For the first time ever, the BJP's headquarters for a Lok Sabha election is outside New Delhi. Meet the folks behind Narendra Modi's campaign for prime minister.
Ahmed Patel, the most powerful man in the Congress party after the Gandhis, speaks to Rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt in a rare and exclusive interview.
'They may malign the Congress, but I don't think the BJP will ever form the government on its own.' Ahmed Patel, the most powerful man in the Congress party after the Gandhis, speaks to Rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt in a rare and exclusive interview.
"The Congress is in the hands of a few people. Rahul Gandhi, C P Joshi, Mohan Prakash, Ahmed Patel, Shaktisinh Gohil and Arjun Modhwadia have decided on all the 182 seats. Once again, our leaders are plotting to defeat each other. They have made a mess of the Congress's improving fortunes. Like 2007, the Congress will lose both the election and prestige."
"The Congress is in the hands of a few people. Rahul Gandhi, C P Joshi, Mohan Prakash, Ahmed Patel, Shaktisinh Gohil and Arjun Modhwadia have decided on all the 182 seats. Once again, our leaders are plotting to defeat each other. They have made a mess of the Congress's improving fortunes. Like 2007, the Congress will lose both the election and prestige."
L K Advani has less to lose because he has actually lost what is vital in politics. His support base within the party is lost because the party thinks Advani can't help the BJP regain power. Since Modi is vulnerable, Advani, now and then, hits the headlines. Rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt explains the Advani Affair.
'I don't think Modi is PM material... Because of his nature, because of his arrogance... A prime ministerial candidate is one who can carry others with him. The quality of statesmanship which ought to be there is missing,' Ahmed Patel, the most powerful man in the Congress party after the Gandhis, tells Rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt in a rare and exclusive interview.
'Anandiben is a strict taskmaster. She is accepted much less among the party cadres, but the bureaucrats in Gujarat bow to her dictates. In charisma, she is not a patch on Modi, and her acceptance among the masses will never become a reality.' Sheela Bhatt/Rediff.com reveals what Gujarat Chief Minister Anandiben Patel is really like.
'Merchandise plays a key role in creating buzz about a specific party.'
The battle to win the minds of around 37 million Gujarati voters will begin soon after the monsoon. Chief Minister Narendra Modi is at the centre of this crucial electoral battle that is as politically important for Modi as the Uttar Pradesh assembly election of 2012 was for Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi.
'This has been the history of these people,' Congress leader Ahmed Patel tells Sheela Bhatt.
Joginder Tuteja looks at Bollywood's new lot of actress-turned-producers.
'Let me reveal for the first time that around August 2019 Congress President Sonia Gandhi told the Congress leadership and CWC members to form a consensus over the name of a non-Gandhi leader.'
'There were any number of Congress leaders who disliked Sonia Gandhi, but they were very close to Ahmed Bhai and he would listen, and give a shoulder to cry upon.'
'It is obvious within these two months that in many ways Narendra Modi has a great degree of resemblance with Indira Gandhi.' 'The same style of management of power. The same kind of attempt to reduce a large section of the political leadership into, if not spectators, bureaucrats. His leaders are taking orders from him and executing those orders.' 'This is the model that has worked in Gujarat. And he is hoping that it will work in India.'
Four Gujarat ministers were handpicked by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to organise the reception for Chinese President Xi Jinping, right from the welcome at the airport to the menu for the dinner at the Sabarmati riverfront, reports Sheela Bhatt.
Arvind Kejriwal, Mr Anti-Establishment, wants to play politics without being branded as the typical Indian politician so that he can make his mark in the 2014 general election. While hiding his political manoeuvring, the Aam Admi Party's maverick leader is seeking fresh intervention in the agenda of the nation by agitating on the footpaths of New Delhi, says Sheela Bhatt.
'Whether she will remain CPP chairperson or not, that she will decide.'
'He always avoided eating non-vegetarian food in presence of his deputies if they were fasting for the month of Shravan.' 'There were no Hindu, Jain, Parsi and Swaminarayan festivals he would forget.' 'He was a conservative Muslim and therefore could get along well with conservative Hindus.'
For the first time since the riots of 2002, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi finds himself on uncertain territory in Saurashtra, where the intense caste politics of Patels is now intertwined with the water problems of all the farmers of the region, reports Sheela Bhatt.
Congress Party may agree to form a coalition government in Gujarat, a senior leader tells Sheela Bhatt
The second part of the interview with Achyut Yagnik, the Ahmedabad-based social activist, writer and political analyst, in which he discusses the electoral winds in Gujarat, with Sheela Bhatt.
A look at the Telugu films this Sankranti.
'I think he had this in his head to go to different places, get some experience and then become the Congress president.'
Rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt was in the courtroom at the Sabarmati Jail where the judgment in the Godhra train burning case was pronounced on Tuesday. She has also followed and written about the twists and turns in the historic nine-year legal battle. Her impressions and analysis of the verdict.
'These naval sailors should have been given due respect as freedom fighters.' 'February 18, 1946 should be as important as January 26 because that date changed everything.'
Could Jairam Ramesh's frank comments work to the BJP's advantage?
Just six years after his father's Rath Yatra, the BJP came to power in New Delhi in 1996, points out Jayant Advani.
''We want to make Vibrant Gujarat the global business hub,' says Gujarat Minister Saurabh Patel.
'He also presented a facsimile of the scroll that was given to Gandhiji in Johannesburg in 1908 by the Chinese community there. I think that was quite a thoughtful gift,' Sabarmati Ashram Director Tridip Suhrud tells Sheela Bhatt/Rediff.com
'For Modi and Shah, the humiliating setback is bigger than the electoral defeats in New Delhi and in Bihar in 2015.'
'At the end of 2020, I was insecure, going through heartbreak, filled with negativity and self-doubt.' 'I had worked so hard over the past few years and suddenly, my career was stagnant.'
'Unlike India and Sri Lanka, there was no internal air travel needed.' 'For all 8 teams, different hotels are available, a separate one for the broadcasting team too.'
Sheela Bhatt reports on the tortuous negotiations to form a Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress government in Maharashtra.
'It will be our attempt that in order to get the country out of the condition it is in because of their (the BJP) coming to power, the Congress will go to them (leaders of parties opposed to the BJP) and if there is need for support we shall do so too.'
Embarrassment apart, it is a reminder to the Narendra Modi government that it is in acute minority in the Upper House
Narendra Rawat, an 'arrest-happy' Congress leader, is expected to launch a fair amount of political tamasha against his rival, Narendra Modi, in Vadodara.
At the best of times, ticket distribution in India's political parties is a tough business. The post-election result has to be judged, and judged correctly. It's an impossible job in view of the 814 million voters for whom the party bigwigs have to perform. Sheela Bhatt presents this light-hearted assessment of what's top of the mind for our political heavyweights.
'Only he can bring change in India that all of us have been dreaming of since we saw America for the first time when our plane touched down at JFK airport.' Narendra Modi's friends in New York and New Jersey travel down memory lane and remember a simple man with great ambition. Sheela Bhatt/Rediff.com tracks down the Modi bhakts, who knew since his first visit in 1993 that he was destined for bigger things.
