Just when the Congress was wondering about NCP chief Sharad Pawar's intentions in opening channels with the Shiv Sena, the old Maratha warrior surprised everybody by meeting Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi in Pune. It was a low-key meeting but no less high profile for that and replete with significance. The very next day the two parties announced they had finally worked out their state-level agreement — the NCP gets 22 seats, one more than the last time - a coincidence, perhaps but nonetheless significant.

‘India Shining’-hit BJP acts coy even as Cong laps up phrases and songs

The Congress’s success at getting the copyrights of the Oscar-winning “Jai Ho” signature tune from Slumdog Millionaire seems to have set the tone for a keen contest among various political parties in Rajasthan to grab catchy numbers and phrases which may be gainfully used during the upcoming election campaign.  

An upbeat state Congress, already sounding victorious after bagging the exclusive rights of AR Rahman’s award-winning number, is now on a collection spree of songs and phrases which go down well with the local issues and party ideology.

Guj CM seems to have discarded development as ls poll agenda

Chief minister Narendra Modi has surprised many by coining an unexpected catch phrase for the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) Lok Sabha campaign in the state. During recent public meetings, he has been heard calling the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre as the 'Dilli ni Sultanat', which instantly brings to mind periods of Muslim rule in Indian history.

Seat-sharing talks between the Congress and the Samajwadi Party were tottering on the brink of collapse after the former upped the ante by declaring its first list of 24 candidates from Uttar Pradesh for the Lok Sabha election. In addition to the nine seats that the Congress won in 2004, the party has decided to put up candidates in 15 other constituencies, some of which currently have Samajwadi MPs.

Prominent among those in the list released by Congress general secretary in charge of UP Digvijay Singh are Sonia Gandhi from Rae Bareli and Rahul Gandhi from Amethi in addition to Union minister of state Sriprakash Jaiswal, Mahavir Prasad, Jitin Prasada and five other sitting MPs.

The Big 2 received Rs105 crore between them, but this is only the tip of the iceberg

Whose cash are the major political parties banking on this time? A good part of election financing is obviously done with black money, but a close look at formal business funding in the recent past offers enough clues on who's bankrolling whom.

Quite clearly, businessmen have their favourites, but many others tend to back all major parties even-handedly. Else, they offer donations based on the popular votes/seats received by each major party at the last elections.

Birlas are Congress' main donors while Adanis and Sterlite back BJP

Whose cash are the major political parties banking on this time? A good part of election financing is obviously done with black money, but a close look at formal business funding in the recent past offers enough clues on who's bankrolling whom.