Statewide and National runup to 2014 General elections

Atri · Post by **Atri** » 21 Dec 2013 02:25

Why is politics party cited on BRF repeatedly? that guy smokes high quality hashish while writing.. plus the website is an eyesore.. unless he is to be treated in similar fashion as we treat zahil hamid on BENIS, i see no reason to give any credence to whatever he writs.

RajeshA · Post by **RajeshA** » 21 Dec 2013 02:32

Atri wrote:Why is politics party cited on BRF repeatedly? that guy smokes high quality hashish while writing.. plus the website is an eyesore.. unless he is to be treated in similar fashion as we treat zahil hamid on BENIS, i see no reason to give any credence to whatever he writs.

Atri garu,

I worship this guy for his unadulterated bad taste, e.g. in web design, and his baseless 400% confidence. If Austin Powers can be cult, then so can this guy too!

johneeG · Post by **johneeG** » 21 Dec 2013 02:44

Saars,
don't know about his other predictions but his predictions on dilli polls seem to have been pretty accurate with very little margin of error.

DELHI VOTERS ATTITUDE POLL

70 ASSEMBLY CONSTITUENCIES
7 NOVEMBER 2013

NAME OF PARTY SEATS VOTE %
Independents & Others 01 09%
Indian National Congress 04 25%
Aam Aadmi Party 29 31%
Bharatiya Janata Party 36 35%

http://www.politicsparty.com/shownews.php?newsid=285

NARENDRA MODI INSPIRES DELHI VOTERS TO BLESS BJP WITH MAJORITY, TO GRAB STATE GOVT

AAP DEVOURS INC VOTES BUT UNABLE TO GET BJP VOTES, GLUED TO VOTE-MAGNETIC NARENDRA MODI

MAGNET MODI

The Aam Aadmi Party would have easily won the Majority in the Delhi Assembly Elections, If Narendra Modi was NOT announced as the Prime Minister Candidate.

The Vote-Magnetic Persona of Narendra Modi, has made it Impossible for the Aam Aadmi Party, to wean away the BJP Votes.

QUIT DELHI OR DELHI CHODO

The People of Deadly are Screaming their Lungs out at the Rottenly Rancid Sheila Dikshit, “Quit Delhi!”

“Delhi Chodo” is the sound against the Congress Party, from more than 80% of the Delhi Voters.

LOWEST CONGRESS TALLY

VOTERS ANGRY AT INC

AAP DEVOURS INC

AAM AADMI PARTY

The Aam Aadmi Party instead of focusing on Corruption has diverted its Focus by splitting its attack.

The Aam Aadmi Party in its eagerness to woo Muslim Voters, has got transformed into a Muslim League Type of Party, ranting Anti-Hindu Noises.

The Aam Aadmi Party might get almost all the Muslim Votes, because of the perception that the Congress Party is LOSING the Government but the AAP has LOST all the Hindu Votes committed to the BJP.

Secular Hindus Do Not approve of Hindu Communalism, Muslim Communalism and Appeasement of Religious Fanatics for Votes.

The Aam Aadmi Party was floated by Sheila Dikshit and her Son Sandip Dikshit to Split the BJP Votes.

The Aam Aadmi Party Loudspeaks by mindless screaming against the BJP ICONS, has become an Anti-BJP Party, and has thus become incapable of attracting BJP Votes.

The Aam Aadmi Party by trying to woo the Poor through Courageous Events on the Electricity Front, which is Now, actually splitting the Votes of the Congress Party.

The Aam Aadmi Party can still Capture the Delhi Government, ONLY if it STOPS projecting itself as a Muslims Appeasement Party and quickly Transforms itself into the Party that is 100% Committed to Fighting the Corrupt Congress Party and the Corrupt BJP, to credibly offer 100% CLEAN-COMPETENT-SECULAR Governance in the Delhi Government.

MODI MAJORITY FOR BJP

The BJP buoyed by the frenzy among the voters to support the Prime Minister-To-Be Narendra Modi, will be voted into the Delhi State Government.

