In January Amit Shah launched the 'Bhag Mamata Bhag' programme in West Bengal. On Monday Prime Minister Narendra Modi rolled out the red carpet for Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. What changed in two months?
The new chief minister, if from the Congress, will have little or no time for political administration, to ensure that he does not lose the voter's goodwill even before the Lok Sabha polls. He can count only on one thing. That the BJP may not want to upset him too early lest an early failure should become an added problem for the party in all the polls to follow, predicts N Sathiya Moorthy.
'Amid the different versions of truth on the Ishrat case, what is certain is that Ishrat's mother Shamima Kausar, who has continued to maintain that Headley's confession was nothing but an attempt by powerful people to save themselves in the case, is unlikely to find a closure anytime soon.'
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Congress general secretaries Digvijay Singh and Madhusudan Mistri are among the five Congress nominees for the Rajya Sabha elections announced on Monday. However, suspense still remains on whether former Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit will join them.
With the bill to prevent disqualification of convicted politicians to decide the RJD chief's political fate, there's a lot at stake, especially with the upcoming elections in mind. Anita Katyal reports
Rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt unearths some never-told-before details of Narendra Modi's early life. Read on!
'The Congress can exist without (someone from) the Nehru-Gandhi family being its president.'
The BJP is has set its sight on regaining power by winning 150 out of 224 assembly seats.
Less than half the ministers in Team Yogi are not long-term BJP members. Many old-timers have been dropped.
Citing the complaint, the Bharatiya Janata Party said in New Delhi asked Gandhi to come clean on the matter.
Accusing the Bharatiya Janata Party of intentionally raking up communal issues ahead of Lok Sabha elections, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday asked the people not to fall in its "trap".
Wading into the Bharatiya Janata Party's internal affairs, Rahul Gandhi on Monday said that L K Advani was no more its "tallest leader" that he once used to be and has been made a "small leader" by the party, as he unleashed a fierce attack against Narendra Modi.
Former Union minister Ajay Maken, considered close to Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, will be the party's face in the coming Delhi assembly polls.
This was a difficult election to win, but the Modi card, the caste divide and the division in the Opposition vote bank helped overcome many challenges.
'Poor people need to survive, and with the prices of vegetables, petrol, electricity and water high, there was no option but to vote for AAP to change things.'
There's enough time for Mamata Banerjee to change her mind, Alva said.
Among the other names tipped to make it to the Cabinet are Jyotiraditya Scindia, Sarbananda Sonowal, Baijayant Panda.
Late Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray made BJP leaders remove posters that proclaimed Modi, then CM of Gujarat, as the 'Hindu Hriday Samrat'.
2,470 BJP workers from across the country would spend a year visiting polling booths, while another 1,441 workers would spend six months and 378,000 workers will spend 15 days to reach out to party cadres and ensure better polling management in areas outside their home districts.
Patel quota agitation leader Hardik Patel has again postponed his 'reverse Dandi March', scheduled for Sunday, to September 15, claiming that he has been invited by a Cabinet minister for a meeting with the state chief minister on the issue.
'The Shaheen Bagh model of bullets and biryani won't work. The RSS looked at a template that would play to Bengali pride and harp on the state's development. Mamata's slogan to defeat the Left Front was 'Bengal awake and arise'. She promised to check the flight of capital from Bengal to far-flung states and usher in a renaissance. The RSS wants the BJP to pitch this line because it feels Mamata hasn't delivered on her promises.'
A government for 1.25 billion people cannot be a one-man show. Collective decision-making must for good governance, says Virendra Kapoor.
Vanzara, an accused in the fake encounter cases of Ishrat Jahan, said good days have returned.
The West Bengal CM's media equation wasn't always this bad. In the run-up to the assembly elections of 2011, she was a clear favourite.
'I don't think there will be many problems after the assembly election results.'
'Modi and BJP have fooled us enough by creating a Hindu-Muslim divide. Our anger is about jobs and farmers getting a good price, but Shah needs to be taught a lesson for betraying us.'
At the best, the so called Rs 1.25 lakh crore package will not provide anything more than Rs 10,368 crore as additional or incremental resource to the state, said Chief Minister Nitish Kumar
The ultimate consequences of Rahul Gandhi's yatra may be known only in 2024, points out Dr Sudhir Bisht.
Congress accused the BJP and RSS of being behind the 'murderous attack' on Gandhi.
'I really wish I knew how to arouse love in the hearts of people, how to make them understand that religion comes later, first we are all humans.'
'No right thinking student of politics can name one state where the BJP gains in double digits.'
Will N Chandrababu Naidu's son Lokesh be able to manage the old guard the way his father did?
The results are being seen as a ringing endorsement of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's policies and a reflection of his unmatched popularity.
The prime minister also said if there is a 'kabaristaan' (graveyard), there should be a 'shamshaan' (cremation ground) too.
'In Gujarat, for 22 years when the BJP was in power, they sold only dreams, but the delivery was zero.'
On the proposed Grand Alliance of the Congress and other parties in the state, Shah said the Telugu people had not forgotten how the Congress had treated their leaders like former (undivided) Andhra Pradesh chief minister Anjaiah and former prime minister P V Narasimha Rao.
A fringe group in Bareilly announced a reward of Rs 1 crore for anyone 'burning her alive'.
'The BJP's solo aim in Mumbai and Maharashtra is to finish off the Shiv Sena and Sharad Pawar's NCP.'
The UP CM failed to launch any major infrastructure project of its own, including the proposed Purvanchal Expressway, and also rid the roads of potholes by June 2017.
'Removing Biplab Deb and replacing him with Manik Saha is a fruitless exercise that the BJP national leadership has indulged in.' 'It is foolish to think that people will forget what these two have done to the state and its people in the last four years.'
