The Congress leader is one of the most powerful functionaries in the party, having the reputation of being a trouble-shooter and strategist.
'As we reach 2022 we are creating a very new, different India where the Citizenship Amendment Act will be passed, NRC will be pushed through, Article 370 scrapped...'
'This is what Hindu Rashtra looks like, which has been enabled by conditions of democracy.'
'For Muslims it is time to understand what sense of fears are in the minds of Hindus.' 'I think the conversation somewhere is not taking place.'
Here's the full text of President's address with a word cloud.
One of the urgent tasks ahead for the new government should be to improve public trust in the executive.
And the First Lady Melania was in tears -- not of joy -- after hearing about the surprise win.
"We do not have any tight (military) relations with Pakistan," Putin said.
Coming out against dynastic politics and nepotism in Haryana, Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked the electorate to junk such parties and elect a Bharatiya Janata Party government with majority, saying he did not want support of "dangerous" people lodged in Tihar Jail, apparently referring to former CM Om Prakash Chautala.
'Mamata is synonymous with Bengal, its culture, language, traditions.'
The prime minister said there was a need to cleanse Indian politics of Congress culture.
Some of the key proposals of the agenda relate to transforming the banking sector, addressing agrarian distress, countering hate crimes and discrimination, and spurring employment generation.
Coupled with his administrative and organisational skills and experience, his loyalty to the party and RSS ideology seemed to have won the day for him.
After Arunachal Pradesh slipped out of its control and Uttarakhand was placed under President's rule, the Congress president took matters into her own hands.
No one else filed papers till Sunday, according to Mullapally Ramachandran, the chairman of the party's Central Election Authority.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi continues to ride high with rock star gigs abroad and no challengers within or outside the party at home. With international oil prices dipping to unforeseen lows and inflation declining sharply, a perked-up economy provides the perfect backdrop as he strides the national and international stage.
'He always avoided eating non-vegetarian food in presence of his deputies if they were fasting for the month of Shravan.' 'There were no Hindu, Jain, Parsi and Swaminarayan festivals he would forget.' 'He was a conservative Muslim and therefore could get along well with conservative Hindus.'
'Besides electoral opportunism, a sustained vilification of AMU on one or the other pretext helps them sustain their 'everyday communalism', the new strategy of the BJP of the Narendra Damodardas Modi-Amit Anilchandra Shah era,' says Mohammad Sajjad.
'Gujarat should have been a breeze. But the Patidar agitation and economic uncertainty queered the pitch.' 'Yes, the BJP won and its rank-and-file will take great comfort in the assembly victory. But the leadership is taking stock for a very tricky set of elections coming up in 2018.'
The winds of nationalism laden with religion will now yield to those of concern over the stalled economy, unemployment, and a general malaise and unhappiness, predicts Shekhar Gupta.
Afghan presidential run-off candidate Abdullah Abdullah on Wednesday alleged massive election fraud and demanded an immediate halt to vote-counting amid reports that his rival had a million-vote lead, plunging the war-torn country's first democratic transition of power into question.
'Compared to other social groups, managing the Muslim constituency has always been easier for the secularists.' 'Just some symbolic measures and window-dressing would keep the Muslim flock together.' 'Having been betrayed by all the supposedly 'secular' political parties, Muslims should turn into citizens without any ascriptive identity marks,'says Mohammad Sajjad.
BJP may get up to a maximum of 115 of the total 182 seats and the Congress 65.
'Somewhere in the midst of the three milestones of 1881, 1984 and 1999 are the clues that provide the answer to the troubling corrosion of Karnataka politics: The disappearance of values, the criminalisation of politics, and the complete collapse of ideology,' says Krishna Prasad, former editor-in-chief, Outlook.
The Congress Working Committee is likely to take a final decision on the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh to create a state of Telangana on Tuesday.
The EC has deployed 580 companies of central forces to man over 98 per cent of the polling booths in these constituencies to ensure free and fair polling.
Priyanka Gandhi on Wednesday took on Narendra Modi by raking up the "snoopgate" controversy surrounding him and said leaders who indulge in wrong acts against women should be "thrown out".
'Few leaders are fortunate to win such a ringing endorsement from the electorate in an election when the prime minister and his lieutenant staked their all and almost daily upped the ante.' 'Now that he has won the election so convincingly, the Mahagatbandhan's Mahanayak needs to get to business at hand,' says Archana Masih.
In an indication of its vexation with ally BJP, the Shiv Sena on Friday said it will contest 20 seats in electorally vital Uttar Pradesh, but the BJP downplayed it saying they share "strong and old" ties and are "inseparable".
Political parties can no longer make tall promises on freebies in their election manifestos as they will now have to explain the rationale of their pledges and ways and means of meeting the financial requirements.
It was for the second time in recent days that Modi has touched upon issues relating to diversity and pluralism, as he faces criticism over the issue of intolerance in the country.
Tiwari said on Amarinder's remark that when the latter was PCC president, he had himself demonstrated as to how the EVMs can be gerrymandered.
Speaking at a rally in poll-bound Bihar, Modi said that the Congress has no right to talk about tolerance after the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.
Nine ministers also take oath. Satpal Maharaj, Harak Singh Rawat, Madan Kaushik, Arvind Pandey, Subodh Uniyal,Yashpal Arya and Prakash Pant have been made Cabinet ministers.
Behind the BJP's astounding electoral success is a small army of dedicated lieutenants marshalled by Amit Shah.
Should the ruling AIADMK in Tamil Nadu not make the required five out of 22 by-election seats, or even otherwise, the temptation to poach, especially from the Congress or starting with the Congress may be high on Chief Minister Edappadi K Palanisami's agenda, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
The Congress has conceded the plum Finance portfolio to its junior partner, resolving a thorny issue, after its president Rahul Gandhi intervened and spoke to Kumaraswamy.
Congress's K R Ramesh Kumar will be the speaker of Karnataka's Vidhana Soudha (assembly), while the deputy speaker will be appointed from the JD-S.
BJP made inroads into the Congress and NCP strongholds, winning 851 seats. Shiv Sena won 514, NCP 638, Congress 643, MNS 16, BSP 9, unrecognised parties 119, local coalitions 384, CPM 12 and Independents 324 seats.
A galaxy of top leaders, including Union ministers Rajnath Singh and Nitin Gadkari and leaders of BJP's allies such as Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, Shiromani Akali Dal supremo Parkash Singh Badal and Lok Janshakti Party founder Ram Vilas Paswan were present with Shah.
