As the Aam Aadmi Party heads for a resounding win in Delhi, Rediff.com's Syed Firdaus Ashraf lists the reasons behind Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's triumph.
If Advani's ideological leadership galvanised the party's cadres and core support, Vajpayee's soaring oratory, common touch, easy charm and convivial manners won over the masses and brought new allies on board.
'Mamata is synonymous with Bengal, its culture, language, traditions.'
Senior leaders of Bhartiya Janata Party L K Advani and Sushma Swaraj on Friday termed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's talks with his Pakistani counterpart Gilani as a complete surrender of the national interests.
As state minister Suvendu Adhikari, along with other functionaries, openly air grievances against the Mamata Banerjee-led dispensation, senior leaders are frantically looking for ways to pacify the rebels.
The National Democratic Alliance won 64 seats.
"All legislators will remain united and stay together till August 14," Congress chief whip Mahesh Joshi said after the CLP meeting chaired by Gehlot.
The BJP needs to win at least six of the seats to remain in majority in the 225-member assembly (including the Speaker, who has a casting vote), which would still have two vacant seats -- Maski and R R Nagar.
Mayawati is now gearing up for a fresh start for the 2019 general election. Unconfirmed reports from the BSP camp suggest she has already reached out to arch-rival Akhilesh Yadav, reports Sahil Makkar.
'Goa is a tiny state, but in terms of its Business of Politics, several powerful lobbies of India are involved in it, be it the mining lobby, hoteliers' lobby, casino lobby, hawala lobby, drugs lobby etc.'
"Notwithstanding my personal anguish, I hope this will not cause any damage to the hard-earned peace and development in the state," Singh wrote in his letter to Gandhi
Although conventional political wisdom would decree that the construction of a 'magnificent' Ram temple at his 'birth-place' would bring the BJP a big yield of votes in the prospective elections, its leaders know by now that the mandir must not exist in isolation in its game plan, reports Radhika Ramaseshan.
In the absence of a conducive environment, India should not show any "hurry" to hold talks with Pakistan when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visits New York later this month, BJP president Rajnath Singh said.
Veteran party leader Lal Krishna Advani, who was present with a score of senior leaders in the party headquarters to greet Gadkari, said the party will grow from strength to strength under the leadership of Nagpur-born Gadkari.
Bringing to fore the feud in the Rajasthan Bharatiya Janata Party, its leader Gulabchand Kataria on Saturday night called off his 'Lok Jagran Yatra' following differences at a core committee meeting which saw Leader of the Opposition Vasundhara Raje threatening to quit the party and walking out the meeting in a huff.
With 103 members belonging to the BJP, the Karnataka assembly will witness a balance it has never seen.
As India suffers and the ruling party is on the defensive, the truth is that the only way that this wave will pass is if exponential growth of the virus stops on its own, asserts Aakar Patel.
'The BJP's all-India plans can be expected to become clearer around 2022-2023, particularly if -- as some anticipate -- the senior Congress leadership cracks, broadly as between the Nehru-Gandhi loyalists and those who may be termed 'pro-changers',' observes Arun Bhatnagar, a retired IAS officer.
'While the government must be relentless in its efforts to curb unruly elements to ensure secular harmony and protect its goal of national development,it must not lose the moral high ground by giving in to the antics of the anti-nationalist lobby.' 'They must be countered and relegated to the dustbin of history,' says Vivek Gumaste.
Observing that there are "definite and proved" allegations that complaints of the victims of violence in the aftermath of the West Bengal assembly polls were not even registered, the Calcutta high court on Thursday ordered a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into all alleged cases of heinous crimes like rape and murder, while accepting the recommendations of a National Human Rights Commission panel.
'As an actor he was surrounded in stardom, but as a politician he is humble'
The Rajiv Gandhi assassination, investigation and trial were all jinxed in parts, recalls N Sathiya Moorthy.
'If the Ram Mandir is made, it is because of the collective strength of our country.'
cution' of the Brahmins in the regime of Adityanath, a Rajput, accused of pandering to his caste's interests. Radhika Ramaseshan reports.
'We are not corrupt like the CPM and BJP. The BJP is thoroughly corrupt but somehow you don't write about the BJP and CPM.' Parliamentary Affairs Minister Vayalar Ravi speaks out.
'This is about reviving this country as a centre of Hindutva at Ayodhya.'
Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley has asked Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh to rethink on holding talks with Pakistan after Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden was killed in a United States military operation in Abbottabad near the Pakistan military academy, 61 km from Islamabad.
When Vinod Kumar Singh, the minister for mines and geology, found that mediapersons did not join the chorus, he stopped and asked if they were "sons and daughters of Pakistan".
'What are the circumstances at that time? Had you thought Modi will come after Vajpayee?'
After distancing itself from the controversy over Nitin Gadkari's business dealings, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh on Sunday said it was upto Bharatiya Janata Party to decide on his second term as party president.
The student front of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh has blotted its CV by allegedly instigating and engaging in violence on marquee campuses like JNU and Hyderabad Central University
'Potent nationalism doesn't just distract from the economic task at hand; it actively undermines it.'
'Her presence before and during the Lok Sabha election will electrify the political environment.'
The event brings to fruition the Bharatiya Janata Party's 'mandir' movement that defined its politics for three decades and took it to the heights of power.
Rajnath did not refer to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh in his address.\n\n
The JD-U has insisted that Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is the leader of the alliance and it has been the "senior partner" in the state, indicating that it should get a major share.
Article 370 is a golden cage that keeps Kashmiris trapped in a stifling environment, deters other Indians from investing in the state perpetuating its economic penury and expressly hinders the understanding of India; all under the false premise of preserving a narrow parochial identity, says Vivek Gumaste.
'The Sena can quickly reduce most solutions to violence.' 'When in power, it will revert to this gene which is coded into it and we will no doubt produce entertaining and frightening moments,' says Aakar Patel.
'Amit Shah's trajectory seems unstoppable; no wonder some say the day is not far off when he could be pitching for the top job, and that this is only the first step,' says Saisuresh Sivaswamy.
The East Delhi AAP candidate said that "obscene and derogatory" remarks against her was distributed in the constituency by her Bharatiya Janata Party rival Gautam Gambhir.
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