'For the Tamil Nadu protestors to openly ask popular film actor Vijay Sethupathi not to don Murali in 800 is a travesty in every sense. It may have given them a cause to tell the world, and the governments in New Delhi, Colombo and Chennai, that the Sri Lankan ethnic issue was still alive in the state -- more so, during the current run-up to two major events in the first half of 2021,' says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Another major media outlet for the first time projected Hilary's electoral college votes below the half way mark of 270.
Addressing a press conference at the AAP headquarters, senior party leader Manish Sisodia, who was the deputy chief minister in the outgoing government, said the cabinet ministers will also take oath along with Kejriwal.
Shah also said the Census 2021 data will be collected through mobile app.
'Chirag Paswan's game plan would be to push out Nitish Kumar from this alliance, but that is only possible if the BJP wins about 90 seats and the LJP wins between 25-30 seats.'
She has been losing her party's core voters since the 2007 assembly polls, whereas the Samajwadi Party has managed to keep its flock together. The BJP believes she is a soft target.
Impressed by PM Modi's initiatives, the sect will extend support to BJP
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on Tuesday won handsomely in the first election returns of the 2008 presidential race, winning 15 of 21 votes cast in Dixville Notch, New Hampshire.
The phenomenal voter turnout of about 62 per cent in the elections to the 87-member Assembly, held in November-December last year, was a rebuff to the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, a ragtag amalgam of about 40 separatist organisations, which had exhorted people to boycott them.
One of the many contrasts that Kumar versus Nilekani highlights is that of a traditional career politician as against a highly successful professional entering politics for the first time. Rupa Subramanya reports
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said he would be receiving family members of Subhash Chandra Bose next month but avoided any reference to declassification of secret files related to him which is being demanded by various sections after West Bengal government did so.
Shiv Sena's Suresh Prabhu makes predictions ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha polls
'There appears to be no end to the errors that our leaders are willing to commit and no risk they are unwilling to run,' notes Mihir S Sharma.
Without strategising together, Jayalalithaa's successor, Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, and M Karunanidhi's son-cum-successor, M K Stalin, have used tough-talking on seat-sharing with allies, to replace charisma that they purportedly lacked, during the run-up to the assembly polls scheduled for April 6, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
The elections in this phase are seen as a big test for the Bharatiya Janata Party
'Somewhere in the midst of the three milestones of 1881, 1984 and 1999 are the clues that provide the answer to the troubling corrosion of Karnataka politics: The disappearance of values, the criminalisation of politics, and the complete collapse of ideology,' says Krishna Prasad, former editor-in-chief, Outlook.
I think we are just too complacent about our electoral system. There's a lot that is very wrong with it. But we continue to parrot the boring mantra of this being the greatest electoral exercise in the world. Things are not going to change. Next election let's just boycott the whole process en masse, says Sherna Gandhy.
In the mid-1980s, India and the US struggled to arrive at sufficient confidence for Washington to even sell a supercomputer to India for monsoon prospecting. Now, the most sensitive military technologies, data, and intelligence resources are being shared. This would not have happened without that one, big deal that changed the fundamentals of India-US relations, notes Shekhar Gupta.
FIFA President Sepp Blatter has said that if Qatar was denied hosting rights because of the weather, the next step could be snatching rights from a nation because of arbitrary and discriminatory reasons, and he was not a party to this but moving the World Cup to winter was definitely needed.
This phase of voting was crucial for the state's ruling Samajwadi Party and main opposition Bahujan Samaj Party.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and the opposition Congress are likely to face stiff challenges to reduce their losses and gains, respectively, for the first time from various political forces in the state.
'I am a labourer's wife, the mother of labourers. But I won't be a labourer's grandmother for sure,' she says in the hope that her grandchildren will have a bright future in the Bihar that will unfold in the next decade.
Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee may be the favourite in this year's US general elections but the first-time black-American senator has some hurdles to overcome if he is going to find himself in the Oval Office. A first poll since the end of the Democrats' campaign by The Washington Post/ABC News shows that the presumptive Republican nominee Senator John McCain and Senator Obama are running about even with independent voters.
Here's the full text of President Ram Nath Kovind's address on the eve of 70th Republic Day of India.
'Almost deified by enough Indians now, never mind his politics and, worse, economics,' says Shekhar Gupta.
Jailed former prime minister Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz with 64 and former president Asif Ali Zardari's Pakistan Peoples Party with 43 seats are placed at number two and three respectively, the Election Commission of Pakistan said.
'There was news in some quarters that Modi himself will enter the fray from Patna Sahib on a second seat in addition to Varansi ... What happened?'
An interview Gujarat Congress President Bharat Solanki.
It's a mandate of young India, for young India, by young India, says Sheela Bhatt/Rediff.com in her 43rd and concluding column on Indian Elections 2014.
Congress leader Rita Bahuguna Joshi talks about her chances against BJP chief Rajnath Singh for the Lucknow seat
Rajini's call may now force other political parties, including the DMK and the Congress, who are in alliance talks already, to come up with water proposals of their own in their poll manifesto. In a way, this may be a 'tactical victory' for Rajinikanth, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
The guidelines relate to issues as diverse as video coverage of critical events to a ban on carrying cell phones by voters inside polling stations.
'Their candidates are simple people who will be there in hours of need.'
The Election Commission, for the first time, has banned bulk text (SMS) messaging either by candidates standing for an election or by political parties to voters in the 48 hour period before start of voting in Assembly constituencies in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh.As this ban is likely to be extended to all future elections, mobile service providers will have to live with the idea of losing what used to be a revenue windfall for them during elections.
Tamil Nadu's politics returns to being bi-polar, and that's a good thing, says B Srikumar.
Just in case the NDA is unable to reach 272 seats and is in the low range of 220 seats, then some novel ideas may spring up. Like a 'national government'. Sheela Bhatt/Rediff.com reports on the various scenarios that are being considered by the political parties, and by the President of India.
The emphatic victory in all three municipal corporations in Delhi will enthuse the party to keep its winning trajectory for the next polls, reports Sahil Makkar.
An army of government staff all over India conduct the world's greatest democratic exercise. Archana Masih/Rediff.com glimpses how they do it in the pivotal Saran constituency in North Bihar.
The question is not if Vijay would enter politics. Instead, it is about his chances of success, if any, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
'Modi should not feel shy of proclaiming as the meaning of secularism regard for all religions in proportion to their numbers in tune with the spirit of democracy and adopting it as State policy,' says B S Raghavan.
