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.
The Supreme Court on Thursday said the Election Commission (EC) is duty bound to act in a fair and legal manner and a person who is weak-kneed before the powers cannot be appointed as an election commissioner.
In nearly 100 seats, the BJP stands almost no chance of winning. In 200 seats, it is a direct fight between the BJP and the Congress where the BJP has an upper hand. In 243 seats, the BJP is pitted against regional parties and it is not going to be easy. That is why 400 seats may end up as a pipe dream, states Ramesh Menon, author of Modi Demystified: The Making of a Prime Minister.
Given the 2024 general elections, it is unlikely that the allegations around electoral bonds, raised by the Opposition, will disappear easily or with a shrug of the BJP's shoulders and fabled 56-inch chest, argues Shyam G Menon.
The result is a big blow to the military establishment, revealing the limits of 'political engineering'. It reflected the anger of the electorate, especially its younger voters, who have spoken decisively against the persistent harassment and victimisation of Imran Khan's political party, asserts Rana Banerji, who headed the Pakistan desk at RA&W.
'There are many options before opposition parties and this nation has a wealth of leadership.'
The anti-defection law does not apply to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi polls.
'The Congress should have played a more active role to take care of the needs of regional parties. It failed.' 'Taking this into account, Nitishji took the final decision with the full support of the JD-U.'
'The BJP alliance needs to handle the Maratha quota issue skilfully and address its root cause, which is agrarian distress. Then there is stalled industrialisation. If these issues are addressed, caste fault lines would wither away. But, this is next to impossible in a short span of three-four months.'
The launch of a new party by former Karnataka minister and mining baron G Janardhana Reddy has spiced up the poll scene in parts of state.
Modi wants the BJP to gets an additional 10% of the vote share from what it won in 2019. Plans are afoot to get new faces to replace MPs with poor chances of winning. Sources say more than 100 MPs are like to be axed, notes Modi biographer Ramesh Menon.
Addressing a huge rally in Maharashtra's Nagpur on the occasion of the Congress' 139th foundation day, he said unemployment in the country has reached its highest point in the last 40 years.
"NDA is a beautiful rainbow of regional aspirations... So nation's development through the development of states... At a time when we are working for a developed India, NDA is taking the lead in showing the spirit of sabka prayas," he said.
'Elections are fought to win.' 'In our party, the leadership takes the final decision, and our leaders are very clear about it.'
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday named its candidates for assembly bypolls in several states, fielding six disqualified MLAs of the Himachal Pradesh assembly in the state days after they joined the party after leaving the Congress.
Modi launched a scathing attack on the Congress alleging that the opposition party has become outdated and has always been against any kind of reservation.
Asked about the BJP's claim that its performance in southern states will be exemplary, Tharoor said, "The claim of an 'exemplary' performance is yet another product of the BJP's propaganda mill."
'Ajit Pawar wants to escape from the clutches of the investigative agencies.'
Among the bigwigs are Union ministers Amit Shah (Gandhinagar), Jyotiraditya Scindia (Guna), Mansukh Mandaviya (Porbandar), Parshottam Rupala (Rajkot), Pralhad Joshi (Dharwad) and SP Singh Baghel (Agra).
The opposition INDIA alliance on Friday finalised a 13-member committee.
'The tragedy with Indian Muslims is that they do politics from the heart, not from the head.'
Top leaders of the Opposition's Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) held talks in an informal setting in Mumbai on Thursday evening to chart out a concrete roadmap and evolve a structure for cooperation among the alliance partners to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
Voters deserve one. Democracy requires one. We need an alternative that people want, not just an anti-vote, says Mitali Saran.
APCC president Ripun Bora said following discussions with various parties, it has been decided that the Congress will join hands with the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF), the Communist Party of India, the Communist Party of India-Marxist, Communist Party of India-Marxist Leninist and the Anchalik Gana Morcha.
'Another term for the government under the prime minister would likely be a step forward on the path to Hindu Rashtra.' 'No question of going back or any slowing down.'
'A one-party State is not possible in a diverse country like India.'
The BJP will enter this election, as it does every election, as if it is fighting to prevent a 2004-style defeat. This is a party that wins big because it always behaves as if its back is to the wall, predicts Mihir S Sharma.
As the government came under attack from the Opposition during the debate on the recent communal riots in the national capital that have claimed over 50 lives, the BJP members alleged that the violence was a pre-planned conspiracy and the home minister and authorities took pro-active steps to control the situation.
Despite the government's hectic efforts to avoid voting on the no-confidence motion against Khan, the joint Opposition succeeded in its month-long efforts to oust Khan from the prime minister's office as 174 members of the 342-member National Assembly voted against him in the wee hours of Sunday after a day of high drama.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday said Narendra Modi should be referred to as a Bharatiya Janata Party leader and not as the prime minister in the saffron party's campaign as he is a 'caretaker PM'.
The Supreme Court on Thursday extended Mishra's tenure till the midnight of September 15 in larger "public and national interest", after the Centre asserted that his continuity is necessary in view of the ongoing FATF peer review and attempts by India's neighbours to ensure that the country gets into the "grey" list.
The arrest, the first of a sitting chief minister, came hours after the Delhi high court refused to grant protection to the AAP national convenor from any coercive action by the agency.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday claimed Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel was busy playing a game on his mobile phone during a Congress meeting over selection of candidates for the upcoming assembly polls as he knows his party will not retain power in the state.
The Congress had fielded Bam against sitting BJP MP Shankar Lalwani from the Indore Lok Sabha seat, where polling will be held on May 13.
The 33-year-old, who steered his party to an impressive show in the Bihar assembly polls last year thereby emerging out of the shadow of his father Lalu Prasad, underscored that the opposition needed to bring in "dhaar" (edge) and "nayaapan" (novelty) in its electoral issues.
Stalin claimed that in a few months political change will take place and then the NEET barriers will come crashing down.
Opposition parties will hold the next meeting of their 26-member INDIA coalition in Mumbai on August 25 and 26, sources said on Thursday.
The Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) had issued a whip, asking its 10 legislators to remain absent from the House during voting on the confidence motion. However, when the issue of trust vote was taken up, five of its MLAs left the House.
Students claimed that they were attacked when they were watching the documentary on their mobile-phones as the screening could not be held.
The clarification came in the wake of speculation within a section of the ruling Congress about a change in leadership after two-and-half years of this government's tenure.
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