'Let me narrate the background as to why Siddaramaiah was taken from my party to the Congress.' 'He belongs to a particular backward community. So by taking Siddaramaiah from my party, it was going to be more advantageous for the Congress.' 'Whatever may be the merits and demerits of the caste equation, it is a consideration for all the parties.' 'The BJP is also playing the caste guard.'
The home minister said eight people were killed -- six in Madhya Pradesh and one each in Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, during Monday's Bharat Bandh.
Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday pilloried Prime Minister Narendra Modi over suspension of BJP MP Kirti Azad who has been leading a campaign against Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on alleged corruption in Delhi cricket body, reminding him of his "na khaoonga na khaney doonga" poll slogan.
Ravi Kishan, the BJP's candidate, is an outsider. The BSP-SP candidate is from the powerful Nishad community. Yogi faces a tough task in ensuring that the Gorakhpur seat, which he represented from 1998 to 2017, stays with the BJP.
'The clearest interpretation of the November 8 mandate is that the backwards, Dalits and minorities, and a huge proportion of women cutting across caste and class, displayed massive consolidation to the extent that despite chipping of votes by the Left Front, by the Third Front and by the BSP, Mahagathbandhan candidates won, and in many cases by huge margins,' says Mohammad Sajjad.
Will the M (Muslims) in the RJD's M+Y move fast swiftly towards the MIM and away from the RJD, asks Mohammad Sajjad.
The other BJP MLA, Shyam Prakash from Gopamau (SC) in Hardoi, posted a satirical poem on Facebook.
'Mr Modi's next challenger/s will need to invent a new politics,' says Shekhar Gupta.
'The ruling provides a Constitutional template, it draws boundaries, and there is this expectation that henceforth political parties will not make crude appeals to religion for electoral gains.'
The question now is whether BJP patriarch L K Advani will fall in line and contest from Gandhinagar or he would stick to his guns and not contest at all, says Renu Mittal
With less than two months to go for the Lok Sabha election, the expected process of political realignments has begun, reports Anita Katyal.
That AAP managed a sizeable vote share in Gujarat is creditable. The BJP can no longer ignore AAP's growing presence in its strongest bastion, explains Ramesh Menon, long-time observer of Gujarat politics.
The UP CM didn't deign to attend the actor's nomination.
Community will now avail of exclusive schemes run by the ministry of minority affairs.
Almost all prominent leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party, as well as members of the National Democratic Alliance and North-East Democratic Alliance accompanied Modi.
At least eight MLAs of the opposition Congress in BJP-ruled Gujarat appeared to have voted for Kovind.
A Narendra Modi administration would believe more in decentralisation than would a Rahul Gandhi administration, says Arvind Panagariya.
The Bharatiya Janata Party's quest to strengthen its base in north India starts from Bihar, says Bharat Bhushan.
'Whom do I want to marry and what decisions I make for marrying the person I love are totally personal decisions, in which neither the State nor the courts have any right to interfere.'
The houses of a sitting and a former MLA, both Dalits, were set afire by a violent mob.
Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati termed the expansion of the Union council of ministers as a drama and said giving representation to a couple of leaders from the deprived sections will not ameliorate the lot of those communities.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi sought a decisive mandate for BJP in the Maharashtra Assembly polls, saying the 15-year-rule of Congress and NCP have "destroyed" the state.
'Go to any village, you'll find a Dalit 15 years and above wearing jeans.' 'Earlier, Dalits were not allowed to wear a dhoti till the ankles. Jeans does not have this kind of restrictions or design. It is universal. So Dalits have also entered a caste neutral clothing zone.' 'Wherever you see Dr Ambedkar's statue in this country or abroad, he is always wearing a suit and with that English comes naturally. The Dalits' veneration of Western dress is very intense,' Dalit thinker Chandrabhan Prasad tells Archana Masih/Rediff.com
'Muslims may turn to the BJP or may not come out to vote in great numbers like they have in the past.' 'Anything can happen.' 'They can feel an increased sense of alienation, but that depends on the BJP -- on how it includes them.'
'Hindu middle class doesn't like anti-Muslim rhetoric'
'You must understand that NEET is in its infantile stage.' 'When a child falls down while trying to stand up, you don't say it will never walk or run.' 'The child that falls down several times while trying to stand up may one day run a race at the Olympics.' 'Similarly, if there is firmness in approach and the willingness to listen to suggestions, NEET will be a great success.'
'In Gujarat, for 22 years when the BJP was in power, they sold only dreams, but the delivery was zero.'
The ruling party is worried as the alliance represents over 50 per cent of the state's population, reports Virendra Singh Rawat.
"Why did Congress oppose creation of Uttarakhand as a state? Those who cannot think well of the people here, how can they govern?" Prime Minister Modi said while addressing an election rally.
'Emboldened by the BJP victory, the upper castes feel they must assert themselves and regain dominance over the rural power structure.'
Permissive communalism, as represented by the Sachar Committee report, cannot become the basis to counter the threat of majoritarianism, says D L Sheth.
Mihir S Sharma on the false opposition being created between 'governance' and 'vote bank politics'.
An interplay of Modi government's outreach in Bihar and the sequence of events in Chirag Paswan's life could make Bihar a game of musical chairs when the results are out.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday asked political parties to refrain from taking advantage of communal strife and said states should crack down on elements fanning such violence irrespective of their political affiliations or influence.
'The bad dream can turn into a ghoulish nightmare for the BJP if the Gujjars in Rajasthan and the Patels in Gujarat, both BJP-ruled states, were to fish in troubled waters and relaunch their respective agitations for quotas in government jobs,' warns Rajeev Sharma.
The Congress forget Modi has demigod status in Gujarat and there is no way he can be defeated in the state, argues Syed Firdaus Ashraf.
The Child Protection Services programme under the Integrated Child Development Services was increased to Rs 1,500 crore from Rs 925 crore.
'Compared to other social groups, managing the Muslim constituency has always been easier for the secularists.' 'Just some symbolic measures and window-dressing would keep the Muslim flock together.' 'Having been betrayed by all the supposedly 'secular' political parties, Muslims should turn into citizens without any ascriptive identity marks,'says Mohammad Sajjad.
'In 2013, Modi said his government would be of Dalits and OBCs.' 'During his tenure, the highest number of atrocities have taken place.' 'What they want is that this Ambedkar Constitution must not be practised in India in the future.'
'Forming cults around Lalus, Nitishes, Mulayams, Mayawatis and Mamatas will do as much harm to the Republic as the bhakti of the Hindus for Modi will do,' says Mohammad Sajjad.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances