Pravin Gaikwad, the state coordinator of Maratha Kranti Morcha, has two rare qualities: he has an unparalleled connect with people from his community and, at the same time, underpins his ideology on a strong analytical base.
With the Yogi Adityanath government taking credit for cracking down on criminals and making it an election issue, political parties are now having a rethink on aligning with those who have a criminal background but also enjoy influence in their areas.
There are lessons for the Congress to learn from the Karnataka elections of how burying the hatchet among top leaders and not washing dirty linen in public can help, says Ramesh Menon.
'An old party like the Congress cannot rely solely on the prescriptions of a 'Doctor' whose motives and intentions are still unknown and that he does not look attached towards any party or ideology,' point out Sunil Gatade and Venkatesh Kesari.
'The path to a resolution of the ethnic conflict is likely to be complicated and controversial with the majority Sinhalese community, and will become less likely if delayed.' 'It will certainly give Rajapaksa fresh political oxygen with which to revive himself and rally the opposition.'
'Definitely it is being orchestrated.' 'Political parties are indulging in it and trying to gain some points from communities and vote banks they depend upon for their political survival.'
'The India-Pakistan relationship is in a deep freeze, though it could be a lot worse had there not been a new LoC ceasefire a year ago.' 'The India-Pakistan relationship will only start to thaw if the Pakistani military decides it's prepared to push for detente.'
'I knew that I want to do a film about sexuality and sex, without playing safe.' 'I knew in India, that was going to be really difficult. I was taking up a big battle.'
That AAP managed a sizeable vote share in Gujarat is creditable. The BJP can no longer ignore AAP's growing presence in its strongest bastion, explains Ramesh Menon, long-time observer of Gujarat politics.
However, as the region with the state's highest concentration of Muslims readies for polls on November 7 in the last phase of the elections, it is the Rashtriya Janata Dal-Congress-Left alliance that draws considerable support from the community amid sporadic voices in Owaisi's support as they weigh their choices.
'We will win all the 28 Lok Sabha seats in 2024.'
Shah, who held a closed door meeting to take stock of the party organisation, said he could 'sense massive public anger' against the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC government in the state and gave a call to 'uproot' it in the state polls.
Before Kuttey's release, co-produced and co-penned by VB, Sukanya Verma takes a look back at the filmmaker's unique body of work.
The Congress campaign is muted in Varanasi, but the party is hoping that anti-Modi votes and caste combinations will help Ajai Rai, the only local candidate in the fray. A Ganesh Nadar/Rediff.com reports from the Congress campaign headquarters.
As the campaign peaked, AAP leaders evidently realised they had to deflect their chief opponent's attempts to polarise the electorate over religious identity, explains David Devadas.
Sonia hit out at the BJP, saying the ruling party's "divisive agenda" has become a regular feature of political discourse in all states and that history is being "mischievously distorted" to add fuel to its agenda.
Factionalism between OP Panneerselvam and Edappadi Palaniswami, the dominance of the BJP, the ruling DMK having a strong face in the form of CM Stalin, 'community and region-based politics', corruption charges against former ministers, and lack of a proper ideology are the major challenges the party is facing in the state.
Four persons, including a Pakistani terrorist and his accomplice, were killed in a gunfight in Hyderpora locality of Srinagar late Monday evening. The dead also included the house owner and a doctor, whom police dubbed as 'terror associates'.
"We should understand how secularism gives birth to extremism by looking at the growth of conservative racist movements in the West. The situation of India will not be different if we fail to accept Indian secularism in its literal sense," the Bishop wrote in Church's mouthpiece Deepika.
'Both the BJP and SP have workers and cadres across the state, and now it will boil down to which party manages booths smartly and gets its voters to come out.'
The TMC, fresh from its resounding victory in West Bengal, is renewing efforts to mark its presence in the country's most populous state as well as politically crucial elections before the Lok Sabha battle in 2024, reports Virendra Singh Rawat.
Living up to the party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra's promise to give 40 per cent of the tickets to women candidates, the Congress fielded 148 of them, of which only one -- Congress Legislature leader Aradhana Mishra Mona -- secured victory.
'The biggest problem that faces the Opposition in Gujarat is just a day or two before voting is scheduled, Modiji goes on a spree of emotional appeals.' 'That process has been set in motion much earlier this time in Gujarat.'
The development has come amid a power tussle that polarised the ruling party in the state headed for elections in just about four months.
Addressing party MPs at the general body meeting of the Congress Parliamentary Party in the central hall of Parliament, she said when facing a significant national challenge, it has been the tradition in our country to bring Parliament into confidence.
Much to the surprise of Beijing, Nepal's Parliament on Sunday ratified the contentious US-funded $500 million Millennium Challenge Corporation compact along with an interpretive declaration a day ahead of the February 28 deadline set by Washington.
The ad is one more illustration of the way Maharashtra's new Shinde-Fadnavis government has been milking the Ganpati festival, with CM Eknath Shinde visiting Ganpati Mandals all day these last 10 days.
Mr Modi and Mr Shah will need him if they want to win UP again in 2022 and India in 2024. This signals a Yogi Adityanath-sized change in BJP politics, even under Mr Modi, Shekhar Gupta.
'The central BJP has worked out an arrangement -- Yogi manages the state while Modi manages the Centre.'
'The Congress is trying to cover up their anti-incumbency by highlighting the Dalit CM factor.'
'These guys who are running away -- they are running away from all that the BJP stands for.'
Labelling All India United Democratic Front chief Badruddin Ajmal as the 'enemy of Assam', state minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Sunday asserted that he is an extremist in protecting Indian and the Assamese culture.
Stunned by the sudden saffron surge, daggers seems to have been drawn in the Trinamool Congress camp with local leaders blaming those holding top party posts for their "lack of foresightedness" and "arrogant approach" as primary reasons behind the poor poll show.
The BJP objected to the name claiming that Tipu Sultan had persecuted Hindus and hence his name was unacceptable for a public facility.
Gandhi claimed that authoritarian tendencies are becoming clearer, with the erosion of fundamental rights being accompanied by a narrow imposition of conformity and obedience from dutiful citizens. voters polarised for electoral gains
'The BJP's solo aim in Mumbai and Maharashtra is to finish off the Shiv Sena and Sharad Pawar's NCP.'
In the video, Nath is purportedly heard saying that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the BJP have only one message for the voters -- a vote for Narendra Modi means a vote for Hindus -- and "agar Musalman ko vote deni hai, to Congress ko vote do (vote for the Congress if you want to vote for Muslims)."
With the opposition accusing BJP of working toward polarising voters in Uttar Pradesh by broaching the issues like alleged migration of Hindus and 'triple talaq', party president Amit Shah has rejected the charges, claiming that questioning politics of appeasement and casteism being practised in the state cannot be called polarisation.
AIMIM supremo Asaduddin Owaisi's first rally in Kolkata, scheduled to be held on Thursday, has been cancelled as the city police denied permission for it, party sources claimed.
The Congress is likely to enforce the 'One family, one ticket' formula granting exemption to only another family member who has been doing 'exemplary work' for the party for a period of at least five years, as the grand old party promised big ticket changes while acknowledging that it had not kept pace with changing times.
