The Bhartiya Janata Party on Saturday described as 'totally misleading and false' reports that senior party leader L K Advani would not campaign in Bihar elections but was evasive on whether he would visit seats which have a dominant Muslim population, as his presence could polarise votes.
Veteran political leader Subramanian Swamy on Saturday expressed surprise over Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani's decision to apologise to Congress president Sonia Gandhi over the black money issue
Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party chief Om Prakash Rajbhar on Wednesday said there would have been no Partition had Mohammed Ali Jinnah been made the first prime minister, adding to the row on a remark by Samajwadi Party supremo Akhilesh Yadav.
He underlined the need for patience in political life and said those seeking a change of guard should go back to the people to achieve it.
The prime minister, Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu, Union ministers Amit Shah and Rajnath Singh, and BJP president J P Nadda also visited Advani's residence to greet him.
At this poignant historic moment one can only wish that institutions are not built by bricks and mortars, but also by the rich Parliamentary traditions which have stood the test of time which needs to be strengthened by all stakeholders, notes Rup Narayan Das, a former joint secretary of the Lok Sabha Secretariat.
'Bihar, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Bengal can be the game changers of 2024.'
With Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani reportedly planning another rath yatra, the Congress on Monday attacked the BJP patriarch and hoped that this yatra did not create 'discord'. "There is yet another yatra by the eternal yatri, the Bhishm Pitamah of the BJP, L K Advani. The ambition of the yatri knows no bounds. We hope this is not a journey of vendetta, hatred and creating discord," said party spokesman Abhishek Singhvi.
L K Advani will play a role well beyond the specially-created position of chairman of BJP parliamentary party, according to the new party President Nitin Gadkari who made it clear that the 82-year-old veteran will be a 'permanent guide and philosopher' for the whole party.
Bhartiya Janata Party leaders are trying to sort out the differences between the party's prime ministerial candidate L K Advani and former vice president Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, which cropped up after the latter declared his intentions of returning to active politics."As far as the BJP is concerned, L K Advani is our candidate for the post of the prime minister," party president Rajnath Singh said."I am contesting the Lok Sabha elections," the former VP had stated.
Senior party leader and prime ministerial candidate L K Advani will contest from Gandhinagar constituency in Gujarat. Other prominent names announced in the first list include Navjot Singh Sidhu (Amritsar), Vinod Khanna (Gurdaspur), Shripad Y Naik (Panaji), Anurag Thakur (Hamirpur) and T P S Rawat (Pauri).
Arvind Kejriwal warned the media that "very big forces" would try and break the INDIA alliance by showing that there was a lot of acrimony among them.
'This is not the party I knew... it has changed so much,' he said wistfully.
Modi wants the BJP to gets an additional 10% of the vote share from what it won in 2019. Plans are afoot to get new faces to replace MPs with poor chances of winning. Sources say more than 100 MPs are like to be axed, notes Modi biographer Ramesh Menon.
Sudheendra Kulkarni, a former aide of Leader of Opposition L K Advani, on Saturday defended the former on the issue of the cash-for-vote scam that rocked the proceedings in Parliament in July 2008.Kulkarni's defence of Advani came a day after expelled BJP leader Jaswant Singh fired a fresh salvo at octogenarian leader, accusing him of being at the centre of the cash-for-votes scam drama enacted in the Lok Sabha last year.
Senior leaders of Bhartiya Janata Party feel that the Congress is adding fuel to the fire that is devastating the party in last couple of weeks.
Rubbishing speculations that he was involved in a leadership tussle in the Bharatiya Janata Party, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday asserted that L K Advani will be the prime minister after the next Lok Sabha elections. "After the Lok Sabha elections, BJP will come to power and L K Advani will be the prime minister," Modi said. The BJP has projected Advani as its prime ministerial candidate.
The BJP will contest on 73 seats out of the 80 in Uttar Pradesh in the Lok Sabha elections as per the seat-sharing agreement reached between the saffron party and the Ajit Singh-led RLD.
Invitations are being extended to several people who have been part of this temple movement including BJP leaders L K Advani, Murali Manohar Joshi and Uma Bharti, Mishra said. Kameshwar Chaupal, another trustee of the temple, said top leaders of the RSS including its chief Mohan Bhagwat and general secretary Suresh Bhaiyyaji Joshi are also being invited for the event along with VHP's working president Alok Kumar.
Joshi has issued a brief statement for voters in Kanpur, from where the 85-year-old leader had won in 2014.
Samajwadi Party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav died in Medanta hospital of Gurugram on Monday. He was 82.
While Tharoor declined to comment on whether he would throw his hat into the ring, he has written an article for Malayalam daily Mathrubhumi calling for a "free and fair" election.
"There is no democracy in BJP at present. Modi is fascist, for whom the high command adopts another standard. Even senior BJP leader L K Advani has changed; he reacts and acts differently. Hence, there is very little reason for me to continue in the BJP," former chief minister Suresh Mehta said.
Top Bharatiya Janata Party leaders have been engaged in consultations with each other over the post-poll situation in the wake of exit polls projections that the party-led National Democratic Alliance may form the government.
It is not immediately clear if they have to be present in court or can appear through a video conference due to restrictions imposed to fight the spread of coronavirus.
Most politicians and even non-politicians have been honoured because of what they were purported to be electorally worth for the ruling party of their time, argues N Sathiya Moorthy.
What the INDIA alliance needs is neither a counter to Modi's tall personality and undiminished charisma nor a counter-narrative to his Hindutva agenda, now centred on the Ayodhya temple consecration on January 22, argues N Sathiya Moorthy.
As many as 35 of 53 Nationalist Congress Party MLAs were present at the party meeting convened by Maharashtra deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar in Mumbai on Wednesday, party sources said.
The JD-U leader's outbursts against his former ally came in response to queries from journalists about Shah's speech earlier in the day at Sitab Diara.
"NDA is a beautiful rainbow of regional aspirations... So nation's development through the development of states... At a time when we are working for a developed India, NDA is taking the lead in showing the spirit of sabka prayas," he said.
The over half-an-hour meeting between the opposition parties and the government, however, remained inconclusive.
The Supreme Court on Monday refused to extend the security of former special judge S K Yadav who had pronounced the verdict in the Babri Masjid demolition case and acquitted all 32 accused, including Bharatiya Janata Party veterans L K Advani, M M Joshi and Uma Bharti.
At a time when the BJP's stars are at the top on the eve of the Lok Sabha polls, the Puri-Joshimath Sankaracharyas may have kick-started a row whose efforts might be to divide Hindus, not in the name of castes, but on what passes for greater belief, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
A rotating chief ministership as a way to appease factions can work only if there is a credible guarantor, explains Aditi Phadnis.
In an election where every seat will matter, micro-strategising is going to be the order of the day. And in such a situation, party infighting - in all parties --could lead to unpredictable results.
Have we been allowed to forget Partition? Isn't Partition the reason many Hindus cannot bring themselves to trust Muslims? So many Muslims born after 1947 have told me with anguish: "How long will we be blamed for Partition?" notes Jyoti Punwani.
The five-state assembly elections are seen as a now-or-never, no-holds battle for the Congress, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
In switching over, Nitish has sent out a message that if he could not now become the NDA's PM, then he would need to stay on as CM at the very least, which a third term for Modi would not let him have, N Sathiya Moorthy points out.
