'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.'
In a shot in the arm for the Bharatiya Janata Party and Shiromani Akali Dal ahead of Punjab assembly polls, their alliance on Tuesday defeated Congress in the Chandigarh municipal corporation election in which demonetisation had emerged as a key issue.
'The confidence of the Opposition will go up and alliances will be easier to form if it becomes apparent that the BJP is losing ground in the north of India,' says Aakar Patel.
Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday announced the name of Vadodara deputy mayor Ranjan Ben Bhatta as its candidate for the Vadodara Lok Sabha seat vacated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Water is going to be a central part of the government's 2024 election campaign. And Gajendra Singh Shekhawat's work will be crucial for it.
'Modi remains the most popular politician in India; the BJP's organisational and fundraising prowess is considerable; and the Opposition, while newly collaborative, has no leader or clear economic messaging as of yet.'
'Walking is the loudest statement.' 'When someone says, I control everything and no one can oppose me, there are thousands of people on the streets saying no, we oppose you -- this is a very bold statement.'
Congress insists on Modi's apology for his claim that Manmohan Singh colluded with Pak to influence Guj polls.
If the wave has become a tsunami, why is the BJP's prime ministerial candidate playing safe by polarising voters along communal lines, asks Bharat Bhushan.
Despite Gaikward's brilliance, Maharashtra could not qualify for the knockout stages of the competition.
Amit Shah is the man of the moment. The architect of the BJP's stunning transformation in the Hindi heartland during the Lok Sabha elections is all set to emerge as the CEO of Modi's political dreams and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh's cultural passion, says Sheela Bhatt.
The BJP leadership believes these parties are flexing their muscles in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls for better seat-sharing deals.
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.
The answer has two components: as a leader with a vision who can carry the masses and his ability to realise his vision through his decision-making and executive skills, says Col R Hariharan.
'As a student of history, I am no pessimist, but regardless of which party/coalitions comes to power on May 23, the space for secularism, pluralism and minority rights has shrunk significantly,' says Mohammad Sajjad.
Slamming Opposition which "discarded" his "Gujarat model" before polls, Narendra Modi called himself a "magician" in Ahmadabad and said that he had ensured that his opponents could not escape the issue of development in the campaign.
Does Uddhav (and indeed the Sena) have the pizzazz and staying power to continue to be an actor in Maharashtra politics as a paler version of the NCP and an orange rather than saffron version of the BJP, asks Aditi Phadnis.
Counter-attacking the divisive and communal barb, BJP on Monday said Congress was the 'biggest communal party' because it was responsible for the partition of India and the Bhagalpur riots.
Governments in most of the world saw their approval ratings dip as they struggled to contain the raging virus, which hit economy hard everywhere, but Indian politics followed a different script, with the outgoing year marking further shrinking of a rudderless Congress while the ruling BJP soared riding on Modi's enduring appeal.
The expectation that Mr Modi would be a major reformer, capable of reinvigorating the Indian economy, were based on a complete misreading of both his actions and his performance as Gujarat chief minister, says Mihir S Sharma.
'He gave this 'gaali' (abuse) to me or you? Did he abuse me or Gujarat? Did he abuse the cultured society of India or me?' Modi asked the people at a rally in Banaskantha.
'And the same trust was evident in the Karnataka election.'
'Modi has been successful in convincing people that from a social point of view, he is closest to Indian citizens. His is a victory of Indian-ness.'
With all exit polls predicting a clean sweep for the Bharatiya Janata Party in the recently-concluded assembly polls, several leaders have started working overtime to deny the party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi from walking away with credit for this victory, says Anita Katyal
Industrialisation in India is increasingly acquiring the characteristics of crony capitalism in which states are perceived to be ganging up with businessmen at the cost of the aam aadmi
The third phase of Lok Sabha elections scheduled for Tuesday will see the maximum number of seats going to the polls in a single phase -- 117 across 15 states and Union Territories. It will also be a test for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party which will aim to defend the maximum number of seats at 62. This time the BJP will be tested in its bastion Gujarat -- where polling will be held for all the 26 Lok Sabha seats in the state -- apart from Karanataka, Chhattisgarh and Uttar Pradesh, where the party had done well in 2014. Here are some of the big political leaders' who await their fate on Tuesday.
The Election Commission on Thursday said prima facie Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal seemed to have violated the Model Code of Conduct by not seeking prior police permission before holding his road show in Gujarat on Wednesday.
In a discussion in Lok Sabha on the COVID pandemic, members called for ban on international flights in view of the outbreak of the Omicron strain and demanded that the government 'accept responsibility' for deaths of lakhs of people during the outbreak.
Owaisi's five seats in Bihar's Muslim-majority Seemanchal region ought to ring alarm bells, observes Virendra Kapoor.
'If there were no Ahmedabad programme -- no flashy town hall event in a huge cricket stadium with thousands cheering him on -- then Trump may well have decided not to go to India.'
Travelling across tribal Dahod to an about-to-be-born township near Ahmedabad, Sheela Bhatt examines the 'Modi effect' and how it will play out in the polls in the prime ministerial candidate's home state.Travelling across tribal Dahod to an about-to-be-born-township near Ahmedabad, Sheela Bhatt examines the 'Modi effect' and how it will play out at the polls on the prime ministerial candidate's home state.
'Seems more than half of the 'desh' remained untouched by his 'samajik ekta ka andolan',' points out Jyoti Punwani.
Confident of a big win in the forthcoming state Assembly elections, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi today said his party will celebrate a bigger Diwali on December 20, the day when poll results will be out.
What does election data say about the electoral support the competing parties in Karnataka have? Abhishek Waghmare find out.
'Economically, if there are too many losers, macro-demand will suffer and undercut growth.' 'In more developed societies, the issue is resolved through the provision of safety nets, which don't exist in India.' points out T N Ninan.
Ambani's Reliance has refineries at Jamnagar in Gujarat.
Fatorda, Belagavi, Jaunpur, Mehsana, Dehradun are on RG's itinerary.
'Look at what happened to the BJP in that India Shining episode in 2004.'
The keenly fought elections to the Gandhinagar Municipal Corporation ended in a tie with the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress on Tuesday winning 16 seats each.
Banerjee, also the TMC supremo, said in a sarcastic way that personnel of security forces such as the CRPF, BSF, CISF and the Army are present at convoys of every BJP leader visiting West Bengal.
