Having governed Odisha for 24 uninterrupted years, the BJD now finds itself in the unfamiliar role of Opposition. Its organisational overhaul following the 2024 defeat has yet to produce a recognisable second line of leadership.
The rejection of senior Congress leader Meenakshi Natarajan's nomination papers transformed what should have been a routine Rajya Sabha election into a lesson in contemporary political warfare.
By resigning, the former deputy CM has struck pre-emptively against Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan and used the opportunity to demonstrate that it is he who calls the shots in the state unit of the Nationalist Congress Party, says Neerja Chowdhury.
The controversial quota in promotions bill's partially passed status suits all political parties at the moment, says Neerja Chowdhury
As with the Women's Bill, so also with the proposed Lok Pal legislation, the exercise is essentially one of grand posturing by all parties, says Neerja Chowdhury.
The Union government seems to have chosen its timing with care. Parliament begins its winter session on Thursday and the BJP would have used the issue during the Gujarat elections. Hanging Kasab was politically expeditious for the shaky ruling coalition, says Neerja Chowdhury.
Neerja Chowdhury reports from Phulpur where Rahul Gandhi kicked off Congress campaign for the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections.
The decision to make these changes to the Union Cabinet was apparently taken last week, but the timing of its announcement could not have been more unfortunate, writes Neerja Chowdhury
After many months the UPA leadership seemed to exude a sense of confidence that they could get the better of an adverse situation in which they have found themselves for the last two years, writes Neerja Chowdhury
In all likelihood he is going to rely on senior party leadership for political management, using the Youth Congress and the young brigade to mobilise the 'aam admi', which the Congress redefined in Jaipur as the poor and middle-classes, says Neerja Chowdhury.
The change of media advisor may be about the changing power equation in the PMO. The Congress party's view may once again get greater weightage in the government's decision-making processes than had been the case so far in UPA-II, says Neerja Chowdhury.
Contrary to Anna Hazare's view -- that Rahul Gandhi was behind the Standing Committee's decision to exclude the lower bureaucracy from the purview of Lokpal -- there are indications now that it may be Gandhi who may want their inclusion, says Neerja Chowdhury
The upshot of the government's 'formal' climbdown on FDI in retail is that it will not be able to take up the issue again in the near future, certainly not till after the forthcoming assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh and four other states, says Neerja Chowdhury
The upshot of the government's 'formal' climbdown on FDI in retail is that it will not be able to take up the issue again in the near future, certainly not till after the forthcoming assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh and four other states, says Neerja Chowdhury
Through his exposes, be it on Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra, Law Minister Salman Khurshid or Bharatiya Janata Party president Nitin Gadkari, Arvind Kejriwal is slowly delineating his political strategy, says Neerja Chowdhury
Sushma Swaraj, Narendra Modi, Arun Jaitley, Jayalalithaa, Mulayam Singh or may be even Advani: positioning for prime ministership is the flavour of the current season, notes Neerja Chowdhury.
Hamid Ansari, in his second stint as vice president, is likely to face a more unruly House, with general elections being less than two years away and the Opposition becoming increasingly aggressive, and the Congress's chief troubleshooter having gone to Rashtrapati Bhavan, writes Neerja Chowdhury
By successfully orchestrating the ouster of rival Sanjay Joshi from the Bharatiya Janata Party, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi has confirmed that the Sangh Parivar has fallen in line with his style of functioning and larger-than-the-organisation persona. Neerja Chowdhury reports
Neerja Chowdhury on the various theories doing the rounds on why several Congress MPs we missing during the vote on the constitutional amendment bill.
A prolonged political stalemate does not also augur well for the government. It is caught between the devil and the deep sea -- unless its managers can somehow bring a rabbit out of the hat, in terms of the right numbers in a vote on FDI, says Neerja Chowdhury.
