The momentum the BJP has in its favour is partly due to the anti-incumbency wave the Congress is battling.
"Anti-incumbency has found no room in our system. People's aspirations were met in spite of the challenges and the government eventually delivered," says Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot in an exclusive interview to Rediff.com
With trends indicating a victory for Bharatiya Janata Party in Maharashtra, Congress blamed corruption charges against its erstwhile coalition partner Nationalist Congress Party and an overall anti-incumbency factor for the party's "depressing" performance in the state.
Chidambaram, who is the Congress' senior election observer for the assembly polls next year, asserted that the Trinamool Congress' entry into Goa "appears to be an imposition from the top that is based in West Bengal" and said he does not know the Mamata Banerjee-led party's motive in trying to start a unit in Goa by "encouraging defections" from other parties.
Mohammed Azharuddin, who has bagged the Congress ticket from Tonk-Sawai Madhopur in Rajasthan, tells Rediff.com's Shahnawaz Akhtar that there's nothing called a 'Modi wave' as people of the country haven't yet forgotten the 'barbaric' 2002 communal riots in Gujarat.
'...if elections were to be held today.' 'The problem is Akhilesh is not very aggressive.' 'Had he started his campaign aggressively six months ago, the picture in UP would have been very different.'
Both Raghopur and Hasanpur seats will go to polls in the second phase of Bihar elections, on November 3. Notification has already been issued for phase-2 and nomination filing is currently underway.
Rediff Labs analysed the 2013 assembly election results merged with 2014 Lok Sabha election results to develop a Sentiment Meter for the 2018 electoral battle in Chhattisgarh.
Here are 8 factors to watch out for, says psephologist Yogendra Yadav.
It's 'brand Shivraj' on which the Bharatiya Janata Party is banking to make a hat-trick in Madhya Pradesh, where discontent against sitting MLAs of the party threatens to snowball into a crisis in a number of constituencies.
There is anti-incumbency in urban areas. Rural Punjab, the Akali base, will hold the key.
'We are allies and equals. We have to run Bihar collectively'
JD-U sources conceded that the BJP's "Bihari martyrdom" line will give the coalition an edge or "at least help us combat anti-incumbency if the Opposition makes an issue of Nitish's governance".
"The citizens in Delhi know that December 4 elections are for Delhi and not the general elections. We are suffering from pro-incumbency and not anti-incumbency," says a confident Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit in an interview with CNN-IBN.
Bharatiya Janata Party leader Arun Jaitley faces a tough electoral battle in his maiden bid to enter Lok Sabha from Amritsar but is unfazed by his "reluctant" heavyweight opponent Capt Amarinder Singh as he claims the groundswell against Congress "adds to my confidence".
Will appeasement, rising unemployment and her dictatorial style become major obstacles in her path? asks Payal Singh Mohanka.
Battle lines have been drawn for Sunday's poll for the 68-member Himachal Pradesh assembly where political heavyweights Prem Kumar Dhumal and Virbhadra Singh are jostling for the attention of voters, for whom the issue of price rise and corruption seems to have surpassed the anti-incumbency factor.
Senior Congress leaders have dismissed the exit polls conducted by various news channels that indicate that the BJP is likely to sweep the assembly elections in all four states. They remain confident of winning in at least four states. Renu Mittal reports
'The voters of Jharkhand did not accept Raghubar Das.'
Blockade is an issue which has seemingly widened the divide between the hills and the plains.
As the new year arrives, the Bharatiya Janata Party's finds itself on the cusp of the most consequential cycle of state polls since the 2019 Lok Sabha elections as the results will tell if the road ahead in its bid for a third straight term at the Centre is getting any bumpier or a strong opposition challenge remains elusive.
'The BJP is scared it may lose the Delhi municipal elections where they have been in power for the last 15 years.'
B S Yeddyurappa is just the person that Congress needed to piggyback on to come to power in Karnataka. The KJP leader's revenge agenda against BJP will help it tide over the severe anti-incumbency it faces in the state. Vicky Nanjappa reports
The 2012 results show that, although the Congress could not have defeated the BJP, it could surely have narrowed the margin of victory if it had galvanised the state unit ahead of the poll, says A Surya Prakash
The BJP is readying to run a tech savvy campaign in Karnataka to counter anti-incumbency, while the JD-S is also exploring using social media to promote its message. The Congress will only rely on star power to woo the voter. Vicky Nanjappa looks at how the campaign will pan out.
'There was a lot of resentment against the BJP which has not translated into votes, this is surprising.'
From lining up allies to having them accept him as the Opposition's prime ministerial candidate in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Congress president Rahul Gandhi's real challenge has just begun, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
A day after Manmohan Singh dismissed the Modi wave as a creation of the media, Bharatiya Janata Party leader Arun Jaitley today said the Prime Minister may be a "myopic" not to see the "support" for the BJP Prime Ministerial nominee.
'Minus Modi, the BJP will get only 50 seats.' 'He is planning 25 big meetings in Gujarat and that will make a difference.'
As his old adversary Mayawati confronts the anti-incumbency factor in the Uttar Pradesh assembly election, Mulayam Singh Yadav expects a fresh lease of political life as the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh. An exclusive interview!
Vijay Kumar Malhotra, president of the Delhi unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party, has described the victory of his party in the Delhi Municipal Corporation as the defeat of the programmes and policies of the state government led by Sheila Dikshit. BJP candidates have performed well in North and East Delhi segments. After the debacle in the civic polls, Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and senior leaders of the Congress have been avoiding media personnel.
While the Gandhi siblings have had their way with Amarinder Singh's ouster, the future of the party under the temperamental Navjot Sidhu's leadership is uncertain, reports Sai Manish.
Sarma's eyes, according to those close to him, were always set on the top job in Assam. However, the leader who owed his early rise to two former chief ministers from the Congress had to toil for many years with dogged determination to achieve his goal.
The coming elections seem a tough battleground for the BJP in the wake of anti-incumbency, Patidar and Dalit agitations and implementation of the GST.
The move of expelled All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader V K Sasikala to stay away from politics has fuelled various theories on her decision while the ruling party confined itself to poll related work like holding interview for ticketaspirants.
Okram Ibobi Singh was almost written off after last year's crippling economic blockade in Manipur but the 61-year-old warhorse scripted a spectacular hat-trick for the Congress in the strife-torn state.
'TMC was calling me, AAP was also calling me.' 'But my supporters helped me realise that the people of Goa are backing the Congress this time to defeat the BJP.'
According to party sources, one of the main reasons for her confidence is that she distributed tickets on merit basis, reports Onkar Singh
The 2012 assembly poll was seen essentially as a battle between the two leading families of Punjab -- the Badals versus the 'Captain' Amarinder Singh -- and their durbars, their contending styles, the rebels they had to reckon with, their grip over the ground realities. Neerja Chowdhury reports.
