Can Jitin Prasada retain the BJP's Brahmin vote in UP?
Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi on Sunday took strong exception to a comment made by Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's on Prime Minster Dr Manmohan Singh.
'In 2021, assembly elections are going to be held in Assam. The BJP, sitting in Delhi, is thinking everything is hunky-dory in Assam. But that is not the case.' 'People of Assam are no longer with the BJP.'
The West Bengal polls will be in five phases.
The prime minister came down heavily on the Congress government in Assam and the previous UPA government at the Centre for "failing" to fulfil dreams and aspiration of the people.
A dominant force in the country's politics for decades, the grand old party's free fall continued as it lost Punjab to AAP and finished with just two seats out of 403 in the politically crucial state of Uttar Pradesh.
On Easter, April 9, 10,000 BJP workers are being assigned to visit the houses of 100,000 Christian families. Plans are afoot to visit the homes of Muslims on Eid.
Assembly elections to five crucial states will take place in a few months and the results will be decisive for the BJP, which is eyeing a third successive term at the Centre, in the forthcoming the Lok Sabha polls in 2024.
Six decades and more later, we are now captives of our identities. Every poll is based on elaborate calculations of electability of candidates on the basis of their castes and other narrow definers. That, along with voter promiscuity, is what defines our political culture, which remains stubbornly resistant to any change, asserts Shreekant Sambrani.
The AGP had in January withdrew its support to the BJP government in Assam in protest against the Centre's decision to go ahead with the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill.
The All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF), a banner political party formed by several minority organisations in Assam, led by perfume mogul Badaruddin Ajmal, has extended support to the UPA's candidate for the Presidential election.
Polling is underway to elect 119 members of the Telangana Legislative Assembly, with voters queuing up to exercise their franchise amid tight security on Thursday.
Sarbananda Sonowal was on Sunday unanimously elected as Bharatiya Janata Party legislature party leader in Assam
'For the last two elections, the Congress manifesto has been thrown into the dustbin.' 'This manifesto will also be thrown into the dustbin.'
A six-phased Assembly elections in West Bengal, a two stage poll in Assam and a single day poll in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry were announced by the Election Commission, setting in motion the largest such exercise after 2009 Lok Sabha polls.
Congress General Secretary Digvijay Singh on Thursday made light of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's hat-trick in the assembly polls, saying that leaders like Sheila Dikshit and Tarun Gogoi from his party too have won elections three times in a row.
Tandon said, after the review meeting at Madurai and Chennai on Tuesday, they would decide on the Tamil Nadu election date.
"There was a knock on the door around 2 am on Thursday. We opened the door and found policemen outside. They took away my husband," Nimee told PTI in a feeble voice, as her one-and-half-month-old son cried in her arms just as he was when his father was being arrested.
Wednesday's expansion shows that Modi still has a keen eye on Bengal. The BJP is gearing up for the panchayat elections in Bengal next May and the Lok Sabha elections in 2024.
If the BJP or even the regional parties delude themselves that they are going to win the 2019 Lok Sabha election, then they are over-interpreting the assembly election results, says Kumar Ketkar.
'As demonetisation showed us, the Shah-Modi duo can take big risks.' 'Risking economic damage for political benefit, however, is one thing, stoking old fires in complicated Assam is another', warns Shekhar Gupta.
'Mr Ballot Box' occupied the front row seat in the aircraft escorted under the watchful gaze of the Assistant Returning Officers of their respective states.
It said that Congress' strategy to pursue 'fringe and disruptive politics' in Parliament was only for political reasons and opposition to the development agenda of the BJP government, which has been rejected by the people in the four large states of Assam, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Kerala.
NCP president Sharad Pawar on Thursday said the fate of the Maha Vikas Aghadi government in Maharashtra will be decided on the floor of the Legislative Assembly, and the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress coalition will prove its majority in a trust vote.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Arun Jaitley on Monday stated that the ruling Congress in Assam was facing 'double anti-incumbency' this election and the poll results were bound to reflect the people's desperate wish for a change of guard.
While the term of 288-member Maharashtra assembly ends on November 9, that of the 90-member Haryana assembly expires on November 2.
Upholding principles was a luxury when there were charismatic leaders capable of winning elections without stooping low to indulge in identity politics, observes Virendra Kapoor.
A section within the RSS feels Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani should be projected as the BJP's CM candidate in UP, says Rajeev Sharma.
'...despite not being ideologically aligned with a vast section of the people of the north east.' 'But the results in Tripura, Nagaland and Meghalaya show that no party, including the BJP, can say that it has really done well.'
'You can attack and conspire to weaken us, but you cannot destroy the Congress permanently.'
Dynastic politics may not have been witnessed in Assam's earlier elections, but it has become a dominant feature in the 2011 Assembly polls with 26 kins of political leaders throwing their hats in the poll ring.
As the counting process into election to five assemblies reached its final phases, Senior Congress leader and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee declared that the people have given their verdict towards both 'stability' and 'change.'
The 14-year political journey of Trinamool Congress leader Mahua Moitra has encountered both upheaval and elevation, as her expulsion from Parliament in a cash-for-query case marked the culmination of her tumultuous parliamentary term.
Earlier in the day, Saha was elected as the leader of the BJP legislature party at a meeting held in Agartala on Monday.
The setback promises to have far-reaching ramifications within and outside the party as it is likely to fuel voices that have challenged the Gandhi family's leadership and also those who have been a votary of a non-Congress front to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party.
The widely expected development underlines the party's preference for continuity as it gears up for the all-important Lok Sabha polls next year, expected in April-May.
The exit poll results were released at the end of the polling in Tamil Nadu and Kerala, marking the closure of voting in four states and Puducherry.
Maybe one of the reasons for the party to prefer Gogoi is that he combines administrative and financial acumen that is rare.
Though it's been just five years at the helm, Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress is fighting severe internal dissidence and would crumble like a pack of cards if it loses, says Devanik Saha.
After repeated gaffe by Rahul Gandhi on no dedicated ministry to deal with the issues of fishermen, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said the Congress leader was on vacation when the National Democratic Alliance formed the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying in 2019.