'Vijaya Raje Scindia had assured the prime minister that nothing would happen to the Babri Masjid'
The question being tossed around is this: Is there a 'method in the madness' being seen in Parliament? Did the Congress choose to take the decision knowing its consequences? asks Neerja Chowdhury.
The old order is changing, but the new one is yet to take shape, and this is expected to firm up after the Gujarat polls. Much will depend on how Narendra Modi fares, and whether he clicks with a disillusioned urban middle class in the country, says Neerja Chowdhury.
Hisar has turned out to be a double edged sword for Team Anna. While it can now take credit for the Congress' rout in Hisar, its stance in the bypoll has divided its own core team, says Neerja Chowdhury.
Neerja Chowdhury remembers a gentleman politician, an unusual prime minister.
In early 2004, when the Congress had been routed in north Indian states, and even Congressmen were prophesying a two-digit tally for the party in the general elections, Sonia determinedly hit the road and stitched up alliances. Now, once again, she is displaying a similar resoluteness in circumstances that are even more trying, as evidenced by her piloting of the Food Security Bill, says Neerja Chowdhury
Neerja Chowdhury analyses why BSP supremo Mayawati is bargaining hard with the UPA government
The BJP is a divided house on whether to oppose Pranab Mukherjee or not. Mamata Banerjee has been totally isolated and only the Congress seems to be on a strong wicket, says Neerja Chowdhury.
Mulayam is a street fighter of old, and not new to the art of bargaining and pressure politics. He obviously used Mamata's antipathy towards Pranab to go along with her and moot three names, different from the ones suggested by Sonia Gandhi. The idea was obviously to send his own message to an otherwise unheeding Congress party, that they had to take his concerns on board, says Neerja Chowdhury.
Implicit in Sonia Gandhi's clarion call to her partymen to counter the BJP's 'blackmailing' politics aggressively in the contest of Coalgate, is a hint that that there is no leadership vacuum in the Congress and that she will be leading her party into the 2014 elections, says Neerja Chowdhury
As the battle lines are drawn between the United Progressive Alliance and the National Democratic Alliance, the NDA is now beginning to smell power, says Neerja Chowdhury
Congress president Sonia Gandhi appears to be playing for larger -- and long term -- stakes and the move to provide reservation to women is not bereft of political calculations, writes Neerja Chowdhury
The numbers are loaded against him but the BJP's vice presidential candidate Jaswant Singh has his eyes set on battles beyond. Neerja Chowdhury provides an insight
The tragedy -- and paradox -- of the present situation is that the spat has occurred between two figures known for their integrity -- AK Antony and Gen VK Singh -- who should have walked in step in the larger national interest, says Neerja Chowdhury
In an interview with Neerja Chowdhury, Union Minister of State for Minority and Corporate Affairs Salman Khurshid explores the arguments for and against reservation for Muslims, and concludes that it is necessary to implement such a step.
The Bharatiya Janata Party has become less of a party with a difference and more an aggregate of leaders with their own individual ambitions and agendas, says Neerja Chowdhury
In an interview with Neerja Chowdhury, Digvijay Singh spoke about the recently held assembly polls in 5 states, the ongoing farmers' agitation in Uttar Pradesh, the Lokpal bill and the future of Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi.
Neerja Chowdhury explains how Mamata Banerjee's challenge, which poses a grave threat to the 34-year old rule of the Communist parties in West Bengal, cannot be ignored.
As the moves to select the next incumbent of Rashtrapati Bhavan gain momentum, Dravida Munettra Kazhagam chief M Karunanidhi is believed to have conveyed to Defence Minister A K Antony that he would go along with whoever was Congress President Sonia Gandhi's choice for the next President of the republic, despite his party's unhappiness with the Congress, writes Neerja Chowdhury
After Bengaluru, where the Congress lost out to the Bharatiya Janata Party after five decades of dominance, and Mumbai where it failed to wrest the cash rich Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation from the Shiv Sena, it is now the turn of New Delhi to show its disenchantment with the Congress, writes Neerja Chowdhury
