On all key issues, Congress is MIA, sighs Shekhar Gupta.
While PM Narendra Modi-Amit Shah dominated the national executive, senior chief ministers and 'margdarshaks' LK Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi were ignored
Narendra Modi government is working for 'making India' whereas the Congress is working for 'breaking India'.
'In a party run by 'two-and-a half men', Kovind fits the bill perfectly because, unlike the BJP's previous choice for the Presidency, A P J Abdul Kalam, he is unlikely to return a bill as Kalam did with the office of profit legislation,' argues Amulya Ganguli.
In a last ditch effort, Telugu Desam Party chief Chandrababu Naidu on Tuesday appealed to Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi to "use his good office" to keep Andhra Pradesh united till an amicable solution is reached on the issue of creation of separate Telangana.
In a blistering attack on Bharatiya Janata Party prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, Rahul Gandhi on Monday dubbed the Gujarat model propagated by Modi as a 'toffee model', saying it has only benefited one industrialist in the state, ignoring the interests of farmers and the poor.
Sheela Bhatt lists ten quick takeaways from the passage of the Telangana bill in the Lok Sabha.
'It may take the AIADMK much more convincing than already, not only to try and bring around even the one-time Muslim voters of the party. 'More importantly, the party leadership may find it even more difficult to convince traditional party voters and cadres, who had admired Jaya's nonchalance to the party and leader ruling the Centre,' says N Sathiya Moorthy.
The Congress may get chairmanship of the prestigious Public Accounts of Committee but still there is no guarantee whether it will get the post of Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha.
With Parliament virtually paralysed due to disruption by the Congress, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday attacked it saying it was using the National Herald case to "harm" national interest and holding the country's development "hostage" to its "selfish" political goal.
A wax statue of the Bharatiya Janata Party prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi was unveiled in Mumbai ahead of the 'Mahagarjana rally' he is addressing in suburban Bandra on Sunday afternoon where 10,000 tea vendors have been specially invited.
The United Progressive Alliance government's efforts to extend a friendly hand to the Sheikh Hasina government in neighbouring Dhaka were thwarted by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee whose party joined hands with the Adom Gana Parishad in the Rajya Sabha on Monday, ensuring that the Constitution Amendment Bill ratifying the Land Boundary Agreement with Bangladesh could not be introduced.
Expansion of the BJP's base in the South, will be the main focus of the party's two-day national executive meeting
Former Union minister and Telugu Desam Party founder N T Rama Rao's daughter D Purandeswari on Friday joined BJP after quitting the Congress over the Telangana issue.
When Prime Minister Modi travelled to the US last year Home Minister Rajnath Singh was officially put in charge of the government. But the BJP's national executive in Bengaluru made it clear who now matters in the party and in what order. Sheela Bhatt/Rediff.com reports
In an apparent jibe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for neglecting party veterans, BJP leader Yashwant Sinha has said the present regime has declared those above 75 as "brain dead" on assuming office.
'If Vajpayee's BJP saw a chance to redefine India's nuclear theology, Modi's BJP has scarcely paid any attention to it.'
While the United Progressive Alliance government is preparing to ignore the protests from anti-Telangana members of Parliament and push through the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Bill in Parliament on Tuesday, the Congress' grim internal assessment is that the move may not pay the requisite electoral dividends which it had originally hoped for, says Anita Katyal
President Pranab Mukherjee talked though on the ordinance to protect convicted lawmakers as he questioned three Union ministers -- Law Minister Kapil Sibal, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kamal Nath and Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde. He sought minutes of the Cabinet and all party meetings after which the United Progressive Alliance withdrew the decree.
Narendra Modi can pick up a tip from the Samajwadi Party ramlila. If he doesn't want L K Advani as President, he might anoint him Bharatiya Bhishma Pitamah, suggests Sunanda K Datta-Ray.
There are indications that the BJP may not be as enthusiastic as it was on the Telangana issue now that the Congress has cleared the decks for the creation of the new state.
The Bharatiya Janata Party chose not to raise any protests when their demand to raise Robert Vadra's suspect land deals was not considered by Rajya Sabha chairman Hamid Ansari. Anita Katyal reports.
The 15th Lok Sabha, perceived as the worst-ever with many unprecedented low moments, came to an end on Friday on an harmonious note, with leaders from the ruling and opposition sides showering praises on each other.
'The similarities between the blockbusting Avengers: Endgame and Election 2019 cannot be starker. So who plays who?' asks Saisuresh Sivaswamy.
Mukhar Abbas Naqvi, senior vice-president of the Bharatiya Janata Party, is convinced that Narendra Modi will become the next prime minister of India.
The Bharatiya Janata Party feels it has more to lose if it gets into an alliance with the Telugu Desam Party in Seema-Andhra. Vicky Nanjappa reports
'If the Opposition believes the BJP is out to undermine the principles on which the Constitution rests, they had better start behaving as though they believe in those principles,' says T N Ninan.
'The professional or the freelancer needs to pay taxes from his pocket first and then wait for payments from his clients.'
L K Advani's observation on Narendra Modi, an attempt to cut the BJP's prime ministerial nominee down to size, billing him a mere event manager like Vijay Raaz in Mira Nair's film Monsoon Wedding, speaks volumes about their differences... In the coming days, the Congress and BJP may lock horns over the AgustaWestland chopper deal. In an Italian court, Guido Haschke, one of the accused middlemen who allegedly bribed the Indian side, has sought a plea bargain to reduce his jail term if convicted. On or around April 11, we will know how much Haschke is ready to reveal. Rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt detects which way the political wind is blowing these days.
In a sharp attack on Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party campaign centric around him, expelled party veteran Jaswant Singh on Sunday deprecated "veneration" of an individual and said world was full of graveyards of those who are considered indispensable to their nation.
If the TDP fails to cash in on the Modi wave, the party would lose out to the newbie YSR Congress Party, believes chief Chandrababu Naidu
'Is Ansari flagging a genuine concern? Is a rectification called for?' 'And finally: Do minorities matter?' asks Shekhar Gupta.
Concluding the three-part series, Paranjoy Guha Thakurta says that the black money law is likely to fail because of the ineptness of India's investigative and enforcement agencies.
Naidu was an ABVP activist during the Emergency and was arrested and jailed.
Delivering his concluding address to the party's National Executive, which saw its president Amit Shah raising concerns over "migration" of Hindus from a communally-sensitive western Uttar Pradesh town, Modi made no reference to the controversial issues and instead asked leaders to use power for the benefit of society.
Banerjee feels that as long as Sonia Gandhi is the leader of the Congress Parliamentary Party, she should be the undisputed leader of a united front of opposition parties, reports R Rajagopalan.
Armed with out-of-the box manifestos that promise abolition of income tax and unemployment allowance to educated youth, 48 Lok Sabha candidates of 21 lesser known parties have jumped in the poll fray in Gujarat.
Unabated uproar by Congress members in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday invited the wrath of Speaker Sumitra Mahajan who called their protests "murder of democracy" and "hijacking" the rights of 440 members by 40-50 others in the Opposition.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday took a dig at the culture of dynastic politics and appeared to target Congress by taking a veiled swipe at Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra who is embroiled in controversies over his land deals.