Our political history tells us this has never worked. A united Opposition does work in some specific, limited situations, especially in the states. But never as some brilliant pan-national collection of diverse interests with no ideological or political core, asserts Shekhar Gupta.
The Bihar CM also said that those villages which will help in the campaign against liquor will be awarded.
Party's performance will also work as a catalyst in Uttar Pradesh elections.
Voting will be held on Thursday in bypolls to seven assembly seats in six states -- a contest symbolic of the fierce turf war between the Bharatiya Janata Party and regional parties.
'They have to be seen as being responsive to the employment woes and economic stagnation afflicting many young people.'
The last date of filing papers is November two while scrutiny of the same will be done the following day.
'The BJP and RSS accept that the party is winning election after election because of Modi.' 'If the BJP is winning due to Modi, it will also lose due to Modi.'
Defying a call by Maoists to boycott the polls, an estimated 51 per cent electorate cast their votes in 42 Assembly seats in Bihar, which saw stray incidents of landmine blast and bomb explosion.
Dissent in BJP grows stronger as more leaders question party's poll strategy in Bihar.
The speculations fuelled as August and September are times of floods in the state and this period will be followed by festivals like Bakri Id, Dushehra, Muharram, Diwali and Chhath slated for October and November.
More than predicting the nature of elections, a closer scrutiny of seat and vote share difference yields an important tool to assess the value of our democratic process, say economists Yugank Goyal and Arun Kumar Kaushik
If the people of Tamil Nadu stop deifying their leaders and start evaluating them more objectively, the political masters too may change their wayward behaviour, argues Sudhir Bisht.
In a counter attack on Rahul Gandhi for asking Narendra Modi to "stop fooling" the people, BJP leader Arun Jaitley today said voters are not ullus (fools) if they exercise their vote against the Congress.
The Congress would also take inspiration from history as it was from Karnataka that an embattled Indira Gandhi had revived her dwindling political future by winning a Lok Sabha bypoll from Chikmagalur.
Two persons were killed in Thursday's violence-marred eighth phase of panchayat polls in Bihar that witnessed an estimated 59 per cent voters' turn out even as 1,053 persons were taken into preventive custody for poll-related offences.
Delhi picked up the pace and a 67 per cent voter turnout was recorded till 6 pm.
'Economic issues do not matter during elections; it is the emotional connect that helps swing votes.'
"In May 2014, the BJP won 282 Lok Sabha seats. In four years, BJP government is down to 271, losing its simple majority in Lok Sabha minus its allies - considering the fact that PM Modi has suspended Kirti Azad and virtually disowned their most truthful, fiercely independent Patna Sahib MP," Surjewala tweeted.
Bihar Legislative Assembly member Nagina Devi's name has been removed from the voters' list of her constituency after she failed to provide documents proving that she is an Indian citizen.
Dominic Xavier wonders if the many pre-poll promises will ever materalise into reality after the election or whether they will remain jumlas to woo gullible voters.
An entirely new lexicon of political jibes emerged during the elections
BJP leaders said the party will take corrective measures, while its long-time ally Shiv Sena appeared taking a swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The new chief minister, if from the Congress, will have little or no time for political administration, to ensure that he does not lose the voter's goodwill even before the Lok Sabha polls. He can count only on one thing. That the BJP may not want to upset him too early lest an early failure should become an added problem for the party in all the polls to follow, predicts N Sathiya Moorthy.
After the outbreak of coronavirus in India, Bihar will be the first state to have assembly polls.
'The clearest interpretation of the November 8 mandate is that the backwards, Dalits and minorities, and a huge proportion of women cutting across caste and class, displayed massive consolidation to the extent that despite chipping of votes by the Left Front, by the Third Front and by the BSP, Mahagathbandhan candidates won, and in many cases by huge margins,' says Mohammad Sajjad.
Unless controlled and contained, given the untested belief that the north Indian labour support and follow the Hindutva kind of political ideology, there is a potential in terms of ideological clashes with their Dravidian brethren in the local neighbourhoods, and it all escalating into violence, especially during election time, predicts N Sathiya Moorthy.
An estimated Rs 39 crore in cash and over 1.67 lakh litres of illicit liquor has been seized by Election Commission-appointed teams in the Bihar assembly elections till now.
Defying a poll boycott call, an estimated 49.84 per cent voters exercised their franchise on Tuesday in 35 assembly constituencies in the fifth phase of Bihar assembly elections amid stray incidents of violence.
Two poll surveys on Thursday projected a majority for the JD-U-RJD-Congress alliance in the Bihar assembly polls.
SP on Thursday announced its decision to contest the Bihar assembly polls with SJDD, NCP and NPP, saying the combine will present a third alternative to the voters.
All the winners in the assembly bypolls were from the respective ruling parties.
The Brij Bhushan camp, who claim to have the support of 22 of the 25 state units, expressed 'confidence' of winning all 15 posts during the WFI elections on August 12.
There will also be filming at booths to monitor security.
Voting began on Thursday in the by-election to seven assembly constituencies in six states -- a contest symbolic of the fierce turf war between the Bharatiya Janata Party and regional parties.
There is disquiet and discomfort in the citizenry that can be touched and felt. No one is talking, but then, the Indian voter has not talked much -- with the conviction that all that goes up has to come down, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
'The central BJP leaders were determined to push Hindutva hard, and it failed.'
The State Election Commission on Friday informed the Calcutta high court that it has requisitioned 822 companies of central forces for the July 8 panchayat polls in West Bengal.
'The Bharat Jodo Yatra has done very well in the south, and if they are able to pull voters in the south and rely on their allies in the north like in Bihar, UP and do well in Rajasthan, then there are chances that there might be a formidable opposition or at least a force to fight the BJP.'
Despite consumer inflation, joblessness, etc, ordinary voters still think Modi is the best to rule the country.< Going into the poll with a tried and tested prime ministerial candidate is a huge plus for the BJP --- and a huge handicap for the Opposition, points out Virendra Kapoor.
In further rumblings within the Bharatiya Janata Party over its big loss in Bihar, party MP Hukumdev Narayan Yadav on Monday said the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat's quota comments 'agitated' backward castes who rallied around the grand alliance and asserted that many who voted for the Modi government are not RSS supporters.
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