THE FACT IS

The BJP leaders of Varanasi were speechless on Sunday when they found from the district electoral office's records that while the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has held 208 public meetings till date, they had clocked only 140 meetings in the Lok Sabha constituency. Aam Aadmi Party convener Arvind Kejriwal addresses his supporters in Varanasi. Sources in the BJP told Mail Today that party general secretary Amit Shah has expressed his displeasure over this and he told party workers that he couldn't afford to lag behind from any rival in the poll campaign. Shah has also directed the local leaders to form 250 teams of the BJP workers who would reach out to 12 lakh voters in the temple town by May 8. The prestigious constituency has a total of 16 lakh electorate. Each team is expected to visit 200 families daily. Already, there are workers who have been asked to campaign in polling-stations and directed to stay at the booths when the polling takes place on May 12. The BJP

AMETHI: As the battle for Amethi draws to a close, MP Rahul Gandhi may be in for some tense moments. Rahul’s victory in the general elections of 2009 was a convincing one; he polled 4.64 lakh votes, winning by a margin of 3.70 lakh votes. Of the 15 candidates who contested against him, each one, even BSP’s Asheesh Shukla, who came a distant second, had their deposits forfeited. With BJP’s Smriti Irani and AAP’s Kumar Vishwas challenging the grand old party in the Gandhi bastion, it’s unlikely that Rahul will have another cakewalk this year. In fact, with Rahul being projected as the party’s next leader, it will also be a loss of face if his victory margin slips. The first dent to Rahul’s campaign came in March, when Vishwas arrived in Amethi and reached out to remote villages that none from the Gandhi familiy had visited before. The impact was almost immediate. The Nehru-Gandhi surname may have been synonymous with Amethi, but they were faces the constituents still did not reco

गुवाहाटी  इंटरनेट पर आजकल एक विडियो छाया हुआ है, जिसमें एक व्यक्ति लोगों से वोट डलवाता दिख रहा है। यह विडियो असम की जालुकबारी लोकसभा सीट के एक पोलिंग बूथ का है। यहां 24 अप्रैल को चुनाव हुआ था। विडियो देखने के लिए  यहां क्लिक करें वोटिंग के बाद यह विडियो सामने आया जिसमें एक व्यक्ति हर वोटर के साथ वोटिंग मशीन तक जाता है और बताता है कि कहां वोट डालना है। इस घटना पर आरटीआई ऐक्टिविस्ट दुलाल बोरा ने दिसपुर थाने में शिकायत दर्ज कराई थी। उनकी शिकायत के आधार पर कांग्रेस नेता डॉ. हिमांत बिसवा और मानष बोरा के खिलाफ एफआईआर दर्ज की गई है। बीजेपी और असम गण परिषद ने भी इस विडियो के आधार पर कामरूप जिले के बोरनीजारपार पोलिंग बूथ में दोबारा वोटिंग की मांग की थी, जिसके बाद यहां 28 अप्रैल को दोबारा वोटिंग हुई।

AAP has divided Varansi into 5 Assembly, 25 Zones, 1200 blocks, 5700 Nukkad. Each Zone handled by experienced leader. Ppl of varansi r so enthusiastic fr kejriwal!  Arvind Kejriwal Chandpura Area Varanasi Nukkad Sabha. Varanasi’ is only the official name. Sometimes, to make a poetic point, someone may say Kashi.   But ‘Banaras’ is how Banarasis refer to their city. Banaras ki parampara , they say. Or  hum Banaras ke musalman . Kaal Bhairav Banaras ke kotwal hain , says the mahant of the Shitala Mata temple. Kaal Bhairav (Shiva) is the keeper of the gates of Banaras. And of course,  Banaras ki chaat khaayi hai aapne? Banaras ka paan nahin khayenge? My old friend and comrade Jamal Kidwai and I were in Banaras to observe the AAP campaign, being supporters of AAP (me) and of Arvind Kejriwal in Banaras (Jamal), and to hang out with the (largely young) volunteers who have landed up – from IT and advertising, from colleges and small government jobs, from Bangalore and Mumbai,

Varanasi :  Dusk has begun to fall and a group of little urchins sporting saffron caps and wearing Narendra Modi masks play outside AAP’s central office here and hail BJP’s prime ministerial nominee with slogans they have picked up over the past few weeks. Smiling wryly, an AAP member goes to them and offers some biscuits and bottles of soft drink. The kids happily accept the goodies, don the boat-shaped AAP white caps and begin slogan-shouting for Kejriwal. Considering the Herculean task of defeating Modi in what is termed a ‘Hindu city’, even though it has a large population of Muslims, the AAP is happy to recruit anyone in Varanasi that goes to the polls in less than a fortnight (May 12) from now. But defeating Modi on a turf where the BJP has won five out of the six elections since 1991 will be a daunting challenge for Kejriwal who vanquished Delhi’s three-time chief minister Sheila Dikshit in assembly elections in 2013 and went on to become a national figure. “The fight

The debate between casting the vote and voting for caste has always been a heated one when it comes to elections in the Hindi heartland, and more so in Uttar Pradesh, which is not only bigger than many countries of the world, but is also a key player in deciding the national vote with its 80 Lok Sabha seats. As always, the BJP along with the Congress and the SP are trying to exploit everything –from Mandal to Kamandal- to woo voters in this crucial state. Gone are the days when the Congress party enjoyed unwavering support across caste lines- upper castes, backward castes, and even Dalit support. Mrs Gandhi used to appoint ‘strongmen’ from all sections of society to ensure wide support- something that continued under Rajeev Gandhi well into the late eighties. All that changed dramatically after VP Singh’s Mandal Commission Report and Kanshi Ram’s successful mobilization of Dalits in UP. Those unprecedented changes resulted in the rise of two big political tycoons –Mulayam Sigh

Despite the speculations, rumors – and condemnation by non-believers – over using astrology as part of the election nomination process, BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi is poised to be his party’s political saviour. Over the past three weeks, there have been several discussions over the pros and cons of the muhurta  (“auspicious time”) during the nomination. But Modi squashed them all by choosing a relatively non-auspicious date according to the traditional Hindu calendar. Thursday, April 24, 2014, was supposed to have a big time frame of inauspiciousness popularly known as “ bhadra ”. According to basic Indian astrology, one Hindu “ tithi ” (date) comprises two “ karna ”. Of these two, the presence of  Vishti karna  in any time period of any date is known as “ bhadra ”. Similarly there are two “ paksha ” (fortnights) in the Hindu calendar, the  Shukla paksh  and  Krishna paksh . The  bhadra  occurs four times in a  paksha  of the month. Bhadra  usually occurs in