Eradication of corruption, free healthcare, basic amenities, education for every student including computers literacy, formed the 12-point election manifesto of the Lok Satta Party for the general and Andhra Pradesh Assembly elections.
Lok Satta Party's national president Jayaprakash Narayan said here today that his party would not have any electoral tie-up with the Aam Aadmi Party, but contest the forthcoming assembly as well as Lok Sabha elections independently in Andhra Pradesh.
Aam Aadmi Party convenor Arvind Kejriwal criticised the Centre for the security clampdown in central Delhi against the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) protest, calling it "worse than Emergency" and alleging dictatorship. He also accused Prime Minister Modi of being scared and protecting "vote chori" by crushing democracy, demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
'If the BJP becomes our political identity, our political face, if we are represented by the BJP, then what happens to our identity as Bengalis?'
The new complex housing the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) will be called 'Seva Teerth', officials said. The renaming reflects a shift towards service-oriented governance and a focus on duty and transparency.
Top Congress leaders attacked the BJP and election commissioners at a rally in Delhi, alleging election irregularities and demanding action against those involved in 'vote chori'.
The Indian government has introduced a bill in the Lok Sabha to ban online games played with money, aiming to curb addiction, money laundering, and financial fraud. The bill also targets advertisements and financial transactions related to such games.
'It is good for the country, but it is not good for a politician... What we call impatience is actually desperation to needing something NOW.' 'Our politics is restricted by one factor; that our Parliament is full of villages. 40% of the country now lives in cities but only 25% of Parliament is coming from the cities.'
A party demanding meaningful change seems to have touched a deep chord among voters, says Sreelatha Menon
The Foundation for Democratic Reforms and Lok Satta, along with some organisations will arrange a round table conference in New Delhi on April 24. The conference is for a consensus on the creation of a powerful and independent Lok Pal at the national level and Lokayuktas in states.
Prior to the strike, bookies were expecting 200-230 seats for the BJP in the coming polls, for which they were offering 1:1 odds (Re 1 win for every rupee bet). But now they are anticipating 245-251 seats for the party and over 300 for the NDA, more than enough to form the next government, reports Rajesh Bayani.
RSS leader whipped up a political storm for stating that the BJP was restricted to 240 seats, well below the majority mark, in the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls, due to its "arrogance".
Lok Satta Party chief Jayaprakash Narayan talks to Rediff.com's Vicky Nanjappa on the Telangana turmoil, 'juvenile' Aam Aadmi Party and more.
In line with most of the exit poll predictions, bookies in Delhi feel the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) will get more than 340 seats in the Lok Sabha polls while the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) may secure around 200 seats.
The satta market is accepting bets on how many times Modiji will mention Nehru at his election rallies, says A Ganesh Nadar with a wink.
The Aam Aadmi Party has to return to the drawing board and learn from this experience. The party is here to stay and make its mark in Indian politics, says AAP members in the US. Ritu Jha/Rediff.com reports from California.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said in his third tenure as PM, he will take the country among the top three economies in the world.
Kumar banged his table at Patna's Indian Coffee House as he announced this to an audience that was discussing alleged corruption in Bihar in 1977, writes Sankarshan Thakur in his biography of Kumar -- The Brothers Bihari.
Modi said not a single leader of the opposition grouping INDIA has uttered a word against the "disrespect" for women.
'People do not want a 'maha milavat' (highly adulterated) government of those who assembled in Kolkata.'
'Whoever thought that building toilets and providing free rations to the poorest of poor Indians would give Modi a halo other political leaders would envy?' asks Sheela Bhatt.
'We are not promising prosperity to these villagers. Instead, the focus is on self-sufficiency.'
'The time has come to substitute the present Constitutional set-up with an alternative democratic framework,' argues B S Raghavan, the distinguished civil servant.
In its sway over national politics now, the Modi-Shah BJP is what the Congress was under Indira Gandhi. Why would they indulge coalition partners, their greed and egos now, asks Shekhar Gupta.
Could the Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP become the rallying point of new energies that are getting unleashed all over urban India, in quest for a different kind of politics, to such an extent that he can rein in Narendra Modi? It all depends on how it pans out its politics in the coming weeks, says Neerja Chowdhury.
'Modi cannot content himself anymore with merely indulging in Congress bashing and referring to the Gujarat 'miracle'. He'll have to show that his party is as clean and as innovative as the AAP. And this is impossible because AAP is new and the BJP is now old: the people have tried it already. What they have not tried already is Modi, and this is what may make the difference,' says the respected political scientist Christophe Jaffrelot.
Saisuresh Sivaswamy tells us what we must know from the election news in the print and television media.
"We are disciplined soldiers of the party," Modi said on party president answering all queries at the media interaction.
Rahul exuded confidence that his party will emerge victorious in Karnataka, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh assembly polls and defeat the BJP in the 2019 general polls.
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.
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