Mr Pradhan's understanding of realpolitik and organisational dynamics makes him the ultimate party man, notes Aditi Phadnis.
'What are the circumstances at that time? Had you thought Modi will come after Vajpayee?'
The BJP coined a new word for AAP, 'Aapda (crisis)', which Modi repeated constantly during the election campaign to show how Delhi residents's lives had become miserable under AAP's 11-year rule.
The Congress on Thursday slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party-led central government over a scuffle between the Delhi Police and the wrestlers protesting at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi, with Rahul Gandhi condemning such 'shameful' behaviour with sportspersons and alleging the ruling party has 'never shied away' from committing atrocities on the daughters of the country.
Bharatiya Janata Party President Amit Shah on Wednesday dubbed the Congress, the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party as "KASAB", adding yet another acronym in the Uttar Pradesh poll campaign, and said development will elude the state till "Kasab is laid to rest".
Congress president M Mallikarjun Kharge, meanwhile, came to Siddaramaiah's defence, stating that the party is standing with him and will support him.
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.
A BJP MP from Nagaland has alleged that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi came "very close" to her and "shouted" at her during a protest outside the Parliament, making her feel "uncomfortable." The incident has led to a war of words between the ruling BJP and the opposition Congress, with both sides accusing each other of misconduct. The BJP has demanded an apology from Rahul Gandhi, while the Congress has denied the allegations.
Amit Shah now enters an unfamiliar and interesting phase of his political career. His success or failure will henceforth be assessed based on his performance as a key minister, points out Shekhar Gupta.
Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh on Wednesday appealed to people to surrender weapons looted from security forces and warned of legal action against anyone found to be in unauthorised and illegal possession of arms and ammunition.
On the proposed Grand Alliance of the Congress and other parties in the state, Shah said the Telugu people had not forgotten how the Congress had treated their leaders like former (undivided) Andhra Pradesh chief minister Anjaiah and former prime minister P V Narasimha Rao.
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.
Gehlot said be it Adani or Amit Shah's son Jay Shah, Rajasthan will welcome all because it wants investment and employment.
The Congress' attack came after the Ayodhya Development Authority accused 40 people, including the City mayor, a local BJP MLA and a former party legislator, of illegally trading plots and building infrastructure there.
Amid the row over Congress leader Sam Pitroda's remarks, the party on Wednesday asserted that it has no plans whatsoever to introduce an inheritance tax and cited former Union minister Jayant Sinha's remarks to allege that it is the Modi government that wanted to do so.
Of the four assistant sub-inspectors, three are from Kaliaganj Police Station and one is from Raiganj Police Station.
'Modi wants to go down in history not necessarily as India's first overtly Hindu RSS pracharak prime minister, but as a world statesman who built the idea of India as a great nation.'
The India captain will return to India after the first Test in Adelaide.
'I would request Mr Modi to improve the relations between India and Pakistan and arrange a match between the two teams.'
Will the Modi-Shah combine replace Vijay Rupani as Gujarat CM?
Displaying a washing machine on its press conference dais, the Congress on Saturday taunted the Bharatiya Janata Party over the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filing a closure report in a 2017 corruption case against Nationalist Congress Party leader Praful Patel and said the ruling party's 'fully automatic washing machine' works on the principle -- 'join BJP, case closed'.
Mayawati urged the Muslim voters to vote for the party, saying her party has given tickets to 99 candidates from the community.
While the ruling party alleged an "invisible hand" behind the petitions, the opposition accused it of making "false political capital" by "misinterpreting" the apex court order.
The top batters in the BJP come to Mandi to swing votes for the movie star fighting her first election.
The Congress sought her intervention in helping bring normalcy in violence-hit Manipur, and called for the constitution of a high-level inquiry commission headed by a serving or retired Supreme Court judge to probe the incident.
Both Houses of Parliament were adjourned on Friday due to continuous protests by opposition members seeking discussion and a reply from Union Home Minister Amit Shah on the Parliament security breach.
'Pura phas gaya woh... barbad, satyanash ho gaya woh.' 'Usko ticket bhi diya, election bhi ladha woh; ganda video bhi bahar aa gaya; hamara izzat bhi nikal diya woh; abhi letter ke baare main pooch ke kya hota hai?'
Congress party compromised national security for political purpose, said the BJP over Ishrat Jahan case.
The efforts drew the spontaneous appreciation of Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
'I defended them -- Amit Shah and Narendra Modi -- in over 10,000 national debates, but I never asked for any favour.'
The political fight for the Dalits' cause escalated on Thursday with Congress president Rahul Gandhi accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of having an "anti-Dalit" mindset and the Bharatiya Janata Party chief Amit Shah alleging the opposition party had a legacy of insulting the community.
Rulers in New Delhi and their political aides in sensitive states like Tamil Nadu have to be doubly careful not to provoke a situation whose consequences may be much more than visible now to the naked eye, notes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Tuesday was the second time Mithali met Amit Anilchandra Shah, the Bharatiya Janata Party's main political strategist, in recent weeks.
'Even if the BJP's hope of a Congress-mukt Bharat is realised, it will still have to contend with Mr Gandhi's god-like status in the foreseeable future,' says Amulya Ganguli.
'Vajpayee would not have approved either of the way the BJP now functions or of the thoughts that it entertains in its mind,' says T C A Srinivasa-Raghavan.
Shah said not allowing trains to reach West Bengal is "injustice" to the migrant workers from the state.
Despite failing to secure a simple majority in Parliament, we will continue to see him on TV, newspapers, magazines, bill boards, vaccination certificates, railway stations, bus shelters, airports, sea ports, on the highway and on rural roads, sighs A Ganesh Nadar.
When a former police constable was appointed Gujarat unit chief, everyone was surprised. Now workers are laying bets on when he will be elevated to the Union Cabinet, notes Aditi Phadnis.
One of the reasons why the TMC decided not to demand a JPC is that the chairperson and most of its members would be from the BJP, he said, adding JPC means putting the issue under the carpet.
The Sikhs love a good fight, and that's what the Modi government has given them.
