Is this going to be another election dominated by the aura of Narendra Modi's personality or will it be more a state-by-state result determined by the localised strengths of regional parties?

Priyanka Gandhi's entry has given a new dimension to the electoral battle in UP. Now the battle seems to have turned triangular. It is expected that this will split anti-BJP votes and will finally benefit Modi, but one should not hasten to any conclusion.

India has seen many successful leaders who have, individually or for their parties, won election after election. There are others who have been admired and cherished by their people. Few have been blessed with both. That is why Parrikar stood a class apart from most politicians of his generation.

To see just how badly they have bungled RCom, consider the stinging rebuke the lenders received from an appeals judge at India's bankruptcy tribunal last week:

The truth is that Priyanka and Rahul are wasted on UP. The Congress needs about 120-130 seats to be able to lead a multi-party coalition government at the centre. And it doesn't need UP for that.

Now we have the dubious pleasure of discovering that every union minister and also every noxious right-wing troll has added "Chowkidar" to their Twitter handle, making for a truly ridiculous timeline - if, that is, you are foolish enough to follow many of them.

That moment, when I looked down into my phone to read the text that had just popped up, is still frozen in my head - "All Chch schools are on lockdown, do not come to school" instructed the automatically generated message from a short code.

While the BJP is fighting to win, the latest thrill of the Congress party is that PGV has finally tweeted. Someone please remind them an election needs to be fought.

This unending antagonism is giving opportunistic rulers in Beijing an opportunity to side with Pakistan against India on an issue as important as terrorism, even though China itself has declared in numerous documents that terrorism cannot be tolerated anywhere and in any form. But if Beijing wants to continue acting in an untrustworthy manner, ther...

The message that the BJP is sending is loud and clear - it has swallowed its pride, forgotten the humiliations of the past, is prepared to make sacrifices in order to win the forthcoming elections at any cost.

If the BJP holds its ground here, then it is back with a bang; a minor slip and the party can still cobble together a coalition with support from outside the NDA as it stands; a big drop and the BJP could be staring at a bleak future.

The endemic infighting in the Congress in Maharashtra, Haryana, Delhi and Punjab seems to be a reality check on Gandhi's abilities as a leader who can hold his party together.

The three opinion polls that ran on TV channels yesterday said that the NDA will be within striking distance of a majority. However, the numbers were not significantly different from the polls done in January before the airstrikes inside Pakistan.

The Congress finds Kejriwal and AAP too maverick and volatile. In private, Congress leaders confess it is very difficult to handle Arvind Kejriwal and his party. For them, AAP is too unpredictable and does not move like a traditional party. The Congress is especially apprehensive of Kejriwal. Across the political spectrum, Kejriwal suffers from a c...

Shah has told his team that "no insult is permanent in politics - only winning is", as he firms up his NDA contingent.