'If the Opposition does make a dent, it could encourage the efforts of regional parties to come together for the larger battle in 2024 and mark the beginning of a new anti-BJP politics.'
Women, if addressed properly, have the potential to become a decisive factor in elections.
Alok Verma, the 1979-batch IPS officer, will be in the hot seat because he will serve in 2018 and into 2019, the year of the general election.
The turning point in his career was undoubtedly Nepal where he was sent as ambassador and acted with a cool head.
Electoral politics is going to be an important part of farmer protests going forward.
'Everything else is a sham.'
'As long as Rane is the point-person, the Sena will never revive its partnership with the BJP.'
The biggest winner will be the BJP -- which has such a small presence that every incremental vote it gets can only increase its strength. But the man who will win despite losing everything will be Captain Amarinder Singh, predicts Aditi Phadnis.
Bollywood mourned designer Vikram Phadnis's mother's passing.
While the leadership of the biggest Opposition party, the Congress, has not reacted, even non-Congress and (now) anti-BJP parties like the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) have voiced no view on Banerjee's appeal, reports Aditi Phadnis.
Today, a friendship forged by common ideals behind prison walls has become a transactional understanding, notes Aditi Phadnis.
If the BJP doesn't do something quickly, Anurag Thakur and P K Dhumal will be the ones having a quiet last laugh.
That's a deficit the NDA will have to make up with the help of 'friendly' alliance partners, the very groupings the PM has said are 'family-run'.
Rajasthan assembly Speaker C P Joshi is the slender thread that stands between a Congress and BJP government
'We have reached a new low.'
Nitish Kumar has to make an existential choice: Between governance and politics, argues Aditi Phadnis.
Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit won't be afraid to tangle with the toughest of them.
Malik believes he can solve the problems of farmers and is sending signals to the government to give him a chance.
There is no one in Telangana to match KCR's stature and he believes he has outgrown the state, observes Aditi Phadnis.
Did Oli turn to India when he realised that China was backing unity of the Nepal Communist Party rather than the government led by his faction?
Aditi Phadnis picks five key seats in the three states where assembly elections are being held today.
Heckling, confrontation and strong-arm tactics don't come to him easily, reveals Aditi Phadnis.
The BJP's vote share in Punjab has been declining -- 8.21 per cent in 2007 to 7.13 per cent in 2012, and finally to 5.4 per cent in 2017, when it won just three of 23 seats the party contested. So doing an election deal with Amarinder and a political formation he might float in the future is not inconceivable.
His career as a bureaucrat has been somewhat colourless, which suggests his current elevation is simply a matter of being at the right place at the right time.
Surveys suggest that the AAP would win 40 seats in the 182-member assembly if elections are held tomorrow.
Sushil Chandra will conduct the UP, Punjab, Goa, Manipur, Uttarakhand elections before he retires in May 2022.
Assembly elections to five crucial states will take place in a few months and the results will be decisive for the BJP, which is eyeing a third successive term at the Centre, in the forthcoming the Lok Sabha polls in 2024.
Among all Joshi's other portfolios -- he is also minister for coal and mines -- it is parliamentary affairs that is politically the most crucial. But to make a success of his job, he may have to hone his people skills a bit more, reports Aditi Phadnis.
Power and money are at the heart of the sordid story -- and it isn't over yet.
The JD-U, may be the BJP's partner for now. But it is a party at all only because of Nitish Kumar. The day Nitish Kumar exits, the JD-U will split into hundreds of pieces. Obviously, Prashant Kishor is setting himself up as the vessel that will collect all the pieces and put them together in some sort of political instrument, explains Aditi Phadnis.
'We have taken technology to the mandal and booth level.'
The Congress used Raj Bhavans to topple legally elected governments. The BJP is letting governors get away with all manner of impropriety, notes Aditi Phadnis.
There's no doubt that now Captain Singh has no choice: A succession plan has been forced on him. He can sulk, or he can fight back. But the playing field is no longer as level as it was.
Rahul Gandhi deliberately kept himself in the background, because he knew he is yet to achieve the stature to talk to a politician as senior as Deve Gowda.
The NSCN-IM is no longer the force it used to be. Once the 'de facto government' of Magaland, it gradually reduced to an extortion racket. But missteps by the Centre could give it a new lease of life.
She is criticising what is perceived to be KCR's strongest point -- welfare -- by charging the government with corruption.
'Now the very government we helped to form is telling us we are enemies of the nation!' The BKU has stayed away from direct participation in politics. But this time they are not so sure, reports Aditi Phadnis.
'Since 2017, the chief minister and the RSS seem to have come closer.' 'This relationship's warmth is more from the RSS's side.'
The Modi-Shah duo are standing with B S Yediyurappa: But B L Santhosh refuses to be silenced.
Real challenge for Mehbooba Mufti will be how to make India listen to voice of Kashmir.
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