Wrestlers Bajrang Punia and Vinesh Phogat met former Congress president Rahul Gandhi in New Delhi on Wednesday amid speculation that the two star grapplers could be fielded in the Haryana assembly polls by the party.
If the idea was to garner AIADMK votes with or without the three faction leaders after the party broke ties with the NDA, it may not work after all, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Akhilesh's fielding candidates from a broad spectrum of castes, not just Yadavs, and with the BJP losing in several seats in Purvanchal, suggests that smaller OBC communities shifted from the BJP to the SP in the region.
'BJP's ultimate ambition is to control Bihar independently.'
The outcome of Maharashtra state elections is unlikely to move markets much, said analysts. The markets, they believe, have bigger developments to worry about in the short-to-medium term.
From all indications, Sunil Kanugolu is here to stay, though whether his magic will help the Congress in the northern states in the Lok Sabha elections remains to be seen, wonders Aditi Phadnis.
A 7.8 per cent increase in votes for the JD-U-RJD-Congress alliance over BJP-led NDA's tally fetched it another 120 seats catapulting the Nitish Kumar-led coalition to a landslide two-third majority.
'Maharashtra's asmita was crushed under Delhi's feet.' 'Marathi Manoos is definitely angry.'
'Akhilesh did politics like Rabi and Kharif crop which come once a year. Politics is not seasonal, you have to harvest your field all through the year and only then you get a good crop' Political analyst lists 12 reasons why Akhilesh Yadav lost the UP elections.
'Rather than criticising the kind of candidates fielded by political parties from our living rooms, NOTA in a sense implores the electorate to say this by turning up in person at a polling booth to ensure their protest is registered.'
Akhilesh said the alliance's decision was not informed by any seat-sharing math but its pursuit of victory.
As Sanya Malhotra prepares to play a cop investigating the curious case of two missing jackfruits in the quirky new Netflix offering Kathal, here's a list of all her performances so far.
With this, the Shiv Sena has become the second major political party to release its list of candidates for the state assembly polls. Its ally BJP released a list of 99 candidates on Sunday.
The Congress has lodged complaints with the Election Commission against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, accusing them of making 'false, divisive, malicious and slanderous' statements during their recent election campaign.
'People in politics have lost the value of being connected to their own people.' 'Now it's all about vote share, vote bank, how many parties can you break and make them join you.'
Chandrasekhar -- former minister of state for Electronics and IT -- disagreed with Musk's opinion about EVMs, and argued that the latter's statement was a "huge sweeping generalisation".
The electoral battle in Varanasi, according to locals and political experts, is not about whether the PM will win for a third successive occasion, but if he will increase his share of the votes polled and his win margin.
Without making two-thirds of the country's population a development partner, India's prosperity is impossible, the Congress leader added.
A freebie once granted can hardly be discontinued. All that can happen is to substitute it with a bigger freebie, notes A K Bhattacharya.
A turnout of about 59 percent -- the highest in the past seven elections -- was recorded in the first phase of assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday, Chief Electoral Officer P K Pole said, adding polling passed off peacefully.
Dr Nagesh Kumar, one of the three new MPC members, wanted the MPC to reduce the repo rate by 25 basis points to 6.25%.
According to sources, Preneet Kaur, a Congress MP, is believed to have voted in support of the report.
Even as parleys continue in both states, the grand old party is expected to contest less than 110 seats in the November 20 polls for the 288-member Maharashtra assembly.
Kailash Gahlot, a key minister in the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in Delhi, has resigned, potentially impacting the party's ambitious plan to roll out a Rs 1000 monthly honorarium scheme for women ahead of the Assembly polls in February. Gahlot, who represented the Jat-dominated Najafgarh constituency in West Delhi, cited several issues, including the "Sheeshmahal" controversy over his former official residence, the Delhi government's tussle with the Centre, and the failure to clean the Yamuna River, in his resignation letter. Delhi BJP leaders welcomed Gahlot's resignation, fueling speculation that he could join the party before the assembly polls. However, AAP leaders claimed Gahlot resigned due to pressure from central agencies, including the Enforcement Directorate, and that joining the BJP was his last option. Gahlot's resignation has sparked speculation about his future and the impact it will have on the AAP's electoral prospects.
'This victory would mean a huge inspiration for the next generation who can say that coming from India I can be anybody I want to be if I work hard and acquire the right skills.' 'They could be the next President, members of the Senate, or another Sundar Pichai.'
'The Congress cannot speak the BJP's words while targeting Kejriwal.' 'What is the difference between the two? Where is the unity of INDIA then?'
'The voter is cautioning the BJP not to take them for granted.'
The proportion of postal votes polled in the general elections has gradually risen since 2009.
Fifteen years after quitting the Sikkim Democratic Front in 2009, he decimated Chamling's party, scripting history by winning 31 of 32 assembly seats in the Himalayan state in 2024.
The voting rights with the promoter will ensure the interests of the promoter family as well as minority shareholders are protected in future, said corporate governance advocates and corporate lawyers.
The BJP's strategy seem to be to wean away allies from the Congress, in Dravidian Tamil Nadu, and maybe later in UP, Bihar and elsewhere, though in slow doses, but without wooing them into a new alliance. The idea seems to be only to weaken the INDIA bloc from within -- and leaving it at that, notes N Sathiya Moorthy.
According to DMK, the voters are already consolidated on ideological lines, hence the impact of anti-incumbency, whether against the BJP Centre or the DMK state may not be too much, notes N Sathiya Moorthy.
The bypoll on September 5 is also a litmus test for all three political outfits, with the BJP hoping to check its erosion in its vote share and retain the seat, the TMC aiming to wrest the tribal-dominated assembly segment and the CPI(M)-Congress alliance hoping to regain its traditional seat.
From the Sensex pack, Adani Ports & Special Economic Zones, Mahindra & Mahindra, Reliance Industries, HDFC Bank, Larsen & Toubro, NTPC, State Bank of India, UltraTech Cement and Kotak Mahindra Bank were the major gainers. In contrast, Tata Steel, Titan, Bajaj Finserv, JSW Steel, Bajaj Finance, Hindustan Unilever, ITC, Tata Motors and Tata Consultancy Services were among the laggards.
Polling for assembly polls is underway in Meghalaya and Nagaland, northeastern states the Bharatiya Janata Party rules in alliance with regional powers.
Sanjay Malhotra takes charge as the 26th RBI governor at a time when headline retail inflation has shot up to 6.2%.
Indications are that the DMK combine will win more seats than the AIADMK and BJP, but is facing a tough fight in about half a dozen from the rest, predicts N Sathiya Moorthy of the electoral contest in Tamil Nadu.
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.
There was more to him than he let on, asserts Aditi Phadnis.
The principal opposition party though appeared content securing 99 of the 543 seats in the 2024 national elections as against its all-time low of 44 in 2014 and then 52 in 2019.
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