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.
'For the BJP to lose this virtual pocket borough of the saffron brotherhood demonstrates how resolutely the people of Gorakhpur have turned against the party,' says Amulya Ganguli.
'The army has been open about its determination to keep the PML-Nawaz out of power at all costs.' 'Both the military and the higher judiciary have indicated a preference for Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehrik e Insaaf,' says Rana Banerji, who headed the Pakistan Desk at the Research and Analysis Wing, India's external intelligence agency.
Fighting as an independent, Dinakaran was up against ruling AIADMK's E Madhusudanan and DMK's N Maruthu Ganesh.
The constituency had recorded an abysmal 7.13 per cent voter turnout, the lowest ever in its history.
The party is set to rule the state for the sixth term.
The Samajwadi Party on Tuesday suffered a major setback when it lost the prestigious Firozabad Lok Sabha seat, with party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav's daughter-in-law losing to actor-turned-politician Raj Babbar of the Congress, by a huge margin of over 85,000 votes. Babbar, a former Member of Parliament from Agra who rebelled against the SP and joined the Congress before the Lok Sabha elections in May, secured 3,12,728 votes while Dimple Yadav got 2,27,385 votes.
Kaur, the Union Minister of Food Processing Industries, is the only SAD representative in the Modi government.
'Modi remains the most popular politician in India; the BJP's organisational and fundraising prowess is considerable; and the Opposition, while newly collaborative, has no leader or clear economic messaging as of yet.'
The Congress should sever its ties with the NCP whose image has been "maligned" after the arrest of its MP Padmasinh Patil in connection with the Nimbalkar murder case, senior party leader Balasaheb Vikhe Patil said.
He said the Congress party might give a surprise or two in the Lok Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh 'about what the party is capable of doing and to mobilise people'.
Bundelkhand is thought to be an area where Mayawati has some influence. Both Amit Shah and Shivraj Chouhan believe every weapon in the arsenal must be used to ensure victory.
Throwing a fresh challenge to Akhilesh Yadav, his sidelined uncle Shivpal on Tuesday announced that he will float a party after election results are out on March 11 and threatened to back "rebel" candidates.
'When those who took oath in the name of the Indian Constitution are not acceptable, where do the other Kashmiris stand?'
'If the BJP wins UP and one or two other states, it could get emboldened and press ahead with its reckless agenda, as well as its divisive agenda.' 'If the BJP fails to form the government in UP and suffers a setback in Punjab and maybe one other state, it could go either way: It could become more reckless or pull back, pause and take stock, moderate its position.'
'In the Indian context it is not easy for rival parties to come together, especially pre-elections.' 'Having pulled it off, they should be taken seriously.'
'If there were no Ahmedabad programme -- no flashy town hall event in a huge cricket stadium with thousands cheering him on -- then Trump may well have decided not to go to India.'
Shaktisinh Gohil asserted that the Gandhi family had always shown large-heartedness and never aspired for power.
After recent poll defeats, Sonia asks party to focus on development.
BJP won 18 of the seats while the TMC won 22 of the seats.
No time-frame can be fixed for solving the complex issue of Telangana statehood as it requires political consensus, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhar Reddy said on Monday.The demand for carving out a separate state was under active consideration of the Congress high command, he said a day after the Telangana Rashtra Samithi, spearheading the statehood movement, received a huge setback in the by-elections.He said the Cong high command was trying to reach consensus.
The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) defeat in the Bhadohi Assembly by-election in Uttar Pradesh last month was a big blow. Not only was this the first major setback for the Mayawati-led BSP, but also showed the flaws in the first-Lucknow-next-stop-Delhi project.
The humility with which the BJP deals with these 10 lessons will determine the outcome of 2019, says Shekhar Gupta.
In a major setback to ruling National Conference-Congress coalition in Jammu and Kashmir, the opposition Peoples Democratic Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday shared the six Lok Sabha seats in the state as two Union ministers, including Farooq Abdullah, bit the dust.
Smartly blending its development agenda with Hindutva politics, the BJP has not lost assembly elections in the state since 1995.
'If the Singh government was characterised by policy paralysis, this one is afflicted by hyperactivism, sans a roadmap,' says Yogendra Yadav.
A senior Madhya Pradesh Congress legislator joined the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday hours after hitting out at his own party in the assembly.
The PM asserted that 'we know how to take challenges head-on'.
'In the end, it was possibly Pawar's pow-wow with Modi that helped her to come to a decision,' says Amulya Ganguli.
According to the schedule, the final publication of the electoral roll, with January 1, 2008 as the qualifying date, should be published by January 10. Though the terms of some assemblies in the northeast expire in March, there was no indication from the EC yet on whether elections in Karnataka could be held simultaneously to pave way for installation of an elected government at the earliest.
The Left has ideologically become irrelevant globally, says the finance minister.
The Congress forget Modi has demigod status in Gujarat and there is no way he can be defeated in the state, argues Syed Firdaus Ashraf.
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.'
Chandy said Modi had kept mum on the controversy and what Keralites want is not his silence, but an unconditional apology from the prime minister.
A confirmed opportunist, Das is understood to have struck a deal with Bahujan Samaj Party from which he hopes to grab a ticket to contest the next Lucknow Lok Sabha election. His exit from the Congress is seen as s setback for the party that was already very weak in Uttar Pradesh where it had once ruled for four long decades.
"The result of the RK Nagar bypoll is an outcome of the tacit understanding between DMK working president M K Stalin and Dinakaran," Panneerselvam and Palaniswami said in a joint statement on Sunday night.
The agreement would divert China's attention and keep them busy in the Pacific theatre, probably resulting in a reduction in threat perception in our area of interest in the Indian Ocean, notes Commodore Venugopal Menon (retd).
'Open conflict would be a disaster for both China and India.'
In a neck-and-neck electoral race, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party won 1,443 out of the total of 3,351 wards while opposition parties including Congress and Independents won 1,908 wards in the Rajasthan civic body polls, results for which were announced on Thursday.
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.
