Calculated or otherwise, if Azhagiri's firing of the first salvo after Karunanidhi's death does not create some space for him to politico-electorally exploit at a later date, there may not be any space left for him at all, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Upon his arrival, Modi addressed a thanksgiving public meeting organised by the Andhra Pradesh BJP at Renigunta near Tirupati.
'Deep down, it betrays a transactional view of politics. That, to get, the voter must give,' argues Krishna Prasad.
'Being authoritative is one thing -- Nehru was that -- but being authoritarian is quite another -- the current prime minister is clearly one.'
'I had offers from the BJP, but my ideology is different from theirs.'
Investors can take heart from the first Cabinet meeting in the second innings.
Since 2000-01, the Indian economy has shown the tendency of being unable to absorb all domestic savings as investments.
A total of 3.32 crore voters will be eligible to cast their ballots at 36,269 polling booths and 11,389 polling stations.
The mandate which the people of Northeast have given is in itself is a very big change, Modi said.
Apart from Sangma, 11 other cabinet ministers were also sworn in by the governor.
'The clearest interpretation of the November 8 mandate is that the backwards, Dalits and minorities, and a huge proportion of women cutting across caste and class, displayed massive consolidation to the extent that despite chipping of votes by the Left Front, by the Third Front and by the BSP, Mahagathbandhan candidates won, and in many cases by huge margins,' says Mohammad Sajjad.
Permissive communalism, as represented by the Sachar Committee report, cannot become the basis to counter the threat of majoritarianism, says D L Sheth.
Election Commissioner V S Sampath announced that Delhi will go to polls on February 7.
The Sangh's leadership has boxed itself into a tight situation. It now needs to wait and see if Modi can deliver in the Lok Sabha polls, says Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
After Congress' observer to the state K C Venugopal made the announcement at a media briefing in New Delhi.
'The autonomy of essential institutions is clearly under question as the Modi government seeks to influence them politically.' 'The credibility of institutions such as the EC, the CBI, the CVC, the UPSC, the RBI, media, and universities, has been compromised,' notes Zoya Hasan, the distinguished political thinker.
Former India captain Sourav Ganguly will take over as the 39th BCCI president on Wednesday, but he will have a curtailed tenure of around nine months as he would need to demit office by the end of July, next year as per the provisions of new constitutions, which makes 'Cooling Off' period mandatory after six years in office.
Most exit polls have forecast gains for Congress in at least four states including a clear majority in Rajasthan.
Sharma said Jai Ram Thakur's sarcastic comments forced him to resign from the ministry, saying it indicated that the chief minister had lost faith in him.
Former Navy chief Admiral L Ramdas also said he was 'upset' over the Uttar Pradesh chief minister's remarks.
Ex-bankers, retired government officials and journalists have been roped in by the Election Commission to hold 'charcha' or dialogue sessions with voters as part of its drive to crack down on black money instances in "expenditure-sensitive" pockets.
The fact remains that in the present-day Tamil Nadu, GenX and GenY voters, born and/or growing up after the end of 'Kamaraj rule' in the '60s and 'MGR rule', respectively, constitute an absolute majority of the electorate. If they still vote for a Rajini or Kamal, in preference to the established 'Dravidian voters', it is despite the MGR imagery, not because of it, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
A closer analysis of the Delhi election results suggests that the Aam Aadmi Party, despite a stunning debut, may actually be on shakier ground if another election were held, says Venkat Goli.
'Today, if the international community is seeking space, if not place, here, then the message is not unclear in any which way. 'It does not reflect well on the nation's standing in the international arena, where human rights issues go a long way in building bilateral relations and benefiting from international cooperation, more than any aspect of politics and diplomacy,' N Sathiya Moorthy.
Though May won her Maidenhead seat in south-east England with 37,780 votes, she faced pressure to resign after losing her parliamentary majority.
'You may be an MP or an MLA; when we go to Bengal, we go as cadre.'
The BJP has already cobbled up 28 seats to counter-bargain with the PDP's 28 seats in future talks. It is up to the Kashmir-based parties like the National Conference and PDP to assess the damage of going with the BJP which is perceived as the 'Hindu' party in the state. Sheela Bhatt/Rediff.com's takeways from a historic but fractured mandate in Jammu and Kashmir.
The biopic was originally set to release on April 12, but its producers had advanced it by a week, claiming 'public demand'.
Unlike other countries, the US does not send its election observers to India because of the strong independent credentials of the Election Commission of India.
Mann said there was no use in finding fault with EVMs and the party should introspect on the reasons behind its defeat.
Congress leadership would take a call on who would be its deputy chief minister on Tuesday.
In a new political twist in Jammu and Kashmir, National Conference on Tuesday formally offered support to the People's Democratic Party in a letter to Governor N N Vohra for forming a government that could break the logjam of over three weeks.
'Rather than 'consolidate' the Hindu majority votes, as the BJP-RSS combine has been known and wont to try, this time round PM Modi has himself taken the party to the next step, by seeking to create a new divide within the majority community, a la V P Singh in his time.'
'With its vote bank is intact, the PMK, though a smaller party of Vanniars, was able to twist around major parties like the DMK and AIADMK, negotiating with both before settling for Chief Minister Edapadi K Palaniswami's side.' 'There is a lesson in it for regional parties in other states as well, on how to dominate the national parties with a committed vote share of just 7 to 8 per cent,' says R Rajagopalan.
The party's most important electoral challenge lies in whether it can meet the aspirations of the youth who were drawn by the promise of gainful work.
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has already taken a lead with his knock-on-door campaign.
Ahead of the G20 Summit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi met his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe in Osaka, Japan and discussed a range of issues of mutual interest.
Several members in the Lok Sabha on Friday pitched for making voting compulsory, saying that such a move would help curb corruption and instances of electorate being influenced through illegal means during elections.
Although the Opposition has been making a hue and cry over demonetisation, the BJP's programmes have been attracting crowds.
A clear message was that the ongoing seven-decade-old model of agriculture, based on extensive reliance on subsidy by the government at every stage, was not going to work, said NITI Aayog vice-chairman Rajiv Kumar.
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