Vellore is one of the two seats that the DMK alliance won by the narrowest of margins in 2019. For the DMK's vote-score to be so low in a constituency with a substantial Muslim population has not missed the BJP strategists' eyes, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
A day after slamming Narendra Modi as "Butcher of Gujarat", the Trinamool Congress on Monday demanded that the Gujarat Chief Minister should apologise publicly or face a defamation case for questioning the sale of Mamata Banerjee's painting.
In an indirect reference to the Janata Party-United raising objections on announcing Narendra Modi as the Prime Ministerial candidate of Bharatiya Janata Party, senior saffron party leader M Venkaiah Naidu on Wednesday said it is not appropriate for the ally to comment on the Gujarat chief minister now.
Leaders of the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) in Maharashtra slammed Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai's statement that a meeting between a delegation of Maharashtra MPs and Union Home Minister Amit Shah on the issue would not make any difference to the border dispute.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav's quest for lions from the Gir forest in Gujarat to develop a lion safari in the once dacoit-infested Chambal ravines in Etawah has provoked an interesting wordy duel between him and his Gujarat counterpart Narendra Modi.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday attacked the Congress and its erstwhile government in Puducherry, saying the V Narayanasamy led dispensation had 'different priorities' than public welfare and flayed party leader Rahul Gandhi over his recent 'north-south' remarks.
"On the one hand he says I was a 'yachak' (somebody pleading) and on the other hand he accuses me of having arrogance. It's very contradictory. I am willing to plead with the Centre for the cause of Bihar. He is the prime minister and can say whatever he wishes.
'Let us not say that Modi has not delivered on anything; he has delivered something and in parts substantially, but he has to also deliver on a large number of his electoral promises.'
He reaffirmed that parties opposed to the BJP can win with a "huge majority" in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls if they agree to join hands.
Addressing a rally in Bankura district, she described the BJP as a "party of outsiders", and alleged that it is bringing "goondas to create terror" in the state.
'He gave this 'gaali' (abuse) to me or you? Did he abuse me or Gujarat? Did he abuse the cultured society of India or me?' Modi asked the people at a rally in Banaskantha.
The coming weeks are sure to have a lot of drama unfolding in Maharashtra, predicts N Sathiya Moorthy.
'Do you want Tipu or Savarkar? Where should we send Tipu Sultan? What did Uri Gowda and Nanje Gowda do? In the same way he should be knocked out and sent off'
In a letter to Sonia Gandhi, he alleged that he was forced to resign as some Congress leaders were conspiring against him.
Maharashtra minister Sudhir Mungantiwar on Thursday claimed that Gautam Adani prospered during the Congress regime in Gujarat and said one cannot become the prime minister by growing a 'beard', referring to Rahul Gandhi's remarks on the industrialist in Parliament.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, party president Amit Shah and chief ministers of National Democratic Alliance-ruled States are at the ceremony.
"To all casteist leaders I would like to say my only caste is poor, my only identity is poor."
If Tamil Nadu voters preferred the DMK combine, it owed to the Modi-Annamalai combo's ideological battle which often crossed the line of political decency and also challenged 'Tamil pride', argues N Sathiya Moorthy.
The meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in Delhi was one of courtesy
'Look at the number of billionaires, the number of new billionaires in India.' 'Adani and Ambani are not the only ones.' 'What's wrong with people making money as long as it benefits us?'
Hitting back at Rahul Gandhi for his "balloon jibe", Narendra Modi on Sunday said that the Congress vice president should focus on the nation rather than criticising Gujarat which was declared "number one" by his mother Sonia Gandhi.
Sabarmati railway station is the venue for the ground-breaking ceremony, be chaired by Modi and Abe, of the Rs 98,000-crore Ahmedabad-Mumbai high-speed rail project.
He may not have been declared Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate just yet but Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday seemed to have already donned the mantle when he said the nation would be comparing his speech with that of Prime Minister on Independence Day on Thursday.
Arvind Kejriwal warned the media that "very big forces" would try and break the INDIA alliance by showing that there was a lot of acrimony among them.
Shah said the people of Gujarat would seek an answer from Congress in December, when the state goes to polls.
Modi said bribery was not possible as the money was transferred directly into accounts of the beneficiaries.
Prime Minister Modi, who is in Japan on a two-day visit to attend a summit of the Quad leaders at the invitation of his Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida, penned an op-ed on the vibrant relations between India and Japan in the Yomiuri Shimbun.
Amid the Bharatiya Janata Party's criticism over the duration of his visit to cyclone-hit Konkan region of Maharashtra, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has said that he was at least taking stock of the situation on the ground and not conducting an aerial survey in a helicopter.
Speaking to reporters in Thane, Pawar accused the Narendra Modi government of failing to fulfil any of the promises made by it since 2014 including bringing 'acche din, connecting villages through the internet, and providing toilets, water, and power to every household'.
When Home Minister Amit Shah, who was in Gujarat to cast his vote in the urban body polls, learnt of the poor voter, instead of heading home he went to the Motera stadium, organised a control room, and was on the phone with practically everybody assigned duty on the ground: MPs, MLAs and BJP office-bearers. His single commandment was to check the voter list and phone or personally get people to the booths, reports Radhika Ramaseshan.
The veteran socialist leader, who ended his long alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party last year, was responding to queries from journalists about the 'Hindu Rashtra' clamour, which was openly endorsed earlier this week by his Uttar Pradesh counterpart Yogi Adityanath.
Governors must be impartial, fair, and above narrow politics to uphold the values and spirit of the Constitution. But in a rapidly changing political culture where the unstated rule is to crush the Opposition, such values have no meaning. At stake are Constitutional values, federalism and governance, asserts Ramesh Menon.
Zakia Jafri, widow of former Congress Member of Parliament Ehsan Jafri, on Tuesday approached the Gujarat high court challenging the Ahmedabad metropolitan court order upholding SIT's clean chit to Gujarat Chief minister Narendra Modi and others in connection with the 2002 riots case.
Though different voices are emerging from within the ruling BJP in Madhya Pradesh over the issue, several saffron party MLAs, including senior leaders, appeared worried about a possible repeat of the 'Gujarat formula' to overcome anti-incumbency in the central state, where Assembly elections are due in end-2023.
She also demanded that Chief Minister N Biren Singh admit his failure and apologise to the people of Manipur.
Narendra Modi was unanimously elected as the leader of Bharatiya Janata Party Parliamentary party on Tuesday with the prime minister-designate saying the election result was a vote for 'new hope and aspiration' and he would try his best to live up to the expectations of the people of the country.
Decreasing the height of Shivaji's statue to make Sardar Patel's statue look taller is 'narrow and distorted mindset', the Sena said in an editorial in party mouthpiece Saamana.
Vaghela said the front 'Jan Vikalp' was floated by some city-based "professionals", who approached him to provide an alternative to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and the opposition Congress in Gujarat, and claimed a number of people wanted to see him as the chief minister.
The speculation was triggered after Shravan Kumar, a Bihar minister, who is also the Janata Dal-United's in-charge for UP, said there were 'demands' that the party boss enter the fray from the adjoining state.
'I hope he will continue to be what he is. And doing so, he won't be much different from those whose example he is being given right now,' says Utkarsh Mishra.
