'Anything other than a complete, 2014-style victory will be far more devastating for him then it would be for anyone else.' 'Disciplining restive party members, and taming recalcitrant allies will then be far more difficult for him,' says Mihir S Sharma.
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.
As he took oath of office on Sunday night, Nara Chandrababu Naidu has earned a unique distinction of becoming the first chief minister of a new state in addition to being the longest-serving CM of Andhra Pradesh.
Despite serious corruption charges, this year has seen the resurgence of tainted leaders from across parties and states. Be it Yeddyurappa in Karnataka or Lalu Prasad Yadav in Bihar -- caste affiliation and an individual candidate's credentials matter far more than his alleged involvement in scams, says Anita Katyal
'The Godse controversy may have helped Kamal Haasan reach out to a larger audience, both inside the state and outside, coming as it does when the main campaign for elections 19 is over and only those in the four assembly bypoll constituencies are drudging along,' says N Sathiya Moorthy.
While all political parties have been talking about following in the footsteps of the debutant Aam Admi Party by fielding fresh faces in the coming Lok Sabha polls, Bihar Chief Minister and Janata Dal-U leader Nitish Kumar has set the ball rolling by deciding not to renominate his party's three sitting MPs in the coming biennial elections to the Rajya Sabha scheduled for February 7. Anita Katyal reports.
As Prime Minister Narendra Modi defended the demonetisation move, the united opposition hit back at the government over common man's suffering.
The Andhra Pradesh chief minister has just witnessed his state's division and the idea of leaving the Congress to launch a regional party might leave him with nothing, says Aditi Phadnis
Congress president Sonia Gandhi has summoned Andhra Chief Minister K Rosaiah to New Delhi on Saturday to discuss the future of member of Parliament Jaganmohan Reddy, son of late Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, and his supporters.
The BJP wants to demonstrate to its opponents that it does not lack political friends, even after being recently jilted by trusted ally JD-U, says Anita Katyal
The Marxists are heading for their worst debacle in many elections. How will May 16, 2014 affect India's Communists? T V R Shenoy surveys the landscape.
Telangana Rashtra Samithi chief K Chandrasekhar Rao on Monday met Rahul Gandhi, a day after he held consultations with Congress president Sonia Gandhi following the passage of the Telangana bill in Parliament.
The Bhratiya Janata Party has justified its poll alliance with the Telugu Desam Party in Andhra Pradesh despite critical comments made in the past by TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu.
ED attaches properties worth Rs 53 crore in quid-pro-quo investments case.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister K Rosaiah, who took over the stewardship of the state amid a campaign by supporters by late Y S Rajasekhara Reddy to give his son the top post, said on Saturday that a meeting of Congress Legislature Party would be held before year-end.
From being the hand-picked choice of Sonia Gandhi as Andhra Pradesh chief minister to sitting on a dharna in Delhi against division of the state, Nallari Kiran Kumar Reddy has turned from a Congress regional leader to a disgruntled rebel in his nearly 39-month tumultuous tenure.
A group of students carrying placards and raising slogans protested in the tense University campus on Wednesday morning.
Aditi Phadnis and Archis Mohan take a state by state takedown of the party's chances in the poll-bound states.
Modi's NDA is good enough to give a psychological boost to the once 'untouchable' BJP and Modi but if the NDA doesn't get a majority on its own, then walking the last mile will be the greatest challenge of this election for Modi, says Sheela Bhatt/Rediff.com
'AAP's real value must be measured not by the number of Lok Sabha seats it wins in the election -- which may not exceed 10 or 15 -- and not even by the number of votes it takes from the BJP, but by its ability to deflate Modi's superhuman '56-inch chest' image and the charisma so assiduously manufactured around him by the corporate-controlled media.'
The mishap occurred as large number of people tried to rush into the Puskhar ghat to take a holy dip.
The Centre on Thursday evening took the first significant step towards creation of a separate Telangana state from out of Andhra Pradesh and decided that Hyderabad will be the joint capital of the two states for 10 years.
This time however, the poll panel did not share the overall polling percentage at its briefing.
Cracking the whip, Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar on Thursday suspended 18 MPs from Andhra Pradesh for rest of the session after unprecedented pandemonium broke out in the House over the Telangana issue.
In his first interview after the announcement on Telangana, Jaipal Reddy spoke about the historical background of the movement, Narendra Modi and other issues.
A mix of industrialists and businessmen, who have inherited riches or rose from humble backgrounds and even endured boom and bust cycles, the top five MPs are illustrative of how the political stock of the wealthy is increasing rapidly.
Amid speculation over a possible merger of his party with Congress or the forging of a likely alliance between the two, Telangana Rashtra Samiti chief K Chandrasekhar Rao on Sunday met Sonia Gandhi, but said that no politics was discussed during their interaction.
Why are so many people so reluctant to give up on Arvind Kejriwal? The simple answer is 'Narendra Modi', or rather the fear of Narendra Modi,' says T V R Shenoy.
The Opposition on Monday charged the government with trying to promote crony capitalism, creating fear by giving "unbridled power" to taxmen, trying to snoop into people's lives through increased use of Aadhaar through the provisions of the Finance Bill.
Successors of those who migrated to Pakistan and China during Partition will have no claim over the properties left behind in India, with Parliament on Tuesday passing a bill to amend a 49-year-old law.
Congress says K Chandrashekhar Rao backstabbed it; Chandrababu Naidu detests him.
'I would say it is not going to be days and weeks. It is going to be months and years, over which we would make an assessment on the decisions taken by the Parliament at this point of time. 'We are in for a long haul is what I would say.' It was a very diverse India, which was coming together, politically, in a very cohesive, democratically-resilient way." Professor Navnita Behera examines the wisdom of the exit of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir.
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India's fear of small states derives from memories of Partition and the paranoid view that it will break up under 'too many' states. It's time to shed such fears and bite the 'states' reorganisation' bullet. India won't crumble under a few more Telanganas, Vidarbhas or Gorkhalands, says Praful Bidwai.
'Rajkumar Hirani could have gone for the jugular but has chosen instead to play to the gallery,' says J Jagannath.
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