'If Mayawati had performed better, then the BJP would have had a much tougher time to win UP.' 'The present gap in number of seats between the BJP and SP would have got reduced.'
The rigorous search for an assembly seat for Uttarakhand Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna may soon be over with a couple of MLAs from not just ruling Congress but also from opposition Bharatiya Janata Party ready to vacate their seats for him.
With its landslide victory in Punjab assembly polls, the Aam Aadmi Party has achieved a major milestone in its journey so far and emerged as an alternative in the national politics.
Vajpayee told reporters while celebrating Holi at his residence in Delhi that he was confident about the BJP's prospects in the key state of the Hindi heartland.
The Devasthanam Board was assigned the management of 51 temples of the state, including the four famous Himalayan shrines of Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri and Yamunotri.
Rising for the fourth straight day, benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty settled marginally higher after a choppy session on Friday, tracking mixed global trends amid uncertainties on the geopolitical front. The BSE Sensex opened weak and declined 414.44 points to 55,049.95 in opening deals. But within minutes, it pared all its losses and jumped 369.56 points to 55,833.95. Facing volatility, the index finally settled at 55,550.30, higher by 85.91 points or 0.15 per cent.
Strongly condemning the incident of shoe hurling towards Rahul Gandhi in Uttarakhand, the Congress on Monday suspected Bharatiya Janata Party's role in it and demanded a thorough inquiry into the episode to find out the truth.
After failing to stem revolts, both the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and Congress in Uttarakhand have started expelling rebellious leaders in the run-up to the January 30 assembly elections in a desperate bid to discredit them. The two parties have had their share of post-ticket distribution revolts in over 20-22 out of the total 70 constituencies.
The results are a ringing endorsement of Modi's popularity, his government's achievements in the last five years and his campaign, which centred around national security, nationalism and Hindutva.
Some leaders of the non-BJP ruled states also alleged that the exclusion was an "insult" by the Centre.
Earlier, only Azad was scheduled to meet Sonia Gandhi.
Political observers say that except for a strong anti-incumbency sentiment, there is little that might go against the BJP.
"Modi ji! Is this our Indian culture? Is this what has been taught in Vedas, Mahabharat, Ramayana and Bhagavad Gita? I am asking BJP national president Nadda ji. Is it our culture?" he asked, referring to Sarma's comments.
Dubbing as "unusual and uncalled for" the hue and cry in the BJP over its poor performance in the Lok Sabha polls, senior leader B C Khanduri has said the party should have gone into the reasons behind its defeat before removing him as Uttarakhand Chief Minister.
The chief minister Harish Rawat has been asked to prove his majority on April 29.
Two civilians were killed and another was injured in firing outside an army camp in Jammu and Kashmir's Rajouri district on Friday, leading to massive protests and demands for a fair probe.
The main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party in Uttarakhand on Wednesday mounted pressure on Congress-led Vijay Bahuguna government to seek a trust vote forcing repeated adjournments of the Assembly and lodging a protest before Governor Margaret Alva on the issue.
The meeting of the Congress Parliamentary strategy group was held at the residence of party President Sonia Gandhi.
Ending all speculation, Uttarakhand Bharatiya Janata Party Member of Legislative Assembly Bhim Lal Arya on Monday night said he would never desert his party and was not joining the Congress.
Punjab's 117 assembly seats are going to be a keenly-watched contest with the Congress, the AAP, the SAD-BSP alliance, and the BJP-PLC-SAD (Sanyukt) battling to form the government in the state, with a probable entry of farmers' front in the form of Sanyukt Samaj Morcha.
The MP claimed she threatened to file a rape case against him if he did not pay her Rs 5 crore.
Forget India, UP won't accept Rahul's leadership, says Rita Bahuguna Joshi while joining the BJP
'It will impact the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.'
Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday declared its second list comprising 81 candidates for Uttar Pradesh, along with candidates for 48 seats of Uttarakhand and 20 seats of Punjab for the forthcoming assembly elections in these states.
Giving a new twist to the race for power in Uttarakhand, Bahujan Samaj Party, whose three MLAs can tilt the balance, on Thursday said it was in touch with both Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party as the two rival contenders for power claimed they will form the next government.
Riding an anti-incumbency wave, the Samajwadi Party on Tuesday stormed to power in Uttar Pradesh dislodging Mayawati while the ruling the Akali Dal-BJP combine sprang a surprise retaining power in Punjab and creating a history in the state by breaking a 46-year jinx.
Former Nepalese foreign minister Ramesh Nath Pandey observed that the current situation is not encouraging for India-Nepal ties, saying the "present leaders" created irritants in the relationship in the past.
The SC, however, rejected NIA's request for immediate stay to the order.
Announcing the election schedule with a strong focus on digital and virtual modes of campaigning, Chief Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra said the ban on rallies, roadshows, nukkad sabhas, padayatras and vehicle rallies will be reviewed on January 15.
There was heavy police deployment at most of the crossings in the district, around 150 km from Uttar Pradesh's capital city, Lucknow.
To beat BJP, you either deny them a critical mass of Hindu vote or build a regional leader and party strong enough to protect their turf, observes Shekhar Gupta.
RSS leader Indresh Kumar termed the 'politics of hate' as 'corruption' and called all political parties and their leaders to refrain from indulging in hate-mongering and pitting one section of the society against the other.
The saffron party which has a lot at stake in the last two phases of polling scheduled for March 4 and 8 has moved its war room to Varanasi, entrusting Union ministers and senior leaders with the task of strengthening the campaign with the prime minister in the vanguard.
Congress leaders are now in a "wait and watch" mode over the possible ripple effect of Punjab developments in faction-ridden Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, the only two states other than Punjab where the party is in power on its own.
'The BJP suddenly seems vulnerable. This is not entirely surprising. In the past too, governments and leaders who won a thumping Lok Sabha majority lost popularity in a matter of months... The by-polls results shows that a degree of disenchantment with the Modi government is setting in,' says Praful Bidwai.
The two-time CM, who had also been the Rajasthan Governor, died at a Lucknow hospital on Saturday after prolonged illness.
There seems to be a desire for opacity when it comes to confronting China, points out Aakar Patel.
The BJP announced names of 107 candidates for the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls.
'I don't think there will be any problem for Hindus to accept Adityanath as the leader, since they have already chosen Modi.'
Trains were set afire and blocked, and public vehicles attacked as protests over 'Agnipath' swept across several places in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi and Jammu on Thursday amid partisan political voices in favour and against the new recruitment scheme for the defence forces that has set off a firestorm.
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