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With just one more day to go for the Karnataka Assembly election, the voter ID card row continues while the Congress corners BJP over an alleged bribery sting. Catch all Karnataka polls updates here With voting just a day away, the BJP and Congress' high-voltage campaign for the  Karnataka Assembly election 2018  has ended. The campaigning in the run-up to the crucial polls saw everything from a cross-fire of barbs to a voter ID row. On the last day, Congress President Rahul Gandhi slammed the Modi government for issues ranging from atrocities against Dalits to the country's foreign policy as he expressed confidence in winning the Karnataka polls "hands down". BJP President Amit Shah, meanwhile, accused the Congress of making desperate attempts to win the election in an "undemocratic" way, adding that such machinations would not work and that his party would win 130-plus seats. On Saturday, voters in the state will decide who got it right. The ...

BJP released its first list of 72 candidates who will contest in the Karnataka Assembly elections May 12, to be held on May 12. Yeddyurappa will contest from Shikaripura, not Shimoga The  BJP  on Sunday released its first list of 72 candidates to contest in the Karnataka assembly elections 2018, to be held May 12 for the 224 seats across the southern state. "The central election committee of the party has decided the first 72 names for the ensuing Karnataka legislative Assembly elections," said the BJP in a statement released by its state unit. The committee met under the party's national president  Amit Shah . Other members of the committe, such as Prime Minister  Narendra Modi , Home Minister Rajnath Singh and External Affairs Minister  Sushma Swaraj  also attended the meet at the party's head office in New Delhi. Among the candidates are many of the party's 48 sitting or outgoing legislators from the state's northern, central and southern r...

The Congress, CPI(M), and the AAP have sought an inquiry into allegations against Jay Shah   A political storm hit the Narendra Modi-led government and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) after a news website reported that a company run by party chief  Amit Shah's son , Jay Amit Shah, recorded a 16,000-times increase in turnover in only a year after Modi became the Prime Minister and the senior Shah the party president. In a statement that the BJP released on Sunday evening, Jay said he would be filing civil and criminal defamation cases against the news website's owners, editor, and the author of the article in Ahmedabad, where he runs his business, and sue them for Rs 100 crore in damages.   The Congress, CPI-M, and the AAP on Sunday sought an inquiry into allegations against Jay Shah and a company linked to him. (Read all about the political storm kicked up by the report on Amit Shah's son.   Responding to the article, the BJP rubbished the allegati...

Mounting a blistering attack on the Left, the Uttar Pradesh CM said it was its nature to grab power at gunpoint   The BJP on Wednesday fielded  Yogi Adityanath  as part of its campaign against the killing of saffron activists allegedly by the ruling CPI-M in Kerala, where the firebrand Hindutva leader accused the Left party of promoting “jihadi terrorism” Mounting a blistering attack on the Left, he said it was its nature to “grab power at gunpoint”. The saffron-robed Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister also raked up the contentious issue of ‘Love Jihad’, accusing the Kerala government of not taking steps to check the “dangerous trend”. Leading the ‘Jan Raksha Yatra’, a day after BJP president Amit Shah launched the party’s 15-day campaign for “people’s protection”, Adityanath said Kerala occupied an important place in the Sanatan Hindu tradition, and wondered how the “foreign ideology” of Communism entered the state. “The CPI(M) raises slogans about se...

BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi once again urged Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to sack Tejashwi RJD leader and Bihar Deputy Chief Minister  Tejashwi Yadav  on Wednesday said the allegations of corruption against him were lies and a conspiracy by the BJP, led by Amit Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, after attending his first Cabinet meeting since the CBI raids against him. Latest Current Affairs  : Tejashwi, the younger son of RJD chief Lalu Prasad, argued that the allegations being levelled against him were related to events which occurred in 2004, when he was a 14-year-old minor. Tejashwi has made it clear that he will not resign despite alliance partner and Bihar Chief Minister, Nitish Kumar, calling upon him to come clean. Tejashwi has been named as an accused in a CBI case in connection with benami property. ALSO READ:  Congress reaches out to Nitish Kumar as questions linger over Bihar grand alliance Instead, Yadav said he would go to the peop...

Kovind's name was a surprise to those who wanted somebody with a Hindutva image to be the candidate Politics News   : Bihar Governor Ram Nath Kovind, a Dalit leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), will be the presidential candidate of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), and in all likelihood the next President of India. The BJP Parliamentary Board decided Kovind's candidature at its meeting on Monday. Kovind is widely respected among political circles for his integrity and people remember his family to have led an abstemious lifestyle during his political career, including when he was a Rajya Sabha member from 1994 to 2006. The BJP-led NDA has 48.6 per cent votes in the electoral college and has been promised support from regional parties like the Telangana Rashtra Samiti, YSR Congress Party, and All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam. Also Read :   Why NDA chose Bihar Governor Kovind, a Dalit leader, as President nominee BJP chief Amit Sha...

BJP may retain power in Goa, wrest power in U'khand; consolation prize for Cong in Punjab Election Results 2017   : If the predictions of several of the exit polls, made public on Thursday, for the five states that had Assembly elections in February-March turn out to be true, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to emerge as the most influential leader of India since Indira Gandhi, who had held sway over the country’s political landscape 40 years back. Findings of at least four exit polls suggested that Modi’s blitzkrieg of public rallies in Uttar Pradesh (UP) could help the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) either comfortably cross the majority mark of 202 in the 403-seat UP Assembly, or come close to it. The BJP, along with ally Apna Dal, had bagged 73 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in UP in 2014, winning a staggering 337 of the 403 Assembly segments. At least two exit polls — India Today-Axis and Today’s Chanakya — could come close to that tally by winning up to 285 seats. Howeve...

Amit Shah not to be next Gujarat CM: BJP The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday cleared the air on party president   Amit Shah   being appointed as the next   Chief Minister   of Gujarat after Anandiben Patel offered to resign from the post on Monday. It was also announced that the next chief minister would be from the existing party MLAs in Gujarat . "There is no such consultation going on in the party. He (Amit Shah) is party's national president and under his leadership the party has reached great heights. The party needs his leadership. The CM will be from the existing legislators", said Urban Development Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu after the BJP's parliamentary board meeting. He, however informed that Shah would be present in the meeting of legislature party to be held in Gujarat on Thursday to decide the next chief minister. "He will chair the meeting of state legislature party and hold consultation with the stakeholders to decide on the...

PMO stamp in Cabinet rejig Among many political, administrative and ideological messages in the changes in the council of ministers that Prime Minister  Narendra Modi  carried out, the most important was the unambiguous stamp of his office. The sweep of influence of the Prime Minister’s Office in Tuesday’s rejig was rarely witnessed in the past three decades. In expanding this influence of the central government, the PM was assisted by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Amit Shah. The changes in the Cabinet worked at several levels. They were definitely done with an eye on electoral compulsions —  Dalits  and Other Backward Classes found increased representation. New ministers were inducted from states that are either electorally crucial for the  BJP  (Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and Gujarat) or are going to polls in the near future (Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh). Also, alliance building was kept in mind. Allies like...