BJP chief Amit Shah had set a target of winning 22 Lok Sabha seats out of 42 seats in West Bengal.
'Putting Yogi Adityanath in the CM's seat two years before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls is something to be read carefully.' 'Opposition parties would be dishonest themselves and unfair to secular people if they failed to unite and work as a single force to defeat the BJP.'
Hansal Mehta sniffs a political conspiracy; Information and Broadcasting official poohpoohs the charge.
It also provides that no preliminary enquiry will be required for registering a criminal case and an arrest under this law would not be subject to any approval.
'The BJP is taking a risk in Assam, but it may face a tough time in coming times,' says Sangeeta Barooah Pisharoty.
The biggest success of Nawaz Sharif's visit to India is that it will lessen mistrust between the two countries, writes Amir Mateen from Islamabad.
'When Sachin Tendulkar bats, no one in India cares if he is from Mumbai or if he is a Hindu or a Brahmin or whatever.' 'We just want him to win it for India.' 'The same is with Modi and the people who voted across caste and regional lines for him.' We want him to win it for India,' says Madhu A K.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday said that the Third Front was like a "parking lot" where parties come and go and ruled out any chance of it forming a government at the Centre.
Modi's minister Singh has stirred a controversy saying that it was the colour of Sonia Gandhi's skin that made her the Congress chief.
The Karnataka verdict was something that even the Bharatiya Janata Party did not expect. Through the campaign when the leaders in the BJP were asked what they expected in Karnataka they said, "for the public we say 18, but realistically we are expecting anything between 10 and 12."
The narrow win in Gujarat can be contributed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi with his no-holds-barred approach and party president Amit Shah who plays to win and knows that there are rules to be followed when suited and broken when needed.
With the National Democratic Alliance being reduced to a three-party alliance after Janata Dal-United's exit, Shiv Sena on Monday asked the BJP to explain its plans to bring in new allies, saying, "Friends don't grow like trees."
The Raj Thackeray-led MNS set up a stall to sell chicken meat as a symbolic protest, whereas Shiv Sena workers tore off the civic body notices.
Government sources had claimed on Tuesday that four persons have committed suicide in fear of NRC so far, while four others had died while waiting in queues to procure the requisite papers.
The BJP chief had lunch at the house of a tribal family before interacting with party workers.
'The problem lies in the popular perception that the Marathas are a rich, politically powerful and dominant caste in the state... The truth is different. The tragedy of this community is that only 137 Maratha families are the dominant players in state politics. The disparity is so wide, that the rest of the Maratha community isn't even half as rich, forget being powerful,' says N Suresh.
For the past, blame the Congress. For the present, blame the Congress. For everything, blame the Congress. But for your future, vote BJP.
The law minister said 20 Muslim countries in the world, including Pakistan and Malaysia, have banned the triple talaq. "Why can't a secular India do it?" he asked.
'Each of them is a setu (bridge) that links the government with the party, but their territories are different.'
'This is about demolishing all that we have stood for as a nation after Independence. This is an attack on the nation's very foundation.'
Modi, 68, was administered the oath of office and secrecy by President Ram Nath Kovind at a glittering ceremony at the forecourt of majestic Rashtraparti Bhavan.
Sharing the stage with foe-turned-friend Ram Vilas Paswan, Narendra Modi on Monday attacked Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, saying Bihar has become a safe haven for terrorists as he has failed to act tough in his bid to win over Muslim votes.
'From chaiwala he has now become Rafalewala. He speaks a bunch of lies,' the West Bengal CM said.
'Instead of camping in the cities and leading the party, leaders have to go to the interiors of the country.' 'The Congress is losing touch with the common man.'
There is indeed a Bengal Model but it is one which negates generational aspiration, generates animus, thrives on bloodletting and political vendetta, reiterates outdated ideas of vote bank politics, is shorn of any vision or roadmap for reconstruction and is fast depleting the levels of a legitimate tolerance, says Dr Anirban Ganguly.
While believing that the senior leadership does not have what it takes to resurrect the party, members at the same time are often heard repeating, "It's the Gandhi family that holds the party together". Kavita Chowdhury explains
The party president also said that India's self-confidence, pride and scale of ambition have grown manifold in three years.
Since much of the voting was on religious lines, Mamata's rural focus became irrelevant.
'As a student of history, I am no pessimist, but regardless of which party/coalitions comes to power on May 23, the space for secularism, pluralism and minority rights has shrunk significantly,' says Mohammad Sajjad.
Very few old-style RSS workers-turned-leaders have survived Narendra Modi's political ambush in state politics. Harin Pathak's end closes the chapter for Modi who started his post-2002 riots journey with a new mix of profit-centric development and middle class-pleasing commerce, technology-driven communication with voters, and an unspoken Hindutva that speaks only through posturings and symbols. Rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt reveals the real reasons for the Modi-Pathak rupture.
Voters are disillusioned with the two rival fronts in the state and there are no effective alternatives either. G Sreedathan explains
'Where they lose, you never ask why they failed there, like in Bihar and Punjab.' 'You are stuck on the UP victory, thinking they have the mandate to rule for all times to come.' 'The BJP has 282 MPs, but can I honestly say that the BJP is the party for everyone?'
The fever of banning meat spread on Thursday with such directives being issued in Rajasthan, Jammu and Kashmir and Ahmedabad.
Nationalist Congress Party leader and former deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar tells Sanjay Jog the allegation of corruption against his party is a political conspiracy. Edited excerpts:
The prime minister has been unstoppable as he transported the BJP to colossal success on a wave of muscular nationalism, majoritarian pride and charisma.
'This is possibly a long drawn battle and if the Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party are together in this long battle, a new political picture will emerge in the country.' 'In this battle if we have to sacrifice or give up anything, we are ready.' 'We have to remain cautious against the BJP's attempts to break our unity.' 'We want this alliance to stay.'
The BJP doesn't want to focus entirely on an anti-Mamata campaign.
As controversy continues over senior Uttar Pradesh Minister Azam Khan keeping away from its Agra meet, Samajwadi Party on Friday said no one can "blackmail" the party as nobody has the stature which supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav enjoys among the Muslim community.
Nationalism, Hindutva, and war on corruption, not growth, will define Modi's politics until 2019.
