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When the Shiv Sena speaks sense, it is time to take note. The attention is called for all the more when the abrasive outfit talks of the BJP because it understands its longstanding saffron partner much better than anyone else. The Shiv Sena’s observation, therefore, that while the Narendra Modi era may have started, the L.K. Advani era has not yet ended is one of the first expressions of unease over the Gujarat strong man’s rising profile.

For the first time, stock market demonstrated a reverse gear to the poll scenario. Despite poll portending a fractured polity, stock market vibrates confidently in the pre-poll rally. Uncertainty looms large over prospects of a hung government. Yet, BSE Sensex boomed to 21,950 on March 10, 2014 from 21,171 in December 2013, registering a growth by 3.7 percent – the highest ever in any pre-election rally. In pre-election rally in 2009, held in April-May, Sensex reached 9,708.5 by March-end and in 2004, held in May-June, Sensex increased to 5,590.6 by March-end. The boom in 2014 pre-election rally deflates worries of the impact of poll uncertainty on stock market, even though a hung government could inflict delay in policies and uncertainty in reforms.

BHOPAL: The distribution of tickets for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections was not smooth for both the Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party members in the state. Both parties are facing internal mini-revolts.

Bollywood often self-congratulates itself for its self-styled stride towards enhanced refines of its movies and proclaims that its films are almost touching global standards. While that may only be true for selected movies of a handful of directors or actors, genuine refinement in a Bollywood mainstream movie is still a far cry. Instead, what has developed is the manifestation of raw Indian regional power and snobbery on the celluloid. Interestingly, this condensation isn’t naïve either, but very much informed by profit-making factors. The only things absent are propriety and principle.

LUCKNOW: Powerful cabinet minister in the Akhilesh Yadav government, and the Muslim face of Samajwadi Party, Mohd Azam Khan has staked his prestige with the Rampur seat in the Lok Sabha elections.

All eyes are focused on Varanasi after BJP’s prime ministerial candidate, 63-year-old Narendra Modi, decided to contest election from the holy city. And now, Modi faces a new challenge in form of the indefatigable Arvind Kejriwal. The Aam Aadmi Party convener has already raised the pitch by relentlessly attacking the ‘Modi model’. With emergence of Kejriwal as a candidate from Varanasi, the holy city is bound to witness a David versus Goliath battle

Have India’s traditional political parties – national and regional – lost faith in their ranks to catch the imagination of ordinary voters or the common man? It would appear so in this election season when the parties are vying with each other to trap as many celebrities as possible to contest the 2014 Lok Sabha polls on their behalf instead of their committed, round-the-year campaigning hard-nosed professional party folks. Big-time public entertainers – past and present - are in great demand from political parties across the country to stand in for the coming Lok Sabha election on their tickets to win seats.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: With the candidates’ lists having been finalized, both the ruling United Democratic Front (UDF) and the Opposition Left Democratic Front (LDF) have hit the campaign trail for a bruising, no-holds-barred battle for the 20 Lok Sabha seats from the State.

No wonder that President of BJP Mr Rajnath Singh rushed to Chennai to clinch a deal solely designed to ensure that this national party, which has no effective presence in Tamil Nadu, could ride on the backs of smaller Dravidian outfits in its bid to capture power at the Centre.

As India gets deeper into a historic election battle, harsh external winds, mostly geopolitical, have begun to flow, compounding the economic and political challenges for a new government to assume office within two months. It remains to be seen how the new tensions in Europe over Ukraine, reviving cold war memories, play out in the coming weeks.