The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party and the Communist Party of India-Marxist dubbed it a "cheap poll gimmick" to woo minority votes.
'When our daughters, wrestlers Sakshi Malik and Vignesh Phogat, were protesting at the Jantar Mantar, the police kicked them with their shoes.'
Campaigning for May 13 elections in 96 Lok Sabha constituencies across 10 states and Union territories including all seats in Andhra Pradesh, where assembly elections are also being held concurrently, and Telangana concluded on Saturday evening.
Bharatiya Janata Party president Nitin Gadkari said his party is not against the community but was unfortunately caught in an image warp.
'The BJP is spreading slow poison in India. The effect will not be seen now, but after 10 years you will see it for sure.'
'After the NRC it is proved that whatever the BJP was saying about illegal Bangladeshi migrant was a lie and Indian Muslims have their documents to prove their citizenship.'
If Pitroda's blunder cost him his office, what should the BJP's unrepentant attitude cost it?, asks Shyam G Menon.
'...if elections were to be held today.' 'The problem is Akhilesh is not very aggressive.' 'Had he started his campaign aggressively six months ago, the picture in UP would have been very different.'
'If we want real democracy, the economy itself will need to be democratised.'
Abstention by the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Telangana Rashtra Samithi also helped the government get its legislation through in the upper house where the ruling party does not enjoy a majority.
If Saudi Arabia, with just two Muslim holy sites of Mecca and Medina, can create a huge tourism-based ecosystem beyond oil, Ayodhya is sure to become the world's hottest religious tourism site in less than a decade, predicts R Jagannathan.
Campaigning ended on Wednesday evening for 102 Lok Sabha seats across 21 states and Union territories which will go to polls in the first phase on April 19 with top leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance and the opposition Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) making a last-gasp effort to woo voters.
In a strategic move, the BJP has welcomed prominent Christian figures like Anil K Antony, son of Congress stalwart AK Antony, and seasoned Kerala politician PC George, into its fold.
'The Covid situation is like demonetisation.' 'People were upset with the government initially, but eventually they voted for the BJP again.'
With the Congress in power in the state and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) snapping at its heels, the BRS is now fighting an existential battle.
American Muslims overwhelmingly support President Barack Obama in his re-election bid, according to a new poll.
It is in power on its own only in three states -- Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh and Telangana -- with a big question mark on whether it can even stake claim to be head of the INDIA bloc.
The Opposition parties need 172 members in the 342-member house to orchestrate the downfall of Prime Minister Khan.
"The nakli Shiv Sena wants to bury me alive. They abuse me in such a way that it will be liked by their favourite vote bank," Modi said.
Sri Lankans on Thursday voted in large numbers in the bitterly contested presidential election in which incumbent Mahinda Rajapaksa is seeking a record third term against his friend-turned-foe Maithripala Sirisena, with an unusually high voter turnout in Tamil and Muslim areas.
'The victory is an expression of agrarian distress and social turmoil.'
'Imagine what the BJP's urges would be if India's electorate awarded it truly brute majorities like the 400 plus seats the prime minister called for in the 2024 general elections?' asks Shyam G Menon.
The announcement of results was delayed beyond normal, giving air to speculation about vote rigging.
'Wayanad has become famous because of Rahul Gandhi.'
'If you post on social media on an issue like power cuts in Tral, the police will come to your home and tell you to remove your social media post.' 'If you don't, then the local police threaten you that they will book you under PSA.' 'This is happening all the time in Kashmir.'
'Imran Khan's rule was dismal. Despite this, he has become a cult figure.' 'He sold the dream of a Naya Pakistan to the people of Pakistan, especially the youth, and branded all other politicians as corrupt.' 'Hence, his popularity.'
The sources said friends of India prevailed over those of Pakistan in the European Parliament on Wednesday.
'We are only going to the Supreme Court to protect the rights (of Muslims) which are given by the Constitution. Nothing more,' says Indian Union Muslim League MP P V Abdul Wahab, explaining why the IUML has challenged the Citizenship Amendment Bill in the Supreme Court.
The ruling BJP-led coalition ended Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan's over four-decade dominance in Rampur with its ally Apna Dal-Sonelal winning the Suar assembly by-election by a margin of 8,724 votes.
In the backdrop of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's 'I'm a Hindu nationalist' remark, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of dividing Hindus and Muslims.
The row broke out after a private television news agency attributed the excerpts of the article shared by the NC leader to him.
The Election Commission on Wednesday expressed "strong displeasure" over Shiv Sena Member of Parliament Sanjay Raut's remarks that Muslims should be stripped of voting rights and advised him to be more circumspect in future in his public utterance.
This time Modi has no emotive message to take to the stump. Muscular nationalism doesn't work against the backdrop of China's successive inroads into Indian territory. Rising prices is a sore point that cuts across class and caste barriers; unprecedented levels of unemployment has the youth in a ferment. This has reduced the BJP campaign to a laundry list of recycled grievances and thinly veiled communal appeals, neither of which are working as well as they have in the past, argues Prem Panicker.
'We need a candidate who will do our work and fight with the authorities; someone we can hold accountable.' 'Piyush Goyal is not that candidate.'
'What you need is a credible Opposition, a credible platform to persuade people to believe that it can replace this government.'
Electoral setbacks and thwarted ambition can have an unpredictable effect on leaders,, observes Aditi Phadnis.
Dharmendra Kumar Singh says the Bihar chief minister may be fighting a losing battle.
In the Interim Budget, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced that a high power committee would be set up to consider the challenges arising from 'fast population grown and demographic changes.' 'But who wants data? It pays to feed people's fears, insecurities and apprehensions. If such fears don't exist, they must be created,' her husband Parakala Prabhakar says in this fascinating excerpt from his book, The Crooked Timber of New India: Essays on a Republic in Crisis.
Bengal, where the electoral discourse has mostly steered clear of divisive agenda, has been drawn into the vortex with the TMC and the BJP accusing each other of fanning communal sentiments ahead of elections.
Thousands of people may have gathered at the Lal Bahadur Shastri Stadium in Hyderabad on Sunday to attend a rally by Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi but it remains to be seen whether the mammoth turnout will actually translate into votes for the Bharatiya Janata Party in Andhra Pradesh.
