'All senior Muslim leaders of the BJP are left behind.' 'Doodh mein se makhi jaisey nikaal dete hain.'
Top leaders of the two parties are campaigning in Jharkhand and Maharashtra for the ongoing assembly polls in the two states.
'Unlike in the sporting arena, where sports federations moved from partisan to impartial referees, in Indian democracy's biggest festival, it appears we are moving backward from unbiased and objective to one-sided and partisan,' observes Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis was sworn in as the new Chief Minister of Maharashtra in a grand ceremony at Azad Maidan in Mumbai.
'One murder gets national coverage because of political connections.' 'The other two and the brutal torture? Not much outrage.' 'Are Dalit and OBC lives worth less?'
'The reason I am not anxious about the opponent facing me in the front (Ajit Pawar) is because of who is standing behind me like a rock (Sharad Pawar).'
The Shiv Sena had gone on the defensive after a 'successful' visit to Mumbai by Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi and high drama over the release of Shah Rukh Khan-starrer My Name Is Khan -- both in February. Maharashtra's main Opposition party is now back in action, alleging that Marathi-speaking people in Karnataka's Belgaum district, which shares a border with Maharashta, are being suppressed by the Bharatiya Janata Party government in that state.
Top Bharatiya Janata Party leaders, including L K Advani, spoke to Shiv Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray after which the party, upset over arch-rival Maharashta Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray's visit to BJP office, said it will attend the NDA rally in Delhi on Wednesday.
Raj Bhavan sources said the swearing-in ceremony will be held at 11 am on Sunday, a day before the monsoon session of the Maharashtra legislature, the last before assembly polls later this year, begins.
In his characteristic 56-inch chest kind of bravado, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday launched a blistering attack on the Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar and his nephew and former Maharashtra deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar in their family stronghold of Western Maharashtra's Baramati. The family has never lost an election ever since senior Pawar began his political career. Reportage: Prasanna D Zore/Rediff.com. Photographs: Sanjay Sawant/Rediff.com
He is among the contenders for the top job in the event the BJP gets fewer seats in 2019. That may have something to do with him picking up the cudgels for Sushma Swaraj when many in the party kept mum, says Aditi Phadnis.
What do the leads from Maharashtra tell you about the emerging trends in the state? Prasanna D Zore/Rediff.com explains.
Tension had been brewing between Maharashtra MPs of the Shiv Sena and Bharatiya Janata Party. Shiv Sena MPs believe they have been sidelined and treated shabbily at the Sadan. Dhanya Rajendran reports