Leaders from across the political spectrum criss-crossed the entire state to woo the voters but Mulayam mostly kept indoors.
Narendra Modi represents a change that embraces efficient delivery mechanisms, integrity, innovative solutions to governance and a welcome discourse away from Hindutva and Pakistan, says Jaya Jaitly.
Karan Singh, Janardan Dwivedi and Parvez Hashmi would be retiring later this month.
The 74-year-old leader, who describe himself as "a rebel with a cause", earlier served as the country's president from 2005-2015, becoming South Asia's longest-serving leader. He was also prime minister for a brief period in 2018.
In a major embarrassment to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's development politics, his party colleague Janata Dal-United president Sharad Yadav has accused him of not coming out of caste politics.
The CIA was of the view that Indira's assassination had cost the Soviet Union one of its 'most important' allies.
Xi, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China, called the progress China had made under his watch "truly remarkable
Portugal erupted into jubilation on Sunday as the country defeated France to win the Euro 2016, its first major international soccer championship.
The two leaders had some firm convictions in defence matters and are idolised by their respective people because they salved the scarred collective psyches of their societies.
'Never before has an Indian politician made such huge electoral gains on dead bodies. For the moment, Vajpayee is speaking the language of the VHP-RSS,' says Praful Bidwai.
'What do you think the Congress is today?' 'Is it a political party heading for a life-and-death battle?' 'Or an NGO, just doing its thing and hoping it will improve the state of the world?' asks Shekhar Gupta.
Nitish Kumar's decision to resign as the state chief minister was as dramatic as the time he decided to tie up with old foe Lalu in 2015.
Hazare, 81, had started his indefinite fast on January 30 over appointment of anti-corruption watchdogs.
'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 was a social event and we did not talk politics there," he said on his interaction with Modi.
Ideology and principle are always put to work to camouflage political ambition. Nitish Kumar is a past master at this. His acceptance of the NDA in the first place was aimed at the top spot of Bihar. Then Delhi became the goal, but Narendra Modi's rise as head of the campaign rang alarm bells. So Nitish suddenly remembered secularism, says Jaya Jaitly.
On a visit to India in 2013, writer Ved Mehta -- who passed into the ages on Sunday January 10, 2021 - gave Rediff.com's Vaihayasi Pande Daniel a rare glimpse into his state of mind and what he thinks of the changes he encounters in his motherland.
Opposition Labour's Valerie Vaz also retained her Walsall South seat and Seema Malhotra won her south west London seat comfortably.
Stay away from violence and work for the party was Mulayam Singh Yadav's message to Samajwadi Party workers on the party's 9th national convention in Lucknow.
During its talks with the Centre, the NSCN (I-M) has demanded the formation of 'Greater Nagaland', which includes parts of Manipur.
Yeddyurappa lacks the Karnataka BJP's unqualified support and Shah knows that.
'If Modi wants to help the poor and get the credit for it as well, he must do what China does. He must openly adopt pro-capital policies.'
With opinion polls on televisions showing him a bad loser in the coming Lok Sabha elections in Bihar, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Friday discarded such surveys as a "PR campaign to boost TRP" by "rumour master" and said poll results would send them into "deep shock".
'Sonia's term as Congress president -- which was 20 years -- was the longest in the party's history.' 'It will also go down as the period in which the Congress transformed in the way Indians viewed it,' says Aakar Patel.
The desecration of Vidyasagar's statue during Amit Anilchandra Shah's rally, which the TMC projected to be a 'Bhojpuri' and 'Dhokla' invasion on West Bengal's culture, may help her gain some favour with middle-class and erudite Bengalis in the last phase of the polls.
"Nobody can forget June 25-26 in the history of India. 40 years ago, the country was bound with chains of Emergency and turned into a jail for the lust for power," he said.
'Whenever Dalits have agitated on the streets, the government has blamed Naxalites.'
'All that Mr Modi needed to do was to call Urjit Patel over for a cup of tea and ask him nicely, and this fuss would never have happened.'
With an aim of ending insurgency in Nagaland, the government on Monday signed an accord with key outfit Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland- Isaac-Muivah which Prime Minister Narendra Modi described as a "historic" step to usher in peace in the state.
Xi, the most powerful leader in recent decades heading the ruling Communist Party and the military, will now be the first Chinese leader after the founder chairman Mao Zedong to remain in power lifelong.
M Karunanidhi was a masterful practitioner of modern-day politics, wielding considerable influence beyond his own state, in the corridors of power in New Delhi, for a long time and sewing up alliances with both the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's landslide election in 2014 raised hopes he would draw a line under India's socialist past, cut welfare and reduce the government's role in business.
Mulayam on Sunday blamed the defeat on son Akhilesh's decision to ally with a Congress, which he said had tried its best to "ruin" him.
China has ordered all Buddhist monasteries in Tibet to display China's national flag as part of its efforts to maintain social stability in the restive Himalayan province, which experienced self-immolation protests against the Communist party rule.
Arun Jaitley, who is recovering from a kidney ailment, attended the proceedings after a long gap.
All's fair in politics? The Bihar CM stroke a controversy by visiting a tantrik.
'Was he afraid that his answers during cross-examination would land him in trouble under the new ruling dispensation?'
Modi: Journey of a Common Man is blatant propaganda, feels Utkarsh Mishra.
Family feuds, in what are essentially family-run outfits, have cast a shadow over the reunification efforts of Janata Party.
In further rumblings within the Bharatiya Janata Party over its big loss in Bihar, party MP Hukumdev Narayan Yadav on Monday said the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat's quota comments 'agitated' backward castes who rallied around the grand alliance and asserted that many who voted for the Modi government are not RSS supporters.
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