The TMC, which is yet to fully recover from the 2019 Lok Sabha poll setback, when the BJP's tally soared from two to 18, is apprehensive that the AIMIM may act as "spoiler" in several assembly segments.
Modi said the House did not witness any earthquake, an apparent reference to claims of Rahul Gandhi that his revelation on Rafale would create tremors.
Seeking to end speculations about strains in the relations between national Democratic Alliance allies in Bihar, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday said Janata Dal-United and the Bharatiya Janata Party will together contest all 40 Lok Sabha seats from Bihar in the next general elections.
A meeting of the Congress will be held on May 24 at 5pm in Parliament to elect the chairperson of the Congress Parliamentary Party. After the party managed to bag just 44 seats in the recently-concluded Lok Sabha elections, all indications point to the fact that supremo Sonia Gandhi would be made the chairperson of the party.
Coming as it does only months ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, the Chennai meet could provide the launch pad for a national alternative to the BJP-NDA, and MK Stalin may be given the credit for getting it going, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
After a marathon meeting of its Central Election Committee, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday announced the names of some senior women leaders, who will contest the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls. The names include Sushma Swaraj from Vidisha in Madhya Pradesh, Yashodhara Raje from Gwalior, Sumitra Mahajan from Indore, Karuna Shukla from Korba, Kamla Patle from Jangir-Champa, J Shanthi from Bellary and Bindu Chaudhary from Nagpur.
Ace shooter and Asian Games gold medalist Jaspal Rana was on Thursday named as the Bharatiya Janata Party's candidate from Uttarakhand's Tehri constituency as the party declared its list of 23 candidates for the Lok Sabha polls.Rana, who is BJP President Rajnath Singh's daughter-in-law's brother, is one of the four candidates declared from Uttarakhand.
It's all about women power. According to data compiled by the Election Commission, women have outnumbered men in casting their vote in five of the 13 states and union territories, which went to polls in the first four phases of the Lok Sabha elections. Additionally, an increase in aggregate voter turnout was also witnessed as compared to the last general elections.
The Election Commission on Sunday called on President Pranab Mukherjee and handed over the list of 543 newly-elected members of Lok Sabha that will enable him initiate the formal process of new government formation.
Malhotra, the deputy leader of BJP parliamentary party in Lok Sabha, conveyed his decision to Speaker Somnath Chatterjee through a one-line letter, party sources said.
The parties seem to have forgotten their two decade-old antagonism for a 'political revolution' which they hope would 'last long'.
Election authorities have rejected nomination papers of 34 candidates out of 78 contestants in this high-profile Lok Sabha seat, leaving 44 persons in the fray including BJP's Narendra Modi and AAP's Arvind Kejriwal.
Results of the panchayat polls indicated a paradigm shift in state politics with the baton of main opposition party passing from the Left to the BJP.
Priya's candidature was okayed by Sonia a few months ago with the All India Congress Committee declaring that she would be the party nominee from the seat represented by her father Sunil Dutt several times.
Siddaramaiah asserted that the Karnataka government was a 'strong' one and ridiculed state BJP president B S Yeddyurappa for repeatedly claiming that the coalition will collapse.
'Rather than 'consolidate' the Hindu majority votes, as the BJP-RSS combine has been known and wont to try, this time round PM Modi has himself taken the party to the next step, by seeking to create a new divide within the majority community, a la V P Singh in his time.'
The party, however, has retained state president Naresh Uttam.
The Congress party may not give a walkover to Samajwadi Party President Mulayam Singh Yadav and his chief minister son Akhilesh Yadav in their respective constituencies at the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
The annoucement of Sidhi result was preceded by an hour-long drama when BJP alleged vogus voting in four polling booths in Churhat area and asked the Returning Officer to order fresh polling in Bhopal.
The CPI(M), which has finalized 80 Lok Sabha seats, is in talks with other like-minded parties to forge electoral alliances on some more constituencies in its bid to forge an alternative against Congress and BJP.
Which way will WB, Odisha and Bihar go if LS polls are held today.
Several parties had requested that the session, which was originally scheduled to continue till April 8, be curtailed due to the five assembly elections being held in eight phases till April 29.
He said his government in the state will create a 'new model' of development under the guidance of Modi.
The unprecedented incident happened soon after the proceedings were adjourned at 1120 hours amid vociferous protests by the opposition over the demonetisation issue.
As Maharashtra's main political players, the Congress-nationalist Congress Party alliance and Bharatiya Janata Party-Shiv Sena combine, brace for the Lok Sabha and subsequent state assembly polls this year, they would have to contend with a new opponent, the Aam Aadmi Party, which has decided to take the electoral plunge in a big way.
The passage of this major legislation comes ahead of the general election due early next year.
It is possibly the first time that a regional party with not even enough numbers to move a no-trust motion has taken the lead, and others are following it. The hints of a no-trust move first came from the YSR Congress, and the ruling TDP could not have stayed on together when the question is another version of 'Telugu atma gouravam' - an issue that fired its founder N T Rama Rao in the 1980s, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Priyanka Gandhi on Tuesday fired yet another salvo at her cousin and BJP leader Varun Gandhi, saying the Lok Sabha elections is "an ideological war and not a family tea party".
The Samajwadi Party said not a single male would be elected to the Lok Sabha ten years after the Women's Reservation Bill came into force and advocated a quota for the fair sex within political parties. "Once the bill comes into force, not a single male would be elected to the Lok Sabha after ten years as elected women would not leave their seats, nor will the political parties be in a position to replace them," Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav said .
Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday did not rule out his election face-off with BJP's prime ministerial nominee Narendra Modi, saying "let us see."
BJP strategists need to remember even at this late hour that 'negativism' sells when you are in the Opposition as the Indian voter has mostly voted anti-incumbency, and not when you are in power. You still needed to highlight your achievements and promises, and let the voter draw his conclusions, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
The party will soon set up a team of around 500 members to increase funding.
Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi's problems appeared to have compounded on Saturday with members of his party, the Trinamool Congress asking him to vacate his parliamentary seat.
Karunanidhi made the announcement in his concluding remarks at the meeting of the party's key decision-making body, the general council, on Sunday to rapturous applause from members, reflecting the anti-Congress mood in the party ranks.
Returning officer of Kunkuri Assembly constituency in Chhattisgarh has served a notice on senior Congress leader and former chief minister Ajit Jogi for llegedly violating the poll code by misleading tribal voters over functioning of EVMs when they cast their vote.
Two state ministers have also come out in the open to demand a detailed assessment by the top leadership.
Ugly scenes were witnessed in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday when Bharatiya Janata Party and Trinamool Congress members came to the verge of a clash over the Railway Budget whose withdrawl was demanded by members from West Bengal.
Assembly elections in Tamil Nadu are centred on chief ministerial candidates of rival parties. When Sasikala cannot contest even a panchayat election for six years after her release, even if she were to have sympathetic backers even among apolitical voters, she does not have any 'transferrable vote-bank' even otherwise for a chief minister candidate of her choice, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
The presence of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa was not the only reason why Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa stayed away from Prime Minister Narendra Modi's swearing-in ceremony, says N Sathiya Moorthy.