Exit polls on Saturday predicted that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will retain power for a third straight term, with the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance expected to win a big majority in the Lok Sabha polls.
With the reality of coalition politics staring the BJP in its face, this was inevitable, points out Ramesh Menon.
'To summarise, PM Modi's failures in the last nine years can be categorised under 'durniti' (bad policies), 'anyay' (injustice) and - perhaps most importantly - 'badniyat' (ill intention)'
While people voted in a fifth round that will set the tone as this election rounds into the straight, and while Modi on the stump chews the cud of personal grievances and hackneyed promises that have long since passed their use-by date, there is a rogue wave rising -- what damage it will do, we will know 16 days from today, observes Prem Panicker.
'If you fight you win, if you don't fight, how will you win?'
The IMD has warned of heatwave to severe heatwave conditions in parts of West Bengal, Odisha, Bihar, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh during the next five days.
'Bihar, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Bengal can be the game changers of 2024.'
It will be in Modi's interest to reinvent his party, read the writing on the wall that voters wrote, and move ahead. He has little choice now. The country is watching, asserts Ramesh Menon.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed the State Election Commission of Maharashtra to notify 27 per cent seats in the local body, which were reserved for the Other Backward Classes, as general category so that the poll process can be taken forward.
Asked how many seats INDIA bloc will get, Gandhi said, "Have you heard Sidhu Moose Wala's song '295'? So 295 (seats)."
By keeping the Sanatana Dharma row alive and adding the Ayodhya temple consecration scheduled for January 22 and adding the free darshan promise from four polled states to the entire country, the BJP may have a self-fulfilling concoction, predicts N Sathiya Moorthy.
Parliamentarians and legislators across the country voted on Monday to elect India's 15th president, choosing between opposition pick Yashwant Sinha and National Democratic Alliance nominee Droupadi Murmu who is favoured to win the battle to the Rashtrapati Bhavan.
Speaking at the Congress manifesto launch programme, Gandhi said it is a much closer contest than what is propagated by the media, and expressed confidence in winning the polls.
Ajit Pawar-led group was the real Nationalist Congress Party when two factions emerged in the party in July 2023, Maharashtra assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar on Thursday held.
Polling for three parliamentary seats and 29 assembly constituencies were held on October 30, an exercise being seen as a barometer of the political mood in the country ahead of assembly elections in politically critical Uttar Pradesh as well as other states.
Even if the BJP gets 60, 70, or even 100 per cent of the votes in the seats where it scored more than 50 per cent in the 2019 Lok Sabha election, these will still add up to only 224 seats, argues Shekhar Gupta.
Three of the four major states delayed testing despite worsening indicators. Only Tamil Nadu quickened the pace after the first signs of deterioration.
The Bharatiya Janata Party Parliamentary Board will meet on Sunday evening and decide on government formation as it emerged the single-largest party in Maharashtra and looked set to capture power in Haryana.
The work we have done in the south and the northeast over the last 10 years under Prime Minister Modi's leadership, we have started getting results of the same, he said.
With the general election campaign less than six months away, the BJP has more to think about than it had on the eve of 2019. It's the states that will be robbing BJP strategists of their sleep at this point, not the Lok Sabha, asserts Shekhar Gupta.
Adequate security and Covid safety measures have been put in place for the electoral exercise.
'We were discussing government formation with Sharad Pawar. We had even finalised portfolio distribution and guardian ministers' responsibilities'
BJP president Amit Shah will not attend the meeting of the newly-elected BJP MLAs to pick the legislature party leader.
The TDP and JD-U will have a lot to answer inside Parliament, day after day, session after session, notes N Sathiya Moorthy.
While arithmetic political stability is a reality, the end result of politics in Maharashtra is hard to predict.
With reports surfacing of differences between Eknath Shinde and Devendra Fadnavis, Fadnavis was out seeking new allies. A disgruntled Ajit Pawar was easy to persuade.
In Phase 6, indications are that the BJP, which is defending 40 seats, will lose in double digits and gain in single digits. Not good, if you are the ruling party scrambling to earn a working majority, with just one phase left to go, argues Prem Panicker.
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.
The first of it was in February 1980 when the Indira Gandhi government dismissed the Progressive Democratic Front government headed by Sharad Pawar.
'When my father travelled 5,000 miles to build a new home in Ireland, I doubt he ever dreamed that his son would one day grow up to become its leader.' Vaihayasi Pande Daniel/Rediff.com profiles Dr Leo Varadkar who will step down as Ireland's taoiseach (prime minister) next week.
To understand Modi, listen to what he does not say -- vide NRC, suggests Prem Panicker.
President's Rule can be revoked before the six-month period if a situation emerges for formation of a stable government.
Reacting to allegations that his party was dividing anti-BJP votes, Owaisi said he was running a political party that has a right to contest on its own.
The newly-elected members couldn't take oath even one month after the results of the assembly polls were announced, due to political up and downs in the state.
Without naming Uddhav Thackeray, Shah, who was speaking at the launch of Marathi version of the booked 'Modi@20', also reiterated there was no agreement on sharing the chief minister's post in the run up to the 2019 assembly polls.
The debacle that pollsters faced in the Bihar assembly elections is in part being blamed on the small sample size and lack of advancement in field surveys, says Sahil Makkar
A day after an advertisement with photos of Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Prime Minister Narendra Modi became the talking point in the state, an ad on the state's ruling alliance appeared in Marathi dailies on Wednesday featuring leaders like Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray and Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis.
'The central government forces are supporting one group and the state government forces are supporting another group and this is resulting in non-stop cross-firing, which has resulted in the killing of many innocent people.'
Skipper Rohit Sharma led India's rapid reply and Virat Kohli ended with an unbeaten 103, hitting a six to reach his hundred and secure India's win with 51 balls to spare.
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