Campaign ends for first phase of Bihar poll
The consolidation of the Muslim vote behind Lalu Yadav in Bihar and Mulayam Singh Yadav in Uttar Pradesh may have forced Modi to spin Priyanka Gandhi's neech rajniti statement as a insult to his OBC status, says Dharmendra Singh.
References to cow, beef and Pakistan, which dominated political speeches and rallies during the keenly-fought Bihar polls, resurfaced on the media.
The Bihar government on Wednesday issued shoot-at-sight orders against troublemakers and made tight security arrangements to ensure violence free polling in 6 of the 40 Lok Sabha seats to be held on Thursday.
This phase will decide the fate of senior minister Bijendra Prasad Yadav of Janata Dal-United, Rashtriya Janata Dal legislature party leader Abdul Bari Siddiqui and RJD chief Lalu Prasad's 'Man Friday' Bhola Yadav among others.
Aiming to end the 25-year rule of Lalu-Nitish combine in Bihar, the National Democratic Alliance will formally launch on Thursday its campaign for the crucial assembly polls scheduled later this year with BJP president Amit Shah set to flag off 160 'parivartan raths' from Patna.
If the BJP doesn't do as well as it is expected to, it might have to seek Upendra Kushwaha's help in forming a government for a price: the chief ministership
The BJP's win in the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls has emboldened the top leadership to pursue a pro-woman agenda.
No one in Bihar will deny Nitish Kumar's contribution to governance, notes Aditi Phadnis.
India needs to examine some way in which, assuming that there is either no vaccine or a delay in administering it to everyone, voting can be made safer, notes Aakar Patel.
Bihar will have five-phase assembly elections between October 12 and November 5 and counting of votes will take place on November 8.
As per the trends, the NDA was leading in the elections.
Virtually addressing party workers and voters of 11 assembly constituencies that will go to vote in the first phase on October 28, Kumar highlighted the achievements of his governments during his three terms as CM since 2005, and compared those with the work done during the 15-year rule before that.
In the caste ridden politics of Bihar, Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad's two sons and daughter and Lok Janshakti Party chief Ram Vilas Paswan's son, are star campaigners for their party.
The RJD supporters were creating a ruckus outside 10, Circular Road, where Rabri Devi lives and had been locked from inside by a Central Bureau Investigation team which had raided the house on Friday in connection with its case against Lalu Prasad Yadav, her husband, in the railway recruitment scandal.
The Election Commission on Tuesday ordered the delisting of another 86 'non-existent' registered unrecognised political parties, raising the number of such organisations red flagged by the poll panel for failing to comply with electoral rules to 537.
If only the Congress could rebuild on its strengths and develop a modern enough ideology, we could again be moving towards a clearer two-party political landscape, asserts Shekhar Gupta.
Modi also lauded party workers in the state, saying each of them is a champion
After the coronavirus outbreak in India, Bihar will be the first state to have assembly polls. And voters of Bihar will be the first to benefit from the amended rules.
Why did Karnataka's economic prosperity fail to influence the nature of electoral promises made by political parties in the run-up to the assembly elections? asks A K Bhattacharya.
'Modi and Shah know their politics. That is why the alarmed switch to reservations, and raising the threat from 'vote bank' politics,' says Shekhar Gupta.
Banks asked to maintain record of cash being ferried in these vehicles all the time
Voting will be held in 55 seats on Sunday in the penultimate phase of Bihar election, with stakes high for the Bharatiya Janata Party as it had along with its then ally Janata Dal-United bagged majority of seats in last assembly polls.
Two Central Reserve Police Force jawans were killed and three others injured when Maoists triggered an explosive, when they were on way to a polling station in Jamui parliamentary constituency of Bihar early morning, the police said.
In a setback to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, ruling Janata Dal-United candidate from the Muslim-dominated Kishanganj parliamentary constituency, Akhtarul Iman, on Tuesday announced that he would not be contesting the Lok Sabha polls.
'It will be suicidal for Left voters to vote for the BJP because of their anger against the TMC.'
Mukesh Sahni's move to contest 55 seats in the UP assembly polls antagonised top BJP leaders.
'We have finished that fear.'
Throwing his party's weight behind the Congress to ensure an Opposition win in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam president and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin on Wednesday said arguments by some favouring a front without the grand old party should be rejected.
The Election Commission is considering advancing the polls by a month to avoid the May heat, reports R Rajagopalan.
The Election Commission has written to heads of recognised political parties saying that it has created a fund in which fines for contempt of court can be deposited for failing to comply with the apex court's directions.
A part of the Hajipur Lok Sabha seat, Raghopur assembly segment in Vaishali district will vote in the second phase on November 3. The 31-year-old, the younger son of Lalu Prasad, had taken the electoral plunge from Raghopur in 2015, when he had barely reached the qualifying age of 25 for fighting polls.
'The situation in India is much more grave and serious than all of us think.' 'That's why it's important to defeat the BJP in 2024.'
Nitish Kumar will be the chief minister only till the time the BJP wishes, points out Ramesh Menon.
The man, who once lorded over Bihar, was pushed to the margins after the 2010 assembly elections.
'Badle ki bhavna (revengeful politics) was never seen in Maharashtra and Indian politics, but now we are witnessing all that today.'
In an unprecedented order to check criminalisation of politics, the Supreme Court on Tuesday held nine political parties including the ruling BJP and JD (U) in Bihar guilty of contempt and fined eight of them for violating its February, 2020 order on publication of criminal antecedents of their candidates for the assembly polls.
'Nitish Kumar's government will be at stake. The JD-U is working with a very thin majority, which is a borrowed majority. With just two seats Nitish Kumar has no moral right to stay on,' says Professor Prabhat Ghosh.
Although conventional political wisdom would decree that the construction of a 'magnificent' Ram temple at his 'birth-place' would bring the BJP a big yield of votes in the prospective elections, its leaders know by now that the mandir must not exist in isolation in its game plan, reports Radhika Ramaseshan.
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