The Opposition is putting up a symbolic fight for the presidential polls as it knows that the BJP has the numbers to get its candidate elected to the top post.
The stage is now set for the first substantial round of polling in the Lok Sabha elections on Thursday, involving nearly 11 crore voters in 92 seats spread across 11 states, including Delhi and the national capital region and the riot-hit Muzaffarnagar.
BJP gives only 7 per cent instead of promised 33 per cent representation to women in its national executive
Arvind Kejriwal's party will need around 50 seats to make a pitch for the Left's space in national politics. For that, it will have to contest more than one third of the Lok Sabha seats, points out Saroj Nagi.
'After Modi, Yogi is the most popular face of Hindutva, but it's too early to say that he is someone who could succeed Modi.'
As fuel prices continue its northward march with petrol and diesel being sold at Rs 80.73 and Rs 72.83 per litre in the national capital, at least 21 opposition parties, led by the Congress have staged a Bharat Bandh protesting the rise in fuel prices and depreciation of the rupee.
'People are losing their freedom to eat, speak, write and practise their religion.' 'All that is said in the Constitution has been taken away.' 'Does every Muslim or Christian or Hindu have to say I am a patriot every morning and repeat it in the afternoon and at night?'
JD(S) will help them build a competing app, which, will work on a cooperative model, where drivers will own the app and will decide prices which the customers will have to pay
'It is only for a particular kind of Indian. The thing is: Even some of those types of Indians do not like it,' says Aakar Patel.
Even if they score administratively, state governments ruled by the party suffer from an inability to communicate positively, say observers.
'There were days when there was no rice at home and we ate only jackfruit seeds.' 'They feel I, a lowliest human being, a tribal, have no right to go abroad and study.' 'The humiliation was so bad that I was broken inside.'
'Modi's brilliance seems to be in combining Indira Gandhi's 'feel' for the Indian pulse and Narasimha Rao's cynicism.' 'By the time the Opposition leaders caught up with Modi over the 'surgical strikes', he had already moved on,' says M K Bhadrakumar.
Rediff.com speaks with performers to know their views about Make In India.
Communist Party of India-Marxist Politburo Member Sitaram Yechury has stated that Finance Minister P Chidambaram's recent visit to the United States to lure American companies to invest in India will not solve the country's problems.
The apex court also put embargo on filing of any fresh writ petition challenging constitutional validity on abrogation of Article 370.
Congress workers must feel what their BJP counterparts did in 2009, but that could change.
As the dust finally settles on the outcome of the Lok Sabha elections 2019 and Bharatiya Janata Party along with its NDA allies emerges as the clear winner, here is a list of who won in each of the 7 phases of elections.
RJD chief Lalu Prasad and other leaders claimed the countdown for the ouster of the BJP and its allies from power in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls had begun.
In an address that was telecast live on national broadcaster Doordarshan, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat on Friday patted the Narendra Modi government for initiatives on national security, economy and international relations in a short period of four months.
Tarun Vijay on why the victory in Uttar Pradesh belongs to Narendra Modi and the road ahead.
Here's a list of the full first-time ministers in the second term of the Narendra Modi government.
'He only talks about what concerns our home, like what I have made for lunch or dinner. No politics at home and no controversies too.' 'If I want to know something, I have to update myself from the newspapers or the local people; unfortunately no inside information.' 'He is like a strong fort, which no one can break and get in, not even his wife.'
Apart from Kerala, the northeast perhaps is the only region where Congress can expect a decent win in the recently held Lok Sabha elections. K G Suresh looks at what the elections hold for the northeast.
This theory of 'Hindus vs the rest' sees the two communities as two separate blocs. Isn't that the two-nation theory? What of the deep bonds that the communities have on the ground? asks Jyoti Punwani.
Allegations of electronic voting machines malfunctioningreturned to haunt the Election Commission as four Lok Sabha seats and nine assembly constituencies went for bypolls on Monday across 10 states with moderate-to-heavy voting amid prestige at stake for the Bharatiya Janata Party as well as opposition parties ahead of the 2019 general elections.
Attacking the note ban move, Yechury said the PM's assertion that it will impact terror funding has not yielded any result.
'Public dissent is the highest public duty and I will continue to speak out,' says Harsh Mander.
A group of students carrying placards and raising slogans protested in the tense University campus on Wednesday morning.
Most of the opposition parties blamed Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh-affiliates for the cow vigilantism.
Before the Supreme Court struck down Sec 66A of the IT Act, it was used with devastating effect against anyone posting critical comments online.
Parliament on Wednesday saw a washout as the Opposition aggressively pressed for ouster of Sushma Swaraj, Vasundhara Raje and Shivraj Singh Chouhan, rejecting the government's offer for a debate.
'So what if the enemies take us as prisoners of war? So what of they kill us? I would feel proud that I could sacrifice my life for the country,' say these proud lady officers of the Indian Navy.
'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.
A former Maoist speaks to Shobha Warrier
In a spontaneous outpouring of grief, thousands of people bid an emotional farewell to former President APJ Abdul Kalam who was on Thursday laid to rest with full state honours in his home town here amid chants of "Bharat Mata Ki Jai".
'Can the Aam Aadmi Party challenge the BJP? Someday perhaps. But to set him up as a national alternative just now smacks of the very sin that Arvind Kejriwal admits brought him down in 2014 -- arrogance.'
The perception about JNU being 'radical' is one that is as old as JNU itself. But the university is more than just that. At its heart, its campus is a mosaic of ideologies that allow its students to breathe politically.
'Modi cannot content himself anymore with merely indulging in Congress bashing and referring to the Gujarat 'miracle'. He'll have to show that his party is as clean and as innovative as the AAP. And this is impossible because AAP is new and the BJP is now old: the people have tried it already. What they have not tried already is Modi, and this is what may make the difference,' says the respected political scientist Christophe Jaffrelot.
'The BJP suddenly seems vulnerable. This is not entirely surprising. In the past too, governments and leaders who won a thumping Lok Sabha majority lost popularity in a matter of months... The by-polls results shows that a degree of disenchantment with the Modi government is setting in,' says Praful Bidwai.
Opposition on Monday picked holes in various government decisions like demonetisation and surgical strikes as well as allocation of funds for MNREGA, agriculture sector and Scheduled Castes, saying it has failed on all fronts despite which it is trying to "fool" the people.
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