The tumult in the ruling Congress in Andhra Pradesh in the aftermath of the rout in the assembly bypolls continued on Friday, with some party leaders blaming Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy for the poor showing.
'Of equal importance was the AIADMK's precarious assembly membership, what with 11 of its MLAs including deputy chief minister OPS facing court cases for disqualification and by-elections due in another 21. To shore up the party's numbers for anticipated eventuality on the 11-MLAs' front, the AIADMK leadership in general and chief minister EPS in particular, were even more focussed on assembly seats than LS seats, just now,' says N Sathiya Moorthy.
After his party lost power in Haryana in the 2014 polls, the 72-year-old satrap had nothing going in his favour.
The Election Commission on Wednesday expressed "strong displeasure" over Shiv Sena Member of Parliament Sanjay Raut's remarks that Muslims should be stripped of voting rights and advised him to be more circumspect in future in his public utterance.
The resolution praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi's leadership and accused the opposition of 'opportunism' and a mindset of 'extreme hate'.
'Scindia did not just come to a new party, it was an ideological shift for him. In the past one and a half years, Scindia never lost communication with RSS leaders in the state. He left no stone unturned to ensure his acceptability in the party'
In Maharashtra, where the 'Mahayuti' alliance of BJP, Shiv Sena and smaller parties is against the 'Maha-agadhi' led by the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party whereas the ruling BJP is locked in a contest with the opposition Congress and the fledgling Jannayak Janata Party for the 90 assembly seats in Haryana.
A total of 74,44,260 voters will exercise their franchise using ballot papers to elect their representatives.
As many as 74,44,260 voters would exercise their franchise using ballot papers to elect their representatives in the 150-ward Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation, according to official data.
Stalin's sister and Rajya Sabha MP Kanimozhi will for the first time try her luck in the Lok Sabha.
150 BJP elected local representatives in Beed resign in protest against Pritam Munde's exclusion from the Union ministry.
Patel's victory, which came against heavy odds, has given the Congress and the rest of the Opposition the confidence that Modi and Shah weren't invincible.
As expected it was a wave of sympathy which arrested Kadapa MP Jaganmohan Reddy's mother Vijayamma managed to garner as she kick-started her election campaign for the June bypolls in Andhra Pradesh.
Two days ahead of bypolls in Uttar Pradesh, the Election Commission on Thursday reprimanded controversial Bharatiya Janata Party MP Yogi Adityanath for "provoking feelings of enmity" during a recent speech in Noida and asked the state poll officials to ensure filing of an FIR against him.
Mulayam Singh Yadav's son Akilesh will hold a cycle yatra in the constituency.
Tamil Nadu, Kerala, West Bengal, Assam and the Union Territory of neighbouring Puducherry are likely to go to polls in April or May.
The TMC, in total, bagged 75.02 per cent of the votes cast, whereas the BJP got some 14.48 per cent votes, in the four assembly segments.
Earlier, when reporters asked Nath about his party's strategy for the elections in the central Indian state, he had said the party had not started talks of alliance with anyone.
TRS MP Vijayasanthi on Sunday submitted her reply to the notice sent to her by the Election Commission over the alleged inflammatory remarks made by her.
The Lok Sabha constituencies that JD-S will contest are Uttara Kannada, Chikkamagaluru, Shivamogga, Tumkur, Hassan, Mandya, Bengaluru North and Vijayapura.
At the meeting attended by 33 parties, the prime minister said suggestions from public representatives, especially from the Opposition, are valuable as they make the discussion rich.
Three names were suggested by family members and relatives and the couple decided to use a "ballot paper" containing these names.
Rashtriya Janata Dal president Lalu Prasad's 'samdhi' Chandrika Roy has been nominated by the Janata Dal- United from his traditional Parsa assembly seat, but name of the former Director General of Police Gupteshwar Pandey is missing from the list of 115 candidates released by the party on Wednesday.
The Sena also said that forming a partnershipwith the BJP means "killing your own freedom of janadhar."
Dinakaran, who was expelled from the AIADMK in 2011, was re-inducted into the party last month by Sasikala after he expressed regret for his alleged anti-party activities.
Before hitting the campaign trail, Sunny Deol offered prayers at the Gurdwara Dera Baba Nanak and also had a glimpse of historic Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib in Narowal district of Pakistan through binoculars installed at the 'darshan sthal'.
The Congress's share has almost halved, down from 12 in 2014 to six now.
The 31-year-old will have to do the balancing act between his anti-BJP support base and work with the Khattar-led dispensation for smooth governance.
Didi embarks on her new mission: To unite the Opposition to take on Modi in the Lok Sabha elections of 2024, observes Payal Singh Mohanka.
"The victory margin will be huge since there is an alliance between Samajwadi Party-Bahujan Samaj Party. Bharatiya Janata Party did not fulfil its promises and now to divert attention, it is using the security forces. It has been a failed government," Dimple Yadav said.
Shah on Wednesday met Thackeray as a party of BJP's Sampark for Samarthan campaign.
BJP's resurgent performance prompted the state leadership to describe it as a 'saffron strike', while party in-charge Bhupendar Yadav said it has now emerged as the 'only alternative' to the K Chandrasekhar Rao-led regional dispensation with people accepting Prime Minister Narendra Modi's brand of good governance.
Congress candidate Gabriel Denwang Wangsu won the Kanubari Assembly seat in Arunachal Pradesh in a close contest defeating his lone rival Rongnai Maham of BJP by 885 votes in the October 15 by-poll.
Nothing has been done for Dalits in the last four years, Nagina MP Yashwant Singh wrote in a letter to the PM.
With Narayan Rane, the BJP looks to expand its footprint in Mumbai and Konkan. But a perceived self-goal by him may have galvanised the restive Shiv Sena cadre and voters to coalesce around their party. Dhaval Kulkarni reports
UP and Bihar contributed 105 seats to the BJP's tally in 2014. It has now lost 8 Lok Sabha by-polls in the last four years, including three successive losses in UP and two seats in Rajasthan.
LDF-backed candidate has the edge in Ernakulam \n\n\n\n
Madhaw Anand, the party's principal national general secretary and chief spokesperson, resigned from the posts as well as the primary membership stating that the party ran the risk of being "finished" on account of the "inconsequential" move.
Kannada actor and former MP Ramya has been selected to lead the party's social media outreach.
While the polling so far has been peaceful, police had to open fire in the air in Purnia to disperse a crowd trying to disturb voting, even as people boycotted polling at 12 booths in Katihar in protest against barriers not being set up at two railway crossings.