The BJP Voters, the Activists and the Party Bosses are all united in all the 70 Assembly Constituencies, like never before.

The BJP inspired by Narendra Modi, will be forming the Single Party Majority Government in Delhi.

Politicsparty.com VOTERS ATTITUDE POLL for DELHI, as on 7 November 2013, Predicts, that:

The DELHI VOTERS are about to throw out the Congress Party from the Delhi State Government, to install the Narendra Modi created BJP State Government, with the Aam Aadmi Party as the Main Opposition Party in the Delhi Assembly.

FINISHLINE

The Arvind Kejriwal led Aam Aadmi Party and the Narendra Modi led BJP are locked in a Close Fight.

The BJP could still Gift the Government to the Aam Aadmi Party, if the Delhi BJP Bosses field Losing Candidates in several of the Winning Constituencies.

(Check Our Prediction on 15 November 2013, after Campaign of all the Candidates has begun, for the Accurate Seats Tally.)

This is an extremely good prediction. It is almost as if he knew exactly what was going to happen. It seems to me that this guy has very good inside dope but sometimes(many times?) deliberately muddies the water for his(or his preferred political party's) own interests and reasons. So, while, he maybe unreliable, he is definitely not a fool or ignorant.

RajeshA · Post by **RajeshA** » 21 Dec 2013 03:04

Published on Dec 21, 2013
By Smita Gupta
Routed Congress finds it hard to get allies: The Hindu

In the aftermath of its wipeout in the recent round of Assembly elections in the heartland, the Congress is finding it hard to get pre-Lok Sabha poll allies. But one party that remains keen to tie its fortunes with the Congress is Lalu Prasad Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) in Bihar. It believes that with the JD-U’s fortunes sinking after its split with the BJP, an arrangement with the Congress would consolidate its Muslim vote, RJD sources said, especially as in recent months its own campaign has been getting a positive response.

On Friday, Mr. Yadav — out on bail in the fodder scam case — was in the national capital to meet Congress leaders. He told journalists — shortly before he was rushed to AIIMS after complaining of uneasiness — that he was interested in exploring an electoral understanding with the Congress. “We were always in favour of an alliance with Congress,” he said.

Mr. Yadav hopes to be able to replicate the results of 2004 when the RJD-Congress-Lok Jan Shakti Party alliance won the lion’s share of seats in the State.

The RJD’s enthusiasm to ally itself with the Congress comes days after DMK supremo M. Karunanidhi declared that his party would have no truck with it as it had always ignored it and not respected it. The Congress was quick to say that it had never been ungrateful to any ally, with party spokesperson Bhakta Charan Das telling journalists on Monday, “We are not ungrateful to anybody....happenings and incidents are guided by situations...there is no personal prejudice with any party or any individual.”

For the Congress, the DMK’s decision not to share seats with it in Tamil Nadu comes as a blow, party sources said, as it was hoping to renew a relationship that had snapped in March this year, when the DMK pulled out of the UPA on the issue of Sri Lankan Tamils. Now it is looking at Vijayakanth’s DMDK for a seat-sharing arrangement, Congress sources said.

Meanwhile, another ex-UPA ally, the Trinamool Congress, has made it clear it will not come to an arrangement in West Bengal. A Trinamool leader explained: “The Left has not yet recovered in Bengal, so we don’t have to bother about it. Now we need to occupy the space the Congress has. So why we should ally with the Congress?”

In Jharkhand, the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha is ruling the State with support from the Congress and the RJD: this arrangement is expected to continue for the Lok Sabha polls as well, just as the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party alliance in Maharashtra and the Congress-National Conference tie-up remain intact.

A possible tie-up with the BSP has been ruled out. BSP general secretary Satish Mishra said there was no possibility of such an arrangement as his party did not wish to ally with the Congress, whose fortunes were down.

