The Bharatiya Janata Party-Shiv Sena alliance looked set to return to power in Maharashtra while Haryana could be a cliffhanger with no clear majority for the BJP or the Congress, Election Commission trends indicated.
Results show that the BJP has fared poorly in rural regions, underlining the need for the party to challenge issues like farm distress and unemployment.
More than 750 constituencies spread across four states and one union territory will go to the polls on Tuesday
With this, the Congress's strength in the 40-member assembly reduced to 14 from 16.
Digital canvassing is expected to benefit from political money looking for alternative blow horns.
Congress had a reason to smile as it was able to emerge as the single largest party in Meghalaya, but failed to secure a majority.
Political observers have said that the TMC, now desperate to shed the 'anti-Hindu' tag and embrace 'soft Hindutva', is carefully planning its moves, with help from poll strategist Prashant Kishor and team, as is evident from its decisions to organise Brahmin Sammelan, provide sops to Sanatan Brahmins, and financial aid to Durga puja committees.
It is a record that the saffron party has created, where the majority of its legislators belonged to the minority community.
Companies, so far, were constrained by the provisions of Articles 370 and 35A, which restricted the purchase of land and hiring manpower.
However, a majority in the Council of States will continue to elude the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance.
Inarguably the biggest gainer in the Grand Alliance, the CPI-ML, often working in the margins of mainstream politics, had 19 candidates in the fray, most of them students and youth leaders.
Devanik Saha wonders if saffronisation of India is on the rise
The aftermath of Mani Ratnam's Ponniyin Selvan has led to an argument that there was no religion as Hinduism in Chola times.
Instead, there was only Saivism, Vaishnavism, etc, and that the Cholas were Saivites, and hence not Hindus, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Congress will fight against Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and not BJP in the next Lok Sabha elections as the Sangh is now in control of the saffron party, Union Minister Jairam Ramesh said on Sunday.
The meeting is expected to start at 11 am at the hotel on the city outskirts where Congress legislators in support of the Ashok Gehlot government are camping.
"We are feeling quite uncomfortable over some of your actions and undesirable utterances especially which hurt patriotic sentiments," read a letter to Mufti signed by three leaders.
Congress leader Manish Tewari on Saturday mocked Bharatiya Janata Party's camp for newly-elected party MPs to train them about conduct in parliament, saying the new lawmakers should not learn from the saffron party's behaviour in the last Lok Sabha.
Influential Patel community leader Parshottam Rupala, minister in the first Narendra Modi government Mansukh Mandaviya and three-time MP Darshana Jardosh, all from Gujarat, were among those inducted in the Union cabinet on Wednesday.
Later on while speaking to the reporters, Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari said the BJP legislators were forced to stage protest as there was no mention of post-poll violence in the speech copy circulated among the MLAs.
According to him, the temple issue did 'more harm than good' to the BJP as the matter was being used by the opposition 'to terrorise minorities and polarise votes'.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said the country needs to focus on imparting skills to its young population in order to compete with China, apart from bringing revolutionary changes in agriculture and energy sectors.
NDA partners will meet on Monday in the backdrop of the controversy generated over the BJP's attempts to revive the Hindutva issue.
The BJP's strong showing came as a surprise for many as the party did not even have a councillor in Tripura.
Reacting to the development, Naidu said such crises were not new to the party.
RPI leader Ramsad Athavale said the party could consider such an alliance only if the Sena adopted a secular approach.
Banerjee, also the TMC supremo, said in a sarcastic way that personnel of security forces such as the CRPF, BSF, CISF and the Army are present at convoys of every BJP leader visiting West Bengal.
The report, released on June 21, alleged that some senior leaders of the BJP "made inflammatory speeches against minority communities".
The Congress-led grouping has some reasons to feel emboldened over recent political developments.
With the Bharatiya Janata Party emerging as potential kingmaker in Jammu and Kashmir, party chief Amit Shah on Tuesday did not rule out joining hands with either the People's Democratic Party or the National Conference saying "all options are open".
None of them had anything to do with the violence at Bhima Koregaon, where they were not even present, points out Aakar Patel.
'The BJP's solo aim in Mumbai and Maharashtra is to finish off the Shiv Sena and Sharad Pawar's NCP.'
Modi had promised during his election campaign that a decision on loan waiver would be taken at the first cabinet meeting of the BJP government in the state.
While Congress criticised the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government for being "insensitive", saying yoga, a great discipline of ancient India, does not belong to the saffron party, Janata Dal-United termed it as yet another attempt to "impose the communal agenda" on Indian masses.
"We have not accepted any new condition from the PDP," said Madhav, the party's pointsman in the state.
'Winning this election will take us a step closer to realising our dreams'
Regarding alliance with the Congress, the Sena's political rival till recently, Raut said leaders of the country's oldest party have contributed to freedom struggle as well as development of Maharashtra.
'Neither Modi nor the BJP have lost control over the minds and votes of their original supporters due to their tremendous political ability to play upon baser communal instincts.' 'But this buoyant support will melt away if the economic scenario remains depressing.' 'That makes 2020 an interesting year to watch out for,' notes Sheela Bhatt.
Congress says RSS was working for "Dalit-mukt Bharat" which was "sponsored" by BJP to polarise communities ahead of next year's Gujarat polls.
The Parli assembly seat in Beed district will again see his daughter Pankaja Munde and nephew Dhananjay Munde lock horns for supremacy.
The LDF was also leading in 10 out of the 14 district panchayats and 108 block panchayats of the total of 152, according to the State Election Commission figures.
