Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday expressed confidence of defeating Narendra Modi in Varanasi Lok Sabha constituency in the upcoming elections, saying that he had not chosen a 'safe' seat since his main objective was to beat the BJP's prime ministerial candidate.
'We don't know where he will go from here and how he will conduct his government.'
Smriti Irani will reprise her electoral battle with Rahul Gandhi from Amethi.
The BSP chief said she does not want to see any damage to the SP-BSP-RLD alliance.
Despite the recent electoral reverses, Rahul is getting ready to walk the fire once more. The question is whether he will get burned or burnished in the process, says Saroj Nagi.
After yoga guru Baba Ramdev was banned from conducting programmes in Himachal on Monday and booked in Maharashtra and Rajasthan under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes Atrocities Act for his honeymoon remarks targeting targeting Rahul Gandhi, the yoga guru said he would move the courts against the curbs.
Be it Assam, Haryana or Delhi, the Congress is facing one crisis after another regarding its Rajya Sabha nominations, reports Renu Mittal.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath who went on a whirlwind tour of the state to ensure the victory of his party candidates, described it as a "historic win". He attributed the victory to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision and BJP chief Amit Shah's guidance.
In the coming days, the Congress may be run by a trimurti of Sonia, Rahul and Priyanka, with Rahul holding the primary position both in Parliament and in the party and Sonia and Priyanka helping him out as and when required.
Pitching its 'Aam ka mausam' to counter the Bharatiya Janata Party's Modi-wave pitch, the Aam Aadmi Party on Tuesday fielded volunteers wearing T-shirts with mangoes printed on them when party convenor Arvind Kejriwal addressed his first public meeting here in the run-up to Lok Sabha polls.
'Priyanka Gandhi, it was obvious to everyone but the inner circle, would have only served as a sacrificial lamb in this high-octane contest, the Modi juggernaut would have simply trundled over her and whatever ill-hatched plans the Congress had in mind,' says Saisuresh Sivaswamy.
"You don't change party leadership for losses in one or two elections. The leadership is ideology. They make teams. Our team failed there (in UP)," he said.
Mayawati appeared to be opting for a wait-and watch-policy till the Lok Sabha election results are announced on May 23.
As soon as the House met for the day, the opposition pointed to the decision to extend the Lok Sabha by three days, protesting that they were not consulted.
Nine persons were on Tuesday killed and over 10 others injured when a roadways bus caught fire in Peeparpur area, police said.
The Congress on Thursday hit back at Narendra Modi for calling Defence Minister A K Antony an "agent of Pakistan and enemy of India", saying such language can come only from a "traitor".
Will Sonia Gandhi finally take a decision she has put off for so long, asks Rajeev Sharma.
The districts going to polls in this phase are Balrampur, Gonda, Faizabad, Ambedkar Nagar, Bahraich, Shravasti, Basti, Siddharth Nagar, Sant Kabir Nagar, Amethi and Sultanpur.
'India has decided - Democracy needs to be celebrated.'
The Bharatiya Janata Party's debacle at this week's bypoll in Uttar Pradesh has once again prompted Union Minister Maneka Gandhi to bat for her son Varun, the party member of Parliament from Sultanpur, who was sidelined by party president Amit Shah soon after the latter rode on to the party's helm of affairs.
'The Congress's arrogance and unrealistic claims have weakened the anti-BJP movement at the national level.'
The National Democratic Alliance, led by strong man Narendra Modi secured a whopping 352 of 542 seats, making it evident that his message of muscular nationalism, security and Hindu pride had worked wonders.
Though there was no official word from both the parties, the sources claimed that two Uttar Pradesh-based political outfits will contest 37 Lok Sabha seats each.
The presence of young Raihan and Miraya, the two children of Priyanka Gandhi, in electioneering in Amethi and Rae Bareli on Thursday revived among old Congress supporters memories of days when late Rajiv Gandhi used to bring his family for campaigning.
The party will also leave two seats for the Apna Dal, and entered into an electoral agreement with the lesser known Jan Adhikar Party.
Akhilesh Yadav confirmed in a television interview that the press conference is on the alliance in Uttar Pradesh, while parrying questions on the Congress.
With this phase, election will be over in 424 seats and polling in the remaining 118 seats will be held on May 12 and 19.
Even as Priyanka is gaining traction among the electorate and the media, her counterpart for the western UP region, Jyotiraditya Scindia, has been low key and perceptibly missing from the 'heat and dust' of elections in UP, reports Virendra Singh Rawat.
In remarks that might land him in fresh trouble, Bharatiya Janata Party leader Giriraj Singh questioned the impartiality of the Election Commission on Monday, saying that different yardsticks were being adopted for model code violations.
Responding to questions on Rai's action by media persons, Joshi asked, "Everyone takes their hand into poll booth, should we cut it off?"
'Both Modi and Yogi are contesting this election together.' 'Both bring their individual strengths to BJP in UP.'
The Aam Aadmi Party on Saturday said that they will put up a strong candidate against Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi in the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls.
The new Lok Sabha will have 300 MPs who have been elected for the first time to the Lower House.
Is there a likeness between the characters from Ved Vyas's timeless epic and those prancing about on the political proscenium? Saisuresh Sivaswamy finds out.
Keeping up the attack on Priyanka Gandhi, Narendra Modi gave another spin to her neech rajniti comments, saying that those allowing foodgrains to rot and the ones responsible for the Commonwealth Games scam were the ones indulging in neech rajniti.
The Centre had submitted that privilege documents were procured by petitioners in an illegal way and used to support their review petitions against the December 14, 2018 judgment of the apex court dismissing all pleas challenging procurement of 36 Rafale fighter jets from France.
BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi is predicted to win both seats -- Varanasi and Vadodara. Kejriwal is places at number 2 in Varanasi, says the ABP News-Nielsen exit poll. Senior BJP leader L K Advani is likely to win the Gandhinagar Lok Sabha for the sixth time.
51 constituencies across 7 states go to the polls in the fifth phase of the Lok Sabha election.
Stopping short of naming him, Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani on Saturday attacked Rahul Gandhi saying he goes around claiming to be a youth leader while being close to 50 years of age.
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav lashed out at his one-time ally, the Congress, and said that in the state the BJP is nowhere.
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