'Rahul Gandhi should have prevented Nitish Kumar from going.' 'He must pacify Mamata Banerjee if he has a cause of Mohabbat Ki Dukaan.' 'He should bring this Mohabbat Ki Dukaan on the political canvas.'
'I would think that India faces less damage from opinions voiced overseas compared to the damage it suffers if the right to free speech of its citizens is curtailed in the name of image management,' asserts Shyam G Menon.
'Commentators have said that dealing with allies as equals will make Modi more sensitive.' 'Remember that the people Modi is dealing with are equally autocratic in their own lairs.' 'Further, Modi always has handy the threat of dissolving Parliament and calling for fresh polls.' 'Most of his own party, and certainly his allies and opponents having blown their budgets of efforts and resources in the just concluded elections, have no stomach for this.' 'They are all greatly looking forward to the loaves and fishes of office on offer.' 'That gives Modi an unbeatable advantage in any push-comes-to-shove situation,' explains Shreekant Sambrani.
It is hard to escape the feeling that solving the problems of 2020 and 2021 will require something special which at the moment is not on view, observes Aakar Patel.
In focus are the assembly polls in 2026. From a BJP perspective, their attack on the ruling DMK, using the 'Hindutva' card, and Annamalai's targeting of both Dravidian majors on corruption has not worked, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
'This is the first time in Goa politics that a communal leadership is being foisted on Goa's people.'
The pressure on Delhi mellowed Lucknow's ruling dispensation's initial enthusiasm to try and draw electoral mileage from the developments in Afghanistan.
'Elections in Madhya Pradesh have so far largely avoided freebies.' 'But this time both the Congress and BJP are making such announcements.'
While Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao has made his national ambitions amply clear, even rechristening his party to aid the process, his Tamil Nadu counterpart M K Stalin insists he is already in the national scene and used his birthday rally on March 1 to not only strongly pitch for the Congress as a force to reckon with in the efforts to dislodge the Narendra Modi-led dispensation at the Centre, but also sought to shoot down the prospects of a Third Front.
"The results show popular support for our battle against corruption," he told a crowd of cheering supporters at the BJP headquarters in New Delhi, adding that they have served a lesson to the Congress and the opposition's INDIA bloc that mere collecting some dynasts on dais may make for a good photograph but cannot win people's confidence.
The Aam Aadmi Party led by its chief minister designate Atishi staked claim to form a new government in Delhi on Tuesday shortly after Arvind Kejriwal resigned from the post, an effort seen as a bold gambit to seize the initiative ahead of assembly elections due in five months.
UP is an important state to roll out the government's agrarian reforms and job growth policies.
Venugopal shared the screenshot of a message purportedly from Apple which said that "you are being targeted by a mercenary spyware attack that is trying to remotely compromise the iPhone associated with your Apple ID".
The controversial issue of Muslim girls wearing 'hijab' in educational institutions, which had hit national headlines last year with a government pre-university college in Udupi banning it inside classrooms, does not appear to be a serious campaign issue for the May 10 elections to the Karnataka assembly.
Bharatiya Janata Party leader Uma Bharti on Wednesday said though the party has faith in Hindutva and the Ram temple issue, they would not be its political agenda for the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections scheduled for early next year.
'There was a strong undercurrent of deprivation, and also frustration against misuse of power and authority.' 'This election was an opportunity for the manifestation of this discontentment.'
During the meeting, it was decided to hold consultations on a wider scale so as to arrive at a common political agenda with other groups, it said.
Addressing a big rally in Kolkata to launch the Bharatiya Janata Party's Lok Sabha campaign, Shah launched a blistering attack on Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on the issues of appeasement, infiltration, corruption and political violence, alleging she has "destroyed" the state.
Banerjee claimed that some people will try to "engineer riots" during elections and urged everyone "not to fall prey to the plot".
If Tamil Nadu voters preferred the DMK combine, it owed to the Modi-Annamalai combo's ideological battle which often crossed the line of political decency and also challenged 'Tamil pride', argues N Sathiya Moorthy.
'The Congress should have played a more active role to take care of the needs of regional parties. It failed.' 'Taking this into account, Nitishji took the final decision with the full support of the JD-U.'
Sarma, whose stock is high in Delhi had earlier captured eyeballs as the BJP's first star campaigner from the region in far away Gujarat and Delhi.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar seems intent on mending fences with estranged former colleagues as part of the spadework for posing a credible challenge to the Bharatiya Janata Party's national hegemony.
With an eye on the crucial Uttar Pradesh assembly election, BJP's national executive will begin its two-day meet in Allahabad on Sunday which will be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party president Amit Shah among others.
He will be around for another crack at the elections, and a clear majority, predicts Saisuresh Sivaswamy.
A new Congress leader may make an electoral impact by his very presence. Congress voters who had moved away from the party, after being influenced by the BJP's 'family rule' campaign, can now return with a certain moral satisfaction, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
The Supreme Court said on Wednesday the issues related to the Maharashtra political crisis, triggered by the differences in the Shiv Sena, are "tough" constitutional questions to decide as they have "very serious" ramifications for the polity.
Modi said laws which divide the country on communal lines and become a reason for inequality have no place in a modern society.
'Is the Agniveer scheme or their post-retirement re-employment in paramilitary forces or in the state governments the BJP's answer to the crying need on the job front?' 'Or, even Finance Minister Sitharaman's one-year internship scheme in the public and private sector, is it a permanent solution, either?', asks N Sathiya Moorthy.
Kavitha attacked the BJP government at the Centre, alleging it of using the investigation agencies to target political parties and leaders who do not subscribe to its ideology.
Sharma exuded confidence that the BJP will get over 265 out of 403 seats in the state assembly.
With this, the Congress's strength in the 40-member assembly reduced to 14 from 16.
The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on Tuesday the fresh plea of former Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson Nupur Sharma seeking revival of her withdrawn petition seeking clubbing of first information reports (FIRs) lodged in several states over her remarks on Prophet Muhammad in a TV debate show.
Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Thursday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of hatching a conspiracy to assassinate Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, fearing poll defeats in Gujarat and the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), and alleged Delhi MP Manoj Tiwari's involvement in it.
When asked about the Uniform Civil Code, Gandhi said he would comment on it only after he knows what is BJP's proposal.
The Bharatiya Janata Party has raised the number of "difficult" Lok Sabha seats it is eying to win in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls to 160 from 144, with a big chunk of additions coming from Bihar where it is set to contest most of the constituencies on its own following its split with the Janata Dal-United.
In the event of the BJP's poor performance in the assembly polls this year and in early 2025, Modi's hold will get further weakened because he will no longer remain the invincible electoral persona tightly controlling the machine at his disposal, asserts Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
The two-day meeting will begin with BJP president J P Nadda's speech and at least two resolutions, including a political resolution, will be passed during the proceedings.
A delegation of Congress leaders met EC officials and raised several issues, including the use of pictures and large cut-outs of the prime minister in government buildings and colleges and demanded that those be removed to maintain a level-playing field in the upcoming parliamentary election.
Participating in the eighth edition of Deepotsav in Ayodhya - the first since the consecration of Ram temple on January 22, Adityanath said, "This is a historic first as after 500 years, Lord Ram is now in his abode in Ayodhya for Diwali."
