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LUCKNOW: In the absence any credible and charismatic leaders in Uttar Pradesh, national parties like the BJP and the Congress are finding it difficult to take on Samajwadi party and BSP to capture power in 2017 assembly polls.

BHOPAL: If the recommendations made by a group of chief ministers are not accepted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, possibility of direct confrontation between the centre and states cannot be ruled out.

CHANDIGARH: Modi’s first year in office has been hogging the headlines. During the remaining four years of his government’s tenure, his government is going to face formidable political and economic challenges. The demoralized Congress is in a resurgent mode. Rahul Gandhi, recharged by his nearly two months sabbatical, is on the offensive. Efforts for regrouping some of the regional parties are being made though Modi is trying to woo some of them.

In America, “ambulance chaser” is a derisive term used for those insurance agents who assure the relatives of a sick man that he will help with their medical claims. Rahul Gandhi, too, appears to be similarly approaching all supposedly disaffected groups with the promise of standing up for them with regard to their various demands.

The upcoming Nalanda University, set up by the Nalanda University Act, 2010, under the aegis of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), has now become partly functional with commencement of teaching in the School of Historical Studies and School of Ecology and Environment from leased premises in Rajgir (Bihar). With this, a milestone has been reached in the establishment of the historical university as an international institution of academic excellence.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s hopes for mobilising foreign direct investments (FDIs) for bolstering growth and job creation may meet with the first casualty if the South Korean steel major POSCO takes a firm stand on withdrawing from its proposed project in Odisha. The main reason for this sorry episode would be not providing mining lease on out-of-turn basis in the spirit of the Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement signed between the two countries way in 1996.

It is unfortunate that merger of six parties—SP, JD(U), RJD, JD(S), INLD and SJP—into one political entity has run into trouble. The problem arose when Lalu Prasad-led RJD turned down JD(U)’s demand to publicly acknowledge Nitish Kumar as the common chief ministerial candidate for Bihar assembly elections later this year. The disagreement comes even as the two sides were mulling a seat-sharing arrangement to present a united front against the BJP. After merger of the six parties of the erstwhile Janata Parivar was virtually put on hold over “technical issues”, an alliance between RJD and JD(U) was seen as the next best option for Bihar polls. But with contradictions in the politics of two parties emerging, even this option now appears remote.

No sooner had the organized nationwide trumpeting of “achievements” of its first year, countered by a cacophonous opposition, died down, the Modi Government is up against ground realities in an economy, sumptuously fed on promises of good days into the future but with little to match up by way of investments and jobs, let alone signs of social harmony.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Will the Congress-led UDF Government yield to the virtual ultimatum served on it by the Kerala Congress(M) president and Finance Minister K. M. Mani and come out with a report that gives a clean chit to him in the bar bribery case?

KOLKATA: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s two-day visit to Bangladesh in the first week of the next month will be very different from his predecessors’ visit in September, 2011. That visit was a disaster as West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee refused to accompany Manmohan Singh. She was dead against the signing of the Indo-Bangla Teesta river water-sharing treaty, which was to be the main item on the agenda for talks. In the teeth of Mamata’s opposition, the Chief Minister of the State concerned, Manmohan could not sign the agreement, much to the chagrin and disappointment of the leaders of both the countries.