'Two have already sacrificed their lives.' 'How many more shall need to sacrifice before the government listens?' 'Four, five or six? They are ready, waiting.' After Ganga campaigner G D Agrawal's death, a Haridwar ashram's sadhus are on a relay fast unto death.
Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi attacked the Congress and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday for "failing" to ensure development of Northeast though he represented Assam for the last 23 years in the Rajya Sabha.
The Sangh's leadership has boxed itself into a tight situation. It now needs to wait and see if Modi can deliver in the Lok Sabha polls, says Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
If the AAP wins 20 to 40 Lok Sabha seats, which is conceivable unless it botches up on governance in Delhi, it will become a significant bloc comparable in influence to or even bigger than several major regional parties, feels Praful Bidwai.
Namo, Namo as India's prime minister? Not yet, says Pakistan-based journalist Amir Mateen.
Syed Firdaus Ashraf lists seven states where the Grand Old Party suffered a severe setback.
The government on Wednesday came under a blistering attack in Rajya Sabha on the issue of black money, with Congress asking it to apologise before people for 'selling lies' or else fulfill the poll promise made to them.
Shiv Sena's Suresh Prabhu makes predictions ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha polls
Volunteers have been asked to provide details of their core competencies for future projects, says Mayank Mishra
Tamil Nadu, the land of regional parties where the two Dravidian outfits have ruled the roost for long, is witnessing a few fledgling parties testing their electoral luck for the first time in the April 24 Lok Sabha elections, including Aam Aadmi Party and Indiya Jananayaka Katchi.
Veteran Congress leader Digvijaya Singh and Bharatiya Janata Party candidates Jyotiraditya Scindia and Sumer Singh Solanki on Friday won Rajya Sabha election from Madhya Pradesh.
Gandhi kicked off his 15-km padyatra from Koritical village in Adilabad district to highlight the problems faced by farmers.
Whistle-blower officer Ashok Khemka has been shunted again, in breach of rules by BJP government in Haryana. All actions of the previous Congress govt against him still stand even as the Narendra Modi government has chosen to keep away.
Congress engaging in a 'false show of jubilation', said Amit Shah.
'Under Narendra Modi's leadership, we will be able to regain our rightful place in the community of nations,' veteran diplomat Hardeep Singh Puri, who joined the BJP on January 2, tells Rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt.
Thousands of people marched on the streets with Dravida Munnetra Kazagham president MK Stalin to protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act in Chennai on Monday. Several senior leaders of opposition parties including that of Congress, Communist Party of India, Communist Party of India-Marxist, Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi, and Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam participated in the mega rally to register their protest against the new law.
'Indian secularism doesn't deserve a tombstone. It needs a new shrine,' argues Shekhar Gupta.
'You will be surprised at how wide the Mission272+ Internet campaign has been in terms of its reach across India. We have volunteers in all of 543 Lok Sabha seats. Every one of them signed up to volunteer through the Internet. We are laser focused on Mission272+. All of our volunteers are working at the constituency level to make a difference so every vote and every booth counts.' Shashi Shekhar, who is spearheading the BJP's Internet-social media campaign, explains how it is done.
PM said Kovind will make an 'exceptional President'.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley appealed to parties to rise above partisan considerations to support it.
'The Congress can't return to power unless it reins in prices, lowers interest rates, taxes the rich,' says Praful Bidwai. 'If this means sacking those most responsible for the UPA's pro-big business policies including Finance Minister Chidambaram, so be it!'
The Modi wave has blotched the Congress party's copybook. For the first time since the Lok Sabha was constituted in 1952, the party has failed to secure enough seats to be designated as a parliamentary party, notes A Surya Prakash.
Do Modi's foreign visits actually serve India or they nothing more than expensive tools for domestic positioning and image-building, asks Shehzad Poonawalla.
Kickstarting the National Democratic Alliance's poll campaign in Bihar, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday focussed his attack on former Bharatiya Janata Party ally and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, accusing him of "back-stabbing" the people of the state and alleging that there is some problem with his "DNA".
Pitching for larger opposition unity, six constituents of the erstwhile Janata Parivar on Monday shared dais at a mahadharna slamming the Bharatiya Janata Party's 'divisive' politics and accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of telling lies and not fulfilling poll promises on black money.
'We will certainly perform and take India to newer heights. We will really like to see India become a world power in every sense of the term and build a strong and robust economy that is capable of employment generation on a scale required for a country like India,' BJP ideologue Vinay Sahasrabuddhe tells Prasanna D Zore/Rediff.com
There were no signs of either the Peoples Democratic Party, the largest group, or the Bharatiya Janata Party, the close runner-up, getting the requisite numbers to stake claim to forming a new government in Jammu and Kashmir as the deadline set by Governor N N Vohra for discussions fast approached.
Currently, the travel time between Mumbai and Delhi varies between 16 and 30 hours.
After snapping his political alliance with the ruling National Democratic Alliance at the Centre, N Chandrababu Naidu, chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, speaks to B Dasarath Reddy on what he now has in mind.
Protests by various parties could be seen as they demanded the Prime Minister Narendra Modi rolled back the demonetisation scheme.
'If Lalu puts the agenda of his son's career ahead of the coalition's interest, this coalition will fare very badly.' 'Lalu will ultimately want that his son becomes deputy chief minister but if he's prepared to wait for some time, nothing bad will happen for the coalition,' Professor Prabhat Ghosh, Director, Asian Development Research Institute, tells Archana Masih/Rediff.com
'Although the Congress party ethos resembles a court with courtiers, Sonia Gandhi's style was to be consensual.'
The BJP leadership is understandably mulling all options on the roll-out of the GST.
'As the first leaders of their respective countries born after Indian Independence and the Chinese Liberation, Modi and Xi would be expected to have the ability to overcome the traditional mindsets and the hierarchical nature of their official/bureaucratic establishments,' say Alka Acharya and Jabin T Jacob.
The BJP has already cobbled up 28 seats to counter-bargain with the PDP's 28 seats in future talks. It is up to the Kashmir-based parties like the National Conference and PDP to assess the damage of going with the BJP which is perceived as the 'Hindu' party in the state. Sheela Bhatt/Rediff.com's takeways from a historic but fractured mandate in Jammu and Kashmir.
Rediff.com gives you a look at newbies in the Council of Ministers
anata Dal-United president Sharad Yadav says leaders of all 11 parties who've formed a new front will meet after the current Parliament session to finalise a name, coordination strategy and programmes. Mayank Mishra reports
Mounting a frontal attack on the Narendra Modi government, Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday said there has been an increase in communal violence in the country since it came to power and alleged this was part of a "deliberate" attempt to divide the people.
'The BJP should know that simple caste arithmetic may have ceased to follow the basic law of addition.' 'Adding up seemingly distinct vote banks can even cause overall reduction in numbers,' says Sudhir Bisht.
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