NDA leaders meet President, seek Natwar's removal
Behind its high-decibel campaign, powered by well-organised party machinery, the BJP also appears to have made a slight departure from its 'next generation' approach to stay ahead of an aggressive Congress and enhance its prospects of securing a majority of seats.
He underlined the need for patience in political life and said those seeking a change of guard should go back to the people to achieve it.
A rotating chief ministership as a way to appease factions can work only if there is a credible guarantor, explains Aditi Phadnis.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Friday declared that he will not realign with the Bharatiya Janata Party till he is alive, accusing the former ally of using investigating agencies for targeting political opponents like Rashtriya Janata Dal president Lalu Prasad.
Bharatiya Janata Party leaders led by L K Advani on Wednesday raised with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh their objections to Defence Minister A K Antony's statement on the killing of Indian soldiers along the LOC, terming it as a "goof-up", and pressed for a clarification on the serious matter.
The PM is seen as slipping up in confidence levels as aired by his 'exposure' of the BRS on a crucial issue as alliance negotiations, which is not done under normal circumstances, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Opposition parties in Parliament on Monday vociferously protested the "snooping" on Rahul Gandhi, with the government dismissing their contention saying they were making a "mountain out of what is not even a molehill", leading the Congress to walk out of Rajya Sabha.
A fierce competition among parties to offer freebies and guarantees, a scramble for tribal, OBC, women votes and a touch of Hindutva -- all have combined to make the Madhya Pradesh assembly polls a high-stakes battle with main rivals BJP and the Congress pulling out all the stops to gain power.
The five-state assembly elections are seen as a now-or-never, no-holds battle for the Congress, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
"Leaders like Vajpayee, Advani treated me with respect," the JD-U leader said.
The opposition's presidential poll candidate Yashwant Sinha on Friday revealed that Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar refused to take his calls when he tried to seek the latter's support for his candidature.
Jaitley said the Opposition has been using the zero hour to raise the issue for 'getting footage on TV'.
Amid continued disruption of Parliament, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has invited top Bharatiya Janata Party leaders for dinner on February 12 to seek their support for the passage of the crucial Telangana bill and other anti-corruption legislations in Parliament.
Addressing a public rally in Sabroom in poll-bound Tripura, Shah said that the Congress and the Communist Party of India-Marxist had put the Ram Mandir issue in the jurisdiction of the court for long, while Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for it after the Supreme Court's order.
They have asked for information to be provided before November 23.
As the old Parliament building hosted a session one last time, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday bid a poignant farewell recalling the country's first PM Jawaharlal Nehru's iconic 'tryst with destiny' speech for continuing to inspire everyone and another predecessor Atal Bihari Vajpayee's 'governments may come and go' remark.
The suspense over the controversial bill continues as the BJP insists that it was not introduced as Lok Sabha witnessed its stormiest proceedings ever.
Sharad Pawar reckons that the NCP has value as a united, going concern, not as a gaggle of leaders in search of followers, notes Shreekant Sambrani.
Syed Firdaus Ashraf lists 10 instances when the BJP didn't pull its punches.
The two main factions in Karnataka's Congress party -- one led by Siddaramaiah and the other by D K Shivakumar -- are both contenders for the chief ministership. Both groups have fought hard to get their choice of MLAs the party ticket, notes Aditi Phadnis.
At the best of times, ticket distribution in India's political parties is a tough business. The post-election result has to be judged, and judged correctly. It's an impossible job in view of the 814 million voters for whom the party bigwigs have to perform. Sheela Bhatt presents this light-hearted assessment of what's top of the mind for our political heavyweights.
While the Opposition is making a belated effort to form a joint front against the BJP, Mamata's ambiguous stand has created confusion, observes Virendra Kapoor.
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.
'It is entirely possible that Sonia Gandhi wants her son to be prime minister.' 'If so, it is game, set and match to the BJP,' says T C A Srinivasa-Raghavan.
The JD-U leader's outbursts against his former ally came in response to queries from journalists about Shah's speech earlier in the day at Sitab Diara.
The ultimate consequences of Rahul Gandhi's yatra may be known only in 2024, points out Dr Sudhir Bisht.
There is no sign of it losing popularity with a significant section of the voting population, which appears to be attracted to the party for identity reasons, observes Aakar Patel.
Hailing former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda, calling him a "role model", he also advocated for more women representation in the assembly.
From the voter-level, traditionally anti-BJP, anti-Hindutva minorities and other secular voters would have an option, especially in the face of the mounting anti-incumbency against the ruling party -- as it happened in the 2001 assembly polls, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
Taking a jibe over the reported row in Bharatiya Janata Party over a move to field Narendra Modi from Varanasi and Rajnath Singh from Lucknow, Congress on Monday wondered as to why Opposition party leaders were looking for a safe seat if there was a Modi wave across the country.
The system of 'selecting' an election commissioner, which is before the Supreme Court, must be institutionalised.
A new Congress leader may make an electoral impact by his very presence. Congress voters who had moved away from the party, after being influenced by the BJP's 'family rule' campaign, can now return with a certain moral satisfaction, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
'BJP leaders might ponder the all-consuming arrogance that grips the Modi-Shah combine a year ahead of the next general election,' says Sunil Sethi.
Moitra brought two birthday caps in the House to press her argument that the businessman being most talked about had "topi-pehnau-ed" the government.
The Centre has issued directions for blocking multiple YouTube videos and Twitter posts sharing links to the BBC documentary 'India: The Modi Question', sources said.
Modi will utilise the Presidential poll to show that he is the only leader who matters in India, argue Sunil Gatade and Venkatesh Kesari. So the question being asked in political circles is: 'Who will be the next Kovind?'
By changing the nation's name from India to Bharat, would this landmass overnight lose the emotional and cultural linkage that had been built over generations, centuries and millennia, asks N Sathiya Moorthy.
Veteran Congress leader and former Lok Sabha Speaker Balram Jakhar passed away in New Delhi on Wednesday. He was 92.
Neither Modi nor Shah had held legislative or executive power in Delhi before 2014. They have no training in appealing to the diversity of India as represented in Parliament. Their prism is the provincial politics of Gujarat. An exclusive excerpt from Vinay Sitapati's fascinating new book, Jugalbandi: The BJP Before Modi.
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