The only other key State where the possibility of an alliance exists is Andhra Pradesh, but that remains contingent on creation of Telangana: if the new State becomes a reality, the Congress could have a tie-up with the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS). Of course, the party remains wary of TRS leader K. Chandrashekhar Rao, but the ground reality is that he is seen as the face of the Telangana agitation.

Wasn't earlier the issue that Narendra Modi would find it difficult to find allies?!

Pro-Congress* "secularist" parties are NCP, SP, BSP, RLD, JD-U, RJD, NC, TMC, DMK, TRS and YSRCP and from these parties only NCP, NC & RJD are willing to have a pre-poll alliance with Congress, and the first two due to state-level compulsions, making RJD the only suitor of Sonia Gandhi.

* There are of course others like BJD, JD-S, Communists, etc. but they are not pro-Congress.

nachiket · Post by **nachiket** » 21 Dec 2013 03:27

RajeshA wrote: Pro-Congress* "secularist" parties are NCP, SP, BSP, RLD, JD-U, RJD, NC, TMC, DMK, TRS and YSRCP and from these parties only NCP, NC & RJD are willing to have a pre-poll alliance with Congress, and the first two due to state-level compulsions, making RJD the only suitor of Sonia Gandhi.

* There are of course others like BJD, JD-S, Communists, etc. but they are not pro-Congress.

RLD is also a part of the current coterie. And the problem is the familiar "outside support". Without SP and BSP outside support, the government can fall even today, in a no-confidence vote. So even if the BSP and SP categorically rule out alliances, we'll have to count whatever seats they win as part of UPA.

Now I could be wrong since I'm a noob at this, but the way I see it, if the BJP can steal a significant number of seats from the SP and BSP in UP, UPA III will become impossible assuming the Congress loses several of its current seats due to the anti-Congress wave.

RajeshA · Post by **RajeshA** » 21 Dec 2013 03:33

nachiket wrote:RLD is also a part of the current coterie. And the problem is the familiar "outside support". Without SP and BSP outside support, the government can fall even today, in a no-confidence vote. So even if the BSP and SP categorically rule out alliances, we'll have to count whatever seats they win as part of UPA.

True, but for the sake of argument and rhetoric w.r.t. pre-poll scenario, BJP can always say that Congress under Sonia has more difficulty finding allies than BJP under NaMo, as a reaction to Congress's earlier taunts about NaMo being a political untouchable who cannot be PM because he won't be able to find allies.

darshhan · Post by **darshhan** » 21 Dec 2013 04:55

nachiket wrote:^^Has that politicsparty guy ever been right about any election? He seems to specialize in making wild predictions which look impossible and never come true.

He was pretty right about the recently held elections especially about Rajasthan, MP and even Delhi. However this exercise was relatively easier than Predicting BJP's fortunes in Tamil Nadu.

Shanmukh · Post by **Shanmukh** » 21 Dec 2013 05:15

Another article that echoes what M R Venkatesh was saying. The summary of the claims are that BJP with Modi's name can get up to 10% of the vote on its own. MDMK, PMK, and DMDK can bring in around 5% of the votes each, so the Grand Alliance can win about 25% of the vote and thus form a viable alternative to the AIADMK.

http://www.indiatalkies.com/2013/12/con ... etter.html

LakshO · Post by **LakshO** » 21 Dec 2013 05:53

Pratyush wrote:No it wont happen. for a simple reason that the Lt governor was elected recently in his position. He is not likely to move in the direction, the BJP will want him to move.

Sir, Delhi's Lt. Gov. is elected? I thought this was a nominated post, just like governors in other states. Nominated by Nai Dilli sarkar to keep an eye on their respective state govt.

Willing to be corrected by more knowledgeable posters.

krishnan · Post by **krishnan** » 21 Dec 2013 06:47

its hard for other than DMK,aiadmk to grow in TN , they have got a foot hold in here that is very hard to break. It will take a lot of effort from BJP to get some seat.

