Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Friday termed as "deeply disturbing" Narendra Modi-led BJP's massive victory in the Lok Sabha polls and said that "very difficult days" are ahead if he rules India the way he governed Gujarat.
Earlier, the BJP leader had to take back his tweets saying Shah Rukh's soul is in Pakistan.
With DMK's M K Stalin coming into his own, and the rival AIADMK too leaving no space for third parties, Tamil Nadu will remain a Dravidian stronghold for a long time, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
As Bihar decides its fate on Sunday, political leaders from across the spectrum weighed in.
Its current majority of 22,078 votes for the purpose of the presidential elections is considered thin, particularly when BJP might not be able to predict voting behaviour of its allies like Shiv Sena.
'It is our aim to capture power and rule in Kerala. We may not be able to achieve our target in one attempt.' 'By just hammering once, you will not be able to break a rock; you need to hammer the rock several times.'
A tally around 150 in Gujarat can see the index hit 10,700 levels going ahead
Having focussed excessively on the Congress, and continuously drawing a Modi-Rahul parallel as if it were the sole selling point, the BJP has lost sight of the regional parties that are seeking to take the centre-stage, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
'George was a politician with a difference. He had the ability to stand alone, take a position, however extreme, and sustain that position,' remembers Arun Jaitley.
Allies, Opposition increase volume of criticism; hope in Kashmir, Assam
Mizoram has India's second-best health indicators and third-best literacy rate.
It expects to garner 5 per cent of its revenues from the Indian market in the next five years with business targeted to grow over 20 per cent during the period.
NDA's energy plan powered UP win, but it's not a winner yet. Centre has claimed to have saved money by targeted coverage but critics say the system is not yet foolproof.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah will soon get around to reworking their organisational set-up and administrative priorities to regain lost ground in the wake of the Delhi electoral debacle, but there's third course available to them as well. That is to introduce the presidential form of government, which prime ministers Indira Gandhi and A B Vajpayee flirted with before abandoning it. Will Modi go further than them? N Sathiya Moorthy analyses the scenario.
The win in UP is especially significant because UP assembly members carry the maximum value of votes in a Presidential election, given the fact that the state is India's most populous.
Counting of votes in the high-stakes close-to-call Bihar assembly elections, billed as a hot battle between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, will take place on Sunday.
As per the preliminary estimates, the BJP has significantly improved its national vote share from 31.34 per cent in 2014 to a new record high, while there appeared to be only a marginal change in case of the Congress from its 19.5 per cent score of the last elections.
Vowing to root out the Bharatiya Janata Party from the states after 'victory' of the grand alliance in Bihar, Rahul Gandhi on Monday launched a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi asking him to "stop telling lies" and debunked his diatribe against the Janata Dal-United and the Rashtriya Janata Dal on migration of jobless youths from the state.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to expand his cabinet when Parliament breaks for recess during the Budget Session. Archis Mohan reports
It looked as if the BJP was hoping to use Rajinikanth to press their seat-bargain with the AIADMK. Now with the Rajini bait gone, the question now is not how much the BJP would settle for, but how much the AIADMK would be ready to offer, notes N Sathiya Moorthy.
A grand welcome was given to Narendra Modi and his aide Amit Shah when they arrived in Ahmedabad after the President appointed him as the prime minister of the country.
The main Opposition party is likely to lose some more of its strength in 2016-17
'Since the rise of the Modi-Shah paradigm, the BJP has followed a simple formula.' 'Sweep the Hindi heartland and the two big Western states, and you can rule India with a majority by just adding some little bits on the platter from here and there,' points out Shekhar Gupta.
Bharatiya Janata Party prime ministerial Narendra Modi on Sunday hit out at the Congress, Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party, saying the three parties indulge in "stage-managed" fights in Uttar Pradesh but come together to grab power at the Centre.
He said the poll victory in Assam, the first for the party in the north east, has made it clear that BJP is rapidly receiving "popular acceptance" in all parts of the country which "augurs well" for the democracy.
Rajya Sabha also rejected an opposition sponsored motions to send the bill to a select committee of the House and for making triple talaq a civil offence with 100 votes against it as compared to 84 in favour.
BJP-led govt will need regional parties' support in Upper House to get legislation cleared. Archis Mohan reports
'Of equal importance was the AIADMK's precarious assembly membership, what with 11 of its MLAs including deputy chief minister OPS facing court cases for disqualification and by-elections due in another 21. To shore up the party's numbers for anticipated eventuality on the 11-MLAs' front, the AIADMK leadership in general and chief minister EPS in particular, were even more focussed on assembly seats than LS seats, just now,' says N Sathiya Moorthy.
BJP won 18 of the seats while the TMC won 22 of the seats.
Allegations of strains on democratic and constitutional institutions across the board, security threats from outside, a greedy Opposition inside, were all a part of the package then as now, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Of the 9 results declared, 7 has been won by BJP while Janata Dal-United scored victory at two places, Election Commission said.
The finance minister said the government was open to suggestions.
Given the subdued pre-poll voter-behaviour in the state over the past couple of decades and more, and the inability of individual political parties to cobble together an alliance and announce candidates, or both, to launch grassroots-level campaigns early on, close fights with landslide victory is an equal possibility, N Sathiyamoorthy.
The BJP is contesting 437 seats this election, the Congress 423.
This is the first meeting chaired by Gandhi after relinquishing the post of Congress president last year.
Bharatiya Janata Party President Amit Shah on Tuesday rejected the Uttar Pradesh government panel report on Saharanpur riots which indicted its MP, saying that since committee members belonged to ruling SP, the result was pre-decided.
How the Congress vice president conducts himself over the next few months will determine whether or not he has understood his serendipitous situation
BJP's overwhelming win in UP shows that 2014 was no fluke, says R Jagannathan.
The decisive election victory for the Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance has created a conducive environment for policy actions and should help in economic recovery, Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan said on Tuesday.
