Vaghela said the front 'Jan Vikalp' was floated by some city-based "professionals", who approached him to provide an alternative to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and the opposition Congress in Gujarat, and claimed a number of people wanted to see him as the chief minister.
Unless controlled and contained, given the untested belief that the north Indian labour support and follow the Hindutva kind of political ideology, there is a potential in terms of ideological clashes with their Dravidian brethren in the local neighbourhoods, and it all escalating into violence, especially during election time, predicts N Sathiya Moorthy.
The Trinamool Congress and Nationalist Congress Party, have indicated that their party chiefs have better credentials for the post than the newly-elected Congress head, reports Archis Mohan
Finance Minister Piyush Goyal: 'I hope the Congress governments and other states like West Bengal, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Andhra, Telangana will support our effort to bring petrol and diesel into the GST regime.'
Leaders from all political parties congratulated the saffron party and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Congress MP Karti Chidambaram and Communist Party of India-Marxist politburo member Mohammed Salim were among the prominent politicians who tested positive for COVID-19 as a rapid spike in cases took the tally in the country to over 18 lakh on Monday.
Shortly after the Union Budget was announced, political leaders from across the spectrum reacted to it. Here's what some of our leaders said.
'The TMC has become a private limited company.'
The Congress has been reduced to a C player in national politics thanks to its inability to read the pulse of the people, says Rashme Sehgal.
Six persons, including a woman, were killed and 18 were injured in violence and CRPF firing in the fourth phase of the West Bengal panchayat elections on Monday. Polling in four districts saw a voter turnout of 25 per cent.
As the news of Kalam broke, condolences and tributes poured in from all corners of the country, reflecting the huge popularity he enjoyed both in and out of the highest office of the country that earned him the sobriquet of the "people's President."
"Our handshake with Indian Union was subject to certain conditions," he said.
Shah said the 'friendship' between Christian Michel, the alleged middleman in the deal, and Congress' top leadership is 'time tested and deep'.
There is indeed a Bengal Model but it is one which negates generational aspiration, generates animus, thrives on bloodletting and political vendetta, reiterates outdated ideas of vote bank politics, is shorn of any vision or roadmap for reconstruction and is fast depleting the levels of a legitimate tolerance, says Dr Anirban Ganguly.
His immediate challenge is the February 8 Delhi assembly polls followed by year-end elections in Bihar. However, his big test would be the next year's assembly polls in West Bengal, a state where the BJP has emerged as a strong challenger to Mamata Banerjee-headed TMC.
Tokyo-bound AFI medical commission chairman AK Mendiratta dies of COVID-19.
The accent on 'making the south feel wanted' was the reason why P Muralidhar Rao, who was dropped as general secretary, was partially reinstated in the central apparatus as prabhari in charge of Madhya Pradesh. 'Pressure from the RSS was brought to bear on Rao's return,' a source said. Radhika Ramaseshan reports.
Why are the poor turning Right instead of turning toward far-Left parties, ponders Pranab Bardhan.
If the AAP wins 20 to 40 Lok Sabha seats, which is conceivable unless it botches up on governance in Delhi, it will become a significant bloc comparable in influence to or even bigger than several major regional parties, feels Praful Bidwai.
Amethi's member of Parliament failed to use his first formal television interview to reach out to the people in general and the electorate in particular ahead of the crucial elections in which the Congress has already been written off by opinion polls and surveys. He did little to change that impression by failing to exploit the platform provided to him.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday said the government has no other option but to extend President's Rule in Jammu and Kashmir as the Election Commission wants to hold assembly elections in the state by the end of 2019.
India's Muslims need to assert their educational and economic upliftment and political empowerment rather than be provoked by communal remarks, says Mohammad Sajjad, reflecting on the Malda riot.
Like the Hindi film industry, where formulas for hit films are done to death, the political fraternity in India is making an all out effort to 're-brand' itself to follow the hit script of the AAP, says Upasna Pandey
I am not ruling out possibility of joining Cong again, says Trinamool Congress MP Somen Mitra.
The legendary Seshan was not keeping good health for the past couple of years and he passed away at about 9.30 pm, a senior police official told PTI.
Slamming the Union budget as 'insipid' and lacking in stimulus for growth, the Congress on Saturday said it does not address the main issue of unemployment and describes the mindset of the government.
The move that comes in the backdrop of the massive controversy over alleged anti-India protests in the JNU.
Jaitley also dubbed Gandhi's attack on Modi as an attempt to shift the focus due to people's 'revulsion' towards the Congress party.
'Indian nationhood is indeed at the cusp of alarming redefinition -- hate-filled, and exclusionary.' 'Nations are not built this way, instead these are the ways of liquidating nations.' 'We must pre-empt it.' 'Can we?' asks Mohammad Sajjad.
A Delhi court on Monday sent a youth, arrested in connection with the hit-and-run case in which an IAF corporal was killed, to two days transit remand.
'With over 50 per cent of medical seats reserved for those who have the ability to pay a fee ranging from Rs 50 lakh to Rs 1.5 crore for a five-year MBBS course and quotas in accordance with affirmative policies in government colleges, the band of seats available for the not-so-rich and non-OBCs is very narrow.'
What the Congress will have to understand is that it is not enough to have a 40-something vice-president in New Delhi, but young faces with fresh ideas in the states,' says Amulya Ganguli.
The death of the veteran Bollywood actor Rishi Kapoor a huge loss for the Indian film industry.
Dubbed as the largest farmers' congregation in Delhi, around 35,000 farmers, from across India, converged at the Parliament Street police station Thursday after their march was stopped by the administration.
Rampant corruption by Congress ministers must be counted as the single biggest factor to prompt the electorate to hand over a thumping mandate to the Communist parties, says M K Bhadrakumar.
The Congress chief gave 'F' to the Modi government for agriculture, foreign policy and job creation, and 'A+' to the prime minister for slogan creation and self promotion.
Bihar to get roads worth Rs 50,000 crore.
JD-U sources conceded that the BJP's "Bihari martyrdom" line will give the coalition an edge or "at least help us combat anti-incumbency if the Opposition makes an issue of Nitish's governance".
The high-voltage campaign for the February 4 assembly elections in Punjab came to an end on Thursday evening following hectic campaigning by various political parties.
Barring Maharashtra, the poll percentage in rest of the states was in excess of 60 per cent while in Puducherry it was 80.47 per cent.
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