Hari Seldon · Post by **Hari Seldon** » 21 Dec 2013 08:29

Do OBCs really constitute 70% of TN voters, as the PP guy claims? *70%*?! Just curious onlee...

krishnan · Post by **krishnan** » 21 Dec 2013 08:35

well lots of OBC's arent OBC's , they take it to get govt welfare

hanumadu · Post by **hanumadu** » 21 Dec 2013 08:44

Hari Seldon wrote:Do OBCs really constitute 70% of TN voters, as the PP guy claims? *70%*?! Just curious onlee...

The OBCs pulled a fast one on the real OBCs or may be it is on whatever the remaining OCs are. What would be normally OC in other states are called OBCs in Tamil Nadu. The real OBCs are called MBCs (Most Backward Castes). And ofcourse there are SC and STs. Please some one correct me if I am wrong.

svenkat · Post by **svenkat** » 21 Dec 2013 08:55

Well,by no strtch of imagination can all vanniars,thevars,gounders,vellalas,naadars,christians,muslims be backward.But thats tamizh reality,more to do with tamizh sub-nationalism having roots in two issues-a)loss of political power by tamils in 15th century to Malik kafur,Vijaynagar,Telugu/Kannada Nayakas,marathas and subsequent rediscovery of tamizh heritage by Caldwell,Pope,maraimalai adigal,bharathidaasan,kalaignnar,adithanar,soundarapandian,kamarajar,tamizh thendral thiru-vi-ka embracing all tamizh castes and all parties.Vairamuthu too( a kallar-subcaste of thevars) is influenced by this movement.
b)the huge head start brahmanas had in modern education under British.One thing thats not recogonised ufficiently is there were large numbers of telugu,kannada,marathi speaking brahmanas in present day TN who were not aware of the intensity beneath the calm and even tenor of life on the surface.By no means were brahmanas,tamil and non tamil,telugu and kannada non brahmanas anatogonistic to tamizh,but there was insufficient comprehension of the intensity that tamils felt about reclaiming their heritage which was similar to what hindus felt after muslim rule was over.VS Naipaul in his "Million Mutinies" for instance among many,many Indian and foreign wtiters, mentions there was a parallel movement to Congress in TN which was empowering tamizh people.

svenkat · Post by **svenkat** » 21 Dec 2013 09:05

I might add,tamizh parties like DMK have had most irrational attitudes towards quotas and DMk played a destructive role in Mandal,though it helped in a way to bring TN to mainstream.And this irrational attitude(Kalaignar called creamy layer-as "kirumi" layer-a virus that Brahmanas were using to disempower 'backward' people) is one of the issues that separates TN from the mainstream though tamils can claim that the open competition policy did not benefit them in the pre-mandal era.

munna · Post by **munna** » 21 Dec 2013 09:39

LakshO wrote:
Pratyush wrote:No it wont happen. for a simple reason that the Lt governor was elected recently in his position. He is not likely to move in the direction, the BJP will want him to move.
Sir, Delhi's Lt. Gov. is elected? I thought this was a nominated post, just like governors in other states. Nominated by Nai Dilli sarkar to keep an eye on their respective state govt.

Willing to be corrected by more knowledgeable posters.

Lt. Governor can be sent packing by flick of a pen by the central government. When UPA was sworn in the first act they did was to dismiss all NDA appointed governors who were not amenable to them. Nothing to worry or see here, move on onlee.

Santosh · Post by **Santosh** » 21 Dec 2013 10:33

So, does the Lokpal bill passed by Lok Sabha have the reservation clause for minority? I know BJP had objected to it but have not read whether it was taken out or not.

chaanakya · Post by **chaanakya** » 21 Dec 2013 10:40

Hari Seldon wrote:Do OBCs really constitute 70% of TN voters, as the PP guy claims? *70%*?! Just curious onlee...

