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 […]

Not just Hindus, minorities too abandoned the Left in Kerala

While the Left Front was expected to lose Hindu votes due to the Sabarimala issue, a closer look at voting numbers from Kerala reveals that Sabarimala hit both LDF and UDF, but the UDF was able to sail through with increased support from minorities. Even as Hindu voters shifted their votes to the BJP to […]

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. […]

Rahul Gandhi nixes Priyanka’s Varanasi plans – report

“I will leave you in suspense” is what Congress President Rahul Gandhi said eight days ago when asked about rumors of his sister’s candidature in Varanasi. Now, with just four days remaining to file nominations in Varanasi, it looks like Gandhi is willing to end the suspense According to reports of multiple TV channels, including […]

Prominent Kerala politician slammed for “misogynistic, retrograde” campaign video

Congress leader K Sudhakaran, the UDF candidate from Kannur, found himself fending off some unwanted attention after a campaign video irked netizens for ostensibly portraying women in bad light. Netizens accused the video, shared by Sudhakaran’s official Facebook page, of sending a message that educating women is pointless and that they can never do a […]

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 […]

WATCH LIVE: Rahul Gandhi clears stand on terrorism, love, gender equality and Hindi-focused governance

Congress President Rahul Gandhi promised to reserve 33% of all government jobs in India to women if the Congress Party comes to power and said his government would correct the North-Indian focus of the current government. Interacting with females students at Chennai’s Stella Maris College, Gandhi said women are smarter than men, and that he […]

Crowds chant ‘Indira! Indira!’ as Priyanka Gandhi takes stage in Gujarat

Crowds at a poll rally in Gandhinagar in Gujarat chanted ‘Indira! Indira!’ when Priyanka Gandhi was called to address the crowd, perhaps for the first time outside the Congress pocket borough of Amethi. It was not clear if the chanting was being done by Congress office bearers or the crowd that had come to listen […]

Prepoll survey predicts sweep for Congress in Kerala as Sabarimala hurts Left

One of the biggest and first pre-election surveys held in Kerala has pointed to strong gains made by the United Democratic Alliance led by the Congress, and the National Democratic Alliance led by BJP due to the Sabarimala controversy. Even as the Left Front was riding high on a wave of popularity before the Sabarimala […]

Why Mayawati, not Rahul Gandhi, is Congress’ real PM candidate for 2019

With India’s general elections only weeks away, a large section of ‘secular’ voters in India are learning to live with Rahul Gandhi as their most viable bet for a non-Modi prime minister. However, a deeper look, along with recent experience, suggests that it is Mayawati, not Rahul Gandhi, who has everything going for her to […]

Markandeya Katju predicts chaos after polls, sees threat to democracy

Retired Supreme Court judge Markandeya Katju, known for his frank and often outrageous political statements, has forecast chaos and instability after the upcoming 2019 general elections. The elections, he said, would create conditions similar to the mid 1990s and 1977, when no single party had the critical mass to form a stable government at the […]