Sonia stated that it was not surprising that people would back one of their own, said Tharoor.
Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was given a rousing welcome by thousands of people, including United Democratic Front leaders and workers, at Kalpetta in Wayanad on Wednesday as she prepares to make her electoral debut by filing nomination papers for the coming Lok Sabha bypoll.
The suspense over whether Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will contest the polls from Amethi and Raebareli respectively continued.
Kerala Bharatiya Janata Party chief K Surendran said the BJP's central leadership alone will decide on the party's chief ministerial candidate.
Kerala state Congress president Ramesh Chennithala has called for the resignation of the state Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan from the post following the defeat of the Communist Party of India-Marxist led left front in the local body elections.
The National People's Party, which rules Meghalaya, is another national party which received no donations through electoral bonds.
The counting of votes in all these states and the UT will take place on May 2.
'All those who participated in the agitation were branded as anti-nationals.'
'Has the BJP not announced its candidates in Raebareli?'
Heavy polling has been reported in the three assembly constituencies in the Kerala by-polls. According to information available with rediff.com, Kannur recorded 20 per cent polling at 10 am while Alappuzha recorded 14.5 per cent and Ernakulam 12.90 per cent.The Kannur by-poll has been marred by allegations and counter-allegations between the Communist Party of India - Marxist and the Congress.Chief Minister Achuthanandan has openly spoken up against the EC.
The Model code of conduct has come into force immediately in the states.
A Congress source termed the process of drafting and presenting of the Bill before the state cabinet on Monday as a "unilateral" effort by the chief minister's office and ministers that are close to him.
After seven days, he has tested negative and was discharged from the hospital on Wednesday, said hospital officials.
The decision has been taken to check the spread of coronavirus, the sources said.
The Communist Party of India-Marxist state secretariat meeting held at the party headquarters AKG Centre in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, has finalized the name of party candidates fighting the ensuing Lok Sabha polls.
Dominic Xavier hopes there won't be a COVID-19 surge in the states going to the polls since few of those attending election rallies wear masks or observe social distancing.
Close to half of the total 543 Lok Sabha seats are bracing for multi-cornered fight this time, making the contest way more interesting and intense than it was in the 2019 elections.
Prominent celebrity losers include national award-winning actor Suresh Gopi, comedian Dharmajan Bolgatty, actress Priyanka Anoop, actor-anchor Krishnakumar and television serial actor Vivek Gopan.
"Congratulations to Mamata Didi for @AITCofficial's win in West Bengal. The Centre will continue to extend all possible support to the West Bengal Government to fulfil people's aspirations and also to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic," he tweeted.
The Bharatiya Janata Party suffered stunning losses in three Hindi heartland states, partial poll results showed Tuesday, forcing the party to rely on allies to form the government after a bitter and divisive election that was projected as a referendum on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's popularity.
The Congress may stand a better chance in the assembly polls if it followed the 'Himachal model', suggests N Sathiya Moorthy.
The Bharatiya Janata Party-National Democratic Alliance, which fought the April 2 assembly polls with the fancy claim of winning at least 35 seats in Kerala, on Sunday came a cropper as it failed to retain even its lone segment Nemom, even as all its major contestants, including 'Metroman' E Sreedharan and party state chief K Surendran, fell by the wayside.
Tamil Nadu's Deputy Chief Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin has reacted to Andhra Pradesh counterpart Pawan Kalyan's out-of-turn taunts with a one-liner, 'Let's wait', and thereby hangs a tale, notes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Noted poet K Satchidanandan has alleged that he was restrained by Facebook from liking, commenting and sharing posts for 24-hours after he tried to upload online a satire video on the Bharatiya Janata Party's defeat in the recently concluded Kerala assembly polls.
On one hand, South Indian states have been complaining about denial of a proportionate portion of the sharable funds from the Centre, based on population. On the other hand, they stand to lose Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha seats that again are based on population, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
Rajeev Chandrasekhar said in a post on X that his 18-year-long stint in public service has come to an end.
Former Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan who heads the group said he had submitted the report on the party's performance in Kerala, Assam and Puducherry and that the assessment for West Bengal was underway.
'Metroman' E Sreedharan's decision to join the Bharatiya Janata Party has given a boost to the saffron's hopes to make huge electoral inroads in Kerala, one of the toughest political terrains for the party, in the assembly polls likely to be held in April.
More than 750 constituencies spread across four states and one union territory will go to the polls on Tuesday
If the party is unable to do well in Gujarat and Karnataka polls, it could lose this status in the subsequent binneial elections to the upper House.
'Chandrababu is wiser and a very good administrator.' 'Jagan is the opposite. He is not very wise, not a good administrator.'
Vijay has a lot of young and middle-aged women fans, but as voters, they are possibly now with the DMK, or remain with the AIADMK. Recapturing this constituency would have helped Vijay's political launch and the GOAT script and dialogues could have gone a long way in helping out. But the kind of script and screenplay and the unusually and equally unnecessary long run-time (3 hours, 3 minutes) that GOAT offers takes the film experience over the heads of those that are not familiar with secret agents and uranium theft in Tamil cinema, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
'This can eventually start the end of the current market frenzy, which has lasted for a full year.'
Regarding Satheesan, he said that "if we see each other at the venue, then we will see".
The humiliating rebuff given to the power brokers in Delhi in Kerala's local body election carries a big message: Malayalis thoroughly disapprove of the Modi government's shenanigans to misuse central agencies to destabilise a genuinely popular state government, notes M K Bhadrakumar.
In the event of the BJP's poor performance in the assembly polls this year and in early 2025, Modi's hold will get further weakened because he will no longer remain the invincible electoral persona tightly controlling the machine at his disposal, asserts Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
Actor-turned-politician and sitting MP Locket Chatterjee has been fielded from Chunchura and another MP Nishit Parmanik from Dinhata. Also, a number of film personalities have been nominated as candidates in the high-stakes battle for West Bengal.
BJP candidate Rajeev Chandrasekhar's wife and son who keep themselves far from the political limelight reveal what it is like to campaign for the first time.
The recent 'revelation' by TN fishers freed by Sri Lanka after they had paid up Lankan rupees 50,000 each in fines, that their hair was tonsured in prison and they were forced to remove their garments other than the underpants, and were also made to clean toilets, as if with vengeance, has touched a raw nerve this time, just as another issue or issues had done it ahead of the Jallikattu protests, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
It may be for the first time that any leader in any political party in Kerala had taken such a step to register their protest against the party leadership for denying poll ticket.
