On Wednesday night, when senior BJP leaders and government functionaries were busy preparing the list of ministers, Prime Minister Modi went to meet Jaitley at the latter's residence.
The entry of 2 TMC MLAs and 56 councillors in BJP signifies that all is not well inside the ruling party in Bengal. BJP has already expanded its base in rural areas, and the TMC is now mostly confined to urban and semi-urban areas.
Modi had finalized his foreign visit plans even when he was busy during the election campaign in April and May. This shows the level of confidence Modi had about his impending landslide victory, even before the results were out.
Added to this were the first time voters, who normally keep their connect with the outside world mostly through internet. A tech savvy PM like Modi knew the effect of PUBG and Avengers on these teenage voters, and he mentioned this too in his speeches.
India on Thursday gave a resounding mandate to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party for another second term in power, cutting across deep fault lines of caste, religion, family loyalties and class drawn over several decades. The BJP won 303 LS seats and the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance won 352 seats in the Lok Sabha.
Questioning the integrity and impartiality of the Election Commission, without even a shred of solid evidence, and that too, even before the votes are counted, amounts to insulting democracy.
Coming to the exit polls: I do not think they are reasons to doubt the veracity of exit poll projections. If all the exit polls predict a majority for Modi, there can be no reason to doubt the projections. Figures may vary, but even if NDA gets 250+ seats, it will be Modi who will be forming the government.
Both Modi and BJP President Amit Shah have claimed that the party would get a comfortable majority. How far this claim is true, I shall reveal on Sunday evening when the exit poll results will be telecast on India TV.
I have never seen Mamata Banerjee so aggressive in the last ten years. Before she came to power, she used to chant slogans like "CPM Hatao, Bengal Bachao". Now her slogan is "Modi Hatao, Bengal Bachao".
Clearly, Mamata Banerjee is furious because (1) she will miss two of her close aides in the last lap of campaigning, and (2) she will not be able to hold a mega rally in Kolkata, which she had planned on Friday, the last day of campaign. Mamata had planned to create a Bengali versus Outsiders issue, but her campaign will now be cut short.
Politically, this objectionable remark by Pitroda, who has already apologized, is going to cost the Congress heavily in Punjab.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi while addressing election rallies on Friday sarcastically pulled up the Congress for Pitroda's "hua toh hua" remark, and said this revealed the mindset of the Congress leaders towards the anti-Sikh pogrom that took place soon after the assassination of the then PM Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards in 1984.
There is no doubt that Narendra Modi has himself become the main issue in this general election. If you remove Modi's name, at least 90 per cent of the speeches of Congress leaders would go waste.
Elections may come and go. Leaders may win or lose power. All this is part of democracy, but to use such words for political gains is unacceptable.
Mamata Banerjee is a good political fighter, no doubt. She knows how to respond to political attacks, but in times of natural disaster, when the common man is facing crisis, it is not proper to bring political rivalry to a personal level.
Much spadework was done by India's External Affairs Ministry, and by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in particular.
The apex court told his lawyer Abhishek Manu Singhvi: "What is the meaning of regret within brackets? ...You needed a 22-page affidavit to express complete regret? You make a statement and try to justify? Where have we said what you have attributed to us in public speeches?"
In the last several elections, including assembly and panchayat polls, there were incidents of large scale violence and there were allegations about TMC workers trying to prevent Congress and BJP supporters from voting. There used to be incidents of bomb throwing and stabbing in the recent past.
Prime Minister Modi has therefore decided to strike when the iron is hot. On Tuesday, he named Naveen Patnaik and said that he would not tolerate attacks on BJP workers by the ruling party supporters.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has already stated that Anil Ambani's company was one of the nearly 100 companies who got offset contracts from the makers of Rafale aircraft, Dassault Aviation.
Top News
Latest News
