule' could become an election issue, reports N Sathiya Moorthy.
The ruling BJP-led National Democratic Alliance is surging ahead of the Grand Alliance spearheaded by the Congress in Assam.
Along with Modi, senior BJP leaders including Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah, Nitin Gadkari, Nirmala Sitharaman and S Jaishankar, all ministers in Modi 2.0 Cabinet, took oath as cabinet ministers at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. In all, 71 ministers were sworn-in along with Modi, taking the strength of the Union council to 72.
Gandhi said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the "champion of corruption".
Fissures appear to have emerged in the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) as its two key allies, the Congress and the Trinamool Congress, on Thursday clashed over seat sharing for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls in West Bengal.
The focus now shifts to November 10 counting of votes.
The PDP has 28 MLAs, followed by NC's 15 and the Congress's 12. The three parties together will have majority in the 87-member House. The Bharatiya Janata Party is the second largest party in the state with 25 members.
The decision on Rahul Gandhi's appointment as the Leader of Opposition was made after a meeting of the floor leaders of the INDIA bloc at Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge's residence.
Even with the best methodology there is a limitation to what opinion poll/exit polls can achieve. When done correctly, the polls should give the broad story, points out Rajeeva Karandikar, director, Chennai Mathematical Institute.
Amid a war of words triggered by Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury's comments regarding seat-sharing in West Bengal, sources from the Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Thursday said they will give more time to ally Congress to sort out issues, adding the party is committed to the opposition bloc.
As in the past, many of the exit polls gave a clear majority to the BJP-led NDA going way off the mark in ground realities while those that predicted victory for the 'grand alliance' did not anticipate the sweep.
Modi also alleged the opposition grouping will end the reservation given to SC, ST, OBC and give all of it to Muslims.
The Gandhi-led yatra will pass through Amethi on Monday. It will then enter Raebareli, where the Samajwadi Party chief had earlier said he would join.
'CM Banerjee passes a resolution in the Parliament against BJP, but then praises PM Modi'
According to the Election Commission data, 30 out of the state's 40 Lok Sabha seats went to the BJP-led coalition in the latest elections, a sharp drop compared with 39 in 2019 and lower than the tallies of 2014 (31) and 2009 (32).
Kushwaha said Kumar remarks that the JD-U would not join the Modi cabinet reminded him of 'sour grapes'.
'With all outlets of public expression virtually choked for the last five years, suppressed anger and frustration is looking for an opening via the ballot box.' 'There is no escape from the inevitability of the 'Engineer Rashid' factor surfacing in a big enough way to upset everyone's applecart,' alerts Mohammad Sayeed Malik, the veteran commentator on Kashmir affairs.
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