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As the largest state, the importance of U.P. in the electoral scene is universally acknowledged. While a winner is perceived as being on the road to power in Delhi, a loser is seen as a has-been with little hope.

At the beginning of this month, it appeared that the AIADMK and the BJP had succeeded in putting together a formidable coalition in Tamil Nadu, electorally and socially. Despite having a nearly head start, hardly within a week after the poll dates were announced and the campaign formally began, the alliance is losing steam. An unmistakable anti-incumbency feeling is slowly rearing its head.

The seven phase elections to the Lok Sabha begin on April 11 and in the next 39 days till May 19, it will be a mega celebration of democratic rights by the Indian people. Many political pundits in TV channels and in national media have given their verdict that the national security and the nationalism is the major poll issue before the electorate and the Prime Minister Narendra Modi has already won his battle against the opposition by sidelining the issue of day to day living which was the focus before the Pulwama attack and the eventual Indian strikes at Pakistan’s Balakote terror camp on February 26.

The United States is pushing for an overthrow of the government of Venezuela. The Trump administration has denounced Nicolas Maduro as a “dictator,” dismissing the 2018 election, which the opposition boycotted. Instead of a good neighbor policy or a policy of non-intervention, the Trump administration has set out intentionally to overthrow the regime.

BHOPAL: The BJP often accuses the Congress of dynastic politics and the party chief Amit Shah has said more than once that the Congress is a family affair. But in Madhya Pradesh, the BJP itself is the worst victim of this malady. Defending the trend of veteran leaders promoting their sons and daughters in politics, leader of opposition in the MP Vidhan Sabha Gopal Bhargava advanced a rather strange argument. He said, “What should the son and daughters of politicians do? Should they become beggars?” Bhargava is lobbying for his son’s candidature from one of the Lok Sabha seats.

There have been several infamous budget leaks and resignations of finance ministers in disgrace to own responsibility. The most well-known case is that of UK’s Chancellor of Exchequer Hugh Dalton, who had to resign in 1947 after it was discovered that he had divulged details of his upcoming budget to a lobby journalist from the then popular newspaper The Star. We have had our own version of it when Finance Minister T T Krishnamachari had to bow out of office when it became known that he had given access to the details of the budget he was preparing to people close to him and they made a killing in the market using such information.

Whatever has happened to Arvind Kejriwal? He looks and sounds a shadow of the firebrand leader he was on the eve of general elections 2014. Then, he personally challenged Narendra Modi to a one-on-one contest in Varanasi. And, even if he lost, went on to win a thumping majority for AAP in the Delhi Assembly. Today, after being lauded and feted by Kamal Haasan, Mamata Banerjee and Chandrababu Naidu, Kejriwal remains restricted to Delhi, constricted in his role as Delhi Chief Minister, the fire in his eyes replaced by chill at AAP’s prospects in GE 2019.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The contrast is too glaring to be missed. While the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) has started its poll campaign, factional feud has delayed the candidate lists of both the Congress-headed United Democratic Front(UDF) and the BJP.

With the alliances having been firmed up and battle lines drawn up, the Election Commission announced the 2019 Lok Sabha Schedule—which will stretch between April 11 and May 19 across seven phases—campaigning is expected to climax in the weeks ahead. Five years ago, the UPA-II was on its last legs while the BJP was resurgent with Narendra Modi hitting all the right noises.

There is a wide difference on the roles of a political leader and a stage actor though both use almost similar methods after appearing on the stage. The actor delivers dialogues written by someone to earn the claps of appreciation. The political leader attempts to win opinions and votes to get in the saddle. Both engage in unreal drama. Both have their fans but widely differing in nature of demands. Fans of actors are mostly seeking to shake hands, have a body touch or get autographs but admirers of a political leader are a crowd of favour seekers. They come in hoards with their palms open towards sky and rarely with locked thumbs and index finger turned earthwards. First kind comes to seek some favours and other kind comes to deliver ideas.