Stating that at least 16 people of different political parties have lost their lives in the post-poll violence in West Bengal, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party, saying unable to digest defeat in the state elections they were sending central ministers to incite unrest in Kolkata.
There is no use of the BJP targeting the likes of Mamata Banerjee and M K Stalin, directly by the party's political bosses, both in Delhi and the respective state capitals, or even using the Raj Bhavans to fire those salvos from. Successive elections have proved that it's counter-productive, if anything. But the BJP is yet to understand it, acknowledge it, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
In the coming days, unless Modi tones down the communal spiel, it will be clear that anxiety continues to drive his mind and clouds his judgment, observes Modi biographer Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
Congress jolted by SP move in Uttar Pradesh.
Dynasts and turncoats in Uttarakhand and Hindutva champions in Uttar Pradesh - BJP names 64 candidates for Uttarakhand and 149 for UP.
Team Anna stepped up its attack on Congress ahead of the final phase of polling in Uttar Pradesh targeting Sonia and Rahul Gandhi in particular.
This election will be remembered for being the first election where the Election Commission failed to take action on gross violations involving the ruling party that repeatedly used religion, communal slurs, lies and undocumented allegations, observes Ramesh Menon.
With Bollywood connections of Amar Singh not a secret, the SP could well take a lead in bringing stars during the electioneering.
'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.'
Our work in last five years and the problems people are facing due to demonetisation will lead us to victory, he said.
The Election Commission on Monday extended the ban on roadshows, padyatras, vehicle rallies and processions till February 11, but enhanced the number of people allowed in door-to-door campaigning from the present 10 to 20 and permitted a maximum of 1,000 people for physical public meetings.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday took a dig at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, saying he had been 'absent' during the elections while his senior Cabinet colleagues were confined to addressing press conferences using 'angry and impolite' language against Narendra Modi.
Bharatiya Janata Party president Amit Shah on Saturday released the party's manifesto for Uttar Pradesh assembly elections promising to make efforts to ensure construction of Ram temple under constitutional provisions if voted to power.
He also alleged that the Congress toyed with national security and actively and covertly supported Naxalism in Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand for political gains.
'Relieve me of active politics. It's enough, let me go,' the editorial in the latest issue of the Panchjanya has quoted him as saying before joining the BJP's campaign in UP
'Are we so ready to believe that in this country whose virtues we constantly shout from the rooftops, there is no single person -- other than Modi -- in a minimum of 272 elected MPs with the talent and ability to lead this country?' asks Prem Panicker.
Emerging from a meeting with Banerjee at the state secretariat, Yadav said that the first priority of his party was to stop the Bharatiya Janata Party's progress in West Bengal.
The SP's bid to dent the BJP's formidable social equation is playing out in a big way in the Poorvanchal or eastern region of Uttar Pradesh as the ruling party is working overtime to keep its caste equation unharmed.
The Bharatiya Janata Party in Uttar Pradesh will be reduced to its 2012 tally of 47 or thereabouts as the wind is blowing in favour of the Akhilesh Yadav-led coalition this election, says Swami Prasad Maurya who left the saffron party to join the Samajwadi Party last month.
The ruling party appears to have worked to a plan, beginning with the weaning away of Congress MLC and MLAs.
Congress raised strong objection to presence of Modi's photograph in posters of oil companies put up to popularise cooking gas distribution initiative.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, Rahul Gandhi and BSP supremo Mayawati will descend on Varanasi on Saturday making it their battleground ahead of the last phase of Uttar Pradesh polls, a schedule that has put the administration on its toes.
She further accused the EC of being biased and 'wrongly favouring' BJP leaders.
A total of 89 seats -- out of 182 -- spanning the Saurashtra and south Gujarat regions, are up for grabs in the first phase with 977 candidates in the fray, including Chief Minister Vijay Rupani.
Explaining his vision for the region, Modi cited the example of Kutch district of Gujarat.
International oil prices surged close to $100 a barrel on Tuesday after Russian President Vladimir Putin sent troops into Ukraine, but petrol and diesel prices in India continue to be on freeze and are expected to rise once assembly elections in states like Uttar Pradesh end. Amid fears of supplies being disrupted because of Russian aggression, the price of futures contract for Brent crude oil with April delivery on London's ICE rose by 4.18 per cent to $99.38 per barrel on Tuesday morning, before paring some gains to settle just above $98. The last time Brent exceeded $99 per barrel was in September 2014. Russia makes up for a third of Europe's natural gas and about 10 per cent of global oil production.
The Bharat Nyay Yatra will be mostly covered by bus along with short stretches of walking.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath who went on a whirlwind tour of the state to ensure the victory of his party candidates, described it as a "historic win". He attributed the victory to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision and BJP chief Amit Shah's guidance.
The Bharatiya Janata Party, for whom the temple town sharpened its Hindutva plank, is facing a challenge particularly from the Samajwadi Party in the ongoing state polls.
Both the parties had been banking heavily on the internal feud in the first family of the state
In Soraon, despite the tie-ups, Congress, SP, BJP and Apna Dal candidates are contesting against their allies.
People are more interested in development related issues than the temple, which has ceased to be a talking point in the temple town, reports Sharat Pradhan
A total of 3.32 crore voters will be eligible to cast their ballots at 36,269 polling booths and 11,389 polling stations.
Making citizens queue to vote just when the disease is declining, but is still in the air, could just cause a fresh spurt. The logic for this scheduling is inexplicable, especially since the entire process could so easily have been pushed back by three weeks, argues David Devadas.
Petrol and diesel prices, which have been on a freeze for the past four months in view of assembly elections in states like Uttar Pradesh, need to be increased by over Rs 12 per litre by March 16 for fuel retailers to break even. International crude oil prices shot above $120 a barrel for the first time in nine years on Thursday before retreating a little to $111 on Friday, but the gulf between cost and retail rates has only widened. With international oil prices - on which domestic fuel retails are directly benchmarked - spiking in the last two months, state-owned fuel retailers "need a massive price hike of Rs 12.1 per litre on or before March 16, 2022, just to breakeven and a price hike of Rs 15.1 is required" after including margins for oil firms, ICICI Securities said in a report.
The Congress vice president has eyes on the larger objective of his partnership with Akhilesh, which may provide the template against the BJP in 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
The state on Thursday reported 104 deaths and 22,439 fresh cases, pushing the fatality count to 9,480 and the total infection number to 7,66,360.
Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati and other senior politicians on Sunday cast their votes in the third phase of Uttar Pradesh elections and claimed that their parties will form the next government.
Political parties fielding candidates with criminal cases will have to mandatorily upload on their website details of such persons as also reasons for selecting them to contest the polls, the Election Commission said on Saturday.
International oil prices jumped to the highest level since 2014, topping $87 a barrel but domestic petrol and diesel prices remained unchanged for the 74th day in a row - a freeze that may be linked to ensuing assembly elections in states like Uttar Pradesh and Punjab. Brent - the key global oil benchmark - soared to $87.7 per barrel mostly due to rising geopolitical tensions and supply-side disturbances due to Yemen's Houthi group's attack on oil facilities in the United Arab Emirates. Also, global inventories are waning. The attack, some analysts believe, may lead to more hostile behaviour between the two power centres in the Middle East - Iran and Saudi Arabia.
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