Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut on Sunday hit out at the BJP for opposing Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray's directive to state police to keep a record of migrants coming here from other states, claiming the BJP was raking up the 'outsider' card with an eye on the Uttar Pradesh Assembly and Mumbai civic elections due next year.
If Kejriwal wins the Delhi election, then most regional parties will copy Kejriwal's do's and don'ts of jugaad to win an election against the Modi-Shah juggernaut, reports Sheela Bhatt.
Despite being given the post of a Union minister, Rane has been behaving like a "roadside gangster", Shiv Sena's mouthpiece Saamana said in an editorial.
Congress is the only other horse in the race for national power, never mind how distant. Narendra Modi and Amit Shah know better than to take the Congress lightly, observes Shekhar Gupta.
The future challenger to Narendra Modi would be somebody who can bring the Hindus and Muslims together again. The Hindus as Hindus, not broken caste groups, asserts Shekhar Gupta.
Modi will utilise the Presidential poll to show that he is the only leader who matters in India, argue Sunil Gatade and Venkatesh Kesari. So the question being asked in political circles is: 'Who will be the next Kovind?'
The party is less forthcoming about who the chief minister will be if it stays in power.
We used to hear of the Modi-Shah pair as the hyphenated top of the BJP leadership. Lately, the hyphen has disappeared and it is only Modi at the top. Yogi Adityanath gets honourable mentions, but he is still a good distance away from being anointed a worthy successor, observes Shreekant Sambrani.
Who will win in the end? The Dashing Pilot or the elderly warhorse?
If the Opposition has any chance at the prime minister's job, it can happen only if they all stop dropping names and work at the grassroots-level, state-wise, suggests N Sathiya Moorthy.
The transformation of the Modi-Shah baiting Hardik Patel into saffron poster boy.
Tamil writer Nellai Kannan was arrested on Wednesday, days after an FIR was registered against him for his speech during an anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protest. Kannan landed in trouble after a video of his purported speech at the meeting against the Citizenship Amendment Act went viral on social media and the Bharatiya Janata Party lodged a police complaint seeking his arrest and prosecution.
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.
Patel has never held a ministerial post, just like Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was never a minister when he became Gujarat CM 20 years ago.
This is not an election Budget in the sense that I might target the voter in the coming elections. But if you look beyond this round of state elections, and tilt the periscope to graze at the more distant horizon, see how the Narendra Modi government wishes things looking by the summer of 2024, observes Shekhar Gupta.
'Modiji did not say anything so that there was no influence. He endured all this silently'
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday held deliberations with Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP president J P Nadda amid speculation about a reshuffle in the Union cabinet, an exercise Modi has not undertaken since forming the government for a second time in May 2019.
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.
'Modi-Shah have understood the risks their cynical mixing of domestic political motivations with strategic national interests was soon going to become counterproductive asserts Shekhar Gupta.
The chiefs of the central agencies currently have a two-year tenure.
Mr Modi and Mr Shah will need him if they want to win UP again in 2022 and India in 2024. This signals a Yogi Adityanath-sized change in BJP politics, even under Mr Modi, Shekhar Gupta.
Addressing the party's mega "Bharat Bachao Rally" (Save India) at Ramlila Maidan, she also targeted the government over the economic situation and exhorted people to raise their voice to protect the country and its Constitution.
Thousands of people congregated at August Kranti Maidan in Grant Road area of south Mumbai to protest the new legislation -- the Citizenship Amendment Act -- which many claim is discriminatory, communal in nature and goes against the very fabric of our nation. Incidentally, the venue -- August Kranti Maidan -- is the same where Mahatma Gandhi had in 1942 called for British to 'Quit India'. As the thousands gathered and shouted slogans like 'Modi-Shah se aazaadi' and 'Tanashahi nahi chalegi (dictatorship won't work)', Rediff.com's Hitesh Harsinghani was there to capture the mood. And the one takeaway from there: They may look different, they may be from different parts of the city, but their anger is the same.
"Modi is a very popular leader. People have given him massive mandate. But this mandate is not a licence to act irresponsibly. Patel and Nehru also had mandate of the people to lay the foundation stone of the country's development," the Sena said.
People protesting against the Jawaharlal Nehru University violence were evicted from Gateway of India in south Mumbai on Tuesday morning as roads were getting blocked and tourists and common people were facing problems, a police official said. Police had appealed to protesters to shift but they didn't listen, so they were "relocated" to Azad Maidan near the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus, the official said.
The 61-year old leader will take oath as the Chief Minister of Karnataka from Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot at the Raj Bhavan on Wednesday at 11 am.
It is wrong to say the Congress doesn't matter. Certainly one set of people who do not believe that for a minute is the BJP. That's why even in his speech in Parliament on Constitution Day, Mr Modi called dynastic politics a threat to democracy, observes Shekhar Gupta.
This crisis requires political sophistication and governance skills. This BJP has neither, observes Shekhar Gupta.
Modi-Shah BJP has resurrected dangers and the enemy from the past and built a scary jingoism. It's a great diversionary tactic but history shows it never ends well, points out Shekhar Gupta.
By ending the Shiv Sena's political untouchability, the Congress is creating a level playing ground for itself in the political battle of Hindu identity, explains Sheela Bhatt.
AFSPA can be safely lifted from almost 90 per cent of Nagaland, argues Shekhar Gupta.
Will the Modi-Shah combine replace Vijay Rupani as Gujarat CM?
'Potent nationalism doesn't just distract from the economic task at hand; it actively undermines it.'
She hailed Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union home minister Amit Shah and BJP president J P Nadda as her leaders.
Former Union minister Yashwant Sinha, a bitter critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi regime, on Saturday joined Trinamool Congress days ahead of the high-octane West Bengal assembly polls.
Much depends on the BJP's electoral performance in next year's assembly elections. If the party fares well in UP and some states like Goa and Gujarat, it will be able to fob off the attempt at a reappraisal of its Hindutva doctrine, observes Amulya Ganguli.
Shah also rejected West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's charge that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to a temple of the Matua community -- which is in sizeable number in the state -- during his trip to Bangladesh violated the poll code.
Former chief minister of Goa and Congress veteran Luizinho Faleiro, resigned as an MLA and a primary member of the party on Monday claiming the state party unit is run by a 'coterie' of leaders even as he praised Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee saying the country needs a leader like her to take on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
In the unlikely event of the BJP-NDA losing all five states going to the polls in February-March, the Presidential electoral college numbers could be significantly altered, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
Is anyone in the BJP listening -- to what Nitin Gadkari had to say, but possibly left unsaid? asks N Sathiya Moorthy.
