Contest on their own and get washed out, as happened in the 2016 assembly elections? Or contest in league with one of the Dravidian majors and get submerged under its election symbol? With elections looming, minor political parties in Tamil Nadu are caught in this dilemma, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
The future challenger to Narendra Modi would be somebody who can bring the Hindus and Muslims together again. The Hindus as Hindus, not broken caste groups, asserts Shekhar Gupta.
What we have in the Congress is a useful glue to hold a non-cultural, unified Opposition together. That is the sacrifice the Congress must be willing to live with if showing the BJP the door is what the collective Opposition wants, observes Shyam G Menon.
West Bengal on Sunday recorded 79.70 per cent voting in the second phase of assembly polls in 56 constituencies.
'At this moment, the Trinamool has an edge.'
If the Opposition has any chance at the prime minister's job, it can happen only if they all stop dropping names and work at the grassroots-level, state-wise, suggests N Sathiya Moorthy.
The EC also extended the silence period from 48 hours to 72 hours in each of the remaining three of the eight phases of the West Bengal polls to be held on April 22, 26 and 29.
Nobody bothered to articulate the upsides; instead, the four-year tour of duty and denial of life-long pensions got played up.
Job-seekers for government and related opportunities found that their future was at risk, points out Shreekant Sambrani.
The Supreme Court on Friday issued a notice to Congress, Nationalist Congress Party and Trinamool Congress on a PIL seeking to restrain them from using party flags resembling the Indian national tricolour.
Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said the amendments in the bill have been made after studying global practices and wide consultation within the country.
With this phase, election will be over in 424 seats and polling in the remaining 118 seats will be held on May 12 and 19.
Trinamool Congress's slogan of 'Satatar Pratik' (symbol of honesty) has been challenged by BJP's slogan, 'Gali, gali mein shor hai, Mamata Banerjee chor hai'.
Ahead of VK Sasikala's return to Tamil Nadu on February 8, there are some important questions facing her. One, does she carry electoral weight more now than her brainchild AMMK had in the 2019 LS polls? Two, can she retain or build upon the five per cent vote-share from that time? And finally, is there space for Sasikala to retrieve, first within the AIADMK and then across the state, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
However, many historians, conservationists and artists have slam move to 'entrust' Red Fort to cement company.
The war of words between West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her Gujarat counterpart Narendra Modi hit a new low on Wednesday when the former called the BJP prime ministerial nominee a 'donkey'.
Mamata alleged that the BJP and the CPI-M were provoking doctors and giving communal colour to the issue.
With almost all opposition parties too backing the 'Bharat bandh' and many announcing parallel protests in support of the farmers, the Centre has issued an advisory directing the states and Union Territories to tighten security and ensure peace is maintained.
Many anticipate that by the 2021 assembly elections in West Bengal, the BJP may come to power, says Mohammad Sajjad.
'Whatever the BJP tries to do, they will not be able to make a big mark in Kerala.'
'The uneducated think of their rights as a gift. This is deeply troubling.' 'If they were educated they could claim what is rightfully theirs.'
The BJP doesn't want to focus entirely on an anti-Mamata campaign.
'So much so we don't feel the need to create anything, but just bask in that glory.' 'It's time to move on.' 'How much burden can you put on a person or the legacy of the person?'
Will the M (Muslims) in the RJD's M+Y move fast swiftly towards the MIM and away from the RJD, asks Mohammad Sajjad.
Hussain said the new government had inherited an "empty treasury" while the prices of oil were shooting up.
The nearly two month-long grueling campaigning in peak summer for the May 16 Tamil Nadu assembly election that is witnessing a multi-cornered contest comes to an end on Saturday.
The parties, including the Communist Party of India-Marxist, the Samajwadi Party, the Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Trinamool Congress, said they will collectively oppose the Union home ministry's order issued on Thursday.
'If anybody makes an attempt to create trouble -- be they Hindus or Muslims -- they will be tackled strictly.'
The 65-year-old Stalin's elevation comes about three weeks after the death of his father and party president M Karunanidhi.
If Tamil Nadu is to avoid a hung assembly, it is up to the silent voters, whose combined strength is more than that of the two major combines in the fray, says N Sathiyamoorthy.
A spirited turn at the mic by Mahua Moitra, first-time MP from Trinamool Congress, in which she listed the "signs of early fascism", has been hailed as the "speech of the year" on social media.
Pressing for the Centre to declare Bhagwad Gita as a 'Rashtriya Granth' (national scripture), External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has kicked up a storm by claiming that only a formality remained to be done in this regard.
The deadlock over finalising alliances has had a deleterious effect on the candidates of every party. The delay in alliance conclusion has also sent out confusing signals to the grass-roots who are unsure who will be their party candidate, or which party within an alliance will be allotted a particular constituency, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Dealing a blow to the struggling Congress, its senior leader and former Union minister G K Vasan on Monday quit the party and announced his decision to float a new outfit in Tamil Nadu.
'It may take the AIADMK much more convincing than already, not only to try and bring around even the one-time Muslim voters of the party. 'More importantly, the party leadership may find it even more difficult to convince traditional party voters and cadres, who had admired Jaya's nonchalance to the party and leader ruling the Centre,' says N Sathiya Moorthy.
'Usually, the Left backed the Congress and other 'secular' parties on the justification of keeping the BJP out. In Bengal, the alliance targets a truly secular rival,' says Shekhar Gupta.
The former finance minister also criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the words he chose to attack his predecessor Manmohan Singh, saying he should remember that the Chair he sat on was used by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and even Atal Bihari Vajpayee and hence he should use right language.
