The CPI(M), which has finalized 80 Lok Sabha seats, is in talks with other like-minded parties to forge electoral alliances on some more constituencies in its bid to forge an alternative against Congress and BJP.
Naveen Patnaik's guest list has been prepared with an eye on the forthcoming Lok Sabha and assembly polls, reports Archis Mohan.
Political pundits said this trend indicates that the regional satraps might play key roles in 2019 general elections for which attempts are already underway by non-BJP parties to put a united front against Prime Minister Narendra Modi's bid for a second term.
'His secularism merely declared the equality of all religions in India under fundamental rights.'
Former Prime Minister V P Singh, who formed the first non-Congress coalition government at the Centre dethroning Rajiv Gandhi-led Congress in the 1989 elections, died In New Delhi on Thursday after prolonged illness.
Terming the Third Front as the "biggest mirage" of Indian politics, the Congress on Thursday said whenever the grouping has resurrected, it has only helped the communal forces.
The Congress on Thursday virtually ruled out any grand alliance in poll bound Uttar Pradesh including with Samajwadi Party insisting that Rahul Gandhi wanted to set things right in the state which is in bad shape for past 27 years in non-Congress rule.
While they are trying to unite different parties to form a non-Bharatiya Janata Party, non-Congress alliance at the Centre, the Communist Party of India - Marxist and the Communist Party of India on Monday intensified their tussle over the Ponnani Lok Sabha constituency in northern Kerala's Mallapuram district.After the CPI announced its intention two days earlier to field its own candidate from that seat, the CPI-M's Central Committee today put its foot down.
Indicating further closeness with the Mayawati-led party, the Communist Party of India-Marxist has asked its cadre to vote for "non-Congress secular parties like Bahujan Samaj Party" in the coming state elections where the party and the CPI are not contesting.
Home Minister P Chidambaram has written a letter to all the chief ministers dispelling their misgivings on the National Investigating Agency and two other Bills passed by Parliament in December, stressing that the laws will help fight terrorism effectively.
The Third Front, which has a history of mutative existence, hops into the new year with the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhgham joining the group of disparate parties ganging up on a non-Congress, non-Bharatiya Janata Party platform.
'The path of militant Hindutva that the BJP's national leadership chose as its main electoral plank literally dug the grave for the party in Kerala,' says M K Bhadrakumar.
The prime minister has been unstoppable as he transported the BJP to colossal success on a wave of muscular nationalism, majoritarian pride and charisma.
As the first step, senior BJP Vice President and Convenor for the Lok Sabha polls, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, convened an hour long meeting with Rashtriya Lok Dal chief Ajit Singh, who is officially with the United National Progressive Alliance. RLD members have been sulking against a non-starter alliance stuck with Bahujan Samaj Party of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati.
'I suggest Rahul Bajaj come out in the open and give us his own white paper on the perceived sense of fear that he thinks haunts corporate India,' says Dr Sudhir Bisht.
The CPI-M is upbeat in its quest to form a Third Front and struck a pre-poll alliance with the BJD in Orissa within a day after the ruling state party snapped ties with longtime ally BJP.
Congress will be batting for itself and not for its allies and the focus would be on key leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, in an advertisement campaign to be launched by the party soon for Lok Sabha polls. Party chief Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh would be the two other stars in the ad blitzkrieg.
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on Friday targeted the Centre and Congress president Sonia Gandhi in the wake of advisories sent to Karnataka and Orissa over attacks on some churches there. "The statement issued by the government of India to Karnataka and Orissa is a part of votebank politics. Madam ko 355 candles ki aarti utaari gayi hai. (It is an act to please Madam)", he said in an obvious reference to Sonia.
As of Thursday, June 18, Narendra Modi and Amit Shah did not have an escape route to save the Rajasthan chief minister.
'He is as consummate a politician as anyone else which is evident considering the way in which he has placed his party and weeded out his rivals from within the party.'
Mamatha Nichani speaks about her political ambitions, her thoughts on the political scenario and her decision to join the Congress, a party which her father, Ramakrishna Hegde, had opposed all his life.
After the break over the nuclear deal, the CPI (M) has ruled out supporting the Congress in forming the government at the Centre.
Signaling its keenness to create a third alternative along with the United National Progressive Alliance, the Left Front on Thursday announced that they will coordinate with the alliance against the government over the India-United States nuclear agreement and other issues. The Left, which provides crucial outside support to the ruling United Progressive Alliance, dropped hints of its intention to stitch a non-Congress and non-BJP alliance.
Andhra Pradesh chief minister-designate N Chandrababu Naidu on Friday met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and demanded special category status for the residual state.
Sen was given the notice after members from most of the non-Congress parties slammed him for his reported 'derogatory' remark in connection with the controversy over Indo-US civilian nuclear deal.
If they decide to support Shekhawat, who might enter the fray as an Independent, it would still amount to compromising their basic idea of maintaining equi-distance from both Congress and BJP.
Born in Rangoon (now Yangon, Myanmar) Rupani, 61, joined an RSS shakha as a schoolboy, before graduating to the BJP via the Sangh's students wing -- the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad.
Efforts like the United National Progressive Alliance are a 'result of some honest efforts but the real third force will come into being only in the post-poll scenario', he said while disagreeing that a third force was already in place. The 75-year old veteran socialist claimed his relationship with Congress leadership was 'never strained' though he was pained by the fact that none in the Congress camp tried to 'acknowledge' his efforts to keep away BJP.
Distancing herself from the United National Progressive Alliance floated by non-Congress and non-BJP parties a few months ago, All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief Jayalalithaa on Thursday said there was "no such thing called the Third Front".
The reverses for the BJP in the Hindi heartland threw wide open the 2019 Lok Sabha elections which until a few months ago appeared to be in the grip of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's party.
The Communist Party of India-Marxist on Sunday said it would forge a 'third alternative' of non-Congress, non-Bharatiya Janata Party parties on a common policy platform, as it did not agree with the policies pursued by the two major parties.
It was after a long time that a senior BJP leader had met Jayalalithaa, whose party had severed ties with it after the 2004 Lok Sabha polls.
'The Modi Model we see now is still the old Gujarat Model.' 'But with an acknowledgement that governing India is more challenging than governing Gujarat,' notes Shekhar Gupta.
The leaders were understood to have discussed the possible formation of a non-Congress, non-BJP government at the Centre 'on a long-term basis'.
'It is entirely possible that Sonia Gandhi wants her son to be prime minister.' 'If so, it is game, set and match to the BJP,' says T C A Srinivasa-Raghavan.
Earlier, KCR had met West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee as part of efforts to build a non-Congress, non-BJP third front ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
The results are a ringing endorsement of Modi's popularity, his government's achievements in the last five years and his campaign, which centred around national security, nationalism and Hindutva.
Political leaders bid an emotional goodbye to Vajpayee.
'If Narendra Modi and Amit Shah will campaign here, the BJP's defeat will be bigger.'
Terming West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's call for a Federal Front as a "ploy" to increase her bargaining power with Congress and BJP before the 2014 polls, the Left parties feel it cannot be successful without a common minimum programme.
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