The Bharatiya Janata Party has raised the number of "difficult" Lok Sabha seats it is eying to win in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls to 160 from 144, with a big chunk of additions coming from Bihar where it is set to contest most of the constituencies on its own following its split with the Janata Dal-United.
'Everyone relies on caste to win elections in Bihar.'
'The local administration is working overtime to improve voter turnout and take it beyond the 50% to 60% mark. This is evident from the massive advertising being done to propagate the same. Not a single government building is left standing without it being plastered with the Election Commission's posters and banners.'
'There is no scope for any doubt. This was a scheme designed to enrich the ruling party.'
Ravi Shankar Prasad in Patna Sahib, Ram Kripal Yadav in Pataliputra, R K Singh in Arrah and Ashwani Choubey in Buxar are all having a tough time.
In the normal course, a high turnout reflects anti-incumbency but there is no correlation between high turnout and advantage to the National Democratic Alliance, says Dharmendra Kumar Singh.
Teachers in certain Bihar districts have been instructed to dissuade people from defecating in the open and click pictures of those who refused to pay heed.
By keeping the Sanatana Dharma row alive and adding the Ayodhya temple consecration scheduled for January 22 and adding the free darshan promise from four polled states to the entire country, the BJP may have a self-fulfilling concoction, predicts N Sathiya Moorthy.
'The Election Commission has to deal with money power, intimidation tactics and caste politics.'
The debacle that pollsters faced in the Bihar assembly elections is in part being blamed on the small sample size and lack of advancement in field surveys, says Sahil Makkar
Elections to Bihar Assembly before November 22: EC
BJP leaders hit back at the DMK and asked Congress leader Rahul Gandhi if he agreed with the insulting remarks of its Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) partner against the north Indians.
When it comes to the winning strike rate, Lalu Prasad Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal has emerged victorious on eight of every ten seats it contested while only one of the every three Bharatiya Janata Party candidates managed to win.
Leading Pakistani newspapers on Monday ran front-page stories on Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led BJP's rout in the key Bihar polls, in which Pakistan figured as a major issue during campaigning that saw party president making the controversial "firecrackers would go off" remark.
'We have taken technology to the mandal and booth level.'
India's demographic dividend may not automatically give rise to tangible economic gains -- at least not with immediate effect -- but it is likely to have a big impact on the coming Lok Sabha elections, Mayank Mishra
This time however, the poll panel did not share the overall polling percentage at its briefing.
The rout of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led alliance in the crucial assembly polls in Bihar is the "most significant domestic setback" to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, global media commented on Sunday, saying it shows that his vote-winning abilities were on the wane.
While the RJD has decided to deploy 50 tamtams, the JD-U has hired PM Modi's former campaign advisor to engage voters and counter the BJP.
Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav, whose Rashtriya Janata Dal on Sunday retained Mokama assembly seat but failed to wrest from the Bharatiya Janata Party Gopalganj constituency, losing it by a whisker, asserted that the outcome marked a success of their 'experiment'.
Why are far right Hindu organisations growing in strength? Why is there a rising subscription to Neo-Wahabism, the Saudi Arabian version of contemporary Islam?
Dalits constitute nearly 16 per cent of the vote and 38 seats are reserved for them in the assembly, reports Satyavrat Mishra
Modi isn't going to voters on his track record but on the fear of the terrorist across the border and the Muslims within. It's a battle on his terms, says Shekhar Gupta.
At a time when the BJP's stars are at the top on the eve of the Lok Sabha polls, the Puri-Joshimath Sankaracharyas may have kick-started a row whose efforts might be to divide Hindus, not in the name of castes, but on what passes for greater belief, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
The party was trounced in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh and is now left with only Himachal Pradesh in the north. It is ruling in only three states on its own and is in power in Bihar and Jharkhand as a junior partner in alliance with regional parties.
From the voter-level, traditionally anti-BJP, anti-Hindutva minorities and other secular voters would have an option, especially in the face of the mounting anti-incumbency against the ruling party -- as it happened in the 2001 assembly polls, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
An electorate of 1,45,93,980 voters would exercise their franchise in the third phase.
Allegations of electronic voting machines malfunctioningreturned to haunt the Election Commission as four Lok Sabha seats and nine assembly constituencies went for bypolls on Monday across 10 states with moderate-to-heavy voting amid prestige at stake for the Bharatiya Janata Party as well as opposition parties ahead of the 2019 general elections.
The party is counting on women voters and caste calculus, among others, to swing the crucial polls in its favour
'What you need is a credible Opposition, a credible platform to persuade people to believe that it can replace this government.'
An estimated 14 per cent voters cast their votes in the early hours of polling in 42 assembly constituencies in Bihar on Monday. To disrupt polling, Maoists triggered a blast in Betia forest and unidentified persons set off four explosions in Danapur. Fourteen per cent of the voters had exercised their franchise till 10 am. Director General of Police Neelmani said Maoists had triggered a blast near a bridge on the Chakai-Jamui main road in Betia jungle.
'The BJP has replaced huge portraits of the two BJP leaders from Gujarat with very small portraits of many leaders from Bihar. Much is being read into this changed tactic of hoardings and banners,' says Mohammad Sajjad.
The stage is now set for the first substantial round of polling in the Lok Sabha elections on Thursday, involving nearly 11 crore voters in 92 seats spread across 11 states, including Delhi and the national capital region and the riot-hit Muzaffarnagar.
Lalu Prasad Yadav, the rustic politician who once promised to make Bihar's roads as "smooth as Hema Malini's cheeks", was dealt a resounding slap by voters in Bihar bringing into question whether his kind of politics can flourish again.
By-elections for four Lok Sabha and five assembly seats in four states went off peacefully on Sunday. Results of these by-polls, which will be announced on June 5, will be keenly watched in the run-up to the 2014 general elections.
For now, the DMK can be expected to sound the bugle for Opposition unity at the national level, predicts N Sathiya Moorthy.
Kickstarting the National Democratic Alliance's poll campaign in Bihar, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday focussed his attack on former Bharatiya Janata Party ally and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, accusing him of "back-stabbing" the people of the state and alleging that there is some problem with his "DNA".
A "record" 57.59 per cent of over 1.46 crore voters cast their ballots in 55 assembly seats in Bihar on Sunday in the fourth and penultimate round of polling.
With assembly elections in Bihar likely to be held later this year, the Election Commission is dispatching four special teams of 'auditors' to the state on Monday for weeding out duplicate entries from electoral rolls.
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