Oh its 75%+ . Whole of TN is OBC except Brahmins and SC/STs

Prasad · Post by **Prasad** » 21 Dec 2013 10:46

Tells you why there is 59% reservation in engg colleges in the state

muraliravi · Post by **muraliravi** » 21 Dec 2013 10:57

Prasad wrote:Tells you why there is 59% reservation in engg colleges in the state

I think it is 69%

Prasad · Post by **Prasad** » 21 Dec 2013 10:58

Could be. There were court cases a few years back. Didn't follow up.

krishnan · Post by **krishnan** » 21 Dec 2013 11:35

Shanmukh · Post by **Shanmukh** » 21 Dec 2013 11:42

krishnan wrote:

My limited knowledge of Kerala says that Surendran in Kasargod and Rajagopal in Thiruvananthapuram might have a decent chance at winning. Cannot say anything about the others. Any insights from you, saar?

krishnan · Post by **krishnan** » 21 Dec 2013 11:48

I dunno , i just found this on twitter and posted this , he seems to have good idea about bjp there , maybe he is in the party of something

RajeshA · Post by **RajeshA** » 21 Dec 2013 12:01

Kerala

From Twitter:
According to JOTHISH NAIR ‏@jothishnair1010

BJP Kerala in fast track! BJP Candidates for 2014 LS decided -

Thiruvananthapuram - O.Rajagopal
Pathanamthitta- Alphons Kannanthanam
Alappuzha- Shobha Surendran
Ernakulam- George Kurian
Palakkad- MT.Ramesh
Chalakkudy- KN Radhakrishnan
Thrissur- CK Padmanabhan
Kasargod- K.Surendran
Kozhikode- KP Sreeshan

In Thiruvananthapuram, Pathanamthitta, Alappuzha, Palakkad & Kasaragod good chances of BJP winning.

BJP would probably not field a candidate against Kerala Congress (M) sitting MP Jose K. Mani from Kottayam. He is son of K.M. Mani, Chairman of Kerala Congress.

Added later: I see krishnan ji has already posted this.

Hari Seldon · Post by **Hari Seldon** » 21 Dec 2013 12:41

^^Nice... wanna see rallies by NM in at least a couple of these places and also TN... Time now to focus on MH, KT, KL and TN... Also WB, Odisha, Asom... everywhere except AP, such is the mess there...

svenkat · Post by **svenkat** » 21 Dec 2013 12:47

Jayanthi resigns.Good riddance.Her only qualification was she was the grand daughter of the redoubtable Shri Bhakthavatsalam Mudaliar.

chaanakya · Post by **chaanakya** » 21 Dec 2013 14:16

Khujaliwal Uvachcha

Nothing unethical about forming govt in Delhi with Cong: Kejriwal

Arvind Kejriwal said on Friday that there was nothing unethical about the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) forming the government in Delhi, and reiterated that the rookie party would announce its decision on Monday after hearing from the people of the city.
Arvind Kejriwal, convenor of Aam Aadmi Party, waves to supporters from his party HQ after winning against long-serving chief minister Sheila Dikshit in New Delhi. (AFP)

In an apparent reference to the BJP’s remarks about AAP taking Congress support to form government, Kejriwal told HT, “It is a political question now… whether or not we form government … there is nothing unethical about it now.”

pankajs · Post by **pankajs** » 21 Dec 2013 16:43

Another attempt by MSM to muddy the water ..

Is Advani ‘Plan B’ in case Modi doesn’t get Lok Sabha numbers?

Even though the BJP has made up its mind on Narendra Modi, who has drawn in large crowds, as the PM in case the party manages to rake up numbers in its favour in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, senior leader LK Advani’s announcement that he would contest from Gandhinagar may again trigger speculations about a Plan B in the party.

In the event of the BJP failing to win enough number of seats, it may be forced to look for the most acceptable face that can bring in more allies. That role could go to Advani, party chief Rajnath Singh or Opposition leaders in current Parliament — Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley — to enable the party cross the half-way mark of 272 seats.

Modi may himself not stand in the way of BJP trying to form the government to keep out the Congress.

Right now, those close to Modi say he is too concerned about the BJP’s Mission 272+ to lose his energy on preventing any senior leaders from contesting. Rather, he would want the party’s focus pinned to his pet slogan, “Congress mukt Bharat”.

