Venkatesh Kannaiah

Rajini’s fans are overjoyed that their star is finally taking a stand and is sticking his neck out, rather than buckling under pressure.

Rajinikanth does not have it easy. He is a poor communicator offscreen, speaks in a rushed manner and is often struggling for words, particularly in Tamil, in a state where public speaking and oratory is considered a fine art in itself.

In this age of information overload, it is apt to recall that the 23-year-old died when a truck ran over her on a busy Chennai road after she fell off her scooter as a cutout fell on her.

Not the one to miss any opportunity, Yeddyurappa sensed a possibility of returning to power amid contradictions that was building up within the Congress-Janata Dal(Secular) alliance after its loss in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections.

Vaiko is a demagogue and an expert at rousing the masses. A tireless politician and propagandist, people easily forget that he is around 75 years of age.

It has won with huge margins across the state, with Union Minister Ananthkumar Hegde winning with a margin of more than four lakh votes.

In Bangalore South, Tejaswi Surya, the 28-year old lawyer who was selected as the party candidate for the constituency despite opposition from various party quarters, was leading with a majority of more than 3.2 lakh votes.

As results are flowing in, YSR Congress is leading in 24 of the 25 parliament seats and in the assembly Jagan is leading in 150 of the 175 seats.

The DMK led alliance which included the Congress, CPI, CPI (M), Viduthalai Chiruthaikal (VCK) and a host of smaller parties have swept the state, and is of now leading in 36 of the 39 seats. In many of the seats they have crossed leads of more than one lakh votes.

Senior Congress leaders who are trailing badly or on the verge of losing are Mallikarjun Kharge, Veerappa Moily and Muniyappa. The veteran of many a battle, former prime minister Deve Gowda was trailing and this could shake up the Congress- JD (s) coalition no end.

In the 2018 Assembly elections, Congress led the polls in the city with 14 seats and the BJP scored 11. So the voter is also aware and has been changing his preferences quite often.

In Tamil Nadu, there is no palpable public anger at the amounts being seized. It has come to such a pass that voters are getting angry if money is not distributed.

Tamil Nadu elections have become cash-centric over the years, and whichever party has a well-oiled capability to deliver the resources on the ground, has an edge.

The grievance vote is the anti-incumbency vote where the voter wants to throw out the incumbent government and the gratitude vote where the voter wants to show his gratitude for some benefit that he has received. Which vote was it in Andhra Pradesh?

Facing the combined might of YSR Congress chief Jagan Mohan Reddy, K Chandrasekhar Rao and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu said at a rally he could be arrested anytime.

Naidu is relentless in his ability to build alliances while Jagan prefers to go it alone.

The 2018 assembly election has changed the electoral landscape of Telangana. There was a KCR wave and there are no signs that it is receding. The challenge for the opposition is to regain some face, and show that it still can put up a spirited fight.

In 2014, all the three city constituencies; Bangalore South, Bangalore Central and Bangalore North went the BJP way with margins of more than one lakh votes.

K A Paul is now in the news for reviving the Praja Shanthi Party (PSP) and threatening to contest from all 175 Assembly seats in Andhra Pradesh. Started in 2008, the party had not seen much action till now.