With the Bharatiya Janata Party falling short of a majority in the Lok Sabha and needing the National Democratic Alliance partners to form the government at the Centre, Bihar Chief Minister and Janata Dal-United head Nitish Kumar and Telugu Desam Party's N Chandrababu Naidu have emerged as potential kingmakers.
'I was present at a meeting where he decided to permit the IAF to strike at Pakistan positions in Kargil, with the caveat that they should not cross the LoC.' 'Confident that the Indian Army would succeed, Mr Vajpayee was positioning himself to tell the world after the Kargil conflict was won that India did not violate the 'sanctity' of the LoC,' recalls Ambassador G Parthasarathy, who served as India's envoy in Islamabad in that eventful year, 1999.
Thousands of mourners jostled and some clambered on trees to capture the moment on their phones as former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's cortege left the Bharatiya Janata Party's headquarters for Rashtriya Smriti Sthal.
Kaul had been Vajpayee's constant companion of many years and the mother of his adopted daughter Namita Bhattacharya
'As events at Kargil and Pakistan's continued support to terror activities in India prove, Pakistan has always felt that the break-up/destruction of India was within its capability,' notes Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
Vajpayee has apparently resolved that if they can undertake arduous campaigns then so should he, the first step in any plans is a complete makeover, that is to lose weight.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh set aside political differences to call on him and greet him on the occasion.
Destiny had decided that a grand temple of Lord Ram will be built in Ayodhya and it chose Prime Minister Narendra Modi for this, BJP stalwart L K Advani has said in an article to be published in a special edition of the Rashtra Dharma magazine next week.
'Someone who cannot even take his cabinet into confidence, how will he take the NDA alliance into confidence?'
BJP IT department head Amit Malviya shared on Twitter what he said were the details of accidents under these ministers and added such 'worthies' are the ones demanding the resignation of the 'most qualified' railway minister the country has had in seven and half decades.
'The PM who is first among equals, who has to listen to others, take their point of view into account and who would have to be a good manager'
Electoral setbacks and thwarted ambition can have an unpredictable effect on leaders,, observes Aditi Phadnis.
Former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee was on Sunday conferred Award of Bangladesh Liberation War Honour for his "active role" in the country's independence struggle and consolidating India's friendship with the nation.
Do you, our dear readers, think it is high time the Union government awarded the Bharat Ratna to Atal Bihari Vajpayee? Or do you believe that the former prime minister does not deserve India's greatest civilian honour?
'The sense of Constitutional propriety and political morality seems to be vanishing fast.' 'There are many things in today's politics of governance which Manmohan Singh would have never dreamt of saying or doing.'
'The sorry image of a wailing leader visiting relief camps for riot victims was completely incoherent with what he did next, blaming the minority community for the disturbance.' Utkarsh Mishra pens a tribute from the heart.
Dr Singh played well on rhetoric; after playing dove, he satisfied the hawks too.
The work we have done in the south and the northeast over the last 10 years under Prime Minister Modi's leadership, we have started getting results of the same, he said.
Veteran Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani has said the Ram Janmbhoomi movement, whose primary objective was construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya, also became a symbol of 'reclaiming the true meaning of secularism from the onslaught of pseudo-secularism'.
Union Minister Farooq Abdullah on Monday backed the Bharatiya Janata Party's demand for according the Bharat Ratna to former prime minister and veteran leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
Days after the Congress praised A B Vajpayee to target Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial Narendra Modi, the party did a U-turn on Monday, calling the BJP veteran "the weakest PM India ever had", a taunt often directed at Manmohan Singh by the opposition party.
'Union Budgets are often used as political instruments and that was the intention of this government too.' 'But while the exercise has settled two fronts, it has left open several others and this has the potential to aggravate with time,' predicts Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
Soon after his return from foreign tour, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday visited former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's house here and greeted him on his 91st birthday.
Former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on Sunday made his first public appearance in recent months on Holi, but chose not to make any comments before the media. The 83-year-old leader, looking hale and cheerful, accepted greetings and was also seen making brief responses to the guests during his hour-long appearance at his residence.
Kiren Rijiju's exit from the coveted law ministry came in the midst of his frequent criticism of the judiciary, particularly on the system of appointment of judges to high courts and the Supreme Court.
Bansuri Swaraj is banking on Narendra Modi's popularity, and the fact that the New Delhi electorate is known to vote on national rather than local issues for the Lok Sabha polls.
A ministerial berth for Kerala BJP general secretary George Kurian in the third Narendra Modi government is indeed a reward for a loyal party worker who has been active in the saffron party movement post-Emergency in the late 1970s.
'Besides Ayodhya, the BJP lost in nine other constituencies with a Ramayana imprint; it tasted success only in Thrissur.' 'In Rameswaram, K Navaskani of the Indian Union Muslim League won with a 44% voteshare in a 84% Hindu constituency.' 'In the 21 seats in the Ayodhya and Varanasi regions, both crucial to the Hindutva project, the BJP won just 7.' 'It won just 3 out of 12 seats around Modi's constituency,' points out Krishna Prasad.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa has threatened to invoke provisions of POTA against the Union minister for his speech allegedly supporting the LTTE.
Former Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief K S Sudarshan and former Bharatiya Janata Party president Murli Manohar Joshi on Friday attended a function to release a book, which severely criticises former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
Musharraf and the former PM agreed that the new chapter that had begun in Indo-Pak ties must be carried forward.
While the Modi government had jump-started its second innings taking one major decision after another, there is a deep sense of loss in the party over the demise of Swaraj and Jaitley.
Former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee Thursday night announced his retirement from active politics saying henceforth he would not contest elections.
Vasundhra Raje, who resigned as Leader of Opposition in the Rajasthan Assembly following orders from the BJP high command, on Friday met former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
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