The defence minister has to correct a major asymmetry. Will his discipline come in the way?
To believe that the key job of his senior ministers is to ensure that his image be kept intact whatever be the outcome of his policies is to expect too much even of someone as ambitious as Narendra Modi, asserts Rashme Sehgal.
It is likely that the party's allies in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, two of the five states going to the polls in April-May, might insist on allocating fewer seats than they did in 2016, reports Archis Mohan.
The fact that Home Minister Amit Shah recently met Raje was a marker that Delhi will be compelled to take her more seriously than it would care to. Like B S Yediyurappa, she's a regional chieftain who can't be discarded at will, reports Radhika Ramaseshan.
'For the Congress, the family is the final court of appeal.' 'If there is no family, all leaders are equal.' 'If all leaders are equal, anyone can lead the Congress.' 'So every time the family has stayed in the background, the Congress has split,' points out Aditi Phadnis.
If Tamil Nadu BJP President K Annamalai bought it in 2015, did he get prior approval from the Union home ministry, and did he include it in his annual wealth returns, sections of the media want to know. N Sathiya Moorthy on the curious case of the 'Rafale' watch.
Krishnamurthy, who had to resign as party president following the its defeat in the last Lok Sabha election, in an interview to a Hindi weekly, said the BJP had lost the polls as it had drifted away from its ideology and values.
'Mr Modi may have the aura of an irresistible conquistador now, but he is human. He isn't an 'avatar,' argues Shekhar Gupta.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi lamented that every effort of the BJP was seen in "bad light".
Is anyone in the BJP listening -- to what Nitin Gadkari had to say, but possibly left unsaid? asks N Sathiya Moorthy.
The politicisation of ethnic sentiments in the state has coincided with the ascent of the BJP and increased activities of far right Hindu outfits, which organised rallies and other events on religious occasions such as Ram Navami a festival not very popular in West Bengal- unlike states in north India.
People close to the erstwhile royal family underline that Jyotiraditya Scindia is neither as accessible nor as unpretentious as his father.
She said there were attempts to communalise the guru's teachings and this amounts to 'betraying' him.
The AGP had in January withdrew its support to the BJP government in Assam in protest against the Centre's decision to go ahead with the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill.
The message for 2024 is that the man on the street is not going to be euphoric if the G-20 crowns Modi as king-emperor for 2023, or if India sends its first man to space just ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. Even a 'temple consecration' in Ayodhya, or a Uniform Civil Code, or both of them together, may not have enough electoral purchase if fuel and commodity prices are not rolled back, and money-in-the-pocket does not fatten, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
Naidu was an ABVP activist during the Emergency and was arrested and jailed.
'Narendra Modi is one person who came up fighting many injustices. So, he is a fighter all the time, and that makes all the difference.'
Caste assertions, including from the upper castes, could have the Sangh Parivar stumble yet again in its efforts to construct a Hindu rashtra.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday "strongly disapproved" incidents of vandalism of statues in certain parts of the country and spoke to Home Minister Rajnath Singh on the matter.
'Only on two occasions has the RSS thrown itself completely on the side of the BJP.' 'In 1977 in the wake of the Emergency. And in 2014 with Modi.' 'Now, I've been told that this is not going to happen in 2019.'
Trying to guess Subramanian Swamy's motives or next step has been a rather difficult exercise for decades, says Archis Mohan
Like Nehru, Modi is loathe to touch the public sector. His policy towards Israel leans towards 'non-alignment'. You can find other similarities: frequent public speeches, personalised leadership, total control over foreign and strategic policies, even stylised dressing, says Shekhar Gupta.
Modi also dared Rahul to speak in any language for 15 minutes about the achievements of the Siddaramaiah government without referring to a piece of paper.
'Nehru's hegemonic politics has been responsible for many ills, which undoubtedly includes Kashmir'
J P Nadda is a man to watch in the BJP.
'The family is the final court of appeal, the first among unequals. If there is no family, all leaders are equal. If all leaders are equal, anyone can lead the Congress. So every time the family has stayed in the background, the Congress has split.'
The Varanasi mayor has issued orders making it mandatory for every municipal corporation member to sing 'Vande Mataram' and 'Jana Gana Mana' after a Bharatiya Janata Party corporator's proposal for singing the songs triggered protests by Congress and Samajwadi Party members.
'Like it or not, the Congress is still the only party with the potential to challenge the BJP at a pan-Indian level,' says T V R Shenoy.
'The BJP politics of appropriating icons from its ideological adversaries could only be a desperate attempt to extend the Jat-Muslim divide in Uttar Pradesh. Why this desperation when it can comfortably get votes on the plank of economic development?'
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.
'From chaiwala he has now become Rafalewala. He speaks a bunch of lies,' the West Bengal CM said.
The BJP could win only 16 out of 57 seats where Shah campaigned.
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.
Strident Hindutva has not been the Shivraj Singh Chouhan's hallmark in his long tenure as chief minister. What has changed?
'The AAP is likely to take root in some metropolises -- although it won't be easy to replicate the small-scale Delhi model with equal intensity or cadre-strength in a large state,' says Praful Bidwai.
Adityanath says there is no scope for political violence in democracy.
The saffron party will use Lord Ayyappa the same way it made use of Lord Ram in the north to take away the Nair vote and make electoral inroads in the state.
'They don't just kill their enemies, they chop off limbs, sever heads.' 'How can anyone kill a teacher in front of small children and a son in front of his parents?'
'I believe that in the BJP nobody can make anybody anything... I believe the media should analyse this after the end of my tenure!' 'My work is incomplete till I take the BJP to the four big states of West Bengal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.' BJP President Amit Shah, as never before!
Unlike the LDF and NDA nominees who are at ground zero and campaigning hard every day, the Congress candidate's campaign is undertaken in absentia, dependent on an army of local and imported from the rest of Kerala Congresswomen and men.
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