Entertainers can be good politicians if they treat the citizens as the audience, and treat their job like a live show, and work hard to make sure the audience likes them, asserts Sandeep Goyal.
The women said there was no scope for traditional dancing and singing any more and with the closure of dance bars in Mumbai, where many of them were employed, they had been left with no work.
Amid tight security cover, polling began on Friday morning in the second phase of the Bihar assembly elections, spanning 32 constituencies spread over six Naxal-hit districts.
The result is a big blow to the military establishment, revealing the limits of 'political engineering'. It reflected the anger of the electorate, especially its younger voters, who have spoken decisively against the persistent harassment and victimisation of Imran Khan's political party, asserts Rana Banerji, who headed the Pakistan desk at RA&W.
In the 2017 assembly election, the voter turnout in the first phase covering the same 89 constituencies stood at 66.75 per cent.
If Kejriwal is arrested, it will take very little for Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena to summon a meeting of the assembly, direct it to elect a new leader of the House, and, if it doesn't, dissolve it and impose President's Rule, predicts Aditi Phadnis.
It will try to exploit the infighting in the state's ruling Congress while it manages factionalism within its own ranks
Will the new Congress government implement the five 'guarantees' that helped it in part to wrest power from the Bharatiya Janata Party in toto or will they now add a "conditions apply" clause?
The PM is seen as slipping up in confidence levels as aired by his 'exposure' of the BRS on a crucial issue as alliance negotiations, which is not done under normal circumstances, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
It is a sea of men clad in veshtis with distinctive party colour border design seeking votes with a smile and folded hands for their party candidates. The town is abuzz, with electioneering at its peak, and teeming trendy cars criss-cross the busy roads and bylanes bringing in more and more leaders from elsewhere for campaign.
'The Congress government is on its way out in Himachal Pradesh.'
There are constituencies in the remote, far-flung corners of certain parts of Gujarat with only a handful of registered voters. Why, there is just one voter, who lives amid the lions and leopards in the Gir forest. But the Election Commission of India ensures that every eligible citizen gets to participate in the country's five-yearly democratic rite.
The Election Commission has issued a notice to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for her prima facie 'completely false, provocative and intemperate statements' against central armed police forces deputed on election duty in the state, saying her remarks are demoralising the personnel.
The Bharatiya Janata Party has set its sights on winning an 'unprecedented majority' in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi asking key organisational leaders to work towards boosting the party's vote share by 10 per cent, sources said.
The run-up to the polls, which should have been a humdrum affair, became a cause celebre after it was marred by violence, arrests, sit-ins in far-away Delhi and a Supreme Court intervention asking officials to ensure peaceful polling.
'Even if the government does not implement an all-India NRC before 2024, it will be part of the party's long-term project.'
Among the political parties, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) emerged as the largest party, winning 227 seats, followed by the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) with 160 seats.
Prasad, who became chief minister of Bihar in 1990, had anointed his wife on the CM chair after he was sent to jail in 1997 over multi-crore fodder scam cases.
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.
That AAP managed a sizeable vote share in Gujarat is creditable. The BJP can no longer ignore AAP's growing presence in its strongest bastion, explains Ramesh Menon, long-time observer of Gujarat politics.
According to Congress, the five schemes are 200 units of free power to all households (Gruha Jyoti), Rs 2,000 monthly assistance to the woman head of every family (Gruha Lakshmi), 10 kg of rice free to every member of a BPL household (Anna Bhagya), Rs 3,000 every month for unemployed graduate youth and Rs 1,500 for unemployed diploma holders (both in the age group of 18-25) for two years (YuvaNidhi), and free travel for women in public transport buses (Shakti).
Infighting between Ashok Gehlot and Sachin Pilot has been out in the open throughout the Congress term.
This was her second term as chief minister and, in keeping with the tradition of voters choosing the Congress and the BJP alternately, the ruling party looks set to lose power.
Tribals constitute 7-8 per cent of the state's population, and are a deciding factor in 47 assembly seats and seven Lok Sabha constituencies spread across the Junglemahal districts of Purulia, Paschim Medinipur, Bankura and Jhargram in southern Bengal and Jalpaiguri and Alipurduar in the north.
Freebies being doled out by the Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan governments ahead of the assembly polls Friday came under scrutiny by the Supreme Court which sought responses from the two states, the Centre and the Election Commission on a PIL alleging misuse of public money.
Right to apprenticeship, legal guarantee for MSP, passing a constitutional amendment to raise the 50 per cent cap on reservations for SCs, STs and OBCs, a nation-wide caste census and scrapping of Agnipath scheme are among the promises made by the Congress in its Lok Sabha polls manifesto released on Friday.
Ex-bankers, retired government officials and journalists have been roped in by the Election Commission to hold 'charcha' or dialogue sessions with voters as part of its drive to crack down on black money instances in "expenditure-sensitive" pockets.
He pointed out that such a restriction is not prevalent in many Islamic countries.
By keeping the Sanatana Dharma row alive and adding the Ayodhya temple consecration scheduled for January 22 and adding the free darshan promise from four polled states to the entire country, the BJP may have a self-fulfilling concoction, predicts N Sathiya Moorthy.
Delhi picked up the pace and a 67 per cent voter turnout was recorded till 6 pm.
Modi said this is the time for peace and brotherhood, and time to move forward together.
Aspiring candidates, desperate to buoy up their popularity in the run-up to the polls, have begun to break every stereotype to market themselves. From distributing insurance certificates to women voters to lending heavy earth-moving equipment to farmers for levelling their lands, the candidates are coming up with novel ideas to outsmart their political rivals.
The northeastern state is set to witness a triangular fight this time, with the BJP-IPFT coalition seeking to retain supremacy, the Left-Congress combine looking to wrest power, and regional outfit Tipra Motha making its debut at the hustings after its stunning performance in the autonomous council polls.
The Supreme Court on Monday ordered no coercive steps shall be taken for two weeks against Hyderabad University professor Kham Khan Suan Hausing over two complaints lodged against him in strife-torn Manipur.
The stage is now set for the first substantial round of polling in the Lok Sabha elections on Thursday, involving nearly 11 crore voters in 92 seats spread across 11 states, including Delhi and the national capital region and the riot-hit Muzaffarnagar.
In the normal course, a high turnout reflects anti-incumbency but there is no correlation between high turnout and advantage to the National Democratic Alliance, says Dharmendra Kumar Singh.
While people voted in a fifth round that will set the tone as this election rounds into the straight, and while Modi on the stump chews the cud of personal grievances and hackneyed promises that have long since passed their use-by date, there is a rogue wave rising -- what damage it will do, we will know 16 days from today, observes Prem Panicker.
Here are the main factors that impact the November 23 elections in the state.
'What should surprise BJP supporters is Modi's call for 'stability' at the manifesto launch, a theme that he and his team members had not touched ahead of the Lok Sabha polls in 2014 and 2019.' 'The last time the party called for 'stability at the Centre' was in 1998 and 1999,' recalls N Sathiya Moorthy.
