Pawar pressed for forging alliances of anti-BJP parties at state level and favoured picking up the prime ministerial candidate after the election results, as happened after the 1977 and 2004 general polls.
In the normal course, a high turnout reflects anti-incumbency but there is no correlation between high turnout and advantage to the National Democratic Alliance, says Dharmendra Kumar Singh.
'These letters are part of my communication with the students to encourage them to vote and to introduce them to academic discussions on what good governance and development is all about' Dr Fraser Mascarenhas, principal of Mumbai's St Xavier's College, remains unmoved even as the Bharatiya Janata Party complains to the Election Commsion over his email to students on the Gujarat model. Prasanna D Zore reports from Mumbai
The comment has caused a furore in the state with leaders from major political parties lambasting him over the issue.
Pawar and his Manch can deliberate to their hearts' content, but so long as the Congress does not play ball the BJP has little to worry, asserts Virendra Kapoor.
Gandhi, on the other hand, has also reached out directly to the party workers in the three states to know their top choice for the chief minister post through an internal mobile messaging app, party leaders said.
The opinion polls give the edge to the AAP over the BJP and Congress
Going on the offensive, the Nationalist Congress Party on Saturday gave Congress a day to revert on the issue of seat-sharing for the October 15 assembly polls in Maharashtra, saying it will "wait a day longer".
The assembly elections in Delhi, where the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Aam Aadmi Party are raring for another face off, are likely to be held by the middle of February.
No PM ever dared to take the decision. It was Modi with his 56-inch chest who made the move, said Shah.
The Opposition grand alliance is proving to be a non-starter, with senior RJD leaders reluctant to be ordered about by an immature and entitled Tejashswi, observes Virendra Kapoor.
India is in the midst of its biggest crisis since Independence. It is a national emergency and begs to be dealt with. Politics can wait. Lives need to be saved. We need to vaccinate India at a pace faster than any country in the world, asserts Ramesh Menon.
Senior state leaders of the two parties pointed to propping up of the "new set of leaders not having much political stature" and lack of communication for the failure to reconcile differences.
A car and some window panes were damaged in the attack that took place around 1.30 am when Jadhav, who is the son- in-law of state Bharatiya Janata Party chief Raosaheb Danve.
Curtains came down on Tuesday evening on campaigning for 57 seats going to poll in the fifth and last phase of bitterly-fought Bihar assembly elections on November five, with acrimonious exchanges provoking showcause notices from the Election Commission to top leaders of rival alliances.
The Democratic Front, in its manifesto, also sought to tap rural voters by promising at least 200 days of job under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act.
'The failure of the ECI to follow the Registration of Electoral Rules and create verified and audited rolls or even verifiable and auditable ones, highlight that the entire electoral roll is merely a compilation of names without any effort or intention for completeness, correctness or fair play.' 'We are fooling ourselves by electing our representatives based on faulty electoral rolls that do not represent the people of the constituency. Elections based on these rolls are neither free nor fair. Democracy is under siege,' says Dr Anupam Saraph.
The win in UP is especially significant because UP assembly members carry the maximum value of votes in a Presidential election, given the fact that the state is India's most populous.
Holding hate speeches of social, political and religious leaders based on religion, caste, region or ethnicity a "menace" to society, the Supreme Court asked law-enforcing agencies to book such persons on Wednesday.
'Over 50 crore Indians are currently suffering from a livelihood crisis, something to which the whole country had shut its eyes to for the past six months.' 'We woke up only after the IPL was affected.'
The sub-quota scheme may now lead to a ganging up of non-Vanniyars in individual constituencies against the Vanniyars just as in the past, such ganging up against SC-ST candidates was seen in the non-quota constituencies, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
His margin was just a shade lower than the 6.96 lakh record set by Pritam Munde in October 2014 when she won the by-election to Beed seat in Maharashtra after the untimely death of her father and former Union minister Gopinath Munde.
Among the retired police officials who lost was former 'encounter specialist' and Shiv Sena candidate Pradeep Sharma.
'There is a group who want to internally damage the Congress and they may be hand in glove with the BJP.'
'He is not looking at the interest of farmers. He only wants to do the politics of elections.' 'This Budget is for the new super India. It is exploiting the villages of Bharat.'
Given Nitish's track record as an accomplished trapeze artist who can dump the BJP overnight and embrace the RJD, he can leave the saffron party stranded should he fail to get the chief ministerial crown for the fourth time, notes Virendra Kapoor.
AFI President Adille Sumariwalla raised the possibility of more athletes outside the national camp taking to banned drugs and laid a lot of blame on the district and state level coaches.
'It was Dr B R Ambedkar's foresight which saved us from some marauding state political leaders who could have indirectly disfranchised large sections of our population as we see some attempts even now,' says V Balachandran.
Schools and colleges in various tehsils of Pune declared a holiday on Thursday in view of the deluge.
Regional political parties received a total of Rs 91.37 crore in donations in 2016-17.
Every political party loves to use the bait of loan waiver to woo the electorate. If their hearts bleed for the poor, they can always use the party funds to pay off the lenders, suggests Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
'The supernatural always trumps the natural,' notes Amulya Ganguli.
A court in Uttarakhand granted Mumbai police four-day transit remand of Shweta Singh so that she could be brought to the city.
When it comes to the winning strike rate, Lalu Prasad Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal has emerged victorious on eight of every ten seats it contested while only one of the every three Bharatiya Janata Party candidates managed to win.
The BJP has 165 first-time MPs. Are we to expect such utterances from all 165 of them? Or only those from a rural background? Because that is the explanation given by the PM, says Jyoti Punwani.
Smriti Irani will reprise her electoral battle with Rahul Gandhi from Amethi.
Profit on sale of diesel swelled to Rs 1.90 per litre as oil ministry awaits return of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to cut rates.
The apex court said it will hear the matter on Tuesday and possibly can pass an order if the petitioner brings on record that what the film depicts is highly objectionable.
Raking up the December 16 gang rape case and the infamous Tandoor murder case, Narendra Modi on Friday attacked Sonia Gandhi over the issue of security of women and said women are not even safe in the Congress.
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