Second-line AIADMK leaders and cadres alike say that by starting the talks first with the BJP and committing the party to an alliance without discussing seat-sharing, the leadership might have commenced the coalition discourse at the wrong end. According to them, even 20 seats for the BJP may be too many, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday urged the Election Commission to declare Trinamool Congress as a 'terrorist party', upping the ante against the ruling party after political clashes in Birbhum violence left three people dead.
The prime minister made these remarks at a meeting of the council of ministers, while asserting the need to maintain an atmosphere of amity and harmony in the country.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed the passage of bills as a "momentous occasion" in parliamentary democracy and said a new dawn awaits the people there as they are now free from the "shackles" of vested interest groups.
'There is perhaps a need to pay heed to L K Advani's belief about an Emergency re-run,' says Amulya Ganguli.
The ministers quit their posts in protest against central govt to grant special category status to Andhra Pradesh.
'While they were respectful of the PM, it was clear that as ministers, they owed their positions as much, if not more, to Mrs Gandhi.' 'When attacks were mounted on the PM, there was very little coordinated effort by the Congress, UPA ministers or other politicians to speak up in his favour and strongly defend him.' B K Chaturvedi, Cabinet Secretary during the early years of UPA1, reveals how the Manmohan Singh-Sonia Gandhi equation worked. A riveting excerpt from Chaturvedi's memoir, Challenges Of Governance: An Insider's View
So who stands to benefit the most by a weak Opposition? What's behind the sudden public spat between the two parties?
Shah said the Congress was not rooted in any ideology or principles and was sort of a "special purpose vehicle" to secure freedom.
Mamata Banerjee was on Friday sworn in as the chief minister of West Bengal for the second consecutive time, heading a 42-member ministry.
'The debate, by being mostly in Hindi, lost much of its educative relevance to the southern states.' 'All the prime minister's debating skills and oratorical prowess went over the heads of the South Indian audience,' points out B S Raghavan, the distinguished civil servant.
The ruling party is worried as the alliance represents over 50 per cent of the state's population, reports Virendra Singh Rawat.
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott was on Monday dramatically ousted from power by challenger Malcolm Turnbull in an internal party vote just two years after his increasingly unpopular conservative government took office.
Rahul said that an atmosphere of fear has been prevailed in the country.
Expect fun and games on the floor of the two Houses.
The issued rocked both houses of Parliament with the Opposition demanding Modi's statement on Trump's controversial remarks, holding that Kashmir is a bilateral issue and no third party can intervene.
'Please don't celebrate me if you are not going to listen to my voice.'
Pitching strongly for the empowerment of Panchayati Raj institutions in Jammu and Kashmir, Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday promised sarpanches that his party will fight for their rights and build pressure on the state government for it.
'Prime Minister Modi is from Gujarat and so does not understand the importance of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre to Punjabis,' says the British MP fighting for an apology for the Jallianwala Bagh massacre.
More than two decades after the then Janata Dal disintegrated, six of its constituents merged on Wednesday to form a new party which will be headed by Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav.
Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray will visit Ayodhya on Saturday amid a clamour among Hindu outfits for bringing an ordinance to build Ram Temple.
Australia's intelligence agencies have uncovered a plot by the Islamic State militants to launch a "Mumbai-style" terror attack on the parliament with Prime Minister Tony Abbott and other top officials being the prime targets.
Addressing a press conference in Dehradun, Harish Rawat accused the BJP-led central government of 'killing democracy' by using its brute majority to cause 'political instability' in a small state.
Biju Janata Dal members had staged a walk-out while NDA ally Shiv Sena did not participate in the voting.
'Galbraith had a powerful ally in Washington -- not as blunt and direct as the ambassador -- but committed to see Krishna Menon go.' 'This was President Kennedy himself.'
'Kashmir belongs to us all, even if we differ with each other.' 'Statesmanship demands that we sit together and let the left, right and centre of the political spectrum converge on the solution,' says former MP Tarun Vijay.
The TMC leadership has decided to raise the issue in both the houses of Parliament.
'People are willing to face temporary inconvenience as they are determined to support PM Modi's crackdown on black money,' Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman tells Archis Mohan.
Congress on Sunday expressed surprise over the Modi government's "inability" to rein in affiliates of Sangh Parivar "brewing communal hatred and mistrust" for electoral gains.
'From chaiwala he has now become Rafalewala. He speaks a bunch of lies,' the West Bengal CM said.
BSP chief says Ambedkar talked of separate electorates for Dalits; didn't believe in Hindutva.
Trinamool leaders have claimed the NRC process and subsequent verification is vote bank politics. Other critics call it as modified ethnic cleansing. But putting poll rhetoric aside, the issue dates back to a time when many of these leaders had no political relevance.
In the absence of the over-arching 'Jaya charisma', EPS has to convince the AIADMK's traditional constituencies, including those in his western districts, that his leadership would stand up against the BJP-led Centre even in a post-poll scenario, a la Jayalalithaa, and would not yield as much as party founder MGR had done, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Pakistan's prime minister is trying to use the unrest in Kashmir to save his government, says Ambassador G Parthasarathy, a former high commissioner to Islamabad.
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Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on Wednesday accused Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh of failing to provide security along the state's border with Nagaland and accused the Centre of not taking the recent violence there seriously.
The BJP president hit out at Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, alleging that the maximum killings of BJP and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh workers have taken place in the latter's home district.
Opposition on Tuesday claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has signalled to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to quit in the wake of DDCA row.
'The dignity of the judiciary is going down.' 'There may be disputes and differences of opinion.' 'These are most confidential things. How can they come to the public domain?' Kalyan Banerjee, MP, asks the Lok Sabha.
The presence of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa was not the only reason why Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa stayed away from Prime Minister Narendra Modi's swearing-in ceremony, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Hyderabad, the city which is the bone of contention between Telangana and the rest of Andhra Pradesh in the proposed bifurcation of the state, belongs to all Indians and not to any region in particular, Union Minister S Jaipal Reddy has said.
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