Jagdish Chhokar, founder-member of the Association for Democratic Reforms says there should be a law to regulate the functioning of political parties.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh left Seoul for home on Tuesday after concluding a four-day visit, during which he attended the Nuclear Security Summit, held bilateral talks with the South Korean president and had informal discussions with his Pakistani counterpart Yusuf Raza Gilani. During his stay, India and South Korea agreed to step up political and security cooperation and vowed to double the bilateral trade to an ambitious $40 billion by 2015.
'If the TRS, with 75% seats in the Telangana assembly, can be coerced into a sense of resignation by a tiny party that has just 10% of seats, then questions have to be asked about KCR's mettle as leader,' says Sudhir Bisht.
The Bihar CM and Rahul, through their emissaries, have been in touch to shape an alliance with the Akhilesh Yadav-led SP faction as its head.
Jaitley's Budget has the potential to change the face of Modi's Bharat
Ending speculations triggered by his comments earlier in the day, Vadra's wife Priyanka Gandhi told rediff.com: "I know my husband. He is happy in his business. The question (on whether he will join politics) must have been asked in such a manner that he was forced to give a reaction."
'The simple truth is this: That we had come to assume that a second term was Modi's for the asking. But the fact is that Modi will have to win one, just like everybody else.' 'And so much has he invested in his strongman persona that even a loss of just 50 seats from his extraordinary 282 in 2014 will look to his potential allies and to his party like a defeat,' says Mihir S Sharma.
The lively lot of politicians at the helm of India's most important political province.
In an interview with rediff.com's Shobha Warrier, Panruti Ramachandran talks about the DMDK's poll plans, its alliance with the AIADMK and also the political future of his party.
A day after high drama at a key meeting of the ruling Samajwadi Party, its state unit chief Shivpal Yadav on Tuesday said all was well in the party as he visited Mulayam Singh Yadav's residence and was joined in later by Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav.
Contrary to repots about former Bihar chief minister Rabri Devi giving up politics, the wife of Rashtriya Janata Dal supremo Lalu Prasad has decided to contest the state assembly elections from not one but two constituencies -- Raghopur and Sonepur.Two months ago, it was widely reported that Rabri Devi may bid adieu to active politics after her husband Lalu Prasad declared himself the RJD's chief ministerial candidate for the assembly polls.
Gandhi, who was here to attend the BJP's national executive, was conspicuous by his absence at the meeting of Lok Sabha MPs, which was attended by PM Modi among others.
Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa on Wednesday charged the Maharashtra government with raking up the Belgaum boundary issue to 'cover up' political differences between the ruling alliance partners Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party in the neighbouring state. "The Maharashtra government is raking up the boundary issue to cover up the differences between Congress, NCP in the state and divert the public attention," Yeddyurappa alleged.
The two leaders are likely to finalise the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement, which will be formally signed in January next year after the due process of 'legal scrubbing' is over, sources said. The CECA, once signed, might come into force from July 2011.
'There is core BJP support on the Hindutva line. It will continue.' 'Along with that, the BJP is ready to play the OBCs trifurcation card to its benefit.' 'If you see the post-Kairana result, the BJP spokespersons and IT cell have already begun talking about Hindu unity against Muslim unity, Ram vs Allah.'
Joining the BJP cannot have been an easy decision for former UP Congress chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi, who grew up with secular values and appears to be a victim of the party's durbar politics. Amit Agnihotri reports.
'The question of survival depends on several factors because this country is divided vertically and horizontally.' 'There will always be demands and ups and downs.'
The names of several probables, including Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, who had led the BJP government in the state in the past, were doing the rounds at the state party office.
Kapil Mishra was one of the closest aides of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. However, in May 2017, the tides turned. A loyalist of the Aam Aadmi Party founder, Mishra shocked one and all by openly accusing him of corruption, a claim that the AAP dismissed. Since then Mishra has become one of the most prominent AAP rebels. In the face of the sit-in by Kejriwal, his deputy Manish Sisodia and ministers - Satyendar Jain and Gopal Rai at Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal's office, Mishra spoke to Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com and said that this is the first time in history that a sitting chief minister of a state in India has kidnapped himself.
Irom Sharmila's decision to end her 16-year-old fast against the AFSPA continues to be hotly debated and contested in Imphal.
The rift between Samajwadi Party strongman Mulayam Singh Yadav and 'obedient' Akhilesh grew even wider with the father openly backing his son's foes in the party
Meanwhile, key BJP ally skips event to mark first year of Yogi govt.
Taking a cue from the massive victory of the Grand Alliance against the Bharatiya Janata Party in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh CM Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday said such a tie-up was possible in the state where assembly elections are due in early 2017.
'It is we who elected both the literate M K Stalin and the illiterate Golma Devi, and it is we who must endure the consequences.'
The BSP-Congress tie-up is a done deal. Only the formalities need to be gone through and announced.
In the dangal of UP politics, much as Muzaffarnagar wants to leave its past behind, the shadows are never be far behind.
While the Congress alleged that the Modi government was indulging in political vendetta, the Bharatiya Janata Party claimed that it is a legal matter.
On the eve of the sixth and penultimate phase of the marathon Uttar Pradesh elections, Rediff.com's Aslam Hunani reports on what's at stake.
The Rajasthan Congress led by its state president Sachin Pilot on Thursday held a Chetna Rally against "anti-people" policies of the Vasundhara Raje led Bharatiya Janata Party Rajasthan government.
Our work in last five years and the problems people are facing due to demonetisation will lead us to victory, he said.
All the BJP's present leaders from UP put together cannot win the state for the party. So how about an out-of-the-box leader like Subramanian Swamy, asks Nazarwala, the man who called right the 2007 and 2012 UP elections.
'Noise pollution is a health issue, it is not a religious issue.'
'Why can't a person who has supervised military intelligence head RA&W?' 'Why can't one who has overseen national security planning become our NSA or chair the National Security Advisory Board?' asks Vice Admiral Premvir Das (retd).
No matter how much the likes of Modi brag about cleaning up politics, the goondas and the godfathers will flourish until India can deliver justice to its poor and the system can work to the benefit of ordinary Indians, says Vir Sanghvi.
The mahant said that only devotion to God will bring her happiness and solace.
In the event of a triangular contest the winning party will need about 40 per cent of the votes polled. And it is here that the votes of the numerically smaller communities will come into play.
'His selection is to honour the sentiment of the communal majoritarianism, satisfy the upper caste and continue the process of Hindutva.'
If Modi and Shah did not project Adityanath as CM, it was out of expediency, says Radhika Ramaseshan.
The kings of the ruling family of India's heartland -- father Mulayam Singh Yadav, the Samajwadi party supremo, and son Akhilesh Yadav, the UP chief minister -- are at war. And as on any chessboard, the queens have emerged as the power centres. Meet Dimple Yadav and Aparna Yadav.
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