According to insiders, their lack of enthusiasm is showing on the ground. There is nothing to suggest that their enthusiasm will return in the final four phases of polling, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Former Home Secretary R K Singh and two Rashtriya Janata Dal leaders, who recently joined the Bharatiya Janata Party, figure in the third list of 97 Lok Sabha poll candidates released by the party on Thursday.
The new Council of Ministers has representation from almost all the states, except Andhra Pradesh and the north-eastern states of Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Sikkim and Tripura.
Shivakumar will be produced before a court in New Delhi on Wednesday by the ED for seeking his custody.
The main Opposition party is likely to lose some more of its strength in 2016-17
Gehlot was made the chief minister of Rajasthan after the party formed government in the state.
The Congress has accused the BJP of hatching a conspiracy to topple the party's coalition government with the Janata Dal-Secular in Karnataka.
What the INDIA alliance needs is neither a counter to Modi's tall personality and undiminished charisma nor a counter-narrative to his Hindutva agenda, now centred on the Ayodhya temple consecration on January 22, argues N Sathiya Moorthy.
Triggering a heated debate over her candidature, actress Hema Malini on Monday entered the fray from Karnataka for the lone Rajya Sabha seat, even as the opposition joined hands to support noted writer K Marulasiddappa for the position.
Union Minister for Environment Jairam Ramesh, already in deep trouble over his latest public spat with Union Home Ministry on China policy, is running into stiff resistance to his nomination to the Rajya Sabha for a second term from Andhra Pradesh.
BJP MP Subramanian Swamy also said he went to the Rajya Sabha daily and it was not his fault if the the House did not run.
With May 31 being the last date for filing nomination, the party is set to announce the names of more candidates soon.
The Election Commission on Thursday said it will take 'immediate consequential steps' on bypolls to 15 Karnataka assembly seats after studying the order of the Supreme Court.
Justice V Gopala Gowda's name has been considered positively by the Trinamul Congress as well as the Left.
Congress leaders told Rediff.com that if Sonia or Rahul Gandhi do not take up the leader of opposition's post in Lok Sabha, it would lead to factionalism and internal dissension, something that the party can ill-afford at this juncture. "Kamal Nath is undoubtedly a senior MP but his candidature is bound to be opposed by the MPs from southern states as they have won more seats," remarked a senior Congress functionary, adding that senior ministers like Veerappa Moily and Mallikarjun Kharge can be expected to push their candidature for this post. Anita Katyal reports.
The former Karnataka minister said the ED has asked him to appear before it in Delhi on Friday by 1 pm and he was considering all legal options.
While 39 members of the all-important panel are general members, it has 32 permanent invitees, including some in-charges of state and 13 special invitees.
Protests by various opposition parties have led to a near washout of both houses in Parliament.
BJP won 100 wards out of 198, as the results were declared on Tuesday by the State Election Commission for the polls held on August 22.
In the soup over his remark about "crushing" the electronic media, Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde went on the defensive, claiming he had referred to the social media and that "media is my friend".
Accusing Congress of 'abuse culture', Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday urged the people of Karnataka to punish those indulging in abuse, while casting their vote in polling booths on May 10.
Among the 17 new AICC secretaries named so far, 10 are below 50 years of age, indicating the generational change in the 132-year-old Congress being brought in by 47-year-old Rahul, reports Amit Agnihotri.
Tuesday's exercise underlines Bharatiya Janata Party's attempts at wooing Dalits and OBCs, whose votes would be crucial to its fortunes in key states like UP and Gujarat.
From President Pranab Mukherjee's son Abhijit to Rahul and Varun Gandhi, at least 50 parliamentary constituencies will be contested by 'sons and daughters' of politicians of various parties during the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
A defeat in Assam would be bad news for the Congress which is in power in Meghalaya, Mizoram and Manipur.
The about 60-pages prosecution complaint was filed by the federal agency before a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act court in Delhi on May 24.
The MPs from Uttar Pradesh who may be given ministerial portfolios are: Anupriya Patel, leader of Bharataiya Janta Paty's ally Apna Dal; Shahjahanpur MP Krishna Raj and Chandauli MP Mahendra Pandey.
'The foundation of the 2014 triumph was Narendra Modi's appeal to voters in the Hindi belt. The Bihar Vidhan Sabha polls will demonstrate if he continues to appeal to them,' says T V R Shenoy.
Finding Rahul Gandhi's successor is likely to top the agenda when the party's top brass meets.
"Today the country is moving forward from women development to women-led development," Modi said.
Congress leaders have hit out at the BJP governments at the Centre and in Karnataka, questioning its timing.
The Congress's revival plan says it needs to bring back into its fold Hindus repelled by the Sangh Parivar, take its message to youth and women and sections upset at curbs on their personal freedoms.
Born in Rangoon (now Yangon, Myanmar) Rupani, 61, joined an RSS shakha as a schoolboy, before graduating to the BJP via the Sangh's students wing -- the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad.
The next key battle the market will watch out for will be in Congress-ruled Karnataka
In Tripura, the challenge for the chief minister is less from the alliance partners and more from his own party, the BJP.
The party's research department team, which Rajya Sabha member M V Rajeev Gowda heads, has sifted through the suggestions received in the last five months, and the manifesto is slated to be released later this month, reports Archis Mohan.
A message from KCR on Thursday evening persuaded the Congress to take its MLAs to Hyderabad.
It will be in Modi's interest to reinvent his party, read the writing on the wall that voters wrote, and move ahead. He has little choice now. The country is watching, asserts Ramesh Menon.
The focus is not only on governance but also to ensure that the BJP's political considerations are taken care of.
'There is no scope for any doubt. This was a scheme designed to enrich the ruling party.'
