'I am shocked that the BJP makes so many commitments. What did they deliver as the NDA?'
Will BJP campaigners start using the term 'Ram Rajya' to refer to the nation under Modi's rule, asks N Sathiya Moorthy.
While the Congress is in power in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh is ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party, Telangana by the Bharat Rashtra Samithi and Mizoram by the Mizo National Front.
According to an Andhra government statement, Naidu 'reposed confidence' in the PM's leadership.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was on Tuesday poised to form the government for a third consecutive term with the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance getting a majority in the Lok Sabha, notwithstanding crushing losses in three Hindi heartland states after a bitterly fought election that was projected as a referendum on his popularity.
According to sources, the Election Commission has a tentative schedule to hold the Uttar Pradesh elections from February 16 or 17. The polling will be completed in six phases by around March 6, and the counting would be done along with all other states on March 10. Other states, including Punjab, will have one-day polls.
The party 'Mera Adhikar Rashtriya Dal' (MARD), registered in 2018, had unsuccessfully contested the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from Lucknow and Varanasi.
The EC received complaints from five places that EVMs were connecting to external devices via bluetooth, but after inquiry, it was found that there was 'no substance' in the complaints.
'The Congress in the past backed the demand, but will not support it now since the SP opposes any division of UP.'
The Bhojpuri superstar and Gorakhpur MP was in Noida on Sunday to campaign for BJP's sitting MLA Pankaj Singh, who is again contesting the election as the party's candidate.
This time Modi has no emotive message to take to the stump. Muscular nationalism doesn't work against the backdrop of China's successive inroads into Indian territory. Rising prices is a sore point that cuts across class and caste barriers; unprecedented levels of unemployment has the youth in a ferment. This has reduced the BJP campaign to a laundry list of recycled grievances and thinly veiled communal appeals, neither of which are working as well as they have in the past, argues Prem Panicker.
Mohammadpur Umri, a small village in Uttar Pradesh near the Indian Air Force's Bamrauli base in Prayagraj, is called a 'village of twins'.
"I can say with confidence that the BJP will form the government in the state," he reiterated.
As the curtain falls on the campaign for the Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha seat on Wednesday, April 24, a ringside view of the closing ceremonies.
Market chatter suggests that the BJP could win fewer than 300.
'Modi 3.0 will have more balanced policies like one saw in Modi's first term.'
Muslims' share in the reservation will keep on increasing also because of "conversion and infiltration because they are having a secular cover from them (the Congress)", he added.
'The inauguration of the Ram temple was the pinnacle of the BJP's religious politics.' 'Politics is dynamic. What goes up has to come down.'
As the Jammu and Kashmir authorities gear up for the seventh and final phase of the assembly elections in the state, voter turnout in the eight constituencies of Srinagar on December 24 could be the litmus test for the contesting parties in the fray.In spite of a heavy voter turnout of 65 per cent in the last six phases, political observers are keeping their fingers crossed as Srinagar, which has been tense since the polling began, gears up for the elections
The two tribal dominated divisions of Surguja and Bastar having 26 assembly seats that contributed hugely to the Congress' landslide victory in Chhattisgarh in 2018 have swung to the Bharatiya Janata Party this time.
In a poll related advisory, the cops have been asked not to be seen or perceived as favouring a particular political party or candidate through their social media updates.
Modi, in his rally just days ahead of the last phase of the Lok Sabha election, also said that "well-wishers of Naveen babu are worried over his deteriorating health condition."
It's just not a date. It's just not about selecting a candidate. It's not about helping some candidate win. It's about expressing emotion, after ten years, that could reach out in India and beyond it, notes Sheela Bhatt.
The ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam maintained its winning streak in the two-phase local body elections in the nine newly created districts in Tamil Nadu trouncing the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, which had earlier suffered defeat in the April 6 assembly election.
The CAA was enacted in December 2019 for granting Indian nationality to persecuted non-Muslim migrants from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan who came to India on or before December 31, 2014. These include Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis and Christians.
The third phase will see the maximum number of seats going to the polls in this election spread across 12 states and 2 Union territories.
According to the police, a Special Task Force team retaliated when the gangster, recently released from prison on bail, opened fire at them after being cornered. His car had crashed into a pole.
You suffered the pain of walking for miles. But the Modi-Yogi governments acted irresponsibly and turned their faces away and closed their eyes, despite the pain of the people: Sonia
A day after announcing the dates for assembly polls in West Bengal, the Election Commission on Saturday removed Additional Director General of Police (Law and order) Jawed Shamim and brought in Jag Mohan in his place, an official order said.
In nearly 100 seats, the BJP stands almost no chance of winning. In 200 seats, it is a direct fight between the BJP and the Congress where the BJP has an upper hand. In 243 seats, the BJP is pitted against regional parties and it is not going to be easy. That is why 400 seats may end up as a pipe dream, states Ramesh Menon, author of Modi Demystified: The Making of a Prime Minister.
Congress's South Goa candidate Viriato Fernandes has claimed the Indian Constitution was 'forced' on Goa after its liberation from the Portuguese rule in 1961.
The Election Commission (EC) had in September last year recommended to the Union law ministry to tweak the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961 to ensure that voters on poll duty cast their vote at voter facilitation centre located where they are deployed.
India is set to experience extreme heat during the April to June period, with the central and western peninsular parts expected to face the worst impact, the IMD said on Monday as the country prepares for seven-phase general elections from April 19.
The BJP's quest for dominance over the states political scene, evident from a seat-sharing deal as part of which it clinched nearly as many constituencies as the Janata Dal-United its senior partner so far- resonated during the election campaign.
Some candidates in these two states have been provided security till the poll process ends.
According to sources, the rallies are planned in such a way that all the 23 districts of West Bengal and 33 districts of Assam will be covered in these rallies.
The Bharatiya Janata Party President said that it is difficult to make a guess who will win in Punjab.
Apart from Chamkaur Sahib assembly seat which comes in Maajha region of Punjab, Congress is all set to field CM Channi from Adampur assembly constituency which falls in the Doaba Region.
In the Muslim community, views on this Lok Sabha election seem to vary, with some seeing it as crucial for India's pluralism while others feel neglected by political parties.
Six decades and more later, we are now captives of our identities. Every poll is based on elaborate calculations of electability of candidates on the basis of their castes and other narrow definers. That, along with voter promiscuity, is what defines our political culture, which remains stubbornly resistant to any change, asserts Shreekant Sambrani.
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