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There are three distinctive features of Narendra Modi’s cabinet. First, it is compact – a 45-member team compared to Manmohan Singh’s 77. Secondly, the composition has confirmed the paucity of the BJP’s talent pool. The fact that Arun Jaitley has been saddled with the two heavyweight portfolios of finance and defence cannot be explained otherwise.

Tiruanantapuram: As expected, the Cabinet formation by new Prime Minister Narendra Modi has left Kerala unrepresented.

Appropriately, the Congress’s debacle has coincided with the decision of the Hindustan Motors to shut down its Uttarpara plant in West Bengal, thereby suspending the production of the Ambassador car. This vehicle, modelled on the Morris Oxford of the early 1950s, typified the controlled economy favoured by the Congress for several decades after independence, which stifled initiative and innovation.

Politics has taken an interesting turn in Bihar, where arch rivals Lalu Prasad Yadav and Nitish Kumar are being seen sailing in the same boat. Massive win of BJP at national as also state level has jolted the politics of Bihar and its first consequence was the resignation of Nitish Kumar from the post of Chief Minister. The next was the swearing in of Jeetan Ram Manjhi as the new CM. It seems that Nitish was already prepared in advance to manage the disaster and he succeeded in it by resigning his post and nominating his successor. But in the process, he has got a new political companion, when Lalu decided to support Manjhi Government during the confidence motion in Assembly.

India re-enters a single party dominance at the Centre after thirty years but without an effective opposition for a constitutional democracy, with the installation of Mr Narendra Modi as the Prime Minister of the BJP-led NDA Government on May 26. Mr Modi (63) comes to the highest office after uniquely galvanising the nation, with fewer parallels before, to offer governance that would work for the poor.

Politics make strange bedfellows. Yesterday’s archenemies – Lalu Prasad Yadav and Nitish Kumar – have join handed to ward off threat from the BJP. And the reward came fast; the three-day-old Jitan Ram Manjhi government in Bihar on Friday won the trust vote in the state assembly amid walkout by opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The confidence motion moved by Manjhi was passed by members at a special session by voice vote.

There is a sharp dissonance between the official Bangladeshi reaction to the election of Narendra Modi as India’s Prime Minister and the response of the country’s social and general media.

It was a virtual repeat of 1977, as far as the Lok Sabha elections outcome in Madhya Pradesh is concerned. In 1977, which was a post-emergency election, only one Congress candidate was elected to the Lok Sabha from Madhya Pradesh. The solitary constituency which backed the Congress was Chhindwara. This time, Chhindwara has again come to the rescue of the Congress. While the Congress could win only one seat in 1977, this time the party managed two seats. The other seat is Guna, from where union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia won the election. From Chhindwara, Union Minister Kamal Nath has been elected for the eighth time.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The post-Lok Sabha election review undertaken by the CPI(M) and the CPI saw the latter doing a bit of plain-speaking to the former.

It seems the wheel is completing the full circle in West Bengal: the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) is all set to delay the impending elections to 17 municipalities, worried about the BJP's new found strength.