The last leg of poll campaign saw many national leaders canvassing for their parties.
Modi said this government will offer all 'sahyog' to Kovind.
During the hearing, the 92-year-old senior lawyer had told the apex court that it must do 'full and complete justice' in all matters before it and that his last wish before he died was to finish the case.
'From the very start, PM Modi was insistent that visiting foreign leaders should be exposed to an India beyond its capital.' 'Through these experiences, he felt that the full Indian narrative would be much better understood across the world,' explains External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar. A riveting excerpt from Bluekraft Digital Foundation's Modi@20: Dreams Meet Delivery.
His announcement came amid indications that the TDP, which recently pulled out its ministers from the Narendra Modi government, was toying with the idea of quitting the NDA.
The Andhra CM charged the BJP and Centre with 'mud-slinging' and trying to 'damage his credibility'.
As per the preliminary estimates, the BJP has significantly improved its national vote share from 31.34 per cent in 2014 to a new record high, while there appeared to be only a marginal change in case of the Congress from its 19.5 per cent score of the last elections.
The ruling faction's announcement came two days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi rang up Palaniswami to seek his party's support.
The AIADMK chief filed her nomination papers for June 27 bypoll to the Radhakrishnan Nagar assembly constituency.
Rahul Gandhi replied on Twitter, saying, 'Thank you for your greetings @narendramodi ji. I appreciate them.'
"We urge the government that the issue of security of our leaders has to be beyond partisan political considerations," said Anand Sharma in Rajya Sabha.
Here is a closer look at politicos who have emerged victorious in the electoral contest of five state assemblies.
Probodh Panda and Atul Kumar Anjaan are among 39 candidates declared by the Communist Party of India for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls as the party said that it would fight on 60 seats in 24 states.
Chances of holding early assembly polls in Telangana and Seema-Andhra, along with the Lok Sabha elections, seem unlikely, says Renu Mittal
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Union Minister and senior Congress leader Veerappa Moily on Saturday claimed that the Bharatiya Janata Party was turning to be a friendless party after it named Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, who lacked a pan-Indian acceptance, as chairman of its National Campaign Committee.
'Some of his decisions were not so good, but his intentions were always guided by a deep national interest.'
Even as political parties in TN have decided not to field a candidate against CM Jayalalithaa in the assembly by-election, the BJP's ambivalence has shown up once again.
The government is banking on help from regional parties and rejigged numbers in the Rajya Sabha.
While the start may have been rocky, with renewed syllabus and coaching, students and teachers are largely in favour of the exam.
If the Congress lost in Tamil Nadu in 1967, never to return, or the DMK and the AIADMK have kept their place in power and electoral politics since then, it owes not to their love or hatred for gods or for one religion over another. Instead, they had always been linked to performance and incumbency/anti-incumbency factors. There may be something in such constructs for Rajini's strategic team to consider, especially if the superstar is to enter direct politics by around this time next year. But then, they would need to brush up their homework more than at present, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
'The BJP's all-India plans can be expected to become clearer around 2022-2023, particularly if -- as some anticipate -- the senior Congress leadership cracks, broadly as between the Nehru-Gandhi loyalists and those who may be termed 'pro-changers',' observes Arun Bhatnagar, a retired IAS officer.
'Balakot and Pulwama will definitely help the BJP, but it will still not help them to create a 2014 like situation or go beyond that.'
'There is nothing like the Sangh agenda or the BJP agenda... we believe only in the Nation's Agenda,' says newly appointed BJP Vice-President Vinay Sahasrabuddhe.
The Congress has revoked Buta Singh's expulsion and assigned him to hold back-channel talks with Jayalalithaa and Mayawati.
'If the Congress is to challenge the NDA government, Rahul Gandhi will have to shed his indifference to Parliament, become more visible and vocal and, essentially, lead from the front,' says Rediff.com contributor Anita Katyal.
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.
'The debate, by being mostly in Hindi, lost much of its educative relevance to the southern states.' 'All the prime minister's debating skills and oratorical prowess went over the heads of the South Indian audience,' points out B S Raghavan, the distinguished civil servant.
"Rahul is fighting the battle of rallies as an infantry soldier, while Modi as a technician in a thermo-nuclear war."
'We have nothing to gain by helping any other country to become a threat to India,' former Sri Lanka president Mahinda Rajapaksa, who is on the comeback trail, tells Rediff.com in an exclusive interview.
A shell shocked opposition are finding it difficult to come to grips with the verdict in the disproportionate assets corruption case against Jayalalithaa.
With the Congress down in the dumps and the BJP juggernaut on a roll, 'secular' parties are attempting to revive the Janata Parivar coalition to fill the vacuum.
'Going by his political conduct over the past 15 years since first becoming chief minister, he has made enough enemies among equals as friends and followers.' 'They could gang up and that could mean a lot for AIADMK politics to handle,' says N Sathiya Moorthy.
For the third front to become a reality, it needs a party that has a pan-India presence and wins more Lok Sabha seats than all other parties in the front, say experts.
Jayalalithaa's attack on BJP's PM hopeful a little too late in the coming, says N Sathiya Moorthy
Nitish Kumar will be the chief minister only till the time the BJP wishes, points out Ramesh Menon.
'Why is the entire Cabinet running around in Bangalore?' 'Why are they making arrangements for horse-trading?' 'Is this not the BJP's greed for power?' 'They have won the entire country. Why are they so desperate for Karnataka?'
'Silencing citizens has become a major institutional process under this regime.' 'The anti-Indian argument is a bogey -- meant to silence independent thinking people in India and turn us into goats and sheep.'
The Opposition is putting up a symbolic fight for the presidential polls as it knows that the BJP has the numbers to get its candidate elected to the top post.
If the BJP wins by getting Hindu voters to consolidate, its opponents can't beat it by bundling together the Muslims and some of the 'others', observes Shekhar Gupta.
Floats from 13 states, including Bihar, West Bengal, Odisha weren't present at parade
