Known as an astute strategist whose non-political interests range from playing chess and watching cricket to stage performances and listening to classical music, 54-year-old Shah is often hailed as the BJP's most successful president for crafting its way to power states after states.
While there is a glimmer of hope and India's COVID-19 numbers are on a definite decline for a combination of reasons, a vaccination programme continues to be important, particularly given the presence of a mutant, more transmissible strain, several experts said while cautioning against infection upticks ahead.
Buoyed by exit poll predictions, Maharashtra Bharatiya Janata Party unit has prepared a giant cake and as many as 40,000 laddoos to distribute among the people after the LokN Sabha election results on Friday.
If the parliamentary representation of radical Islamic parties goes up dramatically in 2018, what will this do to Pakistan's army?
'It may serve the interests of the rule of law if the Supreme Court were to appoint the UNHCR as amicus curiae in the CAA case,' notes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
If Vijaykanth and his party stole the media thunder, which lingered in the viewers' mind even while watching Prime Minister Modi's thunderous campaign speech, the latter suffered also owing to visible 'disconnects', says N Sathiya Moorthy.
The man, who identified himself as 'Rambhakt Gopal', was subsequently overpowered by police and detained. The gunman went live on Facebook before the brandishing the gun.
A consensus builder, Jaitley was regarded by some as Modi's original 'Chanakya'.
Slamming the media for trying to "delegetimise" President Donald Trump by false reporting, his top aides have said the new administration will fight back "tooth and nail" against it and can even "rethink" its relationship with the press.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
Fandom of Kejriwal, who led the AAP to a scintillating win in the February 8 polls bagging 62 of the 70 seats, was visible as people chose innovative ways to express their sentiments at the venue that was transformed into a sea of colours as the crowd waved party flags and the tricolours.
Hillary Clinton's campaign has pushed back against rumours circulating that her health is failing and slammed Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump for pushing "deranged conspiracy theories."
Rajnath Singh believes it would be naive to see disengagement of the armies from the LAC as the end of the trouble. The defence minister has urged the defence forces to be ready for a long haul
Arun Shourie, who made a name as an editor par excellence before he chose to join politics, put it in perspective: 'The Rafale judgment enables the media to its job.'
The PM asserted that 'we know how to take challenges head-on'.
'Let me stick my neck out and say that Tamil Nadu will keep alive its reputation for landslide election verdicts, with the DMK front winning at least 30 of the 40 Lok Sabha seats going to the polls in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry,' says Saisuresh Sivaswamy.
Although the authorities had maintained till the last minute that Mevani and his supporters did not have permission to hold the event, it seems the rally organisers and Delhi Police reached a compromise later.
BJP said Gandhi's remarks were condemnable and he should apologise in the House.
For a country that considers cricket as a religion, it comes as a surprise that its viewers would prefer politics to the game. On May 16, a decisive day in the history of Indian politics, the cricket worshiping country preferred the Loksabha election results than to the Indian Premier League (IPL) matches.
Virat Kohli and Indian cricket remained an enduring love story and Sourav Ganguly held out promise for a path-breaking reign off the field in a year during which the country finally embraced pink ball Tests. There were the heartbreaks, the biggest one being a World Cup semi-final exit, and not to forget the anxious wait on what Mahendra Singh Dhoni might do next after being on a sabbatical for half the year.
If one were to go by the degree of clout, Jaitley was the undoubted No. 2 in the Modi government.
The prime minister highlighted the gains made during his last four years vis-a-vis the previous governments to suggest that he has lived up to the promise of hope he had offered to the electorate in 2014.
'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.
'It's a very tough situation. We're talking to India. We're talking to China. They've got a big problem there'
'India has decided - Democracy needs to be celebrated.'
'So we had Akshay Kumar dressed up like Robert Vadra on his offday, and trying to not look fan-struck...'
With 2016 officially behind us, let's look forward and speculate about the events, people and issues that will shape 2017.
'Manthara wants Kaikeyi to make her son Bharat king of Ayodhya, instead of Rama.' 'She fuels hate and mistrust in her queen, much like what many modern-day viziers are doing, whipping up venom and frenzy among an entire nation,' notes Arundhuti Dasgupta.
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