Unless controlled and contained, given the untested belief that the north Indian labour support and follow the Hindutva kind of political ideology, there is a potential in terms of ideological clashes with their Dravidian brethren in the local neighbourhoods, and it all escalating into violence, especially during election time, predicts N Sathiya Moorthy.
As the BJP activists jostled to reach the Bowbazar crossing in the city, police resorted to firing tear gas shells and water cannons to disperse them.
"Several (Congress) meetings happened, but not even a single suggestion was taken," Azad said.
The move came after a nine-member delegation of Bharatiya Janata Party MPs from West Bengal met Union Home Minister Amit Shah and sought his intervention and action against the perpetrators of the crime.
Political parties were bracing for the assembly election results on Thursday in the crucial state of Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and politically volatile Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur, sending out feelers for possible post-poll tie-ups.
Stalin, like his father M Karunanidhi did in 2004, may play the king-maker in a way -- not the king, unless the 2024 post-poll circumstances throws up a situation where he alone becomes acceptable to the rest, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Claiming that the BJP is "planning to change Bengal into Gujarat", she said, "I am ready to go to jail but will not allow it to happen."
The sectarian killings by hit-and-run groups have revived and sharpened communal fears among the victims while the Poonch encounter reveals how deep the terrorists have dug in without getting noticed in the porous border area, notes Mohammad Sayeed Malik, the distinguished commentator on Kashmir affairs.
Banerjee scored a personal point with a massive victory in the bypoll with a record margin of 58,835 votes.
Both the BJP and the Congress said they will seek support of the MGP in case they fall short of the majority mark of 21.
She is the 21st chief minister of West Bengal and 8th person to hold the office.
The firestorm that Kangana Ranaut kicked with her comment that the Independence India won in 1947 was bheek intensified on Friday with leaders from the Bharatiya Janata Party and other parties demanding action against the actor even as a complaint was filed against her while some people took to the streets to burn her effigies.
Twitter on Tuesday permanently suspended Bollywood actor Kangana Ranaut, saying she had repeatedly violated its rules on 'hateful conduct and abusive behaviour'.
Rather than lose direction with the Karnal protest, farmers decided to focus more on UP to defeat the BJP in the forthcoming assembly elections there, reports Nitin Kumar.
The Centre has told the Supreme Court that West Bengal's power to withhold consent to the Central Bureau of Investigation is not absolute and the probe agency is entitled to carry out investigations that are being carried out against Central government employees or have a pan-India impact.
Elections 2024 is not as open and shut as has been presumed. There is some life left in it, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
'Maybe the BJP believes, in the post-poll scenario, it will have the might to foist, anybody endorsed by the RSS, upon Bihar,' observes Mohammad Sajjad.
Having emerged as the face of opposition resistance to the Narendra Modi juggernaut after the TMC's triumph in the assembly elections, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is locked in an unequal battle as she squares off with "lightweight" rivals in her own lair--Bhabanipur.
New Union minister L Murugan's declaration of Kongu Nadu as his native place, instead of Tamil Nadu, may be part of a grand BJP strategy to create new states out of existing ones, particularly those that have anti-BJP governments, mulls N Sathiya Moorthy.
No one will want President's rule imposed in the state and the BJP run the government through the remote control.
However, it fell nine seats short of a majority.
The petition claimed that the voters had given a clear mandate to the Bharatiya Janata Party-Sena alliance, and it cannot change now.
Trinamool Congress, projected to do well in Lok Sabha polls in the 42 constituencies in West Bengal, on Tuesday ruled out a post-poll alignment with National Democratic Alliance.
India's image as a safe investment destination has been further cemented by the post-poll stock market rally and global investors would keep coming in with huge funds during 2009, ICICI Securities' chief Madhabi Puri Buch said on Thursday. The MD and CEO of the country's top equity brokerage house said that in less than two and half months of the current fiscal, FIIs have already pumped in $6.3 billion.
'The Godse controversy may have helped Kamal Haasan reach out to a larger audience, both inside the state and outside, coming as it does when the main campaign for elections 19 is over and only those in the four assembly bypoll constituencies are drudging along,' says N Sathiya Moorthy.
For Stalin and the DMK, the declaration was the essence of the commencement of seat-sharing talks with the Congress, and even more, the launch of their combined campaign for the LS polls. That meant the DMK had to send out a message also to the 'minorities' in the state, who had deserted the DMK and very badly at that in the critical, post-Jaya R K Nagar assembly bypolls last year, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Many issues dog the Mahagathbandhan of the Congress, Jharkhand Vikas Morcha-Prajatantrik and the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, the most prominent of which is seat sharing.
Mamata alleged that the BJP and the CPI-M were provoking doctors and giving communal colour to the issue.
If purists are surprised as to why and how people are not demanding prohibition or not talking about past promises, both in the election manifestos five years back and even those made to the courts, the answer lies in how the state has been evolving and changing these past few years, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
'At this moment, the Trinamool has an edge.'
Congress' Sowmya Reddy secured 54,457 votes against her nearest rival from the BJP.
When political parties opt for alliances, it is to win an election, and if post-poll, to come to power by cobbling together the numbers to secure a majority. This has been a striking feature of Indian politics, throwing up such screens as 'coalition dharma' to hide all ills, including corruption, says Mahesh Vijapurkar.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah will soon get around to reworking their organisational set-up and administrative priorities to regain lost ground in the wake of the Delhi electoral debacle, but there's third course available to them as well. That is to introduce the presidential form of government, which prime ministers Indira Gandhi and A B Vajpayee flirted with before abandoning it. Will Modi go further than them? N Sathiya Moorthy analyses the scenario.
In true Congress style, the party has once again delayed a decision on the Telanagana statehood issue by referring the matter to its Working Committee.
The BJP will contest 25 seats and Shiv Sena 23 of 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra. The two parties will contest equal number of seats, along with their other allies, in elections for the 288-member state assembly, due this year.
To a question whether his party will not forge a coalition with any political party, Azad said, "If any political party is willing to accompany the Congress, and the Congress feels that it can fight the BJP, then it will be definitely accommodated."
The BJP emerged as the single largest party but fell nine short of a majority, while the Congress, JD-S stitch alliance to keep saffron party out.
The by-elections are seen as a prestigious popularity test for the ruling Congress-Janata Dal-Secular coalition, as the outcome is expected to have a bearing on the state's political scene.
PTI leader Naeenul Haq told media on Saturday night that consultations are on to complete the number game.
'It was my own decision to resign as governor.' 'I felt the party needed my services and presence during the election.' 'I did not resign to contest the election, but when the party asked me to contest from Thiruvananthapuram, I agreed.'
