Mayawati alleged that the prime minister had crossed all limits of decency in terming the Bahujan Samaj Party her personal property.
Modi claimed the Congress, when in power at the Centre, had drawn up plans to allocate 15 percent of the total budget to minorities.
This is Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya's maiden Lok Sabha election, but political experts and voters feel he can easily win Porbandar seat in his home state Gujarat, despite the electorate facing some key issues like unemployment.
The transformation of the Modi-Shah baiting Hardik Patel into saffron poster boy.
'BJP has lot of money. Even a rich person like me is scared of taking on the financial muscle of the BJP.' 'What is the point of throwing money? Result toh aane wala nahi hai.'
In a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Thursday said when the elections are over, people will only remember him as the PM who indulged in 'divisive and communal speeches filled with lies' to avoid an inevitable defeat.
Keshav Prasad Maurya's election from Sirathu in Kaushambi will be among the keenly watched contests in UP. If he and the BJP win, will he be luckier this time?
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday said his party would conduct a "caste census" if elected to power as only such an exercise would ensure the "participation of OBCs, Dalits, tribals and women".
'The BJP must realise that a resurgent Rahul Gandhi will take the battle straight into its camp.' 'He is not going to be held back by the misdeeds of UPA 1 and 2, so there is no point harping on them,' says Sanjeev Nayyar.
'The 2024 election results will lead to much intense targeting of Modi, more intense debates, many more breakdowns in Parliament and many more movements on the streets.' 'The results have hit Modi's standing, and the politics of the Opposition parties will be sharply focused to ensure that Modi doesn't get back his charisma of being 'invincible' with help of State power.' Sheela Bhatt looks at the political situation through the prism of 2024 Lok Sabha election results.
Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge, general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, senior leaders K C Venugopal, P Chidambaram and Salman Khurshid were among the party's top brass taking part in the satyagraha at Rajghat.
'This is a negative campaign, of slurs and fears.' 'The BJP has no desire to fight a positive campaign as it did in 2014, on the issue of governance and achche din.' 'Where the BJP can use these tactics, it will,' says Aakar Patel.
Less than half the ministers in Team Yogi are not long-term BJP members. Many old-timers have been dropped.
'The Congress wants to eat the cake, but does not want to share it.'
In the coming days, unless Modi tones down the communal spiel, it will be clear that anxiety continues to drive his mind and clouds his judgment, observes Modi biographer Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday appealed to the opposition for the unanimous passage of the women's reservation bill and said shortcomings, if any, can be rectified at a later date.
However, another quota agitation body Sardar Patel Group welcomed the government's move, but said they will assess how it will help Patel community and up to what extent.
Stating that he was "proud to be a Hindu", Patel denied speculation that he was joining the BJP.
If the BJP falls sizeably short of the 115 mark -- the seats it won in 2012 -- it will be hard to deny the party hasn't suffered a telling reverse.
I should not stay in a party where I am being insulted, ignored and betrayed, Alpesh said.
On the controversial AFSPA, the home minister said, "We will also think of revoking AFSPA."
Successive elections have demonstrated that the BJP campaign switches towards polarisation when it is faced with palpable discontent among the electorate, notes Utkarsh Mishra.
A total of 851 candidates are in the fray for 93 seats spread across 14 districts in north and central Gujarat, in the final phase of the polls, where 2.22 crore people are eligible to exercise their franchise.
The Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti leader said that reservation formula given by the Congress for his community will be over and above the 50 per cent quota for the Schedule Tribes, Schedule Castes and Other Backward Class.
'The BJP is the most progressive force within Hinduism today.'
Kharge launched a sharp attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying the Himachal Pradesh poll schedule was announced but not of Gujarat so that the PM can inaugurate many more bridges like the one that collapsed in Gujarat's Morbi.
'Whoever thought that building toilets and providing free rations to the poorest of poor Indians would give Modi a halo other political leaders would envy?' asks Sheela Bhatt.
The results are expected to have a bearing on the 2019 parliamentary polls.
As counting is underway in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh, we take a look at who's leading and who's trailing.
'The BJP will be wiped out in rural Gujarat.' 'In urban areas, its tally may come down from 55 of the 60 urban seats it won in 2012 to 35 to 40 seats this time.'
Will a caste census make tens of millions desert Mr Modi?, asks Shekhar Gupta.
The BJP has managed to retain its lead in all the six municipal corporations -- Ahmedabad, Surat, Rajkot, Vadodara, Jamangar and Bhavnagar -- which went to polls last month.
While people voted in a fifth round that will set the tone as this election rounds into the straight, and while Modi on the stump chews the cud of personal grievances and hackneyed promises that have long since passed their use-by date, there is a rogue wave rising -- what damage it will do, we will know 16 days from today, observes Prem Panicker.
Amid opposition charges that the Bharatiya Janata Party was out to destroy the Constitution, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said that his government revered it and even Babasaheb Ambedkar would not be able to abolish it now.
Under the new reservation rule, families with income below Rs 6 lakh per annum will be eligible for quota benefit.
2019 was the Bharatiya Janata Party's breakout year, when it stretched the boundaries of what was thought possible and ended up with 303 seats on its own steam. Now it is forced to play defence, on a pitch queered by too many variables, asserts Prem Panicker.
Modi-Shah can complain about the Congress playing caste politics but the fact is that in Gujarat it is threatening to return to the old normal. Caste again threatens to divide what Hindutva has kept united for 25 years, says Shekhar Gupta.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said the people have given his government a mandate for stability and continuity for the third consecutive term after seeing its work of 10 years and accused the Congress of trying to build a narrative that it has defeated the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance in the Lok Sabha polls.
Every young diploma and degree holder in the country will have the right to apprenticeships in the private and government sectors, he said.
It is unusual in democratic countries two decades into the 21st century for laws to become regressive instead of progressive. But that is clearly what is happening in India today and more of this is ahead, asserts Aakar Patel.
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