'I hope the honourable PM and Mr Shah take steps to ensure that the NDA doesn't split.'
PM Modi said the Centre was not consulted by the Jammu and Kashmir government.
Peoples Democratic Party patron Mufti Mohammed Sayeed will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the first time on February 27 after which a swearing-in ceremony is likely to be held on March 1, two months after the results for the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly polls were announced.
The results will be seen as a virtual referendum on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's popularity after his demonetisation decision.
The Congress, which wanted to contest as many as 121 seats, has reportedly now settled for 105 seats.
Non-Congressism is the answer to India's current difficulties, says Dr Shambhu Shrivastava, who gives a historical perspective of non-Congress experiments in 1967, 1977, 1989 and 1998.
This is the first meeting chaired by Gandhi after relinquishing the post of Congress president last year.
Terming West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's call for a Federal Front as a "ploy" to increase her bargaining power with Congress and BJP before the 2014 polls, the Left parties feel it cannot be successful without a common minimum programme.
By ending the Shiv Sena's political untouchability, the Congress is creating a level playing ground for itself in the political battle of Hindu identity, explains Sheela Bhatt.
Former Chief Minister and National Conference leader Omar Abdullah on Thursday asserted that Article 370 of the Constitution cannot be scrapped and the special status accorded to Jammu and Kashmir cannot be eroded further.
"I will take Netaji (Mulayam Singh Yadav) along... my relation with him is unbreakable," he said during an informal chat.
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.
Mehbooba Mufti is running an alliance that is unnatural -- and one she instinctively militates against. She needs to be responsible in what she says and does -- and her time starts now, says Aditi Phadnis.
'The prime minister's advisers might have told him that going along with this AIADMK government will damage his image.'
This will be 'an Uddhav Thackeray government controlled by a remote now held by Sharad Pawar.'
Ahead of the crucial Congress meeting on Telangana, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Kirankumar Reddy on Friday met Congress President Sonia Gandhi and briefed her about the political situation in the state.
The country has a fiendishly complicated electoral system that is a combination of population-based proportional representation and party-based national lists, says Aditi Phadnis
Peoples Democratic Party continued to play the guessing game on the issue of forming the new government with its ally Bharatiya Janata Party by saying on Friday that it cannot put a time frame for it.
Sayeed said his government was committed to bring the displaced community back but ruled out setting up 'Israeli-type' separate clusters
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.
Kanika Datta explains why the Modi sarkar is gunning for non-profit organisations
She said her party has been consistently advocating dialogue, both with Pakistan and all sections of the society within the state, including the separatists, for a permanent resolution of the Kashmir issue.
The Kashmir-based PDP's linkage with the BJP could even be a turning point, provided it is safeguarded against real possibility of miscarriage. So-called fringe elements on either side, more so in the Saffron parivar, can easily upset Modi-Mufti applecart. They have only to drag contentious issues into limelight to do that, says Mohammad Sayeed Malik.
A crucial meeting of the Congress Core Group on Friday will discuss the Telangana issue with "both options open" as a decision "cannot be postponed anymore", said senior party leader Digvijay Singh.
CPI-M says it is ready to forge a front with Congress in Parliament on issues like land bill and secularism but ruled out being part of a national front.
Parrikar returned to Goa as the chief minister for the fourth time, though he could not complete full terms in his earlier stints.
Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Saturday sought to link the spate of terror attacks in Sopore area with Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar's alleged remark about revival of 'Ikhwanis', an outfit of reformed militants in the state.
The BJP's hobnobbing with M K Alagiri and ally Vaiko's controversial demands has the potential to rock the BJP's boat in Tamil Nadu, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Slamming the government over the situation in Kashmir, Opposition in the Rajya Sabha on Monday pressed for holding an all-party meet to discuss the issue and pitched for a political solution rather than using "barrel of the gun" while dealing with the unrest.
'The provisions of the AFSPA must remain on the statute books given the increasingly violent and uncertain times.'
From the economy to foreign policy issues, to addressing the serious challenge posed by communal forces which are out to viciously polarise and divide Indian society, the UPA II government has shown a certain pronounced weakness and lack of vision and commitment that could seriously harm India in the long run, notes Sanjay Kapoor.
The Opposition National Conference and Congress lawmakers on Friday disrupted proceedings in both houses of the Jammu and Kashmir legislature, accusing the government of misleading people on the issue of transfer of power projects to the state, and created ruckus in the assembly as Speaker directed marshalling out of some members.
'The Congress has collapsed and is fighting for survival. Other parties carry no weight in comparison to the BJP. This situation does not augur well for democracy,'
The newly-formulated Third Front left its imprint in Parliament on the opening day of the reconvened winter session when it surprised the ruling coalition by derailing the Anti-Communal Violence Bill
The AAP will face the more determined BJP at the next round in Delhi. Sure it would have to counter a Modi-led campaign but hasn't it already weathered that? In the re-poll, AAP would not need to bother much about the decimated Congress, down on both moral and image. All it needs to do is stay the ground till then, says Mahesh Vijapurkar.
'This generation has seen no communication.' 'You have not given them any stake.' 'They don't have a feeling of belonging.' 'They have only seen a man in uniform with a gun.' 'That is why it is taking a more vicious form today -- the attacks on the security forces and the retaliation is causing heavy loss of lives.'
'Abrogation of Article 370 is not legal because it is the legal basis of Kashmir's accession to India.'
Arvind Kejriwal's party will need around 50 seats to make a pitch for the Left's space in national politics. For that, it will have to contest more than one third of the Lok Sabha seats, points out Saroj Nagi.
The new PDP chief will have to work hard to keep everyone in the state happy.
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