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BHOPAL: There are definite indications that selection of candidates for Lok Sabha polls is going to be herculean task both for the Bharatiya Janata Party and Congress. Comparatively it will be more difficult task for the BJP. It appears that because of adverse reports about their performance the BJP may be forced to drop 40 percent of sitting MPs. Out of the total 29 seats in the state BJP’s strength is 26.

The Congress has less than 60 days to stop Narendra Modi from becoming Prime Minister again. And allowing Modi to set the electoral agenda is not how it should be done. The electorate wants an alternate plan of action and Modi should be rightly attacked on his many broken promises, his omissions and commissions. His bluff on national security should be called out and ‘Rafale’ shouldn’t be consigned to the hangar. But will these be enough?

New Delhi: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal may be committing harakiri by making full statehood for NCT region his poll plank for the Lok Sabha elections. Enlightened and educated Delhi voters know that the full statehood demand cannot be accepted precisely because it happens to be the seat of national authority. Two power centres cannot co-exist in one city.

Unemployment is at a 45 year low. That is not fake news. It is the government talking. And, at least on this, nobody is contesting the government. So, jobs are an issue. Or, shall we say joblessness is an issue. For a while, in the month of January 2019, joblessness made headlines. Everybody was talking of NSSO and the lack of jobs numbers. The BJP was on the back foot and the Modi Government had no answers.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Communist Party of India(Marxist) is pulling out all the stops to win the Lok Sabha elections from Kerala. The candidates list released by the party amply reflects its determination to send a decent complement of MPs to the Lok Sabha from the state.

It is odd that in an electoral battle — which is being seen by the national opposition as a contest between the multicultural “idea” of India and an insular, theocratic Hindu Rashtra — virtually the entire burden of the anti-BJP campaign is being borne by Rahul Gandhi.

The Prime Minister worked hard to add the chemical catalyst to his election strategy through the surgical strike at Pakistan by sending the fleet of IAF mirages to drop a pay load of a thousand bombs at the terrorist training camp near Balakota in the Pakistan Occupied Kashmir. The entire operation was to arouse a sense of pride in Indian mind to work as the electoral catalyst in Indian mind that was left with nothing tangible to brood over after five years of the NaMo rule. In a sense, it was more to nullify strategies underway in the Sangh establishment. The Prime Minister played his aces in time to imbue the middle class with nothing else but chant name of the Prime Minister as the next incumbent of the office. In fact he asserted in his public address to let everyone assured of his return.

All set to win her sixth Lok Sabha election since 1999, the 72-year-old Congress matriarch Sonia Gandhi is far from her long speculated retirement. Rumours have been doing the rounds for the past year that Sonia Gandhi was ready to hang up her boots from active politics due to her ill-health and also to give space to her son. It was said that since she has already handed over the baton to her son Rahul Gandhi and also inducted her daughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadra in active politics the time was ripe for her to bow out.

None other than the New York Times Sunday released a video disproving U.S. claims that Venezuelan President Maduro ordered the bombing of U.S Aid trucks attempting to cross into his country from Colombia. The Times, no supporter of that country’s Bolivarian Revolution, nevertheless said its video totally contradicts U.S. claims about the recent incident.

Finally! General Elections 2019 have been notified. And there are enough dates to floor a romantic teenager. Enough phases to think of a month and more of moons. General Elections 2019 will test patience. By the time results are declared everybody and Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora will be on the edge of their seats. It’s a race to beat the June 3 deadline to constitute the 17th Lok Sabha.