The Trinamool Congress (TMC) team comprises O'Brien, MP and leader of the delegation Sunil Mondal and MP Abir Ranjan Biswas.
As Lok Sabha polls draw closer in this temple town, Narendra Modi's presence on party posters and banners on Wednesday surprisingly came down drastically -- apparently due to "technical" reasons related to election expense limits.
The best-case scenario is that the BJP will top out at around 50 seats in UP -- a drop of 12 from the 62 it had won in 2019. Taken in tandem with Maharashtra and Karnataka, this is what is likely to put paid to the BJP's ambitions of a third term for Modi, argues Prem Panicker.
Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday announced his decision to take on Narendra Modi in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections in this temple city while appealing for support to defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate.
The party 'Mera Adhikar Rashtriya Dal' (MARD), registered in 2018, had unsuccessfully contested the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from Lucknow and Varanasi.
'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.
Miffed over being denied permission to hold a rally in Varanasi, Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate continued his attack against the Election Commission and accused them of being biased.
Powerlooms and a lack of policy have pushed heritage art towards extinction, say Shreya Jai and Subhayan Chakraborty.
Bharti also targeted Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, saying by choosing to contest elections from Amethi and Wayanad, he has accepted defeat.
The Bharatiya Janata Party's Ranjan Ben Bhatta will be pitted against Congress's Narendra Rawat for the Vadodara Lok Sabha seat vacated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Joshi has issued a brief statement for voters in Kanpur, from where the 85-year-old leader had won in 2014.
Senior BJP leaders had offered the veteran politician the Lok Sabha Speaker's post after he went into a sulk over displeasure to contest from the Gandhinagar seat. However, it is yet to be known whether he has accepted the offer or not, reports Anita Katyal.
Here are some glimpses of the polling from the last rounds of elections.
'It doesn't help to transpose the Hindi heartland model on Bengal. Bengalis don't understand its dynamics. They won't comprehend the impact of Modi's dip in the Ganga because Bengal's political culture is different. Even in the Ramakrishna Mission Ashrams, Christ is worshipped on Christmas. It's difficult to polarise Bengal religiously'
Rumblings within the Bharatiya Janata Party came to the fore on Wednesday night as the party decided to field L K Advani from Gandhinagar for Lok Sabha polls, angering the patriarch who wanted to shift to Bhopal in a reflection of his tensions with Narendra Modi.
'If we want real democracy, the economy itself will need to be democratised.'
When a former police constable was appointed Gujarat unit chief, everyone was surprised. Now workers are laying bets on when he will be elevated to the Union Cabinet, notes Aditi Phadnis.
In a riposte to former Bharatiya Janata Party chief Nitin Gadkari's recent overtures to Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray, the Shiv Sena on Friday decided to field its candidates in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Delhi for the Lok Sabha elections.
In 2014 Lok Sabha polls, where it was introduced for the first time in any parliamentary election, around 60 lakh voters had opted for the NOTA option -- equalling about 1.1 per cent of the total votes polled during those elections across 543 seats.
Modi also gifted Harris a 'gulabi meenakari' chess set, the sources said, adding that the craft of 'gulabi meenakari' is closely associated with Varanasi, one of the oldest cities of the world and the prime minister's Lok Sabha constituency.
Have Amethi and Rae Bareli got rough treatment in the last one year? Has Varanasi become cleaner? Business Standard's Manavi Kapur finds out
Modi's tweet comes after Shankaracharya Swaroopanand Saraswati objected to the slogan being used in favour of BP's PM candidate
The party office in Lucknow buzzed with activity as enthusiastic Congress workers gathered outside the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee building, even before she returned from an overnight stay in Jaipur.
It said there is no part of the country that he did not visit during the 125 days between December 25 and May 1 as he crisscrossed from Kashmir to Kanyakumari and Jamnagar to Silchar, while speaking to students to scientists, farmers, entrepreneurs, foreign heads of state and political workers.
The two parties named the seats distributed among them in a statement signed by SP president Akhilesh Yadav and BSP chief Mayawati.
The first of the two-phase urban local body polls in Uttar Pradesh will take place on Thursday, a major poll battle in the politically crucial state ahead of the 2024 parliamentary elections.
After Narendra Modi, Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal on Friday held an impressive roadshow in Varanasi and derided the Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate for resorting to "helicopter and corrupt politics".
Bypolls to the Lok Sabha seats vacated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav will be held on September 13, the Election Commission announced on Saturday.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday visited Garhwa Ghat Ashram in Varanasi, which has considerable following among the backward castes, and paid tributes to former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri at his ancestral home.
Modi said India's next general elections will be held in 2024 and he invited G20 delegates to visit the country to witness the "festival of democracy" in the "mother of democracy".
Congress president Rahul Gandhi and general secretary in charge of western Uttar Pradesh, Jyotiraditya Scindia, will accompany her.
Rajbhar said the seat-sharing talks with the BJP remained unsuccessful.
With their high-decibel campaigns so far, the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Samajwadi Party may appear to be locked in a direct fight in Uttar Pradesh.
For foreign dignitaries, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has often chosen gifts that showcase India's rich cultural and artistic traditions, and it was no different this time as he picked a variety of products for the heads of governments at the G7 Summit.
Ignoring controversies surrounding him over Adarsh housing scam, the Congress has decided to field ex-Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan for the Lok Sabha polls and has fielded Madhusudan Mistry, a close aide of party vice president Rahul Gandhi to take on Narendra Modi in Vadodara. Anita Katyal reports
'It's like the BJP is mocking people: Do what you want, we'll still win.'
The people of Uttar Pradesh have always been springing surprises, he said.
Some of our leaders were busybusy over the weekend.
Right now there are five Hindus occupying the top job in the world. Rishi Sunak will be the sixth.
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