If the Congress can simply go from 110 million to 130 million votes, it will yield a very different kind of NDA.
Addressing a rally in Suratgarh town of Ganganagar district, a day after declaring his party would roll out the scheme if voted to power, Gandhi alleged that Prime Minster Narendra Modi gave money to the rich and top industrialists of the country, but the Congress would serve the poor.
'It does not appear to me that the campaign of 2019 will be positive. By that I mean it is unlikely that there will be an 'achche din' style slogan either from the government or the opposition.'
Interestingly, so far Deve Gowda's JD-S is not the target of the attack by the BJP. Come mid-May, he hopes he will once again play the role he has played before.
By all yardsticks 2024 isn't expected to be like 2014 or 2019. But with the mandir expected to be ready in time for the next Lok Sabha polls, Modi will have a new ally in Ram to see him through, observes Saisuresh Sivaswamy.
'The trading community will be a priority for Modi when he forms the next government.'
The answer has two components: as a leader with a vision who can carry the masses and his ability to realise his vision through his decision-making and executive skills, says Col R Hariharan.
The Modi-Shah definition of secularism is, India is a confident, resurgent Hindu, and therefore secular, country.
WikiLeaks has dismissed a claim that its founder Julian Assange called Narendra Modi "incorruptible" and accused a Bharatiya Janata Party leader from Maharashtra of pushing this "fake" endorsement in support of the party's prime ministerial candidate.
'Savarkar was the closest the RSS had to a freedom movement icon, however flawed.' 'Indira Gandhi wasn't going to gift him to them.' 'And a non-career politician like Dr Singh understands it.' 'It is just that his party never listened to him,' says Shekhar Gupta.
Kirron Kher, actress-turned-politician, recounts how it was Jaitley who made her contest the elections from Chandigarh. Speaking to Rediff.com's Savera R Someshwar, the Chandigarh MP talks of the BJP stalwart's generosity and how he was the focal point of any place he was at.
For far too long, people in J&K have felt the government doesn't exist for them.' 'My first priority is to make them feel that not only does it exist, it is there to work for them.
'That Modi and the BJP can continue to treat the rising and expanding middle class this way shows that they have gamed its mind quite perfectly,' argues Shekhar Gupta.
'Coronavirus has occasioned us to see how copious Modi's mojo bag is,' says Shreekant Sambrani.
Whenever they are announced, the bypolls to 20 assembly seats in Tamil Nadu will be a mini referendum on the state government's performance. It will also be a do-or-die battle for the ruling AIADMK, opposition DMK, as well as the rebel AMMK, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
'In India a strong leader with a majority has never yet been defeated by a challenger.' 'He (or she, as with Indira Gandhi in 1977) must defeat himself,' says Shekhar Gupta.
'Look at Kejriwal. With his work, he's made a place in our hearts. But the BJP leaders have only abuses for us," protesters at Shaheen Bagh tell Jyoti Punwani.
Bundelkhand is thought to be an area where Mayawati has some influence. Both Amit Shah and Shivraj Chouhan believe every weapon in the arsenal must be used to ensure victory.
Rahul Gandhi also predicts a NDA collapse 'not seen in many years'
The 71-year-old remained Sonia Gandhi's most trusted lieutenant for most of her tenure as the longest serving Congress president, standing by her side through sun and shade.
Thanks to Sharad Pawar and him alone, Maharashtra has shown that the Modi-Shah duo can be halted. The next step is to take the battle to Dilli, says Saisuresh Sivaswamy.
'While it seems that the sole option left for the Shiv Sena chief is to sit in the Opposition and wait and watch, there are two other choices before him to show his party rank and file if he is a quitter or a fighter.'
He said his 'Rashtra Manch', a political action group, would start a movement against the policies of the Centre.
The results, while bringing the Congress back to power in this state, also end the rule of the 66-year-old BJP stalwart, who has earned several monikers during his 15-year-long tenure -- Doctor saheb being a trained Ayurvedic medical practitioner, chaur wale baba for his popular rice scheme and the 'Mobile Wale Baba' for giving free smartphones to 50 lakh women and students.
Accusing Narendra Modi of being "desperate" to become prime minister, the Congress on Sunday said it will remain a "pipe-dream" and the "divisive" leader's nomination will help the United Progressive Alliance to return to power for a third term.
Modi and Shah's next focus will be South India, and the Maharashtra and Jharkhand assembly elections. Shah is unlikely to abdicate control over the party even after he joins the government. Modi and Shah both know only too well that the party makes the government, and not the other way round.
The Congress vice president asked people if Vibrant Gujarat had helped them in any way.
'If Mr Modi and Mr Shah have made a poisonous, polarising campaign their brahmastra for 2019, Mamata Banerjee is showing them its limitations,' says Shekhar Gupta.
''The Congress has forgotten how to mobilise people on political issues,' says Aakar Patel.
The 84-year-old former external affairs minister said that there is a disconnect between the Congress leadership and the rank and file of the party.
Ansuya Dutt, who never stopped fighting for women's rights, can be an inspiration to us never to lose sight of our basic beliefs, never mind peer pressure.
What is particularly worrying is that the vast majority will not have access to testing or even to proper treatment. These cases could have been avoided if the government had shown the political will to do so, observes Rashme Sehgal.
It was not very easy to leave the family which I built for 20 years but then I got a very warm welcome from the Thackeray family.
Gandhi said if the Congress was voted to power, his party's government would function from Gujarat and not on orders from Delhi.
The high-stakes battle in the virtual Presidential-style contest between BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi and Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi with a few other regional satraps also in the fray in the Lok Sabha elections begins on Monday in six constituencies in two states in the first of the nine-phased polls.
The high-stakes battle in the virtual Presidential-style contest between BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi and Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi with a few other regional satraps also in the fray in the Lok Sabha elections began on Monday in six constituencies in two states in the first of the nine-phased polls.
From avoiding speaking unnecessarily to the media, to avoid power brokers in the capital, to barring them from touching his feet -- headmaster Modi doled out advice to the Bharatiya Janata Party's class of 2014 - the first-time party members of Parliament who are yet to find their feet in the national capital, writes Rediff.com contributor Anita Katyal
JD-U leader Ajay Alok said that the latest developments clearly indicate that the BJP has accepted defeat in Bihar.
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