He said he has always held the Congress and the Nehru-Gandhi family in high-esteem.
In an interview to Republic Bharat, Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke of the BJP's prospects in the polls, emergence of an Opposition front, dynastic politics and several other issues.
He also dismissed the possibility of a fractured mandate and claimed the party will get more seats than the last Lok Sabha polls.
The BJP president demanded that Rahul apologise for his stand on the JNU issue, saying support to anti-national forces in the name of the Left's progressive ideology is not acceptable.
'There is no internal democracy in the BJP now.' 'Nobody discusses and hears problems of groups who oppose the leader.' 'The party is busy praising only one leader.'
Known for weighing his options carefully before making any move, Kumar, upon a closer look, comes across as a risk taker who has not shied away from going against the tide.
'Rightly or wrongly, 1962 got ascribed to Krishna Menon and him alone. That's unfair.' 'Certainly, he was one of the guilty men, but he was not the only guilty man. Mistakes were made all around.'
'This election was the first opportunity where Kashmiris told the world they do not agree with the Centre's policies and are unhappy about their disempowerment.'
The Rajya Sabha election was personal so it had to be won and Amit Shah needed to be sent a message.
One of the most prominent leaders of the socialist movement in the 1970s, George Fernandes was a senior Janata Dal leader before he founded the Samata Party.
The results are a ringing endorsement of Modi's popularity, his government's achievements in the last five years and his campaign, which centred around national security, nationalism and Hindutva.
The Bharatiya Janata Party's carping ally said the police assertion about security threat to Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Maoists was just a 'conspiracy theory'.
"I am going to keep asking exactly the same questions I have been asking. I am going to put pressure on the government and I will continue to do my job," said the Congress leader.
He wrote a letter to Congress President Sonia Gandhi who immediately accepted his resignation and relieved him of his charge as party General Secretary.
With Rahul showing a significant lead over Prime Minister Narendra Damodardas Modi in opinion polls across southern India but lagging in the north, the Congress believes his contesting from the south will help galvanise cadres.
Harish Rawat, a Union Minister, was on Saturday sworn in as the new chief minister of Uttarakhand, succeeding Vijay Bahuguna who was asked by the Congress high command to step down in a bid to boost the party's prospects ahead of the April-May Lok Sabha polls.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is being accused of wrong things. His main problem is his view of himself, says T C A Srinivasa-Raghavan
With the Congress government in crisis in Uttarakhand after nine party members of Legislative Assembly, including a minister, joined hands with the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party overnight, Chief Minister Harish Rawat on Saturday asserted that the welfare of the state was his priority and added that he would tender his resignation if he was not able to prove majority.
'The Congress era was already over anyway! The real question is: Has India opened a new, post-coalition era and I'm very doubtful about that,' Christophe Jaffrelot, author of several books on Indian politics, tells Archana Masih/Rediff.com, analysing Mandate 2014.
Chief Minister Harish Rawat lost both seats he contested.
M Karunanidhi was a masterful practitioner of modern-day politics, wielding considerable influence beyond his own state, in the corridors of power in New Delhi, for a long time and sewing up alliances with both the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Singh said the Centre will provide whatever assistance required but the state governments should take stringent steps to curb such incidents.
Opposition leaders believe this entire plan has been put in place to ensure that Mamata Banerjee is kept out of office in West Bengal.
The Congress dismissed as "very, very immature" Sushma Swaraj's remarks on Sonia Gandhi's foreign origin, saying the Congress chief can become the prime minister "tomorrow if the party decides" and she doesn't need anyone's approval.
'Indira Gandhi proved herself a great war leader, but failed as a statesman,' says Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
Any economically weaker from Brahmins, Rajputs (Thakurs), Jats, Marathas, Bhumihars, several trading castes, Kapus and Kammas among other upper castes with an annual income below Rs 8 lakh and not owning more than five acres of agricultural land will get the benefits of the reservation.
'The Congress party hated him because he had not gone to jail, he was not lathi charged, he had not gone on hunger strike.' 'They felt he had lived in London all his life and then he came to India and became an MP and a minister.'
Daughter of former deputy PM late Jagjivan Ram, Kumar, 72, was also the first woman to occupy the high office of the LS speaker
While PM Narendra Modi-Amit Shah dominated the national executive, senior chief ministers and 'margdarshaks' LK Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi were ignored
The ruling DMK in Tamil Nadu had begun seeing Governor Ravi's decisions and actions as a part of the state BJP's non-stop criticism of its government and directed from Delhi, a view strengthened by the governor's decision to return the NEET exemption bill, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
'Although the Congress party ethos resembles a court with courtiers, Sonia Gandhi's style was to be consensual.'
Shah said the Opposition's 'irresponsible' conduct caused a loss of over Rs 333 crore of public money and the ruling National Democratic Alliance MPs' decision to forgo their salaries was a 'call of conscience'.
A man of perseverance and great survivor, Mufti Mohammed Sayeed had an astute political sense honed by decades of experience in Kashmir politics that has stood him in good stead in crafting a delicate alliance with Bharatiya Janata Party to return as chief minister for the second time.
'Suspect all, fix all.' 'It is this mindset that begins at the very top of an establishment and then trickles down and across,' notes Shekhar Gupta.
'The BJP's constitution promises allegiance to India's secularism and socialism.' 'This is the oath that it makes all its members sign,' observes Aakar Patel.
The Assam-Mizoram violence is an outcome of BJP trying too hard to 'integrate' distinct northeastern states, explains Shekhar Gupta.
'It is perhaps a sense of intellectual inadequacy, of an ingrained inferiority complex born of the years when the BJP languished in the margins of Indian politics and society that, when faced with the soaring ideas about Indian pluralism, the Hindutva camp turns its face so resolutely against Nehru,' says Amulya Ganguli.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi termed the Emergency, imposed in 1975, as the biggest blow to democracy and said its memories should be kept alive to draw lessons to further fortify the democratic framework and values in the country.
Syed Firdaus Ashraf traces the trajectory of Lal Kishan Advani from the highs of the 1990s to the present, when he may have to watch the elections from the sidelines.
'Today, we being the majority pass a law and if the Opposition parties do not like it, they throw files at the Chair, and beat up women marshals.'
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