BJP insiders, however, say that search for another leader is a remote possibility because the party is optimistic about victory under Modi.

“The BJP will not go back on the promises (making Modi as PM),” BJP general secretary P Muralidhar Rao said in Coimbatore on Friday, in sharp retort to speculations that suggested otherwise.

An RSS insider also quipped, “Do you think after contesting under Modi’s leadership, the BJP will opt for another leader? It will rather choose to sit in the opposition and let others try their experiment which is not bound to last. The BJP has done just that in Delhi.”

pankajs · Post by **pankajs** » 21 Dec 2013 16:49

Modi effect: Vasundhara Raje gets a freehand in Rajasthan

Jaipur: Vasundhara Raje and her dozen ministers should be grateful to Narendra Modi. But for him and his current brand of politics, Raje's cabinet that was announced on Friday could have been a disastrous mix of sworn enemies, loyalists and those propped up by the Sangh.

<snip>

But things changed in February after Modi won Gujarat and took charge of the BJP. First, Raje was made the state president in spite of the fact that Rajnath Singh, the man who had forced her to resign after the 2008 debacle, had become the BJP's national president. And second, she was allowed to run the campaign and select candidates without external pressure.

Since nothing is free in politics and every favour is to be returned, Raje’s time to pay back has come.

Modi wants Raje to put all the 25 Lok Sabha seats in Rajasthan in his basket. In 2009, the BJP won just 4. With the Congress in disarray, Raje is expected to succeed in Mission-25, the favourite phrase within the BJP these days. Anything less than 20 seats would be a disaster, 22 a consolation and 25 the expected result.

But that is just the visible part of the bargain.

Ironically, by giving her everything she wants, Modi may also be keeping Rajasthan under his control and reducing the party’s reliance on a single leader.

For those watching Rajasthan, it is apparent that Raje’s stature as the only BJP leader in Rajasthan has diminished. Though Modi comes from adjoining Gujarat, he has acquired a huge following in Rajasthan.

<snip>

Raje has made the right moves so far. Unlike Shivraj and Raman Singh, who are sometimes seen as Modi’s contemporaries, Raje has positioned herself as a Modi follower.

She has praised him profusely, given him credit for the win in Rajasthan and maintained a safe distance from her erstwhile mentors who are seen to be in the anti-Modi camp. Though her supporters claim someday she could be a contender for the PM’s job, Raje has refused to look beyond Rajasthan.

pankajs · Post by **pankajs** » 21 Dec 2013 17:19

What we learn from Maharashtra govt’s handling of the Adarsh scam report

There shouldn't be any surprise if Narendra Modi, holding his first big rally tomorrow as BJP’s prime minister-designate in Mumbai, ploughs into the Congress for aiding and abetting corruption. The grist to his mill would be the content of the 670-page report by the Commission of Inquiry on the Aadarsh scam that was tabled in the Maharashtra legislature yesterday.

It makes for an easy target. It talks about the patronage of politicians, including four Congress chief ministers, the quid pro quo for the officials who handled the files, violations of service and conduct rules by the bureaucrats who touched the files that enabled the massive scam, and above all, the refusal of the Maharashtra cabinet to accept the inquiry commission's report.

The Chief Minister, Prithviraj Chavan, who leads the cabinet, has not even attempted to explain the reasons, if any, for the rejection of the report written by Justice JA Patil and former bureaucrat, P Subramaniam. Probably he needn’t for the reasons are horribly obvious. Accepting the report would have very serious political ramifications. Rejecting it, he may have thought, would at most only invite criticism.

Had the commission's report been accepted, Sushilkumar Shinde, currently the Union Home Minister, would either have to resign or be sacked. He was one of the four chief ministers cited in the findings under the Commissions of Inquiry Act for providing “politician’s patronage” to the Adarsh project. Vilasrao Deshmukh, Ashok Chavan and Shivajitrao Nilangekar are the others who similarly showered patronage to enable the scam to take shape.

