That for many of the UPA allies it will be the first time they would contest in Gujarat's mainly bipolar polity, shows how the Congress has succumbed to the pressure of its allies.
Jaitley, who is on a two-day visit to the state, held meetings with party leaders here to form election strategy, BJP sources added.
Exit polls on Monday predicted a big majority for the Bharatiya Janata Party in Gujarat while most of them gave an edge to it in Himachal Pradesh, indicating re-election of the ruling party in both states.
Members from Samajwadi Party, CPI(M), Congress, RJD and BSP termed as serious the killing of one Sohrabuddin allegedly in a fake encounter in the state.
BIf you know this BJP, it will now go forward to Jharkhand and Maharashtra as if June 2024 never happened, notes Shekhar Gupta.
Second line of leadership might soon have to play a key role, says Premal Balan
Even BJP leaders in Gujarat feel that party's image has taken a beating due to two controversial issues that have cropped up just when the term of its government is to end in December this year.
The Congress on Thursday suffered its worst-ever defeat in Gujarat but appeared headed for a close win in Himachal Pradesh, a mixed bag result for the party that not only faces a rampaging Bharatiya Janata Party but an ambitious Aam Aadmi Party vying for the leadership of the Opposition going forward on the road to the 2024 general elections.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday cast his vote at a polling station in Ahmedabad during the second phase of the assembly elections in Gujarat and said the state's people listen to everybody, but it is their nature to accept what is true.
The arrest of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal Thursday night could not have come at a worse time for the Aam Aadmi Party, which is already grappling with the absence of its top leadership from action.
The accident, which comes days after similar incidents in Delhi and Jabalpur, gave the opposition Congress an opportunity to target the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.
Two Bharatiya Janata Party Members of Legislative Assembly, accused of watching obscene pictures on an iPAD in the Gujarat assembly, have been given a clean chit by the Forensic Science Laboratory in Gandhinagar.
Noting that he fully respects the Supreme Court order on electoral bonds, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday said the scheme was introduced to end black money in politics and added that it should have been improved rather than scrapped.
In winning a seventh term, the BJP also matched the Left Front's feat in West Bengal.
Narendra Modi, who powered Bharatiya Janata Party to an emphatic victory in Gujarat, was today sworn in as chief minister for the fourth time at the head of a 17-member ministry, in a ceremony boycotted by Opposition Congress and National Democratic Alliance ally Janata Dal-United.
He said the people of Gujarat do not love him, state AAP president Gopal Italia or chief ministerial face Isudan Gadhvi but extending support because they feel AAP can resolve their issues
Undaunted by Bharatiya Janata Party president L K Advani's praise of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, party rebels of the state on Wednesday met a number of senior leaders as part of their efforts to seek Modi's ouster.
The Eknath Shinde-led Maharashtra government has come under fire following the Centre's announcement that Tata-Airbus C-295 transport aircraft project would be set up in Gujarat, with the opposition seeking to know why the project that was supposed to come up in Maharashtra went to the neighbouring state.
A court in Surat in Gujarat on Thursday sentenced Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to two years in jail in a 2019 criminal defamation case filed against him over his "Modi surname" remarks.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) clinched 23 out of 27 Scheduled Tribe seats in Gujarat as the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the new entrant in the state's politics, swept aside the Congress to find a footing in the state's tribal belt.
The six MLAs resigned from various committees of the legislative assembly saying that they were "choked" with the environment within the party.
The Election Commission on Thursday said that there were 'multiple factors' leading to the delay in the announcement of the Gujarat assembly polls, adding that the recent Morbi bridge collapse tragedy was one of them.
The outfit's chief also took the English press to task for apparently keeping the Gujarat riots 'alive'.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday used a sting operation by a news channel to defend former Gujarat Home Minister Amit Shah in the Sohrabuddin encounter case, and claimed that the CBI was being forced to press "politically motivated" and "malafide" charges against him.
"I had earlier said in a function of the Patidar community that my community is living under fear, but today after reading newspapers I have come to the conclusion that entire Gujarat is living under fear," Patel said in Ahmedabad.
Along with the development plank, the Bharatiya Janata Party is counting on the 'Gujarat formula' of dropping 'unpopular legislators' as a strategy to minimise the anti-incumbency factor and return to power in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh.
Keshubhai hopeful about a leadership change in Gujarat
Voters, it is said, get the government they deserve. We will soon see what voters in Maharashtra choose. Till then, a sense of helplessness and scepticism hangs in the air, notes Ramesh Menon.
Jaswant Singh's controversial book on Jinnah is selling like hot cakes in Gujarat after the state high court lifted the ban, imposed by the Narendra Modi government, on it. Bookstore managers said that the book 'Jinnah: India-Partition, Independence' has generated a lot of interest among readers and the demand for it is soaring by the day.Crossword, a chain of book stores, has sold over 100 copies of the book in the city since September 4, when the ban was lifted.
The Commission did not announce the elections for the Gujarat assembly, the term of which ends on February 18, 2023.
The landslide victory of Indias ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in a crucial state poll in Gujarat will help the federal coalition government boost its economic reforms agenda and speed up its privatisation drive.
In a major blow to Congress in Gujarat, influential leader Vitthal Radadia, who was embroiled in a gun-toting controversy, and his son Jayesh, on Monday resigned as members of Legislative Assembly and are set to join the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Party president Venkaiah Naidu alleged the SCERT textbooks in Kerala have deliberately omitted mention of the state in the national anthem for last two years.
Mumtaz Patel said that she will continue to work to make the party stronger along with the party cadre in Bharuch.
The country now has six national parties - Bharatiya Janata Party, Congress, Bahujan Samaj Party, Communist Party of India-Marxist, NPP and AAP.
In the first such initiative, the Bharatiya Janata Party has invited the ruling and Opposition parties from around the world to witness the Lok Sabha elections in India first-hand.
The ruling BJP and opposition Congress have together fielded sons of sitting and former MLAs in at least 20 of the total 182 constituencies.
"The polling was peaceful and orderly and no major incident was reported," Deputy Election Commissioner Jaiprakash told reporters in Delhi.
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