Many states are realising that hosting mega events puts the spotlight on them and raises their profile.
'This is what happens to a party when it gets trapped in the vicious circle of nepotism and dynastic politics'
Seventeen of the 25 ministers in the Ashok Gehlot-led Congress government in Rajasthan, including Govind Ram Meghwal, who also led the party's campaign committee, lost in the assembly elections.
Ruling parties held sway in most of the 13 states in the assembly byelection results declared on Saturday, with the Bharatiya Janata Party and its allies wresting seats in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Rajasthan and the Trinamool Congress sweeping West Bengal.
On the eve of the counting of votes in Rajasthan, both the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress have started reaching out to independent candidates, including rebels, and smaller parties.
Congress candidates Randeep Surjewala, Mukul Wasnik and Pramod Tiwari were elected to the Rajya Sabha, according to a tweet by Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot.
'Revanth Reddy mounted a spirited campaign in Telangana which turned around the fortunes of the Congress in six months.'
If the Congress reached 90, it would have a pretty good chance of holding the BJP below the 272 mark. A hundred seats will rock national politics, argues Shekhar Gupta.
It will try to exploit the infighting in the state's ruling Congress while it manages factionalism within its own ranks
Pilot said rules and discipline of the party apply to all, adding that he hoped Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge would take a decision in the matter soon.
The MLAs inducted into the Rajasthan cabinet are Meena, Madan Dilawar, Rathore, Gajendra Singh Khimsar, Babulal Kharadi, Jogaram Patel, Suresh Singh Rawat, Avinash Gehlot, Joraram Kumawat, Hemant Meena, Kanhaiya Lal Choudhary and Sumit Godara.
'Each state is unique, but when it comes to finance, the fundamentals cannot be different.'
Congress leader Jairam Ramesh cited the prime minister's speech made in Barmer on Wednesday and said the people of the state will surely respond to such "arrogance" of the prime minister.
Ahead of the assembly polls in Rajasthan, the Congress government on Saturday night issued an order for the conduct of a caste survey in the state.
The meeting was attended by CMs of Kerala, Punjab and Telangana -- Pinarayi Vijayan, Bhagwant Manna and A Revanth Reddy, Karnataka deputy CM DK Shivakumar, and senior BRS leader KT Ramarao among others.
With its age-old fascination for education, southern states have done better than the North. Start-ups, IT hubs, and industry majors setting up shop have changed the face of the South. Nearly 79% of global offices set up by international conglomerates in India are in the South. Almost 46% of tech unicorns are from the South. The GDP per person in the South is 4.2 times higher than the North. None of these indicators can be ignored by any central government, whatever the political compulsions, notes Ramesh Menon.
The Congress needs to reorganise itself at the grassroots, infuse younger blood, and have more boots on the ground. Just offering freebies is not the answer anymore. Leadership matters, asserts Ramesh Menon.
A BJP spokesperson said the party is going to hold a training camp at the resort.
'But unlike Punjab, the rebels have an alternative -- the BJP'
'Arithmetic could decide the Haryana election given the presence of multi-cornered contests.'
'They wanted to prove that the BJP was behind all this, which was not the case. Then Deputy CM Sachin Pilot even said that no one was listening to them even when they wanted to tell their side of the story, so they all got together and reached the party's high command'
Singh had fought the 2019 Lok Sabha election unsuccessfully from the South Delhi constituency as a Congress candidate.
'We are not opposed to any Indian language. We are against Hindi imposition.'
The BJP has played the social engineering card in Rajasthan with an eye on the Lok Sabha election where the party will try and retain all the 25 seats that it had won in the 2014 and 2019 elections.
Shinde welcomed the former Rajasthan minister to the Shiv Sena and said Gudha left the ministerial position for the cause of people.
Some newly elected Bharatiya Janata Party MLAs met former Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje at her Civil Lines residence on Sunday, amid suspense over whom the party will pick for the chief ministerial post in the state.
Amid reports of a crisis in the Rajasthan Congress government, senior party leader Kapil Sibal on Sunday expressed concerns over the direction in which the party is heading.
BJP leader Diya Kumari, who was elected deputy chief minister of Rajasthan along with Prem Chand Bairwa, is a member of erstwhile Jaipur royal family and a two-time MLA.
First-time MLA Rekha Gupta will be the new chief minister of Delhi, capping 11 days of suspense over who will get the top post after the Bharatiya Janata Party returned to power after over 26 years ending the 10-year rule of the Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party.
Four of seven Bharatiya Janata Party MPs who fought the Rajasthan assembly elections won their respective seats while three others lost the polls.
In eight districts of Alwar, Bharatpur, Bundi, Dausa, Dholpur, Karauli, Sawai Madhopur and Tonk, the Congress in the 2018 assembly elections had won 29 out of 42 seats while the Bharatiya Janata Party got only six.
In the last assembly elections in 2018, the state recorded a voter turnout of 74.06 per cent. The Election Commission has set a target of at least 75 per cent turnout in each constituency this time.
While condemning the incident of Manipur where two women were paraded naked and molested, Modi on Thursday made a reference to states like Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh in context of law and order.
Rajasthan Congress chief Govind Singh Dotasra on Tuesday announced a financial assistance of Rs 20 lakh to the family of a nine-year-old Dalit boy who died after being beaten up by his teacher in Jalore district.
Congress candidate Shafia Zubair won the Ramgarh assembly poll in Rajasthan, while BJP candidate Krishan Middha won over his nearest rival from the Jannayak Janata Party for the high-stakes Jind bypoll in Haryana.
With the party fielding three Union ministers, besides four other MPs, as candidates in the Madhya Pradesh assembly polls, it may continue with the strategy in Rajasthan.
'...for success like the BJP.' 'The BJP's work for the next election begins the day one election ends.'
"The Congress is "going to (fight) the election with unity" and it will win the polls," Sharma said after the meeting at Pilot's Civil Lines residence that lasted for nearly half an hour.
'Right to apprenticeship means that anyone below the age of 25 years with a diploma or other qualifications can demand an apprenticeship with a private, a public sector company or a government organisation. And when he/she demands this, it is the obligation of the government to provide it.'
Congress in charge for Rajasthan Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa said that the one who does not follow the ideology of the Congress has no place in the party and the decision to sack Gudha was a collective decision.
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