The Bharatiya Janata Party may further delay the announcement of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as the party's Prime Ministerial candidate till the assembly elections to Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan are over.
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.
With Rahul showing a significant lead over Prime Minister Narendra Damodardas Modi in opinion polls across southern India but lagging in the north, the Congress believes his contesting from the south will help galvanise cadres.
'The Congress era was already over anyway! The real question is: Has India opened a new, post-coalition era and I'm very doubtful about that,' Christophe Jaffrelot, author of several books on Indian politics, tells Archana Masih/Rediff.com, analysing Mandate 2014.
'Since the rise of the Modi-Shah paradigm, the BJP has followed a simple formula.' 'Sweep the Hindi heartland and the two big Western states, and you can rule India with a majority by just adding some little bits on the platter from here and there,' points out Shekhar Gupta.
'The biggest loser is Raj Thackeray's MNS. The MNS may inspire fear, but fear doesn't fetch votes.'
The JD-U appears unwilling to become the BJP's second-string. A senior leader said, "If the BJP demands that the 2014 polls be made the yardstick for seat-sharing in 2019, we will insist the results of the last assembly polls become the criterion for the next state election." Radhika Ramaseshan reports.
n an exclusive interview with Rediff.com's Anita Katyal, Congress general secretary Shakeel Ahmad analysed the political scenario in his home-state Bihar, admitting that political equations have changed after the Bharatiya Janata Party forged alliances with Ram Vilas Paswan and Upendra Kushwaha.
He accused Modi of reducing the cabinet to a 'rubber stamp', 'betraying' backward classes and giving Bihar only 'jumlas'.
Debacle in four states prompts party to step up efforts to fare well in general elections, reports Sanjay Jog.
After facing a drubbing in four states, Congress on Monday got some good news in Mizoram where it powered to a two thirds majority in the assembly elections snapping up 27 of the 40 seats, while the opposition Mizo National Front secured four.
Riding a strong anti-incumbency wave coupled with Narendra Modi factor, BJP on wrested power from Congress decimating it by grabbing a three-fourth majority in the 200-member Rajasthan Assembly.
With the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party seat-sharing talks deadlocked over the latter's insistence on getting more seats to contest the assembly polls, Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan on Sunday said he is against breaking the alliance but party workers feel the ally's "body language is anti-Congress".
Chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan's task is to live down the hype and address the nitty-gritty, reports Radhika Ramaseshan.
'...vis-a-vis state or local elections,' Prannoy Roy and Dorab Sopariwala tell Uttaran Das Gupta.
In Maharashtra, where the 'Mahayuti' alliance of BJP, Shiv Sena and smaller parties is against the 'Maha-agadhi' led by the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party whereas the ruling BJP is locked in a contest with the opposition Congress and the fledgling Jannayak Janata Party for the 90 assembly seats in Haryana.
Political risk culminating from elections in the US and Latin America, and evolving right-wing populism in Europe could lead to substantial volatility, say Abheek Barua & Tushar Arora.
'It will not be a battle of unequals as it may have been thought a few months ago, but one on more or less a level playing field.' 'The Gujarat outcome cannot but breathe new life into the Congress for having almost succeeded in bearding the lion in its den,' says Amulya Ganguli.
The party's plan to win all 25 seats in Rajasthan may have been affected owing to the decision to field new candidates from five seats. Shahnawaz Akhtar reports
The single-phase polling for 39 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu on Thursday will test the capabilities of ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, its rival, the Dravidra Munnetra Kazhagam and the Bharatiya Janata Party, who hopes to ride on the Modi wave after drawing a blank in the previous two polls.
The high-octane campaign for the first phase of the crucial Gujarat elections, viewed as a prestige battle for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and a litmus test for the leadership of soon-to-be Congress president Rahul Gandhi, will come to an end on Thursday. Here's everything you need to know about the polls -- from candidates to the constituencies.
It will not be a cakewalk for three-time Congress MLA and Uttarakhand Sports and Forest Minister Dinesh Agarwal to win Dharampur constituency in Dehradun this poll season with BJP fielding two-time mayor Vinod Chamoli from the seat.
Here's a look at some of the other darbars in the hard-to-please city of Amritsar, known for its appetite for food and drink and its insolent humour:
Bharatiya Janata Party leader Arun Jaitley on Saturday appeared to snipe at party colleague Sushma Swaraj for opposing entry of Karnataka leader B Sriramalu, saying the "relatively marginal issues" of who is in or who is out are diverting the attention from the core issues of governance.
Has Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee created a situation with dangerous overtones in Bengal? In the six years that she has been in power, her detractors feel she has overplayed the politics of appeasement.
We present our alphabet of 2020, pulling in everything you'll remember about this year we'd rather forget.
Party also concerned about dissension in Uttarakhand and erosion of support in Goa
Its current majority of 22,078 votes for the purpose of the presidential elections is considered thin, particularly when BJP might not be able to predict voting behaviour of its allies like Shiv Sena.
A defeat in Assam would be bad news for the Congress which is in power in Meghalaya, Mizoram and Manipur.
M D Riti recalls her first encounter with Karnataka's next chief minister.
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.
Labelled as the semi-final before the big Lok Sabha poll, assembly elections in five states will set the tone for summer of 2019.
A buoyant Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday began the groundwork for government formation, with party president Rajnath Singh appointing observers to be sent to the four states where the party has emerged victorious.
Factionalism has been made bitter by the level of personal attacks that warring senior leaders indulge in. Kavita Chowdhury reports.
Modi could tap into the urban discontent and present a larger picture to first time voters and mid-career professionals.
The Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena's much-awaited entry into the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party-Republican Party of India combine to forge a grand alliance in Maharashtra won't be a reality.
It may be just a big coincidence or the ever-changing political climate in the region, but a look at the electoral history of Valsad Lok Sabha seat in South Gujarat clearly reveals that whichever political party has managed to win this constituency has ultimately clinched power in Delhi.
Narendra Modi government is working for 'making India' whereas the Congress is working for 'breaking India'.
Ramesh also said that business as usual approach will not work against Modi and Shah.
'I hope the honourable PM and Mr Shah take steps to ensure that the NDA doesn't split.'
