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.
'Both sides were so embittered by what had happened last year that I didn't know what to expect.'
Union minister and Congress leader Vilasrao Deshmukh and two Nationalist Congress Party candidates were elected on Monday to the Rajya Sabha from Maharashtra. NCP leaders Govindrao Adik and Ranjitsinh Mohite Patil were elected to the Upper House of parliament against the seats vacated by Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel and Supriya Sule after their election to Lok Sabha.
Aam Aadmi Party's internal Lokpal, Admiral (retd) L Ramdas, on Saturday said he will not quit the post even though he was asked not to attend the crucial National Council meeting for which he had travelled all the way from Maharashtra.
The march, which commenced from Nashik on March 6, will culminate in Mumbai on Monday and protestors plan to gherao the Vidhan Bhavan where the Budget session of the state legislature is underway, said organisers.
The results will be declared on July 20 in New Delhi.
Parliamentarians and legislators across the country voted on Monday to elect India's 15th president, choosing between opposition pick Yashwant Sinha and National Democratic Alliance nominee Droupadi Murmu who is favoured to win the battle to the Rashtrapati Bhavan.
'What are the circumstances at that time? Had you thought Modi will come after Vajpayee?'
'AAP's next target will be Punjab.'
'The Speaker has to act in an impartial way and in accordance with what the Supreme Court has laid out in its judgment.'
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Monday said he has directed the police to arrest within 48 hours the culprits who hurled stones at a catholic church in Navi Mumbai on Saturday.
'If the BJP doesn't want to accept the will of the people, then we will show them what a majority means.'
Khadse was sulking since he was made to resign as minister in 2016 in the then Fadnavis-led BJP govt over corruption charges.
The 13-day Devendra Fadnavis Maharashtra government won the Trust vote in the Maharashtra assembly.
Union Minister Prakash Javadekar will get a Rajya Sabha berth from Madhya Pradesh after his name was finalised by the Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday.
'Four years ago, when Gadkari was BJP president, Fadnavis was president of the state BJP, I had gone on a fast unto death demanding separate statehood for Vidarbha.' 'They had come to meet me and promised that once the party comes to power at the Centre and in the state, we will get separate statehood.' 'Four years have passed, but no change is seen on the ground.'
'If there is one message coming out of Delhi, it is that the country is ready for inclusive, bipartisan politics, not based on caste, community and religion, but based on issues of a modern India.'
'It marks the start of an era where the BJP must now campaign on its own record rather than against the misrule of another party.'
'Amit Shah was, briefly, a stockbroker before devoting himself to politics. By instinct or training, he knows the value of keeping blue chips in one's portfolio.'
The last Sena man to occupy the CM's chair was Narayan Rane in 1999, after Manohar Joshi, who in 1995 became the first Sena CM.
The first Bharatiya Janata Party government in Maharashtra headed by state party chief Devendra Fadnavis will be sworn in on Friday with Shiv Sena unlikely to join the new dispensation for now as talks continued between the two saffron parties for a tie-up.
'Sonia Gandhi can't rejuvenate the party, her heir is fodder for stand-up comedians, and nobody in the Congress has the guts to question the Nehru-Gandhis.'
'The BJP will get the lion's share of the Opposition vote. I would give the Congress-Left around 15 per cent.'
The order soon got mired in political controversy with the opposition Samajwadi Party crying hoarse that the move smacked of politics ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.
'Police officers have to meet Dalits and other communities, find out about issues that could lead to law and order problems.'
As nominations for Rajya Sabha biennial polls closed on Tuesday, a contest is on the cards in Uttar Pradesh and Haryana even as Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal and senior Congress leader P Chidambaram are among those set to be elected to the Upper House.
It was not very easy to leave the family which I built for 20 years but then I got a very warm welcome from the Thackeray family.
'The feeling is that Rajinikanth is pro-Modi than anti-Modi.'
This will be 'an Uddhav Thackeray government controlled by a remote now held by Sharad Pawar.'
'Some in the Congress believe the party should, somewhat brazenly, claim the cause of fighting corruption as its own. But the Congress's idea of fighting corruption is nothing but tinkering with laws, it lacks the stomach to take on the corrupt,' feels T V R Shenoy.
'Since Pranab Mukherjee is the Custodian of the Constitution, he should present practical ideas to solve the problems he has been so outspokenly highlighting,' feels Sudheendra Kulkarni.
Social media teams of the Aam Aadmi Party, Bharatiya Janata Party and Congress are trying to engage with the voter on Facebook, twitter and Whatsapp as they try to set the agenda in the online space. Upasna Pandey/Rediff.com reports.
We sorted through countless photographs taken around the world to come up with the top photos of 2019. Together these images tell the story of the year -- capturing moments of hope and heartbreak, triumph and tragedy.
