The Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday claimed that the crisis in its Rajasthan unit had blown over and indicated that the Leader of the Opposition in the state assembly Vasundhara Raje is the undisputed head of the party there. Top leaders of BJP, including Arun Jaitley, placated Raje on Monday morning over the phone and asked her to pipe down. She had gone public with her anger over her party colleague Gulabchand Kataria's decision to kick off a yatra in the state.
Modi can abandon the path of Hindutva only at risk to his position within his own fraternity. But if he pursues a hard line, he faces the risk of being hauled up by his coalition-partners. For the first time in a decade, Modi is not in enviable situation, observes Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
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".
Functioning in several departments related to revenue collection has also been affected. Revenue collection has reduced by Rs 17,000 crore in March.
As soon as the chief minister made the first two announcements, which featured in Budget 2022-23, the Opposition began creating a ruckus and stormed into the well of the House.
That he hasn't done so yet, has continued to be active on the political street, in public debate and on social media, signals an important change. It will give his party hope. Maybe the achievement of reducing Mr Modi well below the majority mark will now motivate him to stay committed, observes Shekhar Gupta
Modi wants the BJP to gets an additional 10% of the vote share from what it won in 2019. Plans are afoot to get new faces to replace MPs with poor chances of winning. Sources say more than 100 MPs are like to be axed, notes Modi biographer Ramesh Menon.
'Episodes of targeted attacks on Muslims established that for a section of people and, sadly, even officials of the State, the election results conveyed no lessons.' 'Opposition parties must not be hesitant in speaking out whenever the mob with tacit State support targets Muslims,' asserts Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, author of Narendra Modi: The Man, The Times.
'Star campaigner' to address election meetings in poll-bound Chhattisgarh, MP, Rajasthan.
'This is what happens to a party when it gets trapped in the vicious circle of nepotism and dynastic politics'
Seat sharing and campaign is likely to be top of the agenda, they added.
A democracy is one, only if it has a robust Opposition. And as its actions show, the Modi-BJP combine gives two hoots for that. So, the Opposition must learn to convince people why the BJP must go. Else, it can count down to 2029, points out Shyam G Menon.
Sources said the new heads of the party in Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh will be announced soon.
The Congress is now gearing up to take on the BJP over alleged corruption, jobs and issues tied to tribals, farmers and women.
Vasundhra Raje, who resigned as Leader of Opposition in the Rajasthan Assembly following orders from the BJP high command, on Friday met former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
The National Democratic Alliance, led by strong man Narendra Modi secured a whopping 352 of 542 seats, making it evident that his message of muscular nationalism, security and Hindu pride had worked wonders.
With Thursday's win, the Congress's strength in the Lok Sabha has gone up to 48.
'Play safe and persist with an ailing Sonia Gandhi as interim chief and wait for an opportune moment to foist the crown prince yet again,' predicts Virendra Kapoor.
With the assembly poll results in three states being a disappointment for the Congress, some rumblings have begun among the constituents of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) ahead of their meeting on December 6, with many leaders alleging that the grand old party ignored others, but was unable to win elections on its own.
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.
BJP candidate and minister Kunvarji Bavaliya defeated his nearest rival Congress nominee Avsar Nakiya by a margin of 19,979 votes, officials said.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday announced Prime Minister Narendra Modi will fight again from Varanasi in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections as it named 34 Union ministers in the first list of 195 candidates.
BSP chief's hard blows meet with timid retort from India's Grand Old Party.
The Congress also asserted that the opposition INDIA bloc had been formed for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections at the national level and was not state specific.
The BJP's challenge is whether it can again deflate a Congress, which now looks reinvigorated and has adopted sharper messaging around its 'guarantees', and several regional parties, especially in Bihar, Maharashtra and West Bengal.
'Commentators have said that dealing with allies as equals will make Modi more sensitive.' 'Remember that the people Modi is dealing with are equally autocratic in their own lairs.' 'Further, Modi always has handy the threat of dissolving Parliament and calling for fresh polls.' 'Most of his own party, and certainly his allies and opponents having blown their budgets of efforts and resources in the just concluded elections, have no stomach for this.' 'They are all greatly looking forward to the loaves and fishes of office on offer.' 'That gives Modi an unbeatable advantage in any push-comes-to-shove situation,' explains Shreekant Sambrani.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday attacked the Congress, saying it skipped the meeting convened to select the new Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) as he is a Dalit and this reflected the anti-Scheduled Castes mindset of the main opposition party.
Modi said not a single leader of the opposition grouping INDIA has uttered a word against the "disrespect" for women.
'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.'
There was speculation that he might meet the party's All India Congress Committee in-charge of Rajasthan Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa and other senior leaders, but sources close to Pilot said no meetings were fixed.
Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com does a deep dive into four elections when Narendra Modi resorted to anti-Muslim fervour and points out that Hindu-Muslim politics does not necessarily mean victory for the BJP.
In a virtual climb-down after defying the party's directive to step down as leader of Opposition in the Rajasthan assembly, senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Vasundhara Raje on Friday said the orders of the leadership were 'supreme' for her."I am a disciplined soldier of the party and its order is supreme for me. I am committed to serve the party with a post or without it," she said. Raje was asked to resign in the wake of the party's poor performance.
The move comes a day after the government called a special session of Parliament between September 18 and 22, the agenda for which is under wraps.
The BTP, a Congress ally which supported chief minister Ashok Gehlot during the revolt in his party earlier this year, is upset that the ruling party candidates chose BJP over it.
'Who has given how much money to which party, the people of India must know this fact.'
The prime minister tweeted: "Pained to know about the passing away of Mrs Suvra Mukherjee. My condolences to Rashtrapati ji & his family in this hour of grief."
Four BJP leaders and former Supreme Court judge S Abdul Nazeer, who was part of the Constitution bench that upheld the archaeological report on Ayodhya, were among six new faces appointed as Governors on Sunday.
Gujrat Titans will be striving for much needed consistency when they meet Delhi Capitals in an Indian Premier League match in Ahmedabad on Wednesday.
Ashok Gehlot has proved that a strong state leader can challenge the Congress high command.
The party's decision to announce the first list of candidates so early underlines the significance it has attached to five state elections, the last round of assembly contest before the all-important Lok Sabha polls.
