'Priyanka Gandhi play is not only about winning allies and lifting spirits; it's also about cash'
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Arun Jaitley on Thursday claimed that a strong anti-incumbency mood, similar to 1977 and 1989, was prevailing in India and that leadership potential will dictate the outcome of the general elections in 2014.
He said that as the previous government could not do it, he had to do it.
'What do you think the Congress is today?' 'Is it a political party heading for a life-and-death battle?' 'Or an NGO, just doing its thing and hoping it will improve the state of the world?' asks Shekhar Gupta.
Launching the Ayushman Bharat scheme via a video-conference to extend health insurance benefits to all residents of Jammu and Kashmir, he said the three-tier panchayat system has fully taken shape in the UT, describing it as a realisation of Mahatma Gandhi's dream of 'gram swaraj' (village self-rule).
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.
'Modi's idea of India is to make it less liberal, less tolerant and a less accommodative of diversity.' 'We are headed, if Modi continues, to become an ill liberal democracy.' 'Modi is not Vajpayee. Vajpayee was fundamentally decent, tolerant and fair. He played by the rules of the game. Modi is a different story.'
Here are 10 important quotes from the PM's televised address:
'This letter assumes significance as it is for the first time that a letter has been documented and collectively agreed upon.'
However, Bharti later claimed that her call for unity among party workers was presented in a distorted manner.
By the looks of it, the Congress cannot hope to return to power even in election 2024. What it can do is to start from the bottom, hold organisational elections, which are honest, and co-opt those elected to form teams of office-bearers at all levels, right up to the working committee. By the very nature of the elections that they are going to lose, the party should use the interim to shore up youth power, or whatever remains, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
"This move will strengthen the unity of the country, which is the requirement of the hour," says Charu Wali Khanna.
'The last four years was not Dravidian rule, it was BJP rule by proxy.'
Stalin has given due respect to seniority in the pecking order, but has also taken into consideration the demands of individual ministries and the suitability of individuals, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
'He has got all the criteria that are good for running an NGO.' 'He is always doing charitable things.' 'To be a political leader you must have cunning to go for the seal.'
The article also said that the opposition Congress party has little to offer other than the dynastic principle.
It is likely that the party's allies in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, two of the five states going to the polls in April-May, might insist on allocating fewer seats than they did in 2016, reports Archis Mohan.
'A concerted attempt is afoot to try and create a new image of an intelligent man who knows what he is talking about and is far from the person that his critics in the media and Opposition have often portrayed him to be,' says Virendra Kapoor.
If we have to elect Rahul Gandhi to rule the country because 'secularism', of all things, dictates it, we are strengthening the ugly aspects of the dynastic system of democracy that has come to infect India's body politic deeply, says Jaya Jaitly.
'When the world was refining itself, India was going backwards culturally with so many rape cases and other atrocities against women, children and the elderly. The growth of evil forces was very bad in the last 10 years,' says Malayalam movie star Suresh Gopi, who met Narendra Modi recently tells Rediff.com's Shobha Warrier in this exclusive interview.
'The Congress era was already over anyway! The real question is: Has India opened a new, post-coalition era and I'm very doubtful about that,' Christophe Jaffrelot, author of several books on Indian politics, tells Archana Masih/Rediff.com, analysing Mandate 2014.
There have been media reports that the LJP was unhappy over the return of the Hindustani Awam Morcha-Secular into the National Democratic Alliance fold and contempleting fielding candidates against JD-U nominees.
We asked you to tell us your reason for choosing not to vote. This is what our readers shared.
Meanwhile, key BJP ally skips event to mark first year of Yogi govt.
'Since the two successive drubbings of the Congress have rung the alarm bells about the party's future, the need to chart a new course cannot be delayed any further,' says Amulya Ganguli.
Shahs also said that his party will strive to rid the state of its 'Bimaru' tag as development is the way forward in Indian politics now.
The economic muscle in the Mangalore region is generally sympathetic to the BJP, says Aditi Phadnis.
'No country or society ever prospered or remained secure by marginalising more than one-sixth of its own,' warns Shekhar Gupta.
With months to go for the Karnataka assembly elections, the man in the hot seat, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah says he'll make billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi and the Punjab National Bank scam an issue in the upcoming Karnataka elections . In an interview to CNN-News18's Deepa Balakrishnan, the CM also says that Hindutva is not a campaign issue in the state.
'It marks the start of an era where the BJP must now campaign on its own record rather than against the misrule of another party.'
President Ram Nath Kovind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and other political leaders across the country on Wednesday mourned the demise of actor Irrfan Khan, calling him a 'rare talent' who will be greatly missed.
Kamra allegedly heckled Goswami, the editor of Republic TV, on IndiGo's Mumbai-Lucknow (6E5317) flight on Tuesday.
Gandhi accusing the minister of 'lying' on HAL's capability to build the jet fighters, saying her position is untenable.
The Left has ideologically become irrelevant globally, says the finance minister.
The controversial interaction took place on Thursday when Rahul began taking questions from the audience.
'People are losing their freedom to eat, speak, write and practise their religion.' 'All that is said in the Constitution has been taken away.' 'Does every Muslim or Christian or Hindu have to say I am a patriot every morning and repeat it in the afternoon and at night?'
"What is the hurry," Modi said, while referring to Gandhi's hand gestures when he came across to PM's chair.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday invoked Atal Bihari Vajpayee's concepts of communal harmony, humanity and democracy to share the pain of Kashmiris and promised to take the state to new heights of development.
Bharatiya Janata Party patriarch L K Advani's daughter said that he will accept whatever position the party deems fit for his 'stature'.
'His contagious smile and peal of laughter, his affirmative approach to national challenges, his faith and conviction in India's future and his profound attachment to the welfare of the northeast attracted anyone who came in touch with him,' says Dr Anirban Ganguly.
