Here are the 10 key issues likely to be the centre of discussion in the seven-phase general elections that begin on April 19.
"I have always felt that Lord Ram has been shielding me and my family from all the bad times and I strongly believe that it is him, who chose me for the auspicious task," Yogiraj, who has received effusive praise for his work, told PTI.
Citing a Tamil daily's reportage, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday alleged that the Tamil Nadu government administered temples have barred puja for Lord Ram on the day of the consecration of the grand temple in Ayodhya, which was dismissed by the state as a false news with ulterior motives.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday said Pradhanmantri Suryodaya Yojana will enable one crore families to get up to 300 units of free electricity monthly and help them save up to Rs 18,000 annually. "There is provision of Rs 10,000 crore for rooftop solar (scheme) in the Budget," said finance secretary T V Somanathan in press conference on Budget later in the day. Earlier in the day Sitharaman in her interim Budget speech said through rooftop solarisation, one crore households will be enabled to obtain up to 300 units of free electricity each month.
A war of words has erupted in poll-bound Madhya Pradesh after the Congress objected to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party putting up hoardings taking credit for the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya.
Kangana Ranaut spent Gandhi Jayanti visiting a museum in New Delhi and seeing an exhibition with a difference.
For the first time in his political career, he failed to carry his party to even a working majority -- and again, for the first time in his career, he finds himself in a situation where he cannot rule by dictatorial fiat, points out Prem Panicker.
Not getting the kind of public support it had expected on issues like corruption and law and order, the Bharatiya Janata Party is all set to revive the Hindutva and Ram temple agenda in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh, with the party planning to wrap up its Jan Swabhiman Yatra at Ayodhya on November 17.
In the coming days, unless Modi tones down the communal spiel, it will be clear that anxiety continues to drive his mind and clouds his judgment, observes Modi biographer Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
If the BJP gets only 200 seats and wants to remain in power, Modi will have to make way -- either for a proxy of his choice, or for an internal rival, predicts Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
The new idol of Lord Ram was placed in the sanctum sanctorum of Ayodhya's Ram Janmabhoomi temple on Thursday afternoon, ahead of the January 22 consecration ceremony.
In the five years in politics Priyanka Gandhi has undeniably emerged as a thorn in the BJP flesh, notes Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay. It is time that this thorn is twisted a wee bit more when the elections have become far more uncertain than what it was when the Election Commission announced the poll schedule.
On seeing them, Gandhi got off his vehicle, walked up to them and shook hands with several people in the crowd.
'His way of communication is different than the first yatra.' 'Maybe his anger and frustration stems from the fact that no one is asking hard questions to the government and he is trying to do that.'
The CAA, enacted by the BJP-led government at the Centre in 2019, aims at granting Indian citizenship to persecuted non-Muslim migrants, including Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis and Christians, from Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan who entered India before December 31, 2014.
The Congress leader said he believes that democracy is derailed and "we are becoming too authoritarian". "It's all about one-man show," he said.
With the judgment in the Ayodhya court case just round the corner, the Bhartiya Janata Party is striving to raise the pitch on the controversial issue. This was amply demonstrated at the party's two-day long state executive meet that concluded in Lucknow on Sunday.Spelling it out in the valedictory address, amidst reverberating cries of Jai Shree Ram, former national BJP president Rajnath Singh declared, "The Ayodhya temple is bound to be a reality -- come what may."
'During the nine years of BJP rule, not a single temple has been reconstructed.' 'They might have constructed the Ram temple as it is an emotional issue. But they are not much interested in issues like heritage.'
The PM urged all citizens to light diyas in their houses on January 22 so that the whole country basks in glory.
The BJP is far more prepared than the Congress as their pool of prospective candidates is much bigger, reports Prakash Bhandari.
The 43-day Amarnath Yatra 2022 starts on June 30 and concludes on August 11.
As BJP leaders went all out to project the event as a moment of national pride, some leaders were directly critical of the ceremony with Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, belonging to the Communist Party of India-Marxist, slamming the state's role in the Ram Temple consecration, saying the line that demarcates religion and state seems to be 'getting thinner and thinner'.
'It is imperative that all parties make a commitment that they shall abide by the final decision of the Supreme Court.' 'This will be the best way to bring a closure.' 'It is time India moves on to face several other challenges.'
'The BJP has started a war-like situation against farmers and the Jat community.'
In her first address to a joint sitting of the two Houses in the new Parliament building in which she touched on varied issues ranging from insurgency to inflation, Murmu said a country can progress at a fast pace only when it defeats the challenges of the past and puts maximum energy into building the future.
Assuming we still have a Modi-led majority government after May 2024, there is no guarantee that reforms will move at anything more than a snail's pace, though we must be thankful even for that, notes R Jagannathan.
'If Mayawati had performed better, then the BJP would have had a much tougher time to win UP.' 'The present gap in number of seats between the BJP and SP would have got reduced.'
It is early to make out which way the wind is blowing, but there is no denying that challenges for the BJP, far outweigh the advantages in this region, notes Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani on Sunday raked up the Ram Temple issue again, saying it was the party's resolve to build the temple in Ayodhya and claimed that the issue had catapulted the party to power at the Centre earlier."The party has not forgotten its resolve to construct Ram Temple in Ayodhya. It was the Mandir issue which finally took the BJP to power at the Centre and several states and changed the course of Indian politics," he said.
Seventy-seven MLAs were present in the assembly during the voting.
The main road that leads from Sitapur Road side to the airport has been decked up with several posters carrying images of Prime Minister Modi, and a welcome message.
The Bharatiya Janata Party vs ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam battle over live telecast of the Ayodhya Ram temple consecration in Tamil Nadu shrines reached the Supreme Court on Monday, with the apex court asking the authorities to act in accordance with the law and not based on any oral instructions.
According to trust sources, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat , Maharashtra Chief Minister Udhav Thackeray and Bihar CM Nitish Kumar are also on the list of invitees.
Cabinet ministers and TV actors will try to bring to life the aeons-old story of Lord Ram at the 10-day-long Ramlila in New Delhi, which has been promised to be bigger than ever by its organisers.
'He should not come to Kerala and fight against the CPI which is an integral part of the INDIA alliance'
Anger cannot be an end in itself to Rahul Gandhi's politics -- it must instead catalyse a new political strategy, argues Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
According to insiders, their lack of enthusiasm is showing on the ground. There is nothing to suggest that their enthusiasm will return in the final four phases of polling, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Invitees to the 'pran pratishtha' consecration ceremony at the Ram temple started arriving Sunday in Ayodhya -- once a sleepy town now resplendent with new infrastructure and gripped by heightened religious fervour on the eve of a seminal event in India's political and religious history.
What are the policy directions in which India's political parties are taking its citizens? Studying the manifestos released before the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections helps answer that.
Raking up the Ayodhya issue, senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani on Saturday said the aim of his life would be achieved the day a grand Ram temple was constructed in this holy city.
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