'Don't be surprised if the Census forms come with a caste box.' 'I will be surprised if it doesn't. It will be a point conceded to Rahul Gandhi and his allies,' asserts Shekhar Gupta. The BJP machine could take all 3 in its stride, but this election has changed that, notes Shekhar Gupta.
Several ministers, including Parsadi Lal Meena, B D Kalla, Mamta Bhupesh and some independents like Suresh Tak, are present at the hotel in the lake city.
'This is my last election; hence, I need people's support and blessing to achieve and ensure victory.'
Some analysts also pointed out that "outsourcing" political management to regional satraps such as Bhupinder Singh Hooda in Haryana may have proven counterproductive and micromanagement by the Gandhi family was needed.
A day before Rajasthan goes to polls, the ambivalence of Jats, the traditional support base of Congress, is giving the party jitters while the Bharatiya Janata Party is hoping to corner a significant chunk of their votes to stage a comeback to power.
The Election Commission Wednesday directed the leaders of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party to refrain from making speeches on religious and communal lines, and opposition Congress from potentially divisive statements on the socioeconomic composition of the armed forces.
Calling the Congress's Bharat Jodo Yatra a "unique and historic" movement, Rajasthan Health Minister Parsadi Lal Meena said Rahul Gandhi's march is much bigger than Lord Rama's padyatra from Ayodhya to Sri Lanka.
The controversy has sparked reactions across states. The famous Mankameshwar temple in Uttar Pradesh has now banned offerings of 'prasad' bought by devotees from outside and said they can offer homemade 'prasad' or fruits.
Stressing that every question paper has been "accounted for", the NTA said that purported images of the question paper circulating on social media have no relation with the actual paper.
The Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) will get a 'decisive mandate' in the Lok Sabha polls and may take even less than 48 hours to decide on its prime ministerial pick, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said on Thursday, asserting that it stands to reason that the party which gets the maximum seats in the alliance will be a 'natural claimant' for its leadership.
Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Vasundhara Raje, Satish Poonia, Kailash Choudhary: Who will it be if the BJP comes to power in Rajasthan next year?
'The 2024 election results will lead to much intense targeting of Modi, more intense debates, many more breakdowns in Parliament and many more movements on the streets.' 'The results have hit Modi's standing, and the politics of the Opposition parties will be sharply focused to ensure that Modi doesn't get back his charisma of being 'invincible' with help of State power.' Sheela Bhatt looks at the political situation through the prism of 2024 Lok Sabha election results.
Ending days of suspense, the Congress on Friday announced that Rahul Gandhi will contest the Lok Sabha elections from Rae Bareli, the constituency held by his mother Sonia Gandhi for the last two decades, and Kishori Lal Sharma, a close aide of the Gandhi family, will fight from Amethi.
In his recent speeches in Rajasthan, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has also targeted the Gehlot government over the incident.
The Bharatiya Janata Party swept Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh on Sunday inflicting a resounding defeat on the Congress to tighten its stranglehold in the Hindi heartland, setting the tone for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Rahul Gandhi said both Rae Bareli and Wayanad "will get two MPs".
National Democratic Alliance nominee Om Birla was elected as Lok Sabha speaker on Wednesday after a motion moved by Prime Minister Narendra Modi was adopted through voice vote, capping intense debate on the issue with the opposition in a rare move proposing its own candidate.
The federal agency issued a summons to Vaibhav Gehlot (43) last week, asking him to appear before the investigating officer of the case at its headquarters on A P J Abdul Kalam Road here under the provisions of the Foreign Exchange Management Act.
Digvijaya claimed any machine with a chip can be hacked and also said he has opposed voting by EVMs since 2003.
Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot submitted his resignation to Governor Kalraj Mishra Sunday evening after his Congress party was defeated in the assembly polls.
A day after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said both Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and his former deputy Sachin Pilot were "assets to the party", the CM on Tuesday suggested that the matter rests there.
As Modi takes guard for a third term with trusted and seasoned hands around him, the BJP is hopeful that he will prove his detractors wrong and continue to fuel the party's expansion horizontally and vertically with his inventive policies in government and new set of ideas in politics with the core of Hindutva, development and welfarism remaining intact.
Ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, the Congress on Wednesday announced five guarantees for women, including annual direct cash transfers of Rs 1 lakh to one woman from each of the country's poorest families and 50 per cent quota in all new recruitments in central government jobs.
'Modi and his guarantees stand alone when it comes to national trust'
Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Wednesday said the accused in the Kanhaiya Lal killing case in Udaipur were 'linked' to the Bharatiya Janata Party and should have been 'hanged by now' but the investigation by the National Investigation Agency was not progressing as it should.
Congress leader K C Venugopal and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam's T R Baalu walked out of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh's office, refusing to endorse NDA candidate Birla without being offered the Deputy Speaker's position.
Sticking to the demand for the sacking of Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje over 'Lalitgate', Rajasthan Congress on Friday submitted a memorandum to Governor Kalyan Singh charging that her position has become "untenable" in view of the controversy.
'He has emerged as a formidable leader who cannot be ignored anymore, who cannot be mocked.'
There is little doubt that the prime minister's own charisma exceeds that of his party, but 2024 is proof that no party can ultimately depend on one person to deliver victory all the time, points out R Jagannathan.
According to the party leadership, it does not want to create a Punjab-like situation where it had been postponed till the last moment.
'We would continue with the Congress government's schemes with a review to enable it reaches the beneficiaries.'
The Congress is yet to declare candidates on a majority seats as its Central Election Committee will meet on Sunday to finalise names for more seats.
The visit comes amid the campaign for the November 25 assembly polls in Rajasthan, where the Congress hopes to return to power.
The discussions are mostly one-on-one, party insiders said on Thursday, a day of many meetings.
The commission will announce the dates for assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Telangana and Mizoram.
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".
As results were declared for assembly elections in four states -- Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Telangana -- here are how some of the prominent candidates fared.
'Adivasi seats will sound the bugle of the end of the BJP regime in Gujarat.'
It appears that the party has some kind of political death wish, observe Sunil Gatade and Venkatesh Kesari.
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