'Cultural nationalism or the victim card that you play is okay when people are well fed.' 'But if you are not well fed, then it puts a question mark (on your leadership).'
Political tributes poured in after the former external affairs minister and senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Sushma Swaraj passed away into the ages on Tuesday night.
BJP president J P Nadda drew a parallel between the post-poll result violence in West Bengal with the bloodshed during India's Partition, while his colleagues compared the Trinamool Congress with Nazis, as the saffron party's leaders protested in different cities on Tuesday against attacks targeting its workers in the state.
Members of the G-23, who had shown courage to point out the flaws in the party's functioning, have allowed themselves to be co-opted by the Family to go through the motions of a post-mortem, notes Virendra Kapoor.
From handling the party organisation, finalising candidates, shooting the breeze with the media to pow-wows with diplomats and liaising with the PMO -- Arun Jaitley is the BJP's chief backroom manager in this election, reports R Rajagopalan.
Anti-Congress regional parties may have felt the possible impact of Rahul's South-North yatra, pending a second East-West padayatra, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
If it splits now, who takes what away and leaves what behind? asks Shekhar Gupta.
Some leaders believe that the Mamata Banerjee-led party could tone down its shrillness in countering the saffron party whose win has given the BJP state leadership and cadres a strong footing to prepare ground for the next year's panchayat polls.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday urged the Election Commission to declare Trinamool Congress as a 'terrorist party', upping the ante against the ruling party after political clashes in Birbhum violence left three people dead.
Shah, who was accompanied by BJP national vice-president Mukul Roy, national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargya, was greeted with slogans of 'Amit Shah zindabad', 'Bharat Mata ki Jai' by party workers at Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport in Kolkata.
"This 'notebandi' is a positive step which will lead to benefits. It will happen," the JD-U president said, terming corruption and black money as a "big sin and festering wound" which must be eradicated.
With a substantially weakened Left Front and the Congress, political observers say the anti-Trinamool vote will go to the BJP.
Jaitley has pledged to narrow the deficit to 3.9 per cent of GDP in this fiscal year from 4.0 per cent in 2014/15.
The party may announce Somen Mitra as the Lok Sabha candidate from North Kolkata whose name is set to be decided upon following intra-party elections to choose contenders -- a move initiated by the Congress vice-president to ensure transparency in ticket-distribution system. Renu Mittal reports.
Kerala, Punjab and Rajasthan are the other three states to pass a resolution opposing the contentious legislation, reports Archis Mohan.
Bengali sub-nationalism is slowly emerging as a rallying cry ahead of the West Bengal assembly elections due next year.
The AAP won in 62 with a total vote share of 53.58 per cent. The BJP recorded victory in eight seats, receiving 38.49 per cent of the total votes. The Congress could not even manage a single seat and ended with 4.27 per cent vote share.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi turned 70 on Thursday, and wishes poured in from top dignitaries, including the President and Vice President, Union ministers and leaders from across the political divide. The Bharatiya Janata Party is organising a number of events, mainly aimed at public service, across the country to celebrate Modi's birthday as 'Sewa Divas'.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi mounted a blistering attack on Trinamool Congress over corruption charges against it and also on CPI-M.
In the first high-level bilateral engagement after the installation of the NDA government, India on Thursday assured Bangladesh that efforts were on to evolve a national consensus on the contentious Teesta river water sharing deal even as it announced easing of visa norms for certain categories of visitors from Bangladesh.
Nine months after he stepped down, JD-U leader Nitish Kumar was on Sunday sworn-in as the Bihar chief minister
Surjewala made the case for state-specific alliances while arguing for a larger coalition with like-minded parties in 'national interest'.
State party leaders admit that Hindu consolidation by itself was not good enough to unseat Didi.
'Kejriwal tries to project that his party is not Hindu virodhi.'
In a veiled attack on Narendra Modi-led dispensation, Rahul Gandhi slammed those who were trying to "rub out" Jawaharlal Nehru from history as an international conference on the country's first prime minister affirmed that democracy, inclusion and empowerment espoused by him were of "enduring relevance".
The new chief minister, if from the Congress, will have little or no time for political administration, to ensure that he does not lose the voter's goodwill even before the Lok Sabha polls. He can count only on one thing. That the BJP may not want to upset him too early lest an early failure should become an added problem for the party in all the polls to follow, predicts N Sathiya Moorthy.
Pranabda hasn't given us any indication of the tough period when he realised Sonia Gandhi had decided to give the presidency not to him, but to then vice-president Hamid Ansari. He wrested the presidency from her, and handed her the biggest defeat of her UPA years, observes Shekhar Gupta.
India is mushrooming with Deve Gowda wannabes because being a former prime minister is better than being a former chief minister, says Shekhar Gupta.
'The handling of the pandemic, under this totally constitutional and legal three-level dictatorship, has begun to show its downside,' observes Shekhar Gupta.
The West Bengal chief minister also accused the PM of 'removing crucial files' related to demonetisation.
The BJP hailed teh package, saying it reflected the government's commitment towards creating jobs and stimulating the economy.
Indian forces are doing what they have to do to protect the country, whether it is in terms of deployment, action or counter-action, Modi told political leaders.
There are lessons for the Congress to learn from the Karnataka elections of how burying the hatchet among top leaders and not washing dirty linen in public can help, says Ramesh Menon.
Indrani Roy deconstructs the controversy over Trinamool Congress MP Tapas Pal controversial remarks on rape.
Glimpses of the CWC meeting, which was meant to formulate a plan to revive the party from the death throes of electoral irrelevance, but...
The BJP has many ruthless leaders with super-sharp political minds. But none has all this and Yogi's charisma and personal ambition, observes Shekhar Gupta.
Coming as it does only months ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, the Chennai meet could provide the launch pad for a national alternative to the BJP-NDA, and MK Stalin may be given the credit for getting it going, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
'Most senior Congress leaders in Assam have a secret understanding with the BJP.' 'They are hobnobbing with the chief minister for their self-interest.'
Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor said that bringing in resolutions against the Citizenship Amendment Act is more of a "political gesture" by the states as they hardly have any role in granting citizenships. The lawmaker said that in the implementation of the National Population Register and the proposed nationwide NRC, the states will have a vital part as it will be their officials who will conduct the exercise because the Centre doesn't have the required manpower.
His immediate challenge is the February 8 Delhi assembly polls followed by year-end elections in Bihar. However, his big test would be the next year's assembly polls in West Bengal, a state where the BJP has emerged as a strong challenger to Mamata Banerjee-headed TMC.
