External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid on Thursday downplayed US Ambassador Nancy Powell's meeting with Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, saying diplomats in India are free to move and get information to understand better the dynamics of Indian politics.
Sources said a 100-day agenda for immediate steps to be taken after a new government is formed in May was deliberated upon during the meeting for its quick implementation.
The results mark a defining turn in the fortunes of several regional satraps, especially in the BJP, around whom politics in their states have revolved for decades.
With Manmohan Singh all set to retain the country's top job, the prime ministerial ambitions of several leaders, including BJP heavyweight L K Advani and BSP supremo Mayawati, lay shattered on Saturday.
In winning a seventh term, the BJP also matched the Left Front's feat in West Bengal.
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has dubbed as "baseless" the reports that he had reservations to having Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi being projected as the BJP's prime ministerial candidate.
All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam supremo J Jayalalithaa on Thursday expelled party leader and former Rajya Sabha MP K Malaichamy, who had recently said that Narendra Modi was her "good friend".
Gowda said that the Congress will play a crucial role in forging opposition unity in the bid by the alliance to dislodge the BJP from power.
The BJP has nothing to lose after a point. For the DMK it is a difficult choice, as it would not want to give too much of space to a 'national party' lest the 'Dravidian duel' of the past decades should be lost forever, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Bharatiya Janata Party Member of Parliament Shatrughan Sinha on Tuesday shocked party leaders and workers alike when he stated, "Modi ke liye Delhi abhi dur hai" (Delhi is still far for Modi).
A special NIA court on Wednesday convicted 10 persons in connection with the serial blasts that took place in 2013 at the venue in Patna of a political rally of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was then the chief minister of Gujarat.
After opposing Narendra Modi's anointment as Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate, a mellowed L K Advani on Monday praised him for development in Gujarat and hoped that all good tasks undertaken by party governments in states will be rolled out across the country.
Ahead of Congress President Sonia Gandhi and BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi's rallies in Chhattisgarh on Wednesday, security forces averted a possible landmine explosion, as they diffused two Improvised Explosive Devices weighing 50 kg in the Dantewada area of the state.
Distancing himself from the BJP's victory in Gujarat, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has sought to suggest that he does not see Narendra Modi as a prime ministerial candidate.
According to BJP sources, the party propped up Chouhan in its election campaign when the Congress plank of promising to conduct a caste census started finding resonance with the OBCs.
The filmmaker, to put it bluntly, has absolutely nothing going for him to justify his nomination as a BJP candidate from Hyderabad, feels Vicky Nanjappa
This is the first meeting between Gandhi and Kumar since the latter walked out of the National Democratic Alliance in Bihar and formed a 'Mahagathbandhan' government with the Rashtriya Janata Dal, the Congress and outside support of the Left.
As Narendra Modi sharpened his attack on the government accusing it of failing to curb price rise, Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Friday hit back saying the BJP's prime ministerial candidate will have to "unlearn" a lot before he learns about Indian economy.
The exit polls that predicted a strong showing for BJP in four states in Wednesday's crucial Assembly polls were on Friday rubbished by Congress as one which has "no meaning" while the saffron party said it appears to be "completely demoralised".
A day after the Bharatiya Janata Party's first list of candidates for the Lok Sabha polls was declared, its veteran leader L K Advani today expressed interest to contest elections from his current constituency, Gandhinagar.
Hitting back at Rahul Gandhi for his "balloon jibe", Narendra Modi on Sunday said that the Congress vice president should focus on the nation rather than criticising Gujarat which was declared "number one" by his mother Sonia Gandhi.
'They should not forget that had we decided not to rebel, they would still be chanting slogans from the footsteps of the Vidhan Sabha.'
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday warned that Bihar's areas close to the borders (seemant) will become 'infested with infiltrators' if Prime Minister Narendra Modi was not voted back to power.
Sharing the dais with arrested Congress candidate Imran Masood's wife, Rahul Gandhi on Saturday disapproved of his controversial comments threatening to chop BJP's prime ministerial candidate Modi "into pieces" saying they militated against the party's ideology.
Upset over not being projected as Bharatiya Janata Party's chief ministerial candidate for the Delhi assembly polls, Vijay Goel on Sunday staked his claim for the position before the party's top leadership and indicated his opposition against any move to declare Harsh Vardhan's name for it.
Kumar banged his table at Patna's Indian Coffee House as he announced this to an audience that was discussing alleged corruption in Bihar in 1977, writes Sankarshan Thakur in his biography of Kumar -- The Brothers Bihari.
Launching a broadside against Narendra Modi on his home turf, AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal Saturday called the BJP's prime ministerial candidate a "property dealer for corporates like Ambani, Adani and Tatas".
Elections 2024 is not as open and shut as has been presumed. There is some life left in it, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
The BJP has not projected any chief ministerial face in the 2023 assembly elections.
The "lackadaisical attitude" of Bihar Police in handling the security at Narendra Modi's Patna rally, which was hit by multiple blasts, has peeved the home ministry as, even three days after the explosions, live bombs were found at the venue.
As reports of political parties swiftly switching loyalties -- to quench their thirst for power -- swirl over Maharashtra, Rediff.com speaks to different players involved in the game of thrones.
The present elections were held in states where the BJP has a strong presence and organisation and where it was pitted directly against the Congress. But the party's real challenge lies in states outside the northern belt where it has a negligible presence and has to contend with strong regional players, reports Anita Katyal.
The saffron party dubbed the Prime Minister as being "diffident and unable to run the government" as his Left allies are threatening to pull the rug beneath him. "He is frustrated and disappointed and is making these comments considering his own state of mind," said BJP vice president M Venkaiah Naidu. Singh had taken a dig at Advani's anointment as BJP's next prime ministerial candidate, saying it was done because the party feared danger from Gujarat CM Narendra Modi
As India prepares for elections, Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Wednesday hit out at the Bharatiya Janata Party terming its economic policies as retrograde and "blood-eyed" and asked why it's Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi had never fielded a Muslim candidate.
'It will be a long time before we will see the likes of Vajpayee again.'
Attacking Narendra Modi, Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad Yadav on Tuesday said that "even a butcher is shy" of the BJP leader who was aiming to become the Prime Minister of the country.
Sources reveal that Modi's first choice to contest Lok Sabha election from the 'safest' Lucknow constituency could have affected BJP president's personal plans, who was getting increasingly uncomfortable in Ghaziabad. Sharat Pradhan reports.
Discarded by the Bharatiya Janata Party within hours of his admission into the party, controversial chief of fringe right wing outfit Sri Ram Sene, Pramod Muthalik, on Tuesday announced he would contest the Lok Sabha polls against state saffron party chief Prahlad Joshi from Dharwad.
Bommarabettu Laxmijanardhana Santhosh is the only south Indian and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh's representative in the BJP's senior decision-making hierarchy.
Events proved that on every count the RBI had accurately predicted both the damage and the lack of benefit. What the RBI was hiding was the fact that Modi had ignored its concerns -- all of which turned out to be true -- and gone ahead anyway, asserts Aakar Patel.
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