The Tamil Nadu chief minister may have opened a Pandora's Box on the religion front with the appointment of qualified non-Brahmin temple priests, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
As results pour in for the four states -- West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Assam -- and one Union Territory -- Puducherry - here's a glimpse at the leaders who are trailing and those who are leading.
The new Council of Ministers has representation from almost all the states, except Andhra Pradesh and the north-eastern states of Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Sikkim and Tripura.
The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a plea seeking stay on further sale of electoral bonds ahead of assembly elections.
'When an individual becomes authoritarian, you can overthrow the individual easily. 'When the system becomes authoritarian, whoever challenges the system will be called a criminal or an anti-national.'
It will be the year of preparation for the electoral test in Uttar Pradesh, due in 2022. But before that, the West Bengal Assembly election will set the mood for the rest of 2021.
The Tamil Nadu Toddy Movement had met both Chief Minister Palaniswami and Stalin to seek their intervention in lifting the ban on toddy-tapping and had submitted petitions, but there it remained. So the matter is being taken to the people's court.
State after state has imposed an alcohol ban, and has had to retreat, unable to address the financial and administrative fallout. Are we set for more of this cycle, asks Aditi Phadnis.
A new Congress leader may make an electoral impact by his very presence. Congress voters who had moved away from the party, after being influenced by the BJP's 'family rule' campaign, can now return with a certain moral satisfaction, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
The year 2015 was a mixed bag for the Grand Old party --with the performance in Bihar being a consolation while the the National Herald case came back to haunt its leadership.
The Bihar government on Wednesday issued shoot-at-sight orders against troublemakers and made tight security arrangements to ensure violence free polling in 6 of the 40 Lok Sabha seats to be held on Thursday.
The saffron party is assured of victory in eight of the ten seats in UP going by its dominant numbers in the state assembly.
While Azad, Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, has been made in charge of Uttar Pradesh, Nath will look after Punjab and Haryana, party General Secretary Janaradan Dwivedi said.
The Tamil Nadu voter may not be in the mood to test new talent, not when the state and the people are going through unprecedented and unanticipated crises, of which coronavirus is only the first. All of it boils down to an election between the ruling AIADMK and the Opposition DMK next year, with small-timers, had-been parties and promised parties left on the sidelines, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
The Lok Sabha constituencies that JD-S will contest are Uttara Kannada, Chikkamagaluru, Shivamogga, Tumkur, Hassan, Mandya, Bengaluru North and Vijayapura.
The notion that the BJP gained its increased tally by wiping out the Left parties and the Congress is completely misleading. Equally misleading is the belief that the TMC held its ground in all its existing seats. A little more than a fifth of the seats Mamata Banerjee's party had won in 2016 was lost to the BJP this time.
As polling begins on Friday for the remaining 25 Rajya Sabha seats in six states, here's a list of some of the bigwigs who are seeking to be elected to the Upper House of Parliament.
The 136-year-old baby, argues Shyam G Menon, is taking a tiny step to tackling the biggest dread of old age: Change.
Whenever they are announced, the bypolls to 20 assembly seats in Tamil Nadu will be a mini referendum on the state government's performance. It will also be a do-or-die battle for the ruling AIADMK, opposition DMK, as well as the rebel AMMK, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Probodh Panda and Atul Kumar Anjaan are among 39 candidates declared by the Communist Party of India for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls as the party said that it would fight on 60 seats in 24 states.
Her rivals have been floating stories that by supporting the Bharatiya Janata Party Sheila Dikshit was trying to pre-empt investigations against her, says Kavita Chowdhury
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According to an internal assessment of the food ministry, shared with chief ministers recently, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Jammu & Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh will see a massive reduction in their annual grain allocation.
Undeterred by attacks from within the Congress for her comments on government formation in Delhi, Sheila Dikshit on Sunday stuck to her position, saying she did not back Bharatiya Janata Party's bid to power and was only explaining the "factual and constitutional" provision on the issue.
Lashing out at "rootless wonders and spineless creepers" for his party's plight, senior Congress leader Kishore Chandra Deo has said that the Congress would not have come to such a pass if Rahul Gandhi had ensured implementation of half the promises made after he became vice president.
Mother and son refuse to go away despite indications blowing in the wind that their leadership is ringing the death knell of the party, observes Ramesh Menon.
She said there were attempts to communalise the guru's teachings and this amounts to 'betraying' him.
Family feuds, in what are essentially family-run outfits, have cast a shadow over the reunification efforts of Janata Party.
More than three years after assuming office, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah will effect a major reshuffle of his ministry on Sunday in a bid to refurbish administration with several ministers facing the axe.
'The cadres who die for the party are from the backward and scheduled caste communities while the leaders and those who enjoy power are from the forward community.' 'When this is the reality, who will stay with them?'
With election campaign ending in Tamil Nadu before it goes to polls on Thursday, N Sathiya Moorthy lists a few questions uppermost in the minds of voters.
He challenged the Congress to select someone 'capable' as its president, who did not belong to 'that one family'.
Jaitley said the geographical expansion of the BJP in Kerala, after Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh in the South, and the 11 per cent vote share in West Bengal were 'important milestones'.
For the Congress to be taken seriously, it has to convince those around it that it could actually double its Lok Sabha seat share from the existing 52, and vote-share by a third more from the stagnating 20 per cent in 2014 and 2019, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
The Left's decline will adversely change the complexion of Indian politics by pushing its centre of gravity further to the right. This would be tragic, says Praful Bidwai.
Tandon, who reviewed the situation in Kerala and elicited views of major political parties, said the state government had suggested two-phase polling for Kerala.
A senior EC official said the COVID-19 pandemic and the flood situation were two reasons behind the decision.
The union territory of Puducherry has the dubious distinction of having the laziest legislators in India. A report shows that in comparison to the other four poll-bound states -- Tamil Nadu, Kerala, West Bengal and Assam -- the legislative assembly in Puducherry had the lowest number of sittings in the past 5 years.
The Congress units in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, the only two states where the party is in government on its own, have passed resolutions that Gandhi be made the party's president.
The Hindutva social media continues to present the DMK especially as anti-god, anti-Hindu and anti-Brahmin. The strategy did not work in the past, it has not worked in the present, and would not work in the future, as a massive vote-getter, asserts N Sathiya Moorthy.
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