The BJP is far more prepared than the Congress as their pool of prospective candidates is much bigger, reports Prakash Bhandari.
Modi believes that the Congress leadership does not have the political sagacity to undertake a course correction because of its preoccupation about not losing its current gains in the voter base, observes Shekhar Iyer.
'The Opposition parties will continue to woo Chandrababu Naidu even though he has said he will support the BJP.'
The twin towns of Ayodhya and Faizabad were on the edge on Saturday as tension mounted on the eve of VHP's yatra with the UP government cracking down on the saffron outfit arresting some of its leaders and over 350 activists.
Rahul Gandhi's focus will be on his Nyay Yatra, rather than the INDIA bloc's election campaign, leading to speculation among allies that the Congress leader is already looking at the Opposition's fight beyond May 2024.
'I just invited PM Modi for Kalki Dham for shilanyas, so what crime did I commit as a Congressman?'
Rahul Gandhi's yatra was marked with high drama on Monday as he was denied permission to visit the Sri Sri Sankardeva Satra in Nagaon district and also from holding a meeting in the Morigaon district, triggering a strong reaction from the Congress leader who protested and asked whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi will now 'decide who will visit a temple and when'.
Advani has said that there can be no rest for him until that is done.
What the INDIA alliance needs is neither a counter to Modi's tall personality and undiminished charisma nor a counter-narrative to his Hindutva agenda, now centred on the Ayodhya temple consecration on January 22, argues N Sathiya Moorthy.
Days after the Uttar Pradesh government denied the Vishwa Hindu Parishad permission for the yatra, the row has gained a religious-political colour.
Will BJP campaigners start using the term 'Ram Rajya' to refer to the nation under Modi's rule, asks N Sathiya Moorthy.
'Fifteen days ago, we were only talking of Ayodhya. Now we are talking about farmers.'
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader and former deputy prime minister Lal Kishenchand Advani is contemplating another rath yatra to pay homage to those who sacrificed everything for the country's freedom.
Anger cannot be an end in itself to Rahul Gandhi's politics -- it must instead catalyse a new political strategy, argues Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
The Delhi police has denied permission to a group for holding 'Shree Ram Bhagwan Pratima Yatra' on Ram Navami in northwest Delhi's Jahangirpuri, which was rocked by violence during a Hanuman Jayanti procession last year, officials said on Tuesday.
From the time he first rose to prominence during the movement against the then UPA government, Arvind Kejriwal has regularly grabbed headlines for his surprise moves and decisions. Here are 10 such instances.
'Their conduct is as if they have come to arrest some dacoit.' 'They behave with everyone in this manner, whether it's Manish Sisodia, Anil Deshmukh or anybody else.' 'It is as if they are ambassadors of god and we are satans.' 'This is solely due to the sections in some laws like the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002.' 'This is a cruel law. In fact, the death penalty is better.'
Addressing a gathering of around 6,000 in-charges of 'Shakti Kendras,' each comprising two to three booth-level areas, at Marine Drive, the prime minister said that Kerala has the potential to influence who will be in power in Delhi.
'What should surprise BJP supporters is Modi's call for 'stability' at the manifesto launch, a theme that he and his team members had not touched ahead of the Lok Sabha polls in 2014 and 2019.' 'The last time the party called for 'stability at the Centre' was in 1998 and 1999,' recalls N Sathiya Moorthy.
The Baharatiya Janata Party condemned Uttar Pradesh government's crackdown against VHP yatra from Ayodhya and accused it of playing vote bank politics while Samjwadi Party said it won't let the state "become another Gujarat" or a repeat of Dec 6, 1992, when the Babri mosque was demolished.
Modhwadia emphasised that he was not joining the BJP due to any coercion or allurement as claimed by the Congress.
The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court on Saturday dismissed a petition against the Uttar Pradesh government's ban on Vishwa Hindu Parisha's proposed Yatra from Ayodhya.
'It is not his doing, but Rahul Gandhi is forced by circumstances.' 'In taking political decisions, everything has to get his clearance.'
The Samajwadi Party on Thursday justified the Uttar Pradesh government's decision to ban a proposed yatra by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad to garner support for the construction of the RamTemple at a disputed site in Ayodhya.
Modi wants the BJP to gets an additional 10% of the vote share from what it won in 2019. Plans are afoot to get new faces to replace MPs with poor chances of winning. Sources say more than 100 MPs are like to be axed, notes Modi biographer Ramesh Menon.
'Elsewhere in the world, you do not get a second chance to be launched. I think he (Gandhi) has now been launched 19 times'
A day after his expulsion from the Congress, Acharya Pramod Krishnam on Sunday said leaders like Sachin Pilot and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra are being disrespected in the party where people need 'chamchagiri' (sycophancy) to survive.
Will January 22 mark a point of no return for our Constitutional secularism? asks Shekhar Gupta.
Amit Shah wants to increase the party's nationwide vote share by at least 10 per cent from the 37.7 per cent it secured five years ago and ensure above 50 per cent vote share in the states where it came close to that benchmark, but couldn't cross it.
'Just today a shopkeeper I went to was saying how bad business is. He must have been a BJP supporter.' 'He finally said, "It's a good thing there's an NDA government, not a BJP government, 'they' had become too big for their boots,".'
Expelled Bharatiya Janata Party leader Uma Bharti will announce her future course of action on completion of her Ram Roti Yatra at Ayodhya on January 14, the auspicious day of Makar Sankranti.
'Rama is Lord God of maryada. Today's maryada is the Constitution.'
The stakes are significant for the BJP in this round as the party had in 2019 won an overwhelming majority of these seats, including all in Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, that will go to polls on May 7.
Modi spoke to the BJP's longest serving president, who is credited with crafting the party's rise through the 90s when it came to power for the first time as the head of coalition governments under Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and congratulated him.
'The consecration of Ram Lalla in Ayodhya has demoralised them.' 'And, now it is reflecting in their individual reactions as they are losing hope to take on the BJP in 2024.'
With a massive crackdown by the UP government to enforce its ban on VHP's yatra in Ayodhya, BJP condemned the arrest of Ashok Singhal and other religious leaders and said Samajwadi Party will face the wrath of people for its actions.
'Nobody is speaking up for Muslims today.' 'Secular parties too have calmed down because they feel this will hurt the Hindu vote (bank).' 'In this scenario, where does a Muslim go?'
'They know that if they do not tie up with the Congress, then the minorities will move to the Congress.'
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