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For the Modi Government, shell-shocked by the excruciating electoral results in the national capital in the second week of this month still rankling, the need to recapture its larger-than-life-size image is too important to be left to the tame preparation and presentation of the General Budget on Feb 28 in Parliament. No doubt, the Union Finance Minister Mr. Arun Jaitley has a mind of his own and a virtual minefield of ideas in consonance with his pronounced pro-business and pro-market proclivities that he said time and again are neither incongruent nor inconsistent with pro-poor policies.

If Nitish Kumar is guilty of insulting the dalit pride, humiliating the dalit chief minister, Jitan Ram Manjhi and scheming to come back to power, the Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi is being accused of using his office to promote the BJP’s political interest in Bihar. Usually the office of the Governor is suspect in the eyes of the political system of the country as being an instrument to protect the political interest of the ruling party in Delhi. Tripathi has not been an exception. A seasoned BJP leader, Tripathi, is alleged to have been the part of the big game plan of the party to project and catapulting Manjhi as the new charismatic dalit leader, after Kanshi Ram who is one of the most prominent faces of the dalit politics in contemporary India.

BHOPAL: If charges levelled by the galaxy of Congress leaders have an iota of truth then it can be safety stated that Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan is in serious trouble.

New Delhi has moved an inch forward to secure the Indian Ocean from the growing Chinese influence. It has seized the right opportunity with the change of leadership in Sri Lanka to strike a civil nuclear pact with the nearest island and agreed to expand defence and strategic cooperation, including “the trilateral format” with the Maldives. The civil nuke pact is the first of its kind that Colombo has signed with any country. This can be seen as India’s attempt to pre-empt any such move by the Chinese to ink a similar deal with the island country.

The government may deny, but the Aam Admin Party’s (AAP) massive victory in Delhi offering free water supply and cheaper electricity among others seem to have put a pressure on the BJP’s first full budget priorities that seek to drastically cut subsidies meant for the poor, help the middle class and corporates with lower taxes and provide a whole lot of incentives to entrepreneurs to grow India. The most discomforting situation facing the government before its most important budget session is the ‘give away’ stance taken by AAP to offer relief to the poor by making foods cheaper, electricity cost lower, education easier and health expenses smaller and acting against those who made them dearer with the help from the previous government. Admittedly, AAP’s territory is small. Problems are limited. Revenue is large. Corruption is big. A cut in corrupt practices by officials may produce enough to take care of the funds it needs to help the poor and give them the support they need to prosper, if not flourish.

It has been described as the halting of the “saffron juggernaut”, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s worst political drubbing in recent years, a potential “Big Bang” event for the future of Indian politics, and Narendra Modi’s Stalingrad, similar in effect to the battle that decisively stopped Hitler’s Eastward march and became a turning point in World War-II.

AIADMK Supremo Ms. Jayalalithaa’s winning streak since 2011 remains intact with the massive victory of the party candidate in the Assembly bypoll in Srirangam constituency, vacated by her in the wake of her conviction and ongoing appeal proceedings before a special bench of Karnataka High Court.

In West Bengal the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) had finally something to be jubilant about, as it comfortably won two by-elections at Bongaon (Parliamentary) and Krishnaganj (Assembly) constituencies.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The investigations into the infamous bar bribery and Pattor land grab cases have taken a disturbing turn with the Special Investigating Team(SIT) chief ADGP Jacob Thomas voicing fears about a threat to his life.

Will the BJP’s rout in Delhi assembly elections change the party’s equations with regional parties, particularly its allies Shiv Sena and Akali Dal? Does the saffron party’s stunning defeat mark the end of the Modi government’s honeymoon period? Answers are ‘Yes’.