Brokerage Houses Project Continuity for Modi-Led BJP But With Reduced Majority

As India prepares for its next general elections in mid-2024, the biggest question is whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi will secure a third consecutive term at the helm, or whether the new INDIA alliance will ride a way of anti-incumbency sentiments to power. According to recent research reports by prominent brokerage houses Jefferies and IIFL […]

Padmaja Venugopal on election setback, Silverline project and Congress leadership

Padmaja Venugopal, daughter of legendary Congress leader K Karunakaran who was the chief minister of Kerala for several years is no new name in Kerala politics. She has been very active in KPCC over the past few decades and is known for taking strong stands on issues within and outside the party. In the recently […]

Kerala CPIM warns of Islamist, Christian extremism on campuses

Abandoning its long-held restraint when it comes to commenting on extremists originating from minority communities, the Kerala unit of CPIM has included warnings about ‘attempts to spread extremism’ among students belonging to Muslim and Christian communities in Kerala. The warning, contained in this year’s guidebook for student leaders, was in addition to the traditional instruction […]

Delhi Police says we only want info from Twitter

Delhi Police today said it only wanted to ask Twitter for any information the company had about the so-called manipulation of a ‘toolkit’ that was allegedly prepared by the main opposition party, Indian National Congress. It also accused Twitter of refusing to hand over “material evidence” about manipulation of the photographs contained in some BJP […]

How Congress, BJP underestimated Pinarayi Vijayan

Keralites overwhelmingly voted to retain the government of Pinarayi Vijayan in Kerala, breaking from a nearly half-a-century-old tradition of swapping the party in power every five years. Several factors have helped ensure a second term for Vijayan, but perhaps the most crucial has been the decisive and efficacious leadership shown by the politician during the […]

Pinarayi Vijayan most popular among Hindus, Chandy leads among minorities

Even as one survey after another predict a win for the incumbent Left Front alliance in Kerala, an opinion poll conducted by the Media One news channel has thrown up some interesting figures on Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s support levels among various religious communities. Pinarayi Vijayan, an atheist and a communist, is four times as […]

Pinarayi Vijayan targets Jamaat-e-Islami alliance with Congress front

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has, for the first time, used his daily Coronavirus update to attack a newspaper’s coverage of the crisis in the first sign that the Left Front is worried about the work-in-progress alliance of the Kerala unit of Jamaat-e-Islami — which works to establish the Islamic way of life in India […]

AAP office-bearers in Kerala resign en masse to join Swaraj India

Swaraj India, the fledgling political party under the leadership of former AAP leaders such as Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan, announced that a large chunk of AAP’s office bearers in Kerala have joined the party. These include 77 elected State Coordination Committee members and around 700 volunteers, according to a statement from the party. Among […]

Muslim League suspends leader after anti-CAA protest

The Kerala Unit of Indian Union Muslim League — an ally of the Congress Party — has suspended a district-level functionary for participating in a major, state-wide anti-CAA protest on Sunday. KM Basheer, a vice president for the party’s Beypore assembly unit, has been suspended from his position after he participated in Sunday’s ‘Human Chain’ […]

We did not cause even a second’s delay – Congress Party

Congress general secretary Ahmed Patel today denied charges that his party dragged its heels in the formation of a new government in Maharasthra, giving rival BJP enough time to break Congress’ ally Nationalist Congress Party and come back to power. “We haven’t caused even a second’s delay,” Patel said, addressing media today. “But it’s true […]

No Ayyappa To Help: BJP’s vote share falls 31.5% in Pala bypoll

Five months, it seems, is a long time in politics, certainly long enough for the electorate in Kerala to forgive, if not forget, the Left Front’s decision to ‘desecrate’ the holy shrine of Sabarimala. The Left Front has emerged as the undisputed and unexpected winner in today’s results of the high-profile Pala by-election, but it […]

Politicians face backlash for supporting illegal flats in Maradu

The demolition of five illegal high-rise apartment buildings in Kochi has snowballed into a major controversy, with some of the state’s prominent politicians who openly supported the illegal buildings now coming under fire from social media and even their own colleagues. The initial response of the political community in the state was one of support […]

Chidambaram’s Arrest: A Breakdown in Lutyen’s Consensus?

The arrest of former finance minister P Chidambaram has thrown many critics of the current administration into a quandary. On the one hand, they know that there may be some truth to the allegations of corruption made by the investigating agencies. They would, therefore, like nothing better than for corrupt politicians to be probed just […]

Milind Deora says businessmen scared, afraid of speaking out

Milind Deora, head of Congress Party’s Mumbai unit who is known to be close to the business community of the country, said businessmen in the country are feeling uneasy about the current climate, but not speaking out due to fear. Deora, who was speaking in the context of the suicide of entrepreneur and businessman VG […]

COLUMN: What are Congress’ post-Rahul options?

Battered by the party’s second-worst defeat in the Lok Sabha polls, Congress Chief Rahul Gandhi is most likely to submit his resignation at the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting on Saturday. The Congress scion, who took ‘100 percent responsibility’ for the embarrassing loss in the polls, has insisted on resigning as the party boss. While […]

TABLE – 10 EXIT POLL RESULTS – India Today, News18, Republic, Times Now, NewsX

Close to ten exit polls are set to announce the results of the most highly anticipated and tightly fought elections in Indian history in recent decades. Among those offering exit poll results today are India Today group, which has tied up with polling agency Axis, News18, which has signed on international agency Ipsos and NewsX. […]

How Congress stands to benefit from Priyanka Gandhi’s candidature in Varanasi

It is Congress Party’s “to be or not to be” moment : Will Priyanka Gandhi contest election from Varanasi or not? Rahul Gandhi’s evasive answer to the question has further deepened the suspense. With two phases of elections already over, how long can the grand old party of India play the waiting game? What might […]

Study finds massive Twitter manipulation by Indian political parties ahead of election

An analysis of Tweets associated the visit of Narendra Modi to Tamil Nadu last month showed unprecedented levels of attempted manipulation of Twitter by pro-Narendra Modi and anti-Narendra Modi forces, a Washington-based ‘fake news’ research lab found. Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab (DFRLab) identified two manipulated hashtags during Modi’s visit to Tamil Nadu in […]