<snip>

The acceptance of the report would have been suicidal but the Congress appears to have decided to brazen it out by rejecting it, despite hit-and-run artist Rahul Gandhi’s latest fad for fighting corruption and making common cause with Anna Hazare. It is unlikely Prithviraj Chavan did not take an opinion from the party high command on how to deal with the commission’s finding.

This at one destroys the Chief Minister's Mr Clean image, much like Mamohan Singh’s is tattered, for countenancing venality.

KJo · Post by **KJo** » 21 Dec 2013 18:52

svenkat wrote:Jayanthi resigns.Good riddance.Her only qualification was she was the grand daughter of the redoubtable Shri Bhakthavatsalam Mudaliar.

Don't forget she was on the spot in sriperumbudur when Rajiv Gandhi was killed and first identified the body. She is in those pictures.

SwamyG · Post by **SwamyG** » 21 Dec 2013 19:53

svenkat wrote:Jayanthi resigns.Good riddance.Her only qualification was she was the grand daughter of the redoubtable Shri Bhakthavatsalam Mudaliar.

Congress is rolling up its sleeves. She will focus on the next elections - party work.

Yagnasri · Post by **Yagnasri** » 21 Dec 2013 20:07

To improve fotunes of mafia they need to address prices at least immediately. We see no evidence of that. As long as people see prices go up every day, bye bye bye.

SwamyG · Post by **SwamyG** » 21 Dec 2013 20:19

Congress will catch on to that, and bring in some welfare measures to win elections. Their generals are being activated, and soldiers are in ex cerise mode. The Prince is getting his kavacham on.

Gus · Post by **Gus** » 21 Dec 2013 20:36

Mallu birathers - any review of the choice of candidates?

Shanmukh · Post by **Shanmukh** » 21 Dec 2013 20:46

Gus wrote:Mallu birathers - any review of the choice of candidates?

Not Mallu, but a reasonable watcher of Kerala politics and can understand Malayalam. So take my analysis with a pinch of salt.

My reading is that Surendran and Rajagopal have a good chance of victory. This time, the UDF has upset the Hindus by inducting too many Muslims (particularly IUML). Most places, Hindu support will go to the Left, but in Kasargod and Thiruvananthapuram, where BJP has been a force of some significance for 15 years, BJP will probably benefit.

Kasargod:
Last time in 2009, when there was a pro-Congress feeling, Surendran won about 1.5 lakh votes in Kasargod (winner got about 3 lakh). He is a firebrand, and even in the badly fractured Kerala BJP, he has support from most factions. He has a good chance of winning.

Thirvananthapuram:
Last time O Rajagopal contested in 2004, he won nearly 2.25 lakh votes, and ended up a close third (IIRC, the winner had approx. 3 lakh votes). Rajagopal has a very good image, so he could just romp home. Shashi Tharoor is his opponent, so take my predictions with a pinch of salt.

What is interesting in the whole episode is that, for the first time, the BJP is fielding Christians (The BJP almost never did that in the past). George Kurien is a Syrian Christian, I think, and Alphons Kannanthanam, IIRC, a Catholic. This bears out the theory that some sections of Christianity, which are coming in favour of BJP, are going to get tickets, and there is a considerable Christian support to the BJP this time.

chaanakya · Post by **chaanakya** » 21 Dec 2013 22:12

PM puts foot down, Jayanthi gets boot

Sources said the Congress vice-president was instrumental in Natarajan's ouster and that several batches of industrialists had met Rahul in recent times and singled out the Environment Ministry for having vitiated the investment climate though "arbitrary objections" and "rent-seeking".

Roar of a Mouse.

LakshO · Post by **LakshO** » 21 Dec 2013 22:27

KJoishy wrote:Don't forget she was on the spot in sriperumbudur when Rajiv Gandhi was killed and first identified the body. She is in those pictures.

Wasn't that lady Maragatham Chandrasekhar?

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 21 Dec 2013 23:17

MC was the candidate and JN was the one who identified the mangled body.