'For short-term gain, the BJP makes extraordinary promises, they take extraordinary decisions, but in the long term it is going to impact both them and the country.'
As Maharashtra and Haryana show, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah completely control the BJP and are taking it to the next level ruthlessly, without carrying forward any past baggage.
In early 2017, Amit A Shah warned Nara Chandrababu Naidu that Narendra D Modi was not like Atal Bihari Vajpayee to yield to pressure tactics. Soon, Naidu was to discover this for himself.
In Delhi, the poor are pitted against the middle class, with the former led by Arvind Kejriwal and the latter by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
'If Rahul wants to pick up the sacred thread where his 'daadi' left it, especially when the BJP, which reduced his party to 44 in 2014, claims monopoly over Hinduism, it's smart politics.' 'Why cede your Gods to your rival?' asks Shekhar Gupta.
'Nobody would dare directly target Modi, and while there are murmurs about Amit Shah after Bihar, nobody is willing to say this openly. Arun Jaitley, in some calculations, is most expendable for Modi,' says Shekhar Gupta.
'The coronation of Yogi Adityanath as the surprise chief minister should set at rest all speculation over the nature of the UP mandate,' says Saisuresh Sivaswamy.
Bharatiya Janata Party general secretary Amit Shah on Saturday said winds of change were blowing across the country and its effect would be visible even in a Congress stronghold like Amethi.
The chief minister skipped meals and remained awake the entire night on a makeshift dais along with some senior ministers and party members.
"Modiji reminded that nation bows before Constitution and not him!"
'I don't think there is any problem,' Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis told Rediff.com about the ongoing slugfest between Minister of State for Revenue Sanjay Rathod and his boss in the ministry, Eknath Khadse.
'How many Indian parents, still alive, really have documents of, their parents's date and place of birth? Not more than 27% of still alive Indians have got birth certificates,' points out Mohammad Sajjad.
'Modi cannot drag India back into a primitive epoch resembling the religious wars in medieval Europe and at the same time claim to represent the aspirations of modernity among Indians,' notes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
In further rumblings within the Bharatiya Janata Party over its big loss in Bihar, party MP Hukumdev Narayan Yadav on Monday said the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat's quota comments 'agitated' backward castes who rallied around the grand alliance and asserted that many who voted for the Modi government are not RSS supporters.
'Their candidates are simple people who will be there in hours of need.'
What will a split in the AIADMK mean for Tamil Nadu?
The narrow win in Gujarat can be contributed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi with his no-holds-barred approach and party president Amit Shah who plays to win and knows that there are rules to be followed when suited and broken when needed.
From an obscure corporator to becoming the youngest Mayor of Nagpur, to the first Bharatiya Janata Party Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Devendra Fadnavis' climb up the political ladder has been steady.
Over 20 political parties, except the Biju Janata Dal and the Communist Party of India-Marxist-led Left Front, took part in the massive rally.
Rahul feels collective decisions taken with his mother and sister helped the party in the December assembly elections. Hence, he wants to follow the same strategy for the Lok Sabha election, too.
'Whatever the result on December 18, Rahul has succeeded.' 'He has taken the battle to the rival's territory, and forced him to take him more seriously than he has done so far, or would have wished to.' 'A party, dominating and powerful as the BJP today, is spending all its time attacking the leader of one with just 46 seats in the Lok Sabha, and in the woods in Gujarat for 22 years.' 'This isn't the script the BJP had written,' says Shekhar Gupta.
Stung by repeated barbs by the Bharatiya Janata Party leaders at former prime minister Manmohan Singh, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on Friday said that the voice of Prime Minister Narendra Modi was "feebler even than that of a mouse".
The BJP's embarrassing rout in Delhi may affect Modi in many ways.
Fadnavis, BJP's state unit chief and MLA from Nagpur Southwest constituency, was unanimously chosen at the legislative party meeting at Vidhan Bhavan in Mumbai.
'Kejriwal has taken a leaf out of Modi's campaign of 2014 and improved upon it.' 'That suit will haunt Modi till he exits politics.' 'Of all the factors that favoured Kejriwal, the biggest was the arrogance and over-confidence of the Modi-Shah led BJP.' 'What the Congress could not do in the last two decades in Gujarat, Kejriwal did it in no time in Delhi.' 'The BJP has behaved exactly like the Congress in decoding Kejriwal's politics.'
The Congress president said that if he was allowed to speak for 15 minutes on a host of issues, including the Nirav Modi scam, PM Modi would "run away".
"Our decision to form an alliance with the Congress was to stop the Modi-Shah duo," Sisodia said.
Unlike the LDF and NDA nominees who are at ground zero and campaigning hard every day, the Congress candidate's campaign is undertaken in absentia, dependent on an army of local and imported from the rest of Kerala Congresswomen and men.
On the occasion of the Narendra Modi government completing one year in office, Sheela Bhatt/Rediff.com speaks to BJP president Amit Shah who is yin to Modi's yang. Don't miss it!
In a surprise move, Gujarat government on Wednesday reinstated suspended IPS officer G L Singhal, an accused in Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case whose recording of phone conversations had brought to light the snooping scandal allegedly involving Narendra Modi aide Amit Shah.
The Raj Thackeray-led Maharashra Navnirman Sena deteriorated thanks to its own doing and absolute lack of vision. Now it seems it is only a matter of time before the Shiv Sena goes the same way. Both cousins will ensure they finish the 'Sena', says N Suresh.
Narendra Modi "does not deserve" to be BJP's PM candidate if the Cobrapost claim on illegal spying on a woman architect in Gujarat in 2009 are found to be correct, Congress women leaders said today demanding an inquiry into the issue by a Supreme Court judge.
'Kanhaiya Kumar, rising through subaltern rage and aspiration, may not triumph, not yet, but his ability to rise is tribute to democracy's finest hour,' says Saisuresh Sivaswamy.
'I believe that in the BJP nobody can make anybody anything... I believe the media should analyse this after the end of my tenure!' 'My work is incomplete till I take the BJP to the four big states of West Bengal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.' BJP President Amit Shah, as never before!
Rubbishing the allegations, the Uttarakhand CM said that the CD presented was totally fake, adding that efforts were being made to tarnish the image of the Congress-led state government.
'A false narrative is being created, that Modi is a habitual offender when it comes to lowering the political discourse in the country.' 'Nothing can be farther from the truth,' argues Sudhir Bisht.
Eyewitnesses alleged the attackers entered the premises when a meeting was being held by JNU Teachers' Association on the issue of violence on campus and assaulted students and professors.
The resurgence that Congressmen feel is in fact more sentimental than substantive. The substantive reality is that the Congress is a party in terminal decline since 1989, says Shekhar Gupta.
The deaths of Jayalalithaa and M Karunanidhi within months of each other neutralises any sympathy factor their parties may hope to gain from. What's more, by removing charismatic leaders from the fray, it also levels the field for others, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
The question is no longer whether he will win 2019; it's what he will do with the new status, says Shekhar Gupta.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances