Tamil Nadu has around 30 per cent or more of 'swing voters', and it is this segment that will swing the pre-poll alliance decision, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
The 'ethical voting' campaign launched by the Election Commission of India has pulled big crowds in rural as well as urban centres of Garo hills areas under Tura parliamentary constituency in Meghalaya in the run up to the polling that is being held on Wednesday.
Chief Election Commissioner S Y Quraishi on Monday rejected social activist Anna Hazare's demand for right to recall or reject saying the move would endanger political stability in the country.
Bharatiya Janata Party member of Parliament Varun Gandhi has turned down the Oxford Union's invite to speak at a debate on whether India is on the right path under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying he sees no merit or integrity in voicing domestic challenges at an international forum and that such a step will be a "dishonourable act".
Our political history tells us this has never worked. A united Opposition does work in some specific, limited situations, especially in the states. But never as some brilliant pan-national collection of diverse interests with no ideological or political core, asserts Shekhar Gupta.
'Since the party is at a stage when things are very bad, this is the best time to experiment.'
Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Javed Ahmad Qadri from Shopian in Jammu and Kashmir allegedly thrashed a voter inside a polling station, claiming that the latter had entered the booth without a voter slip.
Kharge also urged voters to take pride in the fact that he as a bhoomi putra of Karnataka had been made All India Congress Committee president, and sought a win for the Congress in that name.
For now, the DMK can be expected to sound the bugle for Opposition unity at the national level, predicts N Sathiya Moorthy.
'The BJP should not treat Shinde saheb as a lightweight.'
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.
'There are too many competent people better suited and poised to take on Modi. The Gandhis are not among them,' argues Harishchandra.
'When the Congress is put against someone like Narendra Modi, they do not have anything new to offer to the people of India.'
'They forget that denial of basic rights has helped create a big political void which is adding to a deepening alienation.' 'This creates a fertile ground for extremist elements and targeted killings which we are witness to once again.'
While phone call-outs was a weapon of choice for the Aam Admi Party in the 2013 Delhi elections, both the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party and other national and regional parties are extending their reach to voters through mobile phones, smart phones and in the general election campaign.
With this kind of coinage, the Opposition seems to be readily conceding the point that Modi is taller than all of them put together. So they need something bigger than themselves, collectively or not, to capture the voter imagination when it is about taking on Modi and the BJP in 2024, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
'The linking of Aadhaar to births and deaths will revive the debate around citizenship.'
By comparing I.N.D.IA. with banned terror outfits, Modi has exhibited the kind of nervousness never ever associated with him even at the height of the Gujarat riots, and certainly since his prime ministerial days, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
'Hindus have never been polarised across Maharashtra in any state election.'
'... are losing faith in the institutions of government, where people do not believe that the institutions of government operate according to the Constitution, within the confines of the law, where these institutions are seen to be representing a small faction of a particular community against all other (minority) communities.'
The Supreme Court said on Wednesday the issues related to the Maharashtra political crisis, triggered by the differences in the Shiv Sena, are "tough" constitutional questions to decide as they have "very serious" ramifications for the polity.
'Is Ansari flagging a genuine concern? Is a rectification called for?' 'And finally: Do minorities matter?' asks Shekhar Gupta.
A new Congress leader may make an electoral impact by his very presence. Congress voters who had moved away from the party, after being influenced by the BJP's 'family rule' campaign, can now return with a certain moral satisfaction, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
'The Bharat Jodo Yatra has done very well in the south, and if they are able to pull voters in the south and rely on their allies in the north like in Bihar, UP and do well in Rajasthan, then there are chances that there might be a formidable opposition or at least a force to fight the BJP.'
'By design or default, the BJP's election strategy militated against the very essence of Karnataka politics and the idea of Karnataka.'
Rishi Sunak on Monday asked the Conservative Party members to unite behind the newly-appointed British Prime Minister Liz Truss, minutes after she defeated him in the leadership contest to succeed Boris Johnson, to steer the country through difficult times.
Rohit Shetty gets so busy giving us a social message that he forgets to add a 'tadka' -- also called 'entertainment' -- to Cirkus, sighs Syed Firdaus Ashraf.
'The new generation voter is hyper-nationalistic, but it isn't essentially illiberal.' 'They will find the rants of Adityanath as laughable as Irfan Habib's. They will also find the BJP's polarising approach to vote-gathering unacceptable if it fails to deliver jobs and growth,' says Shekhar Gupta.
'They should not forget that had we decided not to rebel, they would still be chanting slogans from the footsteps of the Vidhan Sabha.'
Has Owaisi's MIM become an albatross for Imtiaz Jaleel, former journalist and the party's candidate in Aurangabad?
Top BJP leaders, including its president Amit Shah, reached out to their allies as well as other parties with Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar expressing confidence that the government will get support from 'new' parties.
Star batsman Cheteshwar Pujara, who has been appointed brand ambassador by the Gujarat State Election Commission to encourage more voters, will exercise his franchise when the voting for the parliamentary polls take place in the state on April 30.
Sood's vehicle was also impounded by police. A video surveillance team was also deployed outside his residence.
The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a PIL seeking to allow secret ballot in polls for the Rajya Sabha and state legislative councils, observing that the open ballot system is needed to "prevent cross voting and maintain party discipline".
Tharoor argued that the proposed bill represents a "grave chapter in the history of the Indian republic, seeking to ratify an ordinance that in many ways is an assault on our democratic heritage and the spirit of federalism."
If a local court in Mumbai allows former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh and minister Nawab Malik to cast their votes in the June 10 Rajya Sabha elections, the two leaders will be brought to the Vidhan Bhavan, the state legislature complex in Mumbai, at a specific time to take part in the voting process, an official said on Wednesday.
The Congress victory in Karnataka, its first big state since 2018, puts the party back in the game for general elections as it re-establishes primacy in the opposition space that is currently vastly fragmented despite efforts to cobble up a united front against the BJP.
Dubbed as "Jobs Governor", Haley turned South Carolina's economy around during her tenure as governor and transforming the state into a manufacturing powerhouse. She cut taxes, repealed burdensome regulations, and turned South Carolina into "the Beast of the Southeast". Under her leadership, figures note, the state's unemployment rate hit a 15-year low, and when she left office, South Carolina was at full employment.
'In a secular society where women are treated equally by law, I want the same equal status for my daughters in society, on par with all the boys.'
The message for 2024 is that the man on the street is not going to be euphoric if the G-20 crowns Modi as king-emperor for 2023, or if India sends its first man to space just ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. Even a 'temple consecration' in Ayodhya, or a Uniform Civil Code, or both of them together, may not have enough electoral purchase if fuel and commodity prices are not rolled back, and money-in-the-pocket does not fatten, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
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