2014: War for seats, allies begin

New Delhi: A tactical war has broken out between the Congress and the BJP over the forthcoming 2014 general election. While the Congress is mustering its forces to get a minimum of 150 seats, the BJP is working furiously to achieve a target of a minimum 190 seats.
In the coalition era, if the Congress is confident of romping home with a minimum of 150 seats, BJP spin doctors feel the party needs at least 190 seats to return to power.
In the numbers game, the Congress has already consolidated its ties with the DMK and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, initiated back-channel talks with the TRS for a pre-poll alliance and with the YSR Congress for a post-poll tie-up.
The BJP’s hunt for allies is becoming tougher with Hindutva icon Narendra Modi at the helm, sources said. So far, only the AIADMK has sent signals to the saffron brigade.
The saffron outfit is facing mutiny within its ranks over signals to project Modi as its PM candidate. There is not only an under­current brewing over the move among the senior leaders, a revolt has also broken out in the BJP’s Bihar unit.
If the Congress is trying to consolidate the Muslim vote bank, particularly in UP, the BJP’s UP leaders are upset at the interference in state politics by Modi’s trusted man, BJP general secretary in charge of the state Amit Shah.
Also, with the CBI sword hanging over Shah, a section in the BJP has already begun a tacit exercise to dislodge him from the state, sources said.
While the BJP is projecting Modi, the Congress intends to attract voters with its reform measures. The Food Security Bill, Direct Benefit Transfer Scheme, Land Acquisition Bill, Insurance Bill, Pension Bill, Companies Bill and Direct Taxes Code Bill are some legislation the UPA is expected to bring during the monsoon session.  

Post new comment

<form action="/comment/reply/244965" accept-charset="UTF-8" method="post" id="comment-form"> <div><div class="form-item" id="edit-name-wrapper"> <label for="edit-name">Your name: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="60" name="name" id="edit-name" size="30" value="Reader" class="form-text required" /> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-mail-wrapper"> <label for="edit-mail">E-Mail Address: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="64" name="mail" id="edit-mail" size="30" value="" class="form-text required" /> <div class="description">The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.</div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-comment-wrapper"> <label for="edit-comment">Comment: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <textarea cols="60" rows="15" name="comment" id="edit-comment" class="form-textarea resizable required"></textarea> </div> <fieldset class=" collapsible collapsed"><legend>Input format</legend><div class="form-item" id="edit-format-1-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-1"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-1" name="format" value="1" class="form-radio" /> Filtered HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Allowed HTML tags: &lt;a&gt; &lt;em&gt; &lt;strong&gt; &lt;cite&gt; &lt;code&gt; &lt;ul&gt; &lt;ol&gt; &lt;li&gt; &lt;dl&gt; &lt;dt&gt; &lt;dd&gt;</li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-format-2-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-2"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-2" name="format" value="2" checked="checked" class="form-radio" /> Full HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> </fieldset> <input type="hidden" name="form_build_id" id="form-1c584b2719b6ad5c0f9af4e4139b0056" value="form-1c584b2719b6ad5c0f9af4e4139b0056" /> <input type="hidden" name="form_id" id="edit-comment-form" value="comment_form" /> <fieldset class="captcha"><legend>CAPTCHA</legend><div class="description">This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.</div><input type="hidden" name="captcha_sid" id="edit-captcha-sid" value="84772441" /> <input type="hidden" name="captcha_response" id="edit-captcha-response" value="NLPCaptcha" /> <div class="form-item"> <div id="nlpcaptcha_ajax_api_container"><script type="text/javascript"> var NLPOptions = {key:'c4823cf77a2526b0fba265e2af75c1b5'};</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://call.nlpcaptcha.in/js/captcha.js" ></script></div> </div> </fieldset> <span class="btn-left"><span class="btn-right"><input type="submit" name="op" id="edit-submit" value="Save" class="form-submit" /></span></span> </div></form>

No Articles Found

No Articles Found

No Articles Found

I want to begin with a little story that was told to me by a leading executive at Aptech. He was exercising in a gym with a lot of younger people.

Shekhar Kapur’s Bandit Queen didn’t make the cut. Neither did Shaji Karun’s Piravi, which bagged 31 international awards.