To beat BJP, you either deny them a critical mass of Hindu vote or build a regional leader and party strong enough to protect their turf, observes Shekhar Gupta.
'Nitish Kumar's newly-formed alliance with BJP would unravel before the 2025 assembly polls in Bihar'
The checking of bags of leaders, a practice of the poll authorities to enforce the model code of conduct, came to the fore in the state's election campaign after Shiv Sena-UBT leader Uddhav Thackeray was subjected to it in Yavatmal.
It was not a one-way ride up though for the man who now could potentially become the BJP's national president over time.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday said the names of the probable ministers from the Bharatiya Janata Party in his cabinet have been shortlisted and the final decision will be taken by the party's central leadership.
The BJP at 43 is a work in progress, with total ideological continuity and much substantive change in political method and style, observes Shekhar Gupta.
'Many veteran leaders in the Odisha BJP had met them, but their problems were never sorted out.'
A new kind of history has been created in Maharashtra. Accept it. We need to give credit where it's due. Modi led this change... from the setback of June 4 to November 23, notes Sheela Bhatt.
'It is difficult to replace him because if he is replaced, it will lead to a sense of defeat among the Meiteis, rightly or wrongly, and more chaos.'
Neither Modi nor Shah had held legislative or executive power in Delhi before 2014. They have no training in appealing to the diversity of India as represented in Parliament. Their prism is the provincial politics of Gujarat. An exclusive excerpt from Vinay Sitapati's fascinating new book, Jugalbandi: The BJP Before Modi.
Top leaders of the two parties are campaigning in Jharkhand and Maharashtra for the ongoing assembly polls in the two states.
Inability to take everyone along during his nearly four-year term led to Trivendra Singh Rawat's undoing. He tried to take control of all major departments by holding on to more than 40 of them, but still could not deliver.
It challenged the Indian Parliament's decision on Jammu and Kashmir that abrogated the special privileges of the state and carved out two union territories and sought a compensation of USD 100 million from Modi, Shah and Lt. Gen. Kanwal Jeet Singh Dhillon.
As the race for Maharashtra chief minister enters the last lap, Hemant Waje looks at several scenarios which can play out.
A video of the qawwal (qawwali singer), identified as Nawaz Sharif, briefly speaking about India, Modi, Shah and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath during a performance at Mangawa town in Rewa district on March 28 has gone viral on social media.
In its sway over national politics now, the Modi-Shah BJP is what the Congress was under Indira Gandhi. Why would they indulge coalition partners, their greed and egos now, asks Shekhar Gupta.
The seat-share progression should worry the BJP. From the previous assembly polls of 2017, through the assembly segments in its favour in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and now in 2022, the BJP's seat-share has come down from a high 312 to 275 to 255. N Sathiya Moorthy reads the political tea leaves after the UP and Punjab election verdicts.
'If Modi-Shah had not changed the leadership, one section would have parted ways with the BJP for sure.'
A video showing the incident involving school teacher, Tripta Tyagi, and the Class 2 boy in Muzaffarnagar has gone viral on social media eliciting strong words from several political parties.
If you are a BJP backer, you'd ask why Modi and Shah would even bother about Rahul Gandhi and Congress. But they do. Because they are serious politicians who win elections. That's why their priority is to ensure Rahul cannot shed his 'Pappu' image, points Shekhar Gupta.
DMK deputy general secretary and Lok Sabha MP A Raja has likened Sanatan Dharma to disease like leprosy that had social stigma.
The Janata Dal-United-Rashtriya Janata Dal-Congress government will face a confidence vote in the Bihar assembly on Wednesday, August 24, next, and it is quite likely that the BJP will do all it can to defeat the trust vote.
In politics, if your objective is only winning elections, just Chanakya neeti might do. For governance you need both, Chanakya neeti and Ram Rajya. You can neither beat up the farmers into submission, nor dismiss them as 'Khalistanis', asserts Shekhar Gupta.
The Sikhs love a good fight, and that's what the Modi government has given them.
Nayab Singh Saini on Wednesday staked claim to form the next government in Haryana, hours after he was unanimously elected as the leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party legislature party in the state.
'PM Modi would have swept the elections in Kashmir after notebandi but then he scrapped Article 370 so all his good work went down the drain.'
Former Karnataka Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar -- contesting on a Congress ticket hoping to reclaim his lost self-respect-- still has photos of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah hanging on a wall in his home-office and says it is not good to remove them.
Non-BJP chief ministers are retaliating. If the Centre can use its agencies to threaten, intimidate and jail its rivals, so can they. The fightback will get more intense, observes Shekhar Gupta.
Opposition parties on Wednesday opposed the 'one nation, one election' proposal by calling it impractical and a 'cheap stunt' by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.
However, "we don't know who is Krishna and who is Arjuna," added the actor, who has said he would launch his political party and contest the 2021 assembly elections in Tamil Nadu.
Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Tuesday said he will not hesitate from facing investigation in a site allotment issue but added that he would consult legal experts to find out whether such a probe is allowed under law.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel were among the prominent faces who exercised their franchise in the second phase of Gujarat elections on Monday.
Modi and Shah's next focus will be South India, and the Maharashtra and Jharkhand assembly elections. Shah is unlikely to abdicate control over the party even after he joins the government. Modi and Shah both know only too well that the party makes the government, and not the other way round.
The BJP can't be sure if it should celebrate that the old rival is fading or worry that new ones are rising. Because the last thing the BJP wants to see is alternatives rising, if only to the Congress, observes Shekhar Gupta.
The Congress leader also alleged that a student told her that the police kicked him on the head several times.
Tamil Nadu's Deputy Chief Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin has reacted to Andhra Pradesh counterpart Pawan Kalyan's out-of-turn taunts with a one-liner, 'Let's wait', and thereby hangs a tale, notes N Sathiya Moorthy.
'According to the survey, ideological issues like Article 370 and Ayodhya received only 14 and 12 per cent voter-backing, respectively.' 'It could well imply that hardline Hindutva issues have only that much voter-purchase, compared to Modi's overall popularity of 52 per cent -- putting the man way above the mission,' points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
The BJP's massive victory will make it hard for the party to derive a criterion for selecting ministers, as the claimants will be many and the berths, few.
Bhupendra Patel can never really break free of intervention from New Delhi. But if he can win over the Gujaratis and improve the BJP's tally substantially, he will have proved that he should be taken seriously.
Raut said he will meet Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah in the coming days.
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