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.
Sniping at the BJP senior leadership has reached a new high in Karnataka. For the moment, there is a truce, but the party knows the damage it could do ahead of the polls.
The message for 2024 is that the man on the street is not going to be euphoric if the G-20 crowns Modi as king-emperor for 2023, or if India sends its first man to space just ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. Even a 'temple consecration' in Ayodhya, or a Uniform Civil Code, or both of them together, may not have enough electoral purchase if fuel and commodity prices are not rolled back, and money-in-the-pocket does not fatten, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
Altogether 160 MLAs voted in favour of the confidence motion while no vote was cast against the same.
Veteran Congress leader and former Lok Sabha Speaker Balram Jakhar passed away in New Delhi on Wednesday. He was 92.
The political resolution passed at the party's national executive claimed that the Modi government has created a new "history" in the direction of the poor's welfare with its bold initiatives.
'Certainly if Advani had agreed to Vajpayee in sacking Modi, then we would never have been talking of Modi today.'
The Supreme Court on Tuesday said the Constitution has vested enormous powers on the "fragile shoulder" of the chief election commissioner and the two election commissioners and it wants a CEC of strong character like late T N Seshan.
Top BJP leaders hailed the special CBI court order acquitting all the accused and described it as a victory of truth and justice.
'BJP loses a democratic election, then buys MLAs from the ruling party's flock and rides to power in these states.' 'Do you think Atalji would have tolerated this?'
The third-highest category of security in the country has been granted to Agnihotri because of the film-maker's increased threat perception after the The Kashmir Files release.
The less charitable in the party say he owes his appointment Sonia Gandhi -- the family wanted someone who wouldn't talk back and would not exert himself too much, notes Aditi Phadnis.
'As socialism and secularism were the pivot of politics between 1952-80 and 1980-2010 respectively, Hindutva has now come to acquire the same dominance'
The longest-serving chief minister of any Hindi- speaking state, Nitish Kumar seems to have acquired an aura of indispensability when it comes to the highest seat of power in Bihar.
Addressing the annual meeting of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, the BJP leader slammed the Manmohan Singh government as 'non-functional' and 'internally paralysed' and claimed that 'people are already looking beyond' it.
Regional films may have prevailed over the country, but regional leaders still have far mountains to climb to reach Delhi, asserts Shreekant Sambrani.
Nitin Gadkari has a message as much for his party as much purportedly it is for the Opposition. Listening to him, whatever be his reasons and motives, will help, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal-United on Wednesday asserted that it was "not scared of ED and CBI" following its break-up with the Bharatiya Janata Party, which rules the Centre and is often accused by the opposition of misusing investigating agencies.
The seat-share progression should worry the BJP. From the previous assembly polls of 2017, through the assembly segments in its favour in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and now in 2022, the BJP's seat-share has come down from a high 312 to 275 to 255. N Sathiya Moorthy reads the political tea leaves after the UP and Punjab election verdicts.
Chowdhury's pickpocket remark, which was meant to criticise the government's move to suspend the Congress members, left many party MPs visibly embarrassed and many others in splits.
Lalu, who is in his late 70s and suffers from multiple ailments, had been awarded sentences by a special Central Bureau of Investigation court in fodder scam cases.
The prime minister was often seen vigorously thumping the desk, prompting his Cabinet colleagues and NDA MPs to follow suit.
Varun, by remaining silent on the BJP action against him but at the same time remaining unperturbed and active, has shown that he is no pushover, observe Sunil Gatade and Venkatesh Kesari.
Is anyone in the BJP listening -- to what Nitin Gadkari had to say, but possibly left unsaid? asks N Sathiya Moorthy.
The BJP continuing to look at the Dravidian polity through the religious prism has not worked in Tamil Nadu whereas it has yielded political and electoral results across much of the rest of the country, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
'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.
President Ram Nath Kovind administered the oath of office and secrecy to Naidu.
Vice President Hamid Ansari and Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh led the nation in paying homage to the martyrs of December 13, 2001, terrorist attack on Parliament.
The 'nonsense' slur hurled at the Cabinet approved ordinance cannot apply only to the PM and his ministers. Soniaji must also share responsibility, says Bharatiya Janata Party patriarch L K Advani in his blog.
Eight-term member Sumitra Mahajan was on Friday unanimously elected Speaker of the 16th Lok Sabha, becoming the second woman presiding officer of the Lower House after her predecessor Meira Kumar.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leaders -- LK Advani, Sushma Swaraj and Nitin Gadkari -- spent the night at Delhi's Rajghat in protest against the government's controversial handling of Baba Ramdev and his fast against corruption.
Demanding immediate recall of Gujarat governor on Lokayukta appointment issue, a delegation of Bharatiya Janata Party Members of Parliament led by senior leader L K Advani on Friday met President Pratibha Patil who informed them that the matter is sub-judice.
'Our courts may fail, there may be lot of corruption in the working of our criminal justice system, but ultimately the justice of God will prevail,' says Sudheendra Kulkarni, recently released from bail in the cash-for-votes case.
With two weeks of the monsoon session having passed without much significant business, Leader of the House in Lok Sabha Pranab Mukherjee and the Parliamentary Affairs Minister P K Bansal on Friday reached out to the Bharatiya Janata Party top brass, including L K Advani, to discuss smooth passage of pending bills in the House.
Singh, a former Army officer, had been ill after a fall at his home in August 2014 and was admitted to the Army Research and Referral Hospital. He had been in and out of the hospital and was admitted again in June this year.
His career as a bureaucrat has been somewhat colourless, which suggests his current elevation is simply a matter of being at the right place at the right time.
Seventeen years after it was set up, the Liberhan Commission, looking into the Babri Masjid demolition in Ayodhya, submitted its report to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday.
The body of the former minister, wrapped in a tricolour, was brought to the crematorium in the afternoon from the BJP headquarters, where it was kept for few hours for people to pay their respects.
P A Sangma, the Opposition candidate for the Presidential poll, on Thursday filed his nomination papers in the presence of leaders from the Bharatiya Janata Party, some National Democratic Alliance allies, Biju Janata Dal, All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, northeast states and tribal legislators in New Delhi.
Bharatiya Janata Party chief Rajnath Singh on Wednesday met senior party leader L K Advani in a bid to make him agree to Narendra Modi's candidature as the party's Prime Ministerial nominee ahead of the next general election, but appears to have got no assurance of his support on the issue.
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