'I wonder if they will keep it up after the elections.' 'I fear they'll start questioning eligibility -- income, age, bank accounts -- and eventually stop the scheme altogether.'
A freebie once granted can hardly be discontinued. All that can happen is to substitute it with a bigger freebie, notes A K Bhattacharya.
Gandhi is out to "connect" Bharat but he needs to study Indian history first, Shah said.
Over the years, India has enjoyed bipartisan support in the US and this asset must be kept intact and nurtured through across the board political and civil society engagement, suggests former foreign secretary Shyam Saran.
'For voters, PM Narendra Modi's name and developmental works in Rajkot are enough reasons to support the BJP'
'You are one of the drops that make that ocean, but when you leave it makes no difference to the ocean.'
No Service Chief to date has had the guts to streamline the procedure in conjunction with the Election Commission and ensure every soldier votes in his/her place of posting, observes Lieutenant General Prakash Katoch (retd).
The bahujan hitai, bahujan sukhai motto was used in the press note issued by the BSP informing about the party chief Mayawati's election meetings in Nagpur (Maharashtra) on Thursday.
Shah alleged that Congress was "hell-bent on snatching reservations from OBCs, tribals and Dalits and "planned to give it to minorities".
Bandi Sanjay Kumar, who took oath as minister in the Narendra Modi cabinet on Sunday, weathered political storms and intra-party bickering before he could successfully establish himself as a firebrand BJP leader in Telangana.
'Slogans like 'Ek hai toh safe hai' and 'Batenge toh katenge' resonated with voters.'
In the 2018 assembly polls, the Congress shocked the BJP by securing 30 of the 47 ST seats, proving that this vote bank has drifted away from the ruling party over some time. Sandeep Kumar reports.
'They are attacking my wife; they are attacking our 13-month-old daughter. They are saying that I do drugs.' 'I'm giving an open challenge to Mr Nawab Malik and Ms Sana Malik let's go to the labs and let's do the medical test of our family and your family.'
'BJP has lot of money. Even a rich person like me is scared of taking on the financial muscle of the BJP.' 'What is the point of throwing money? Result toh aane wala nahi hai.'
'The DMK may get a little more than 50% of the minority vote.' 'The AIADMK always gets over 10% of the minority vote.'
The Congress leader also said that the BJP wants to change the Constitution, and reduce and weaken the rights given to the people through the statute book.
Hitting out at Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut for demanding revocation of voting rights of Muslims, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen president Asaduddin Owaisi said the Bharatiya Janata Party cannot dissociate itself from his statement and asked it to take action against him.
Sule said the intra-family duel in the Lok Sabha polls will not waver her respect for Sunetra Pawar as she is her "elder brother's wife and like a mother".
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday began his three-day fast for "peace and communal harmony", saying the success of his endeavour would mean an end to vote-bank politics.
Perhaps Kay Kay Menon should choose his projects carefully, instead of wasting his talent like this, observes Deepa Gahlot.
'The upper caste elite's belief that they are casteless is a belief that is available only to the upper castes. Because all the lower castes are reminded by society every day what their caste is.'
Tokhan Sahu, a first-time member of Parliament and a surprise addition to Narendra Modi's new cabinet, has been active in politics for the past three decades, though he has maintained a low profile throughout his career.
Vote bank politics cannot be above protecting the sanctity of girls and women, he said virtually launching the campaign for the 2024 Lok Sabha election at Chaibasa, about 150 km from in Chaibasa.
The 15-nation Council met on Friday to vote on the resolution tabled by the United Arab Emirates and backed by over 90 member states. The resolution got the backing of 13 Council members who voted in its favour while the United Kingdom abstained.
'Peninsular Indians could ask 'Why should we contribute half of India's tax revenues if we account for only a quarter of the seats in the Lok Sabha?'.' 'The rest of the country seems likely to counter that 'democracy means one vote per person irrespective of where that person resides in India'.' 'With no easy answers to this thorny debate, the south's economic ascendancy could end up creating a Hobson's choice.' A revealing excerpt from Nandita Rajhansa and Saurabh Mukherjea's book, Behold the Leviathan: The Unusual Rise of Modern India.
Four Indian nationals accused of killing Khalistan separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar last year in Surrey were ordered by a Canadian court to have no contact with several people in the community, as they made their first joint appearance before it in the case that has severely strained ties between India and Canada.
The Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress remain the most dominant political forces in Chhattisgarh, though the state has several regional outfits that have pockets of influence, while the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is making a determined bid to challenge its well entrenched rivals and make a mark in polls to the 90-member House.
'PM Modi would have swept the elections in Kashmir after notebandi but then he scrapped Article 370 so all his good work went down the drain.'
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Taking a jibe at Mamata Banerjee over her "paper tiger" comment, Narendra Modi on Sunday said that a real tiger is one who jails those involved in the Sharada chit fund scam and gets back money of the poor.
Accusing Congress of 'abuse culture', Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday urged the people of Karnataka to punish those indulging in abuse, while casting their vote in polling booths on May 10.
He, however, said that there have been some 'false cases' of lynching at times that have been filed against some people. Addressing a book-release function in Ghaziabad, Bhagwat said the DNA of all Indians are the same.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday targeted Kerala's ruling Left Democratic Front over the gold smuggling scam, saying the Communist Party of India-Marxist-led government "betrayed" the people of the state just as Judas did to Lord Jesus for a few pieces of silver.
In its complaint against Shah, the Congress told the EC that the home minister claimed in a speech in Chhattisgarh's Rajnandgaon on October 16 that "...Bhupesh Baghel's government, for appeasement politics and vote bank politics, lynched Chhattisgarh's son Bhuneshwar Sahoo and got him killed..."
The MNS chief started his speech with the name of Nehru, then paused. After a few tense seconds, he resumed: "After Nehru, here is the only politician who will be PM for the third term."
The BJP's vote share in Cuttack went up from 9 per cent in 2009 to 38 per cent in 2019.
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.
While the Congress is elated to see the new caste dynamics coming to its rescue, the BJP still believes that no one is leaving its ship.
This appears to be a common refrain in Uttar Pradesh's Lakhimpur Kheri Lok Sabha constituency where farmers want better prices for their produce and respite from the stray cattle menace and others want political leaders to talk about job creation instead of issues like the Ram temple and Article 370.
Kerala's election discourse operates surreptitiously. Its explicit face focuses on important national and local issues. At the same time, it seeks to secure apt communal equations to ensure votes, notes Shyam G Menon.
'The BJP certainly has an edge as the BJP has gone ahead of the Congress in pleasing the trading community.'
