The Capital’s political grapevine is abuzz with possible scenarios after the election results on May 23. Some like TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu are already active. The Congress camp believes that if the party crosses 125 and the BJPgets less than 200 seats, the BJP cannot stake claim to form government. The Congress, as the largest party in the anti-BJP coalition, will take the lead in spearheading a mahagathbandhan government with Rahul Gandhi as potential prime minister. If the Congress gets less than 100 seats, then regional party leaders will stake their claim to head an anti-BJP coalition. However, if the BJP…
Author: News Analysis India
At his Ghazipur rally, prime minister Narendra Modi blamed the Congress government in Rajasthan for shielding the Alwar gang-rapists because they did not want the news to come out during the polls. In sharp language, Modi also attacked what he called the “award wapsi gang” and said the light of their protest candles have long since gone out. A BJP youth leader in West Bengal’s Howrah, Priyanka Sharma, was detained and remanded in 14 days’ police custody after a complaint was lodged with police over a meme she had posted, where TMC chief Mamata Banerjee’s face was morphed onto a…
Earlier, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav alleged that ‘red cards’ are being issued only to the SP and BSP, adding that BJP is conspiring to scare people against voting. The SP chief also predicted that the BJP and Congress would win zero number of seats in Sunday’s phase six polling while the BJP would win just one seat in the seventh and final phase. Meanwhile, the opposition’s mega meeting to strategise on government formation may not take place on May 21 as several regional leaders now wish to wait for the election results on May 23. According to reports, PM…
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s allegation – that former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi had used the Navy’s aircraft carrier INS Viraat as a personal taxi for going on a family vacation – has been strongly rebutted by the Congress. It is PM Modi, the Congress said, who uses Air Force jets as his “own taxi”, paying “as low as Rs. 744” for trips during the election. The Prime Minister, the party said, is “scared’ of his “own sins” and is pointing fingers at others. Citing a media report at a press conference today, Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said, “You have made Indian Air Force jets…
Union minister Arun Jaitley on Friday launched a blistering attack on Congress over Sam Pitroda’s remarks on the anti-Sikh riots of 1984, saying it was reflective of a “lack of remorse”. The finance minister also dared Congress chief Rahul Gandhi to sack “his guru” for the statement. Pitroda had kicked up a storm when asked about the 1984 riots in the aftermath of Indira Gandhi’s assassination, saying “hua toh hua”. As the BJP latched onto his statement in the middle of a slugfest over Rajiv Gandhi’s legacy, Pitroda sought to clarify his comment. Truth is being distorted, lies are being…
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday dared West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee to arrest him for chanting ‘Jai Shri Ram’, a day after three people were taken into police custody in Ghatal Lok Sabha seat for allegedly mouthing the slogan as her convoy passed by.A video showing Banerjee fuming at some villagers in West Midnapore district for chanting ‘Jai Shri Ram’ along a highway on Saturday afternoon has gone viral on social media. Addressing a rally here, the prime minister also slammed CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury for his “derogatory” remarks against Ramayana and Mahabharata.”It has become a fashion for communists to use derogatory language against Hindu religion,” he said.Yechury…
Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today declared that she has not returned Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s calls to discuss Cyclone Fani, as she “does not want to share dais with expiry-PM”. Earlier today, PM Modi had accused Ms Banerjee of “playing politics” over cyclone relief, triggering a political storm over the superstorm that left a trail of devastation across Odisha and parts of Bengal over the weekend. At a rally in Bengal’s Tamluk today, PM Modi said he had tried to dial the Chief Minister before the cyclone hit as he felt “worried” about the people of Bengal. “I tried…
The Election Commission (EC) Friday cleared Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah in four complaints of alleged violation of the Model Code of Conduct (MCC), of which at least one decision was not unanimous. The disagreement in the poll panel was on Shah’s speech in Nagpur on April 9 when he likened Wayanad, the second seat from where Congress president Rahul Gandhi is contesting, to Pakistan. The Commission’s decision favouring Shah, was taken by a 2-1 majority, The Indian Express has learnt. (And this Rahul baba, for the sake of his alliance, has gone to such a seat in Kerala where when a procession…
In the heat of election campaigning in Uttar Pradesh, the formal introduction of another member of the Nehru-Gandhi family, Avantika Nehru, went largely unnoticed. Congress’ political arithmetic notwithstanding, Avantika Nehru’s political foray is significant in another way as it marked the end of a bitter family feud triggered three decades ago when Arun Nehru, a cousin of Rajiv Gandhi, rebelled and left the Congress. But all that is history now. The hatchet was buried this week at an election meeting in Rae Bareli when Congress general secretary for UP East Priyanka Gandhi introduced Avantika Nehru to her mother’s constituency. “Avantika…
One fallout of conducting the Lok Sabha polls in seven phases is that political parties, through their own commissioned exit polls, start getting an idea of how they are performing. Accordingly, they recalibrate their campaign messaging in different phases, as BJP has been doing – from Pulwama to Pragya Thakur. The media also conducts its own exit polls and adjusts its political commentary. All this seeps into the larger political grapevine – after the first few phases, a prominent news TV anchor suggested that the real election might begin after May 23. No wonder there is a growing murmur after the first four phases of polling…