For the first time in his political career, he failed to carry his party to even a working majority -- and again, for the first time in his career, he finds himself in a situation where he cannot rule by dictatorial fiat, points out Prem Panicker.
A controversy erupted on Tuesday after the opposition parties tagged a video of DMK leader A Raja purportedly showing him making remarks that India has never been a nation, but a subcontinent with diverse practices and cultures, prompting strong response from the BJP which described the comments as a call for 'balkanisation' of the the country and demanded for his arrest.
'The biggest change that the BJP can initiate in the run-up to 2024 is appointing new faces as chief ministers.' 'In doing so, it will send a message well beyond 2024.'
'The Congress may not be able to dump the family entirely, but it could move to a new operating model in which the family takes a 'chairmanship' role while day-to-day affairs are handled by a new CEO.'
Communal violence broke out in Nuh district on Monday as a mob tried to stop a Vishva Hindu Parishad procession by pelting stones and setting cars on fire. The violence spilled over into neighbouring Gurugram on Tuesday with mobs killing a Muslim cleric, torching an eatery, and vandalising shops.
'Modi will do himself a favour if he starts studying about Mahatma Gandhi.' 'I feel pity that we have a PM who has no idea of our own history.'
Accusing Congress of 'abuse culture', Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday urged the people of Karnataka to punish those indulging in abuse, while casting their vote in polling booths on May 10.
'Is Rahul turning the Congress' covert soft-Hindutva support into overt support now?' 'And if so, following in the BJP's footsteps, is the Congress going to abandon Indian Muslims and Muslim causes altogether?' asks Dr Najid Hussain whose father-in-law former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri was killed during the Gujarat riots.
BJP workers depend on Annamalai's popularity to emerge victorious. He has has made 100 promises to be fulfilled in 500 days and assurances include cleaning up rivers, an international airport and food vans named after former Chief Minister K Kamaraj.
Struggling to gain political traction on issues of corruption, the West Bengal Bharatiya Janata Party is shifting its focus to emotive topics such as the Ram Temple in Ayodhya and the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in a bid to achieve its target of securing 35 out of the 42 Lok Sabha seats from the state.
The 78-year-old Naveen is on the cusp of creating history. He must win the forthcoming Assembly polls to become India's longest-serving chief minister, a record held by Sikkim's Pawan Kumar Chamling.
By filing his nomination as Congress president on Friday, Shashi Tharoor has shown he is no 'quockerwodger' -- a word he introduced into our lexicon which means someone acting on the instructions of an influential third party.
The shift toward a staunchly secular identity will help Congress to rebuild its trust and confidence with the minority communities, especially Muslim voters. Arguably, this is where the Congress' future also lies in national politics, observes M K Bhadrakumar.
The new Ram Lalla idol was consecrated at the Ayodhya temple on Monday, an event led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and watched by lakhs of people on television at their homes and in temples across the country.
They all seem to forget that the Music Academy is as much an independent institution as T M Krishna is an individual musician. In drawing those red lines for the Academy management, they do not even seem to recognise that they too have crossed a red line themselves, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
Kerala's election discourse operates surreptitiously. Its explicit face focuses on important national and local issues. At the same time, it seeks to secure apt communal equations to ensure votes, notes Shyam G Menon.
The complainant accused the Consulting Editor of spreading false news about the scheme offered by the corporation and trying to disturb communal harmony in the state.
It will be in Modi's interest to reinvent his party, read the writing on the wall that voters wrote, and move ahead. He has little choice now. The country is watching, asserts Ramesh Menon.
Sukanta Majumdar, the state BJP president, said, "Amit Shah has set a target of 35 seats. We will achieve that".
There is an impression within the Tamil Nadu BJP -- although no one is airing it -- that over-exposure for Narendra Modi over the past months may work against party candidates, as they have triggered a near-continuous social media debate on his achievements and failures, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
Congress MLA from Nuh Aftab Ahmed on Thursday demanded strict action against those village panchayats in Haryana that have allegedly 'banned' entry of Muslim traders into their villages.
'Non-separation of religion from politics is India's most daunting challenge'
'We have Hindu values, Hindu customs, Hindu philosophy, Hindu way of looking at all religions as acceptable.' 'These are all great assets of India.'
With Union Minister Kiren Rijiju stoking a controversy by saying that the Hindu population was falling while minorities are flourishing, Rediff.com's Syed Firdaus Ashraf studied the 2001 and 2011 census data to track the demographic changes in the northeast.
Even as the two parties appeared confident that they have reached out to every voter and publicised their new symbols, experts suggested varying impact of the split and the symbols on the vote bank.
'Who has given them the right to decide that I am not a Hindu like them'
By keeping the Sanatana Dharma row alive and adding the Ayodhya temple consecration scheduled for January 22 and adding the free darshan promise from four polled states to the entire country, the BJP may have a self-fulfilling concoction, predicts N Sathiya Moorthy.
Maharashtra minister and Nationalist Congress Party leader Jitendra Awhad on Wednesday filed a police case in Thane city against religious leader Kalicharan Maharaj for using an expletive against Mahatma Gandhi.
These are the 15 seats to watch out for in Rajasthan where assembly elections will be held on November 23. The state has 200 constituencies.
The BJP says an 'assassin' is very different from a terrorist.
'Kejriwal took political steps and micro level care at every level not to allow the consolidation of Hindu votes behind the BJP,' observes Sheela Bhatt, the distinguished political commentator.
Indications are that the DMK combine will win more seats than the AIADMK and BJP, but is facing a tough fight in about half a dozen from the rest, predicts N Sathiya Moorthy of the electoral contest in Tamil Nadu.
Springing a surprise, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday picked Mohan Yadav, a leader of Other Backward Classes (OBC) and a three-time MLA, as the next chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, state party president VD Sharma said.
'Since the last ten days our own people were spreading canards and propaganada against me and my family.' 'I was upset by this behaviour and I decided that I should not contest this Lok Sabha election.'
The much-awaited Ram temple consecration will be held in Ayodhya on Monday in a grand ceremony with Prime Minister Narendra Modi attending the rituals, following which the shrine will be opened for the public a day later.
Senior Assam Congress leader Debabrata Saikia has filed a police complaint against Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma for his alleged "hateful statement" such as Lok Sabha MP and former party president Sonia Gandhi's "residence should be burnt".
The Delhi chief minister also asked people to vote in the coming Lok Sabha polls to elect an MP, not the prime minister, saying the MP would "work for you during tough times".
Against the backdrop of Kerala's appetite for commonsense, it was assumed that this controversy would pass. Respect for rationalism and scientific outlook is strong in the state despite political forces gnawing at it for their own goals, observes Shyam G Menon.
'The BJP is doing politics 24x365, but the Congress revs up only during elections.'
Utkarsh Mishra's impressions of the Narendra Modi roadshow in Varanasi.
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