As the united opposition routed the BJP in bypolls, here are some of the political reactions.
he news reports of the response that Tejaswi has been generating at his election rallies must definitely put a smile on his father's face, observes Asmita Bihari.
'If any party talks too much about Muslims, it will lose.'
Kaur, the Union Minister of Food Processing Industries, is the only SAD representative in the Modi government.
'His revelation about what went on behind the scenes make it abundantly clear that the BJP must have indulged in similar tactics in Goa, Manipur and Meghalaya where it formed a government even though it did not have a majority,' says Amulya Ganguli.
'The urge to name the upcoming Navi Mumbai airport after well-known personalities and the equally strong urge to rally in large numbers supporting this name and that; all of this amidst COVID-19, felt deplorable,' asserts Shyam G Menon.
'It must have stung Devendra Fadnavis to see Modi asking MPs at the BJP parliamentary party meeting to give Yediyurappa a standing ovation for his victory in the by-elections that has resulted in pulling the BJP government in Karnataka off the ventilator,' notes Aditi Phadnis.
Rahul Gandhi visited ailing DMK chief M Karunanidhi at Kauvery Hospital in Chennai.
'The Congress-NCP is a declining force while we are a rising force.'
Abjijit Mukherjee, son of President Pranab Mukherjee and Congress candidate on Saturday won the Jangipur Lok Sabha by-election by 2,536 votes defeating his nearest Communist Party of India-Marxist rival Muzaffar Hussain.
The polls have come at a time when opposition parties in Haryana are in a disarray.
With her latest masterstroke, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee has made Congress lose its credibility in the eye of the aam admi, says Sheela Bhatt
President Bidya Devi Bhandari administered the oath of office and secrecy to Oli, 69, at a ceremony at Shital Niwas, after he was reappointed to the post on Thursday night as the Opposition parties failed to secure majority seats in Parliament to form a new government.
Gandhi claimed that Modi will not be able to look him in the eye if the two debate the Rafale deal.
BJP won 18 of the seats while the TMC won 22 of the seats.
Aaditya claimed that Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari refused to grant more time to the Sena to muster numbers.
Rahul Gandhi, the All-India Congress Committee general-secretary and the man leading the revival of the party's youth wing, may have suffered a setback in the Bihar assembly elections. But his supporters are putting a distance between the Congress defeat and the 'Rahul effect'.
In a setback to the opposition Nationalist Congress Party in Maharashtra, the party could win only one of the four seats it held during the biennial elections held for six local bodies constituencies in the state legislative council.
'February 11, when the results are announced, will hold the key not only to AAP's and the BJP's future, but also to the way the protests against the citizenship law, NRC and NPR evolve,' notes Amulya Ganguli.
In another setback to the Left in West Bengal, Trinamool Congress on Sunday won the by-election to the prestigious Kolkata South Lok Sabha seat by a record margin of 2,30,099 votes over Communist Party of India-Marxist, emerging victorious from the constituency for the seventh consecutive time.
The Centre had submitted that privilege documents were procured by petitioners in an illegal way and used to support their review petitions against the December 14, 2018 judgment of the apex court dismissing all pleas challenging procurement of 36 Rafale fighter jets from France.
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.
Rane did not rule out the possibility of joining the BJP, saying 'all options are open'.
The Congress questioned Modi what was the use of "swinging" with Xi.
However, the bench said Chidambaram is at a liberty to seek remedy in accordance with the law.
Party leaders, sources said, maintained that Congress cannot afford to have a new leader at the helm for rebuilding the organisation at this juncture and that the responsibility for the defeat is collective and not individual.
The comments come a day after Fitch Ratings had warned the setback for the Congress party in recent state elections could imperil the fiscal deficit target by tempting the government to have less restraint on spending.
The LDF was also leading in 10 out of the 14 district panchayats and 108 block panchayats of the total of 152, according to the State Election Commission figures.
Results show that the BJP has fared poorly in rural regions, underlining the need for the party to challenge issues like farm distress and unemployment.
In a big setback to the chief ministerial ambitions of YS Jaganmohan Reddy, the Congress high command has decided to ignore his claim over a ticket for the by-elections to the Pulivendula Assembly constituency which fell vacant due after his father Y S Rajasekhara Reddy's death. Instead, Congress president Sonia Gandhi has decided to field YSR's widow and Jagan's mother Vijayalakshmi as Congress candidate in Pulivendula, where by election will be held on December 19.
'In India a strong leader with a majority has never yet been defeated by a challenger.' 'He (or she, as with Indira Gandhi in 1977) must defeat himself,' says Shekhar Gupta.
Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa on Tuesday said the central leadership of the Bharatiya Janata Party had discussed with him before finalising the names of two "low profile" party workers as candidates for the June 19 Rajya Sabha polls from the state. "Only the BJP can take such decisions and give opportunity to ordinary karyakartas. From our core committee (state) we had sent some names, but ultimately our national president spoke to me and said it has been decided to give tickets to ordinary party workers, we discussed it, after which the two names have been finalised."
"Looking at the personas involved and nature of allegations and seriousness of allegations, it requires investigation by an independent agency, the SC said.
Counting of votes for the high-profile by-elections to the Kadapa Lok Sabha and Pulivendula constituencies in Andhra Pradesh commenced in Kadapa on Friday morning amidst tight security.
The Telangana Rashtra Samiti's efforts to spread its wings to southern Telangana and showcase that the statehood sentiment is strong in the entire region received a setback as it could not win the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Council seat from the Warangal-Khammam-Nalgoda Teachers' constituency.
The 72-year-old master strategist ensured that the Congress's internal conflict ended and took on the Bharatiya Janata Party and Shivraj Singh Chouhan -- the state's longest ever serving chief minister.
'It indicates the grooming of the party's new leadership.' 'It is also a signal to the states that these ministers represent.'
The TMC, which is yet to fully recover from the 2019 Lok Sabha poll setback, when the BJP's tally soared from two to 18, is apprehensive that the AIMIM may act as "spoiler" in several assembly segments.
Nirmala Sitharaman, Amit Shah, Arvind Kejriwal and Rahul Gandhi also expressed solidarity with ISRO.
