In a pre-poll setback to the Nationalist Congress Party, its leader and former Maharashtra minister Daulatrao Aher has quit the party and rejoined BJP.
Cross-voting was held during the Rajya Sabha elections and the Maharashtra Legislative Council polls last month.
Counting of votes is underway in assembly byelection to 58 seats in 11 states including Madhya Pradesh where the results will decide the fate of the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government.
In one state, the BJP sweeps in Modi's name -- and only because of Modi's name. In the other state, Modi's name did not work. Himachal underlines the limitations of Modi's magic, observes Shekhar Gupta.
Bajpai said he quit the AAP as he felt "suffocated" over the "misbehaviour and insult" meted out by the party and claimed that several other legislators of the ruling party in the national capital felt the same way.
Raut said that the country is in such a state of mind that it can accept the Congress or Deve Gowda, but does not want the Modi- Shah duo
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday opposed withdrawal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) in Jammu and Kashmir, saying such a step could help extremists who are "caught in crossfire" in Pakistan.
Sanjay Raut said Shinde is not in Mumbai, but a communication has been established with him.
The Congress party may have its eyes firmly set on the Bharat Jodo Yatra, but it kept its fingers crossed as it waited for Thursday's counting of votes for the assembly elections in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh.
The polls have come at a time when opposition parties in Haryana are in a disarray.
The former Union minister quit the party accusing it of 'insulting' minorities and Dalits.
Syed Firdaus Ashraf lists seven states where the Grand Old Party suffered a severe setback.
Karnataka Bharatiya Janata Party strongman and former Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa on Friday said his son and party's state Vice-President B Y Vijayendra will be contesting 2023 assembly polls from his Shikaripura constituency, which he will be vacating.
George Soros, who is in the eye of the storm over his remarks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the Adani issue, is an Hungarian-born American financier, philanthropist, and activist whose success as an investor made him one of the wealthiest men in the world. He is also known as a powerful and influential supporter of liberal social causes. In a speech at the Munich Security Conference on Thursday, the billionaire philanthropist said he believes the turmoil at Gautam Adani's business empire may weaken Prime Minister Narendra Modi's hold on the government, a statement which was strongly contested by the BJP as an attack on Indian democracy.
I should not stay in a party where I am being insulted, ignored and betrayed, Alpesh said.
Shatrughan Sinha and Kirti Azad certain to be axed along with Union minister R K Singh and former minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy.
With organisations like the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, which is a front of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, telling Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman they want OPS back, the government is in a bind, report Shiva Rajora and Aditi Phadnis.
Stepping up his attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party government, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has alleged that the structures of Indian democracy are under 'brutal attack' and there is a full-scale assault on the institutions of the country.
Chidambaram also stressed that there were lessons to be learnt by the Congress from the Gujarat loss, saying there is no such thing as a "silent" campaign in a hard-fought election.
'A close relationship between India Inc and the government cannot help the BJP win elections.' 'While Opposition parties may feel good about Mr Bajaj criticising the Modi regime, the BJP should be seeing the indictment as a political boon,' says A K Bhattacharya.
Lok Sabha elections result of 2019 tells us the Modi wave has only consolidated, instead of waning.
BJP's loss of power in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattigarh means that it will have to face a resurgent Congress in the three states where it had emerged victorious in 62 of 65 Lok Sabha seats.
However, a majority in the Council of States will continue to elude the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance.
The Congress on Thursday suffered its worst-ever defeat in Gujarat but appeared headed for a close win in Himachal Pradesh, a mixed bag result for the party that not only faces a rampaging Bharatiya Janata Party but an ambitious Aam Aadmi Party vying for the leadership of the Opposition going forward on the road to the 2024 general elections.
Udhayanidhi, the 45-year old actor-producer is hailed as the "rising sun" by DMK workers, in obvious reference to the party's Rising Sun symbol.
The resignation of Kandolkar and two other leaders, who had contested on the TMC symbol, came as another setback for the Mamata Banerjee-led party which is struggling to retain its flock in Goa since the poll debacle.
The opposition parties snatched the high-profile Kairana LS seat in from BJP with a united force.
Shergill said the primary reason was that "the ideology and the vision of the current decision makers of the Congress is no longer in sync with the aspirations of the youth and modern India".
The BJP hopes that any vote AAP gets should only be from the Congress. At the same time, it does not want AAP to get too much of it. Because, a declining old opponent is a blessing as much as a rising new rival is a threat, points out Shekhar Gupta.
'Religion has divided our country like it never had done.' 'I can't remember a time of such focused hatred.'
There are two major takeaways from the by-election results. One, a majority or Indians and Hindus have reasserted their secular credentials. The second, equally momentous, is the sure-footedness and quick response time of the Indian electorate, says Subir Roy.
The party is set to rule the state for the sixth term.
The Shiv Sena has decided to move its MLAs to a luxury hotel at Powai in northeast Mumbai ahead of the Maharashtra Legislative Council polls, a party leader said on Friday, as the ruling coalition spearhead treads a cautious path after being outsmarted by the BJP in the last week's Rajya Sabha polls.
Ending his 52-year-long association with the party, P V Balachandran, a member of the KPCC executive committee, said both majority and minority communities are moving away from the Congress and the people would not stand with a party which has lost its direction.
The 91-year-old leader said, 'Right from its inception, the BJP has never regarded those who disagree with us politically as our 'enemies', but only as our adversaries.'
'A setback in UP will be nothing short of a political disaster on the eve of the 2024 general election.' 'Will it mean that Modi will be able to stay in his new house only for a year after it becomes ready?' asks Amulya Ganguli.
In a setback to 53-year-old Gandhi, the high court on July 7 dismissed Gandhi's plea for a stay on his conviction, observing that "purity in politics" is the need of the hour.
After the Gujarat and Himachal elections and the municipal polls in Mumbai and Delhi, Karnataka, Rajasthan, MP and Chhattisgarh will elect new assemblies next year leading up to the Lok Sabha election in April-May 2024, points out Virendra Kapoor.
While the Modi government had jump-started its second innings taking one major decision after another, there is a deep sense of loss in the party over the demise of Swaraj and Jaitley.
"It seems this is the beginning of a new victory trail which started with the MCD polls. We look at the future with a new hope," BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad said. In Gujarat, BJP won five of the seven assembly seats, where by-polls were held.
