Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday attended the pre-wedding ceremony of Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav's grandnephew with Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Yadav's daughter, an event which saw the most powerful political families of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar coming together.
Doubts are being raised in the Bharatiya Janata Party about its fate in the prestigious constituencies of Lucknow (East) and Noida by-poll, where the voting percentage was as low as 34 and 32 respectively.
Modi's minimum government, maximum governance will go a long way?
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Murli Manohar Joshi, shifted to Kanpur Lok Sabha seat from Varanasi to accommodate Narendra Modi, on Friday made a veiled attack on sitting Congress MP and Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal, saying he never imagined that one day he would have to fight elections from "constituency of people whose names cropped up in coal gate scam."
Many in the Bharatiya Janata Party feel that internal democracy in the party is being stifled
The kisan is as integral a part of the BJP's master plan for the 2019 polls as the Dalit because it surmised that the farmers and Dalits were as restive in UP as in much of the country, and if it had to cut its losses, its reflexes must kick in fast. Radhika Ramaseshan reports.
Will the Modi-Shah combine replace Vijay Rupani as Gujarat CM?
The panchayat polls or those for district panchayat chiefs are not held on a party symbol but candidates enjoy the tacit support of various parties.
Saisuresh Sivaswamy tells us what we must know from the election news in the print and television media.
Following the alleged desecration of the Maratha king's statue, miscreants in Belagavi shouted slogans and pelted government vehicles with stones and freedom fighter Sangolli Rayanna's statue was subsequently vandalised.
Meaningful devolution of spending power to states could spread more confidence on the ground and stir precisely the sort of change Prime Minister Narendra Modi had promised.
"Am overjoyed that BJP has received unprecedented support from all sections of society. Huge support from the youth is gladdening," Modi said while commenting on the poll results in a series of tweets.
'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'
Known to be close and loyal to Bharatiya Janata Party veteran and former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, senior BJP leader and four time MP Lal Muni Choubey on Monday announced that he would contest as an independent from Buxar.
'It's like the BJP is mocking people: Do what you want, we'll still win.'
'HEADLINE HUNTING. A NUMBER -20 LAKH CRORES. NO DETAILS'
The people of Uttar Pradesh have always been springing surprises, he said.
The Indore-3 legislator and son of senior party leader Kailash Vijayvargiya was recently jailed for thrashing the municipal officer, on an anti-encroachment drive, following a heated argument.
The new candidates fielded from these constituencies by the BJP are: SP Singh Baghel (Agra), Parameshwar Lal Saini (Sambhal), Raj Kumar Chaher (Fatehpur Sikri), Jai Prakash Rawat (Hardoi-SC), Ashok Rawat (Misrikh-SC) and Arun Sagar (Shahjahanpur-SC).
Modi's NDA is good enough to give a psychological boost to the once 'untouchable' BJP and Modi but if the NDA doesn't get a majority on its own, then walking the last mile will be the greatest challenge of this election for Modi, says Sheela Bhatt/Rediff.com
'Wasn't it the PM's duty to reach out to the daily wagers of whom he claims to have been a part?' asks Jyoti Punwani.
BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi is predicted to win both seats -- Varanasi and Vadodara. Kejriwal is places at number 2 in Varanasi, says the ABP News-Nielsen exit poll. Senior BJP leader L K Advani is likely to win the Gandhinagar Lok Sabha for the sixth time.
A man was shot dead in police firing in Telangana's Secunderabad, trains went up in flames, and public and private vehicles attacked, as railway stations and highways turned into battleground in many states on Friday amid burgeoning protests against Agnipath, the contentious defence recruitment scheme.
The BJP stormed back to power in the crucial state of Uttar Pradesh, trouncing its main rival SP, with Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath asserting that people have buried the politics of caste and religion.
With Charanjit Channi's selection as Punjab CM, the Congress has got its opponents thinking seriously about their next move, notes Sanjeev Nayyar.
He congratulated the Uttar Pradesh government and industrialists for their commitment for development.
"Our party is stronger than the Congress in the state. While the Congress won 40 seats in panchayat polls, we scored a victory in 83 panchayats. AAP got over 40 lakh votes in these polls, where 1600 party candidates contested," Singh, AAP's UP in-charge and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh said.
Stalin owes his victory this time, like in 2019, to the hate-campaign of the local Hindutva forces, which kept haranguing him, and even his dead father, notes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Narendra Modi on Friday accused Congress and its chief Sonia Gandhi for resorting to "low-level" politics and raising issues from his personal life to his caste in their bid to prevent him from coming to power.
His margin was just a shade lower than the 6.96 lakh record set by Pritam Munde in October 2014 when she won the by-election to Beed seat in Maharashtra after the untimely death of her father and former Union minister Gopinath Munde.
Udayanidhi has handed over to the BJP one real issue to draw the line between it and the INDIA alliance, predicts N Sathiya Moorthy.
He also rejected allegations of being a vote cutter and cleared the air about his fallout with the Akhilesh Yadav-led party.
Chants of "Amar rahe, amar rahe, Ananth Kumar amar rahe" and "Bharat mata ki jai" rent the air as leaders paid homage and the mortal remains were consigned to flames.
Irani attacked Rahul Gandhi on his home turf on the food park issue, charging that he was more interested in protecting the interests of a business house.
'For short-term gain, the BJP makes extraordinary promises, they take extraordinary decisions, but in the long term it is going to impact both them and the country.'
The Congress general secretary in-charge of eastern Uttar Pradesh said the people of Amethi and Rae Bareli have self-respect and they do not beg from anyone.
The names of a host of leaders, including some sitting MPs are doing the rounds in political circles.
The turnout for these seats was 57.92 per cent in the last assembly polls in 2012.
'One hopes that in his second term, Modi spends more time reading serious material even if it bores him or is against his nature,' says Aakar Patel.
A six-time member of Parliament, Kumar had climbed the political ladder steadily from being an Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh worker to be the Union minister in his thirties.
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