Fielding a strong joint opposition candidate from Varanasi in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections was among the proposals discussed at the fourth meeting of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA), sources said.
BJP president Rajnath Singh talks on issues like Modi as PM, ties with JD-U and Congress's tainted secular creditials.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday claimed that a 'systematic vote chori' method, evolved by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Election Commission to 'kill Indian democracy', will be deployed in the Bihar assembly polls as well.
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).
He also accused Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar of daydreaming for trying to garner the support of the regional parties for Advani as PM.
Sources said a couple of resolutions are expected to be passed at the crucial meeting, with an eye on the upcoming Bihar polls.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday asserted that Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary, a former state Bharatiya Janata Party president, would be made 'big man' by Prime Minister Narendra Modi after the assembly polls.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday took a dig at the BJP's anointment of L K Advani as its next prime ministerial candidate, saying it was done because the party feared "danger" from Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
Former vice president Bhairon Singh Shekhawat on Thursday sought to end speculation that he is an aspirant for the National Democratic Alliance's prime ministerial candidate. There have been reports for the past two days that Shekhawat might contest Lal Kishanchand Advani as the prime ministerial candidate.
'If Nitish Kumar were to depart from this alliance, it would signal substantial instability in central government politics.'
Jaswant Singh said that Advani was the natural choice for prime ministership as the former deputy prime minister has worked alongside Vajpayee for over five decades.
If the TVK joins the NDA, there is every likelihood of the AIADMK winning an absolute majority in the 234 seat assembly and wanting to form a stand-alone government. In turn, it could mean that the BJP especially and the TVK equally so, will want to restrict the AIADMK's seat share closer to the cut-off figure, if only to ensure that EPS won't get the absolute majority that he desires (if the NDA won, that is) and will have to settle for a coalition government, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
He said, during a press meet in Kannur, that during the LS polls, alliances were being formed in various states as part of the platform and its result was that the Bharatiya Janata Party was being largely isolated.
'The campaign by the Mahagathbandan has failed to capture the imagination of the electorate given the fatigue factor with the Nitish government.'
Will Priyanka Gandhi emerge as the surprise Congress candidate for the top job?
Each leader will look after six assembly constituencies.
Most of these leaders are known for their organisational skills and successful management of elections in their respective states.
With the BSP keen to project her as the newly-formed Third Front's prime ministerial candidate, party supremo Mayawati has invited leaders of the front's constituents to a dinner meeting on March 15 in New Delhi.
The National Democratic Alliance will contest the assembly polls in Bihar next year under the leadership of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Deputy Chief Minister and Bharatiya Janata Party leader Samrat Choudhary said on Sunday.
'There appears to be in the Indian polity a link between being Single and being of prime ministerial timber. It is a trend, a preponderance -- not a statistical verity,' says Dr Shashi K Pande.
Upset over not being projected as Bharatiya Janata Party's chief ministerial candidate for the Delhi assembly polls, Vijay Goel on Sunday staked his claim for the position before the party's top leadership and indicated his opposition against any move to declare Harsh Vardhan's name for it.
'CM face ko lekar NDA mein koi confusion nahi hai, Nitish Kumar hi NDA ke CM face hai'.
If the BJP is waiting for a better assessment about the assembly polls, the Congress is doing the same to see if it should club the 2014 Lok Sabha elections with the assembly polls. says Anita Katyal
In the first phase, a total of 3.75 crore voters will decide the electoral fate of 1,314 candidates, including top leaders such as INDIA bloc's chief ministerial face Tejashwi Yadav and Deputy CM Samrat Choudhary of the BJP.
Amid a buzz that Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar may emerge as the opposition's prime ministerial candidate, his party Janata Dal-United said on Friday if other parties want so, then this is an option.
'If the RJD loses it would be out of power for nearly 25 years. Meanwhile, the JD-U will have survival issues if it gets less number of seats.'
JD-U leaders contend that R C P Singh may have misled the BJP leadership into believing that Nitish Kumar was ready for a smaller share in power at the Centre.
Harping on putting up a united front, the Congress alleged that democracy is being "mercilessly murdered" and MPs who raise people's issues are suspended from the House.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday said in the state assembly that its friend-turned-foe Bharatiya Janata Party had betrayed him and The JD-U by projecting Narendra Modi as the prime ministerial candidate of NDA.
If women voters are mobilised in big numbers to the voting booths on November 6 and 11 by the Nitish Kumar-led NDA, then it will be quite difficult for the Tejashwi Yadav-led Mahagathbandhan to defeat the incumbent government, points out Sheela Bhatt.
Slamming Narendra Modi for making rhetorical speeches on every given occasion, Union Minister Sachin Pilot says that the Gujarat chief minister is intoxicated with prime ministerial ambitions and is too self-obsessed to see "right from wrong".
Senior Congress leader Rashid Alvi on Monday joined the party men who have offered to contest against Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi from Varanasi Lok Sabha seat.
Sources close to the top BJP leadership tell me that Tharoor has already had secret meetings with the BJP's top brass and is waiting patiently to make his next move, reports Ramesh Menon.
Most of them are sitting legislators and a few of them also served as ministers in the past.
A division bench comprising Justices Ashutosh Kumar and Jitendra Kumar disposed of the death reference moved by the state government on the order of a special National Investigation Agency court, and ruled that the four convicts shall serve "30 years in prison".
Bharatiya Janata Party leader Arun Jaitley said there should be no controversy over the issue of the party's prime ministerial candidate as that would be akin to committing a "hit-wicket" and turn out to be the only possible reason for the main opposition losing the upcoming general elections.
'...the electoral playing field is tilted significantly in its favour.'
The DMK may consider a two-tier campaign, where they keep the focus on Chief Minister Stalin, as a senior statesman with 50-plus years of political experience, and let EPS and the BJP shout in the wilderness. In such a case, the second-tier may project Udhayanidhi as the contender and chosen obstructionist in Vijay's path. The attempt, if any, would be to reduce Vijay to Udhayanidhi's level when the former is aiming at Stalin and Stalin alone in the state's political horizon, predicts N Sathiya Moorthy.
"I am putting efforts to get the Opposition together. I am not in the race to become the prime minister as I am not contesting the next (Lok Sabha) election," he told reporters.
Election strategist-turned-politician Prashant Kishor has predicted that JD(U) president Nitish Kumar will contest the upcoming assembly polls in Bihar in alliance with the BJP but may switch sides later, with hopes for another term as the chief minister. Kishor, founder of the Jan Suraaj Party, also asserted that Kumar's popularity has declined and he is unlikely to win a fifth consecutive term. He challenged the BJP to declare Kumar as the chief ministerial candidate, arguing that they would struggle to win seats if they did so. Kishor also criticized Kumar's leadership, accusing him of being "physically tired and mentally retired" and of "bringing disrepute to Bihar" by touching Prime Minister Narendra Modi's feet. He said his new party will enter the fray to pull Bihar "out of the political rut" and that the state's much-touted prohibition policy is an example of the BJP's duplicity.
Like his father Karunanidhi and AIADMK rivals MGR and Jayalalithaa, Stalin would like to confine his real political work to Tamil Nadu, and not want to take after the late Congress leader K Kamaraj and take up a national role, even if to create greater political space for son Udhayanidhi, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
