Is it is necessary to play divisive politics to succeed in the next general elections? asks Dr Sudhir Bisht.
The states and union territories where the elections are being held in this phase are Assam (4), Bihar (5), Chhattisgarh (7), Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu (2), Goa (2), Gujarat (25), Karnataka (14), Maharashtra (11), Madhya Pradesh (8), Uttar Pradesh (10) and West Bengal (4). The BJP has bagged the Surat seat unopposed.
The suspense over whether Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will contest the polls from Amethi and Raebareli respectively continued.
If the Congress reached 90, it would have a pretty good chance of holding the BJP below the 272 mark. A hundred seats will rock national politics, argues Shekhar Gupta.
Campaigning ended on Wednesday evening for 102 Lok Sabha seats across 21 states and Union territories which will go to polls in the first phase on April 19 with top leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance and the opposition Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) making a last-gasp effort to woo voters.
Close to half of the total 543 Lok Sabha seats are bracing for multi-cornered fight this time, making the contest way more interesting and intense than it was in the 2019 elections.
Besides Defence Minister Singh (Lucknow), Minister of Women and Child Development Irani (Amethi), those in the fray are Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs Kaushal Kishor (Mohanlalganj) and Minister of State of Consumer Affairs Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti (Fatehpur).
At last things are going right for Mulayam Singh Yadav. Former socialist, former defence minister, former Uttar Pradesh chief minister -- Yadav and his Samajwadi Party had been feeling seriously disempowered in the last few months after they lost power in UP and a government of the Bahujan Samaj Party led by Mayawati came to power, over which SP had absolutely no leverage whatsoever.
With England white ball star batters Jonny Bairstow and Jos Buttler in indifferent form, could England summon a batter with excellent knowledge of local conditions?
Among the bigwigs are Union ministers Amit Shah (Gandhinagar), Jyotiraditya Scindia (Guna), Mansukh Mandaviya (Porbandar), Parshottam Rupala (Rajkot), Pralhad Joshi (Dharwad) and SP Singh Baghel (Agra).
A defiant Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav said, "We are going for polls... Will return again."
The BJP cited the amendments to the Representation of People Act, 1951 and the relevant portions of the Reserve Bank of India Act and the Income Tax Act for not revealing its donors.
Samajwadi Party is wary of being seen as promoting the interests of SC/STs as OBC, says Kavita Chowdhury
Raising slogans of 'Inquilab Zindabad' and 'Kejriwal Zindabad', Aam Aadmi Party workers and leaders reached the area's metro station in groups, with the party calling for a march to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's residence on Lok Kalyan Marg for a 'gherao'.
Reacting to the statement, Uttar Pradesh BJP chief Bhupendra Singh Chaudhary said "insulting the Sanatan Dharma again and again" has become the habit of the Samajwadi Party and its leaders.
On Thursday, November 3, Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav will launch his Samajwadi Rath Yatra. The official launch of the party's election campaign, but also a way of assessing how much traction he has among the people.
'He has emerged as a formidable leader who cannot be ignored anymore, who cannot be mocked.'
'Do not conspire against us, don't betray us. They should tell us straight that they don't need Samajwadis'
The TDP and JD-U will have a lot to answer inside Parliament, day after day, session after session, notes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and his convoy will spend the night on a farm in Bhadohi as the district administration has denied permission for his stay at a government college citing a police recruitment exam, a party member said on Thursday.
Banda chief judicial magistrate Bhagwan Das Gupta appointed Garima Singh, additional chief judicial magistrate (MP-MLA Court Banda) as the investigating officer in the case, the official said.
"Word of the day! Definition of *snollygoster* US dialect: a shrewd, unprincipled politician. First Known Use: 1845. Most recent use: 26/7/17," Tharoor had tweeted in 2017.
The matter cropped up as soon as the two Houses met for the day and the Question Hour got derailed in the din over the issue in the Lok Sabha.
The incident has triggered protests by party workers who fought a pitched battle with the police.
Asked about reports about candidature of actor Amitabh Bachchan for the post of President, Amar Singh said he or Samajwadi Party never announced that Amitabh would be the candidate for the post.
Indicating his keenness to contest the Lok Sabha elections from Amethi, Robert Vadra, businessman and husband of Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has said that the people of Amethi expect him to represent their constituency if he thinks of becoming a member of Parliament.
Eight Union ministers, two former chief ministers and one ex-governor are among those who are set to test their electoral fate in the first phase of elections on April 19 when 102 seats across 21 states and Union territories will go to polls.
Ahmad was elected to the assembly as an Independent in 1989, 1991, 1993 and on a Samajwadi Party ticket in 1996. He returned to the House in 2002 on an Apna Dal ticket. He was elected as an MP in 2004.
If the Congress is contesting fewer seats than ever before, the BJP is set to contest its highest-ever number of Lok Sabha seats.
The Aam Aadmi Party on Sunday said Tihar authorities were 'lying' about specialist doctors examining Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, while his wife Sunita Kejriwal alleged that he was being denied insulin for diabetes as 'they want to kill' him.
With Samajwadi Party cosying up to the Congress, its leaders have been invited for the fourth UPA anniversary celebrations scheduled here on May 22. In a clear message that it was warming up to the Congress, SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav had recently lashed out at BSP leader Mayawati for being 'ungrateful' to the United Progressive Allaince government by criticising it. He added that Congress 'charity' had only helped her become the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh again.
Close on the heels of the disqualification of Samajwadi Party MP Jai Prakash Rawat, the Lok Sabha speaker on Monday disqualified another MP of the party S P Singh Baghel from the membership of the House under the anti-defection law. The two MPs had defied party whip by voting against the United Progresssive Alliance government in the trust vote in Lok Sabha on July 22.
Among the keenly watched contests are those involving former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav (Kannauj, UP) and Union ministers Giriraj Singh (Begusarai, Bihar), Nityanand Rai (Ujiarpur, Bihar) and Raosaheb Danve (Jalna, Maharashtra).
The seized properties include a hospital building at Bhavani Nagar in Nauchandi and two luxury cars that Qureshi had allegedly purchased in the name of his family members and employees, they said.
The June 23 meeting of opposition parties, called by Bihar Chief Minister and Janata Dal-United leader Nitish Kumar, will see anti-BJP players chalk out a strategy for the Lok Sabha polls.
Babbar, who had of late launched a vitriolic attack against party General Secretary Amar Singh, was suspended from the parliamentary party on Tuesday.
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav attacked its INDIA block ally Congress on caste census, reminding them that the party did not conduct a caste census when it was in power.
"SP National General Secretary Ram Gopal Yadav has written a letter to Khan informing him about Mulayam Yadav's decision to revoke his suspension," party sources said in Lucknow.
This is Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya's maiden Lok Sabha election, but political experts and voters feel he can easily win Porbandar seat in his home state Gujarat, despite the electorate facing some key issues like unemployment.
The I-T probe is related to some trusts run by Khan and his family members, the sources said.
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