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It’s called, in political parlance, “a cattle call.” The phrase refers to what happens when presidential hopefuls parade their positions, one by one, before a group, large or small. And that’s what nine Democrats– John Hickenlooper, Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, Tim Ryan, Terry McAuliffe, Michael Bennet, Cory Booker, Amy Klobuchar, and Eric Swalwell, in that order – did before 3,000 construction workers at the April 10 session of North America’s Building Trades Unions’ legislative conference in D.C.

BHOPAL: After the series of raids by the Income Tax officials on persons said to be close to top Madhya Pradesh Congress leaders, including Chief Minister Kamal Nath, the state government has launched a counter offensive against some former ministers and officials who were occupying key positions during the BJP rule.

The very idea of formation of a third front after the election is a matter of concern as it reflects on shortcoming of two national parties in promoting national integrity and coherence. It only exposes inability of the Congress to reach back its geographic coverage and its social reach. At the same time it also exposes inability of the second national party BJP to extend its reach in several states. Both the parties have been at the throat of each other since first election in 1952 but the Jan Sangh could not enhance its reach yond 7 percent in illiterate electorate with higher dependence on divine mercies.

With the first phase of Lok Sabha Elections 2019 scheduled on April 11, the ethnically diverse electorate in Assam remains more sharply polarised than ever before .Once more , the issue of peoples’ empowerment based on religious/linguistic identities of the voters concerned ,will prove decisive in making their political choices ,in India’s Northeast.

Muthuvel Karunanidhi and MG Ramachandran were arch-rivals but not bitter-enemies. They did not indulge in slander against each other. When MGR passed away, Karunanidhi recalled his days with the actor-turned politician, his acting career and political work. Even at the worst of times, neither of the leaders had a bad word for the other, ideological and other differences, notwithstanding.

The Supreme Court verdict on Wednesday morning dismissing the Centre’s preliminary objections to consider documents “stolen” from the defence ministry and published in the media as evidence in the Rafale deal review petition, on the eve of the starting of the Lok Sabha elections on April 11, is a landmark development in the ongoing political battle in the country between the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the opposition led by the Congress president Rahul Gandhi over the corruption issue.

Going where even organized labor has not openly marched for decades, Sen. Bernie Sanders, Ind-Vt., has again formally proposed banning state “right-to-work” laws.

Narendra Modi has finally conceded the oft repeated opposition charge that he has failed in keeping his promises. Addressing a rally at Amroha in Uttar Pradesh, Modi had made these comments towards the end of his speech, which sounded uninspiring by Modi’s standards.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The passing away of Karingozhakal Mani Mani (KM Mani) has put a big question mark over the future of the Kerala Congress(Mani).

The Bharatiya Janata party is back to its old form with its three controversial ambitions of building the Ram temple, abrogating special status provisions for Kashmir, and imposing uniform civil code. The three projects were also part of the last election manifesto as they are in the Sankalp Patra for the 2019 election but with added emphasis. The change in the spirit and approach of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi was no more palpable. Doubts were removed by his brief address to assert the nationalism of the BJP fervor. Missing from his words was any reference to economic growth which was his main theme in the last election.