According to BJP insiders, every Union minister has been given 3-4 seats to mentor and has been told to work hard on these constituencies in the next 20 months to ensure the party's victory.
The Congress took a dig at the BJP, saying, "We realise you've been down for a long time now. If you need help getting back up, we're happy to help."
If there is unity in the Opposition, it is only about regional parties other than the DMK not wanting Rahul Gandhi or any other Congress leader for prime minister, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
The move by Sharad Yadav (74), who had been keeping low after battling health issues for months, is seen as an effort to rehabilitate his colleagues and other associates as his LJD could never become a serious force after its launch following his separation with Janata Dal-United leader and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
The Bharatiya Janata Party-backed Samajwadi Party rebel candidate Nitin Agarwal was elected deputy speaker of the Uttar Pradesh assembly on Monday, defeating Narendra Verma, the official candidate of Akhilesh Yadav's party, by 244 votes.
'Hurt' at the Bharatiya Janata Party's silence while he battles challenges from within his party, Lok Janshakti Party leader Chirag Paswan said on Tuesday his relations with the saffron party cannot remain 'one-sided' and he will consider all possibilities about his future political steps if attempts to corner him continue.
Several Oppn parties linked the mandate to CAA and NRC, saying people have demolished 'arrogance' of the BJP, which attributed its defeat to local issues and 'internal strife' in the state.
For the Congress' revival, the eclipse of the Gandhis is absolutely necessary, asserts Virendra Kapoor.
After Rahul's Bharat Jodo Yatra began criss-crossing the Hindi heartland, BJP leaders have revived their attacks on 'dynasty politics' and 'family rule' in the Congress, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
Two years is when the honeymoon surely starts to sour, so what should Prime Minister Narendra Modi focus on ahead of 2019? Devanik Saha offers some ideas.
Asserting that preventing a possible Covid third wave is the biggest issue now, the Bharatiya Janata Party hit out at Opposition parties on Wednesday for disrupting Parliament proceedings over "manufactured" matters like the Pegasus issue and claimed it was "anti-national" to not discuss the pandemic in both the Houses.
The delegation marched from Andhra Pradesh Bhavan to Rashtrapati Bhavan and presented a memorandum to the President with 18 demands, including the Bifurcation Act promises and special status to the state.
TTV Dhinakaran's call to the Congress to break up with the DMK and tie up with him, is aimed at consolidating the traditional anti-BJP votes. The stronger message is to all anti-BJP constituencies in the state, especially the minorities and traditionally aligned sections of the Dalit community, that he could be trusted to take forward an 'anti-Hindutva' agenda more seriously than anyone else, the DMK included, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Banerjee said she was doing so after consulting leaders of major opposition parties and following 'a favourable court order'.
'The Sena has lived with the BJP long enough to know its vulnerabilities and how to hit where it hurts the most,' points out Amulya Ganguli.
Sources in various parties suggest that two lakh votes of the Patel community, locally known as OBC kurmi, for which mother-daughter led Apna Dal (S) and Apna Dal (K) are competing and over one lakh of OBC Rajbhars would be crucial in deciding the outcome of the assembly seats in Varanasi.
In the unlikely event of the BJP-NDA losing all five states going to the polls in February-March, the Presidential electoral college numbers could be significantly altered, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
The Congress quickly hit back accusing TMC of being a 'stooge of BJP' and challenged it to prove its credentials on a 'pan India' platform.
There is no one in Telangana to match KCR's stature and he believes he has outgrown the state, observes Aditi Phadnis.
With the Tamil Nadu electorate having given him an unprecedented mandate that had eluded his father the late M Karunanidhi, Stalin has to prove his worth, ensuring at the same time that the Dravidian drag on the AIADMK's side does not open up space for the BJP to make inroads in the state, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Didi embarks on her new mission: To unite the Opposition to take on Modi in the Lok Sabha elections of 2024, observes Payal Singh Mohanka.
The parties seem to have forgotten their two decade-old antagonism for a 'political revolution' which they hope would 'last long'.
The coming together of SP and BSP leaders on one platform is being seen as the emergence of a new phase of politics in the state after a dismal show of all anti-BJP parties in the 2014 Lok Sabha and 2017 assembly polls.
The elections in this phase are seen as a big test for the Bharatiya Janata Party
The Congress must learn its lessons from the Gujarat elections and ensure that the anti-BJP votes don't get splintered by aligning with the JD-S, says Shafeeq Rahman.
The Modi leadership could lose Election 2024 if a communal flare-up becomes cause for all-round catastrophe, warns N Sathiya Moorthy.
The chief minister's statement is significant as several non-Bharatiya Janata Party parties are trying to forge unity in a bid to form a grand alliance to take on the ruling party in the Lok Sabha elections this year.
If the Opposition has any chance at the prime minister's job, it can happen only if they all stop dropping names and work at the grassroots-level, state-wise, suggests N Sathiya Moorthy.
With the Supreme Court ordering Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar to appear before the Central Bureau of Investigation, the agency will finally be able to question the top cop in cases arising out of the Saradha chit fund scam probe.
Naidu met Congress president Rahul Gandhi and discussed with him the possibilities of all opposition parties uniting and forging a joint opposition alliance.
In line with exit poll predictions, the Bharatiya Janata Party has taken an early lead in Uttar Pradesh, after one hour of counting.
'All-India alliances are not the priority today.' 'Therefore, the CPI-M's political line dovetails with the emergent political reality in the country,' says M K Bhadrakumar.
Maharashtra BJP chief spokesperson Keshav Upadhye said there was no political angle to the meeting. "Raut wanted to interview Fadnavis for (the Sena mouthpiece) Saamana and this meeting was to discuss how to go about it," he tweeted.
'It may take the AIADMK much more convincing than already, not only to try and bring around even the one-time Muslim voters of the party. 'More importantly, the party leadership may find it even more difficult to convince traditional party voters and cadres, who had admired Jaya's nonchalance to the party and leader ruling the Centre,' says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Stalin, like his father M Karunanidhi did in 2004, may play the king-maker in a way -- not the king, unless the 2024 post-poll circumstances throws up a situation where he alone becomes acceptable to the rest, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
'The BJP has become a reasonably larger force in Tamil Nadu in the last two years.'
The CM's failure to keep his house in order coupled with the arrogance of ministers and top leaders riled BJP cadres.
'For Modi and Shah, the humiliating setback is bigger than the electoral defeats in New Delhi and in Bihar in 2015.'
Indian elections are won and lost on 'negative' imageries and campaigns - but not certainly on 'negativity' as a political trait and electoral creed, asserts N Sathiya Moorthy.
'He just said that those who cannot control the violence should go. He did not name the BJP.'
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