The country is all set for the second round of elections on April 18 in the ongoing seven-phase Lok Sabha polls that will elect 543 members to the lower house of Parliament. Going to polls in the second phase will be 95 seats in 12 states and one Union Territory. Here is a look at some of the big names contesting in phase two of Lok Sabha elections.
Banker Meera Sanyal and activist Mayank Gandhi figured in the Aam Aadmi Party's first list of probable candidates released late on Thursday night for forthcoming Lok Sabha elections in Maharashtra while no senior leader's name featured from Delhi and Haryana.
'Anti-incumbency against sitting MPs and the government is a big issue here. We will win all seats in Mumbai'
Independence Day was celebrated across states and Union territories on Thursday, as several chief ministers announced job schemes while some others vowed their support for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of a Viksit Bharat by 2047.
'Besides Ayodhya, the BJP lost in nine other constituencies with a Ramayana imprint; it tasted success only in Thrissur.' 'In Rameswaram, K Navaskani of the Indian Union Muslim League won with a 44% voteshare in a 84% Hindu constituency.' 'In the 21 seats in the Ayodhya and Varanasi regions, both crucial to the Hindutva project, the BJP won just 7.' 'It won just 3 out of 12 seats around Modi's constituency,' points out Krishna Prasad.
What Meera Sanyal has learned from her unsuccessful 2009 Lok Sabha campaign. In her own words.
Facing criticism over the chaos and vandalism that marked his local train and autorickshaw travel in Mumbai, Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday accused the media of blowing up the matter and dismissed the charge that it was a "symbolic stunt".
If Pitroda's blunder cost him his office, what should the BJP's unrepentant attitude cost it?, asks Shyam G Menon.
Fadnavis asserted that no decision had been taken over sharing the CM's post 'in my presence'.
The elections for the 288-member House are due in September-October this year.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Monday said the National Investigation Agency taking over the case of a vehicle laden with explosives being found near industrialist Mukesh Ambani's residence in Mumbai suggests something was 'fishy'.
Maharashtra Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president Jayant Patil appeared before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in Mumbai on Monday in a money laundering case linked to alleged financial irregularities in the now bankrupt financial services firm Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services Limited (IL&FS), an official said.
Raut's demand comes amid speculation over the possibility of Naveen Patnaik's Biju Janata Dal getting the post.
Unless it leaves the NDA, we will wait and watch the developments, the NCP said.
In 2014, the Congress had won five seats in Mumbai, which has 36 assembly segments.
In a significant political move, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray on Sunday announced candidates for the Lok Sabha polls and also declared his party's support for the Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial nominee Narendra Modi.
A controversy has erupted over the burial place of 1993 Mumbai blasts convict Yakub Memon in Mumbai, with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party claiming the grave was 'beautified' and attempts made to turn it into a shrine of sorts.
The fourth phase of the Lok Sabha elections will go to polls on April 29. The voting will be held for 71 seats spread across 9 states.
The party's top leadership, which is now looking for a replacement for Gandhi, will have a new team once the new Congress chief is appointed and some more resignations are likely to pour in till then.
Deora, while campaigning in Zaveri Bazar area on April 4, had made an appeal to the Jain community to not vote for the Shiv Sena as it had hurt their religious sentiments earlier.
Here's a list of the full first-time ministers in the second term of the Narendra Modi government.
In an apparent bid to offset BJP candidate Pragya Thakur's controversial statement against slain IPS officer Hemant Karkare, Modi heaped praises on Mumbai police.
Attacking BJP General Secretary Ram Madhav over his 'test of patriotism' tweet, Shiv Sena MP Arvind Sawant tells Rediff.com's Prasanna D Zore that patriotism doesn't mean you should waste your time in queues.
NCP chief Sharad Pawar said that Malik is being troubled because he spoke against the Union government and 'misuse' of central probe agencies.
His son Sunil lighted the pyre and a police contingent gave the departed leader a gun salute.
Thackeray accused the Eknath Shinde-led government of being ideologically bankrupt.
From President Pranab Mukherjee's son Abhijit to Rahul and Varun Gandhi, at least 50 parliamentary constituencies will be contested by 'sons and daughters' of politicians of various parties during the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
Dominic Xavier offers his take on Raj Thackeray's latest political ploy and wonders if this Thackeray versus Thackeray skit will help the BJP finally achieve its goal of ejecting the Maha Vikas Aghadi government from a state that has largely been insulated from the communal disharmony sweeping across parts of north India.
The five-state assembly elections are seen as a now-or-never, no-holds battle for the Congress, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
Should he begin the yatra from Gujarat's Porbandar, the birthplace of the Mahatma, on October 2, and skip campaigning for the five assembly polls?
Pawar's daughter and Lok Sabha member Supriya Sule tried to placate the protesters outside the house, saying she was ready to talk to them but she must ensure first that her parents who were inside were safe.
As a young Congress MP hopes to score a rare hat-trick, he confronts the hope held out by a new party and its earnest candidate. Rediff.com's Swarupa Dutt reports from one of the nation's most high profile constituencies. Photographs: Reuben NV/Rediff.com
The Shiv Sena passed a resolution not to align with the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Recalling the veteran socialist's association with the city, Communist Party of India leader Prakash Reddy said that Fernandes had in 1967 emerged as the "giant killer" by defeating Patil, who was then called the "uncrowned king of Bombay" and represented the Bombay South Lok Sabha seat.
A meeting of the Congress will be held on May 24 at 5pm in Parliament to elect the chairperson of the Congress Parliamentary Party. After the party managed to bag just 44 seats in the recently-concluded Lok Sabha elections, all indications point to the fact that supremo Sonia Gandhi would be made the chairperson of the party.
The Shiv Sena has particularly been upset with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and has repeatedly attacked him.
Keeping in mind the bitter backdrop in which the two Sena factions are likely to come face-to-face with each other on October 5, the Mumbai police, along with the Maharashtra administration, are leaving nothing to chance.
'People will teach a lesson to those who are compromising it for the sake of power and money.'
What the AAP becomes eventually in New Delhi will impact whether citizens would want such a model replicated in Mumbai or opt for one from the existing system, says Neeta Kolhatkar.
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