After the defeat in three state polls, BJP is more disillusioned than ever about its future and, of course, its leaders. But why is no one coming forward to stop the slide?
Shekhar Iyer reports.
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The Congress Legislature Party meeting will be held in Mumbai to elect a new leader to set in motion the process to choose the next Maharashtra chief minister amid indications that incumbent Ashok Chavan is the frontrunner.
The Congress in Haryana claimed it had the numbers for a majority in the assembly after all seven independent candidates extended it support to form the next government.
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Amid reports of over half a dozen leaders in the race for the post of Maharashtra Chief Minister, Union Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh today met Congress president Sonia Gandhi but maintained he was not in contention for the top job.
The rural voters in Pune district , which has witnessed political domination of the Sharad Pawar family for decades, expectedly favoured the Congress-NCP alliance which won 11 out of the total 21 assembly seats while the saffron camp captured four out of the eight city segments, showing an upper hand among urbanites.
The Congress is all set to form the government in Haryana once again after managing the support of seven independents. With their support, the party will have a total strength of 47 in the 90-member House, crossing the half way mark of 45.
Pankaj Vohra reports.
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SpecialThe Rahul Gandhi impact was clearly visible in the victory of Congress in the recently concluded elections in Maharashtra and Haryana, where the young leader campaigned for three days, party sources said.
Former chief minister Bhajan Lal’s Haryana Janhit Congress may hold the key to formation of a stable government in the state with the Congress falling short of a simple majority in the 90-member House, writes Pankaj Vohra.
The Bahujan Samaj Party’s plan to expand its bases in Haryana and Maharashtra suffered a jolt on Thursday as the party won just one seat in Haryana while failing to open its account in Maharashtra.
Rising from the ashes like a Phoenix would be the apt aphorism to describe the performance of Om Prakash Chautala’s Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) in the Haryana assembly elections.
Voter in Haryana on Thursday delivered a fractured verdict, triggering frantic parleys by the Congress and the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) for forming the government.
Whenever Beijing ‘barks’, the likes of Tane Taga in Itanagar and Tenzin Chouden in Tawang rush to be among the first to sport the indelible ink on the index finger.
Political dynasties seem here to stay despite recurrent criticism that they deny other eligible party workers an opportunity to grow. In this assembly election, more than a dozen seats went to son and daughters of influential politicians.
Hectic lobbying has begun for the chief ministers’ post, especially in Haryana where the party will have to turn to Independents or former Congress leader Bhajan Lal’s Janhit Congress to rustle up a majority because of chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s failure to win a clear mandate.
Till Wednesday, the saffron combine would dismiss Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) as a spoiler for the state Assembly polls, but Thursday’s results proved it wrong.