With four contenders for the top post in case the BJP wrests power from AAP, party sources say naming of a CM face may trigger factional fights.
Prashant Kishor's remarks have ruffled some feathers within his own party
The name of the next vice president of India will be known on Saturday evening after members of Parliament cast their ballot during the day in Parliament House.
The BJP believes that the only party still capable of leading a credible challenge against it is the Congress. Please note how BJP campaigners in states where the Congress may count for a cipher or thereabouts, mostly attack the Congress, observes Shekhar Gupta.
Counting's underway and the fate of the candidates is awaited. As we wait for the results with bated breath, here's how your heavyweights are faring for now.
'This is a watershed election in Indian politics.' 'For the first time, we are moving away from identity politics to aspirational politics.'
'His success confirms that the infirm 132-year-old party can still get to its feet if it allows regional leaders to come to the fore,' argues Amulya Ganguli.
With the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance government marking its first anniversary on Saturday, the first year is likely to be remembered for the fulfilment of decades-old Hindutva demands as Prime Minister Narendra Modi used the huge majority his party won in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls to push through its core agenda.
Most of the parties supported 'one nation one election', says defence minister Rajnath Singh.
Congress had a reason to smile as it was able to emerge as the single largest party in Meghalaya, but failed to secure a majority.
'The farm bills will not bring in corporate zamindari'
"I want an attack on benami properties earned through illegal means for more effective results against black money," Kumar said.
If the fight against black money seems half hearted, the same is not the case with gau raksha, says Subir Roy.
Thackeray said the BJP's perception of being a "world winner" had been shattered with the results of the just-held state assembly polls.
Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com gives the lowdown on the constituencies going to polls in the first phase on April 11.
n an exclusive interview with Rediff.com's Anita Katyal, Congress general secretary Shakeel Ahmad analysed the political scenario in his home-state Bihar, admitting that political equations have changed after the Bharatiya Janata Party forged alliances with Ram Vilas Paswan and Upendra Kushwaha.
The result was so disastrous for the Congress and NCP that they lost 41 seats out of 48 to the BJP-Shiv Sena combine.
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.
The Rashtriya Janata Dal with 19 seats, Congress on 9, Rashtriya Lok Samta Party on 5, Hindustani Awam Morcha and Vikassheel Insan Party -- in phases three to seven of the general elections.
'In the next two years, we might see a new kind of realignment across India.' 'I don't see political alliances working against the BJP until an alternative political agenda is created.'
Dharmendra Kumar Singh explains the four major factors that contributed to Modi's win in the 2014 elections.
The Mamata Banerjee-led party, which has often been mocked by opponents for not having a well-defined ideological plank, seems to have finally found its calling in Bengali sub-nationalism, as a section of top party leaders feel only an 'inclusive message of regionalism, which the Bengalis can identify with, will counter the aggressive nationalism and Hindutva practised by the saffron camp'.
Karunanidhi was convinced that using the 2G cases against the DMK and reopening the fodder case against Lalu Prasad Yadav were products of the Congress leadership's short-sightedness. A revealing excerpt from A S Panneerselvan's Karunanidhi: A Life.
The 'secularists'are more adept at the politics of intense and alarmingly exaggerated fear-mongering, as this kind of politics provides easy votes of Muslims without making them answerable for the concrete issues of poverty, unemployment, lawlessness, and of basic needs like roads, electricity, etc, which is exactly how Nitish Kumar was defeated in the elections, says Mohammad Sajjad.
Union Minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy on Saturday found himself in a controversy over sharing on Twitter a screenshot of Pakistan's daily Dawn website carrying Nitish Kumar's ad of vote appeal, prompting the Janata Dal-United to launch a sharp attack on him and seek his immediate sacking.
'The general idea is to unite all the anti-Modi parties into an alliance, to dent the PM's image as a vote-winner, and then stymie him in Parliament -- particularly in the Rajya Sabha -- in order to ruin his credentials as a reformer,' says T V R Shenoy.
Lalu's return to the political forefront signifies the hold RJD chief exercises over public consciousness.
"NCP president Sharad Pawar, Loktantrik Janata Dal president Sharad Yadav, DMK chief MK Stalin, Bihar's former deputy chief minister and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, SP president Akhilesh Yadav, BSP chief Mayawati and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal among other opposition leaders will attend the oath-taking ceremony in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh on December 17," said well-placed sources.
Venkaiah Naidu told the members that provocative statements are being used by anti-BJP forces to deflect the attention from Prime Minister Narendra Modi's development agenda.
'The situation has improved because oxygen tankers are now coming.' 'Before this it was chaotic.'
The Congress president's election comes up early next year and party workers fear Sonia may pass on her mantle to Rahul. If that happens or if she continues to remain at the helm but Rahul calls the shots, there could be large scale desertions of workers and leaders worried about their future.
'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
'He is a man whose utterances have been so virulent and communalistic.' 'That's why many people did not look at him as the party's choice for chief minister.' 'UP is the state that reports the largest number of communal incidents every year.' 'Modi may not be using the Hindutva card, but he never condemns the incidents too.'
'Extravagant new promises can buy him time, but far from solving the problem, they compound the risk.' 'His main alternative is to stress not aspirations, but resentments.' 'He has already de-emphasised aspirational appeals: Nothing has been heard for over two years of the coming of achhe din,' points out James Manor.
Nitish Kumar has to eschew disastrous experiments with prohibition and reservations in the private sector. Unless he is dissuaded from pursuing these flawed measures, he will pave the way for Bihar to again become a part of the BIMARU group of sick states, says Amulya Ganguli.
'Keeping its financial interests in mind, China wants no enmity with the Nepalese government.'
'On the tax front, most of the Budget proposals are sensible'.
In another dig at Kumar for joining hands with the Rashtriya Janata Dal of Lalu Prasad, Modi reeled out Bihar police crime figure to claim "Jungle raj has begun to knock Bihar."
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