My Columns: Without Fear and Favour

BJP’s new political strategy for Maharashtra November 13, 2014 05:01 PM punjabnewsexpress.com http://punjabnewsexpress.com/news/36241-bjps-new-political-strategy-for-maharashtra-.aspx By Deepak Parvatiyar NEW DELHI :  The way the Bharatiya Janata Party manoeuvred during the trust vote in Maharashtra Assembly on Wednesday is a lesson in political brinkmanship.  Consider how the party, despite being in minority, managed to get its Speaker elected unopposed and thereafter went on to win the trust vote through unconventional tactics that caught the Opposition unawares and forced them to cry foul. In the process, the BJP also promptly showed its estranged partner, the Shiv Sena –that till the last was hopeful of arm-twisting the Lotus in the name of common ideological heritage, its place in Machiavellian politics! The BJP, with 121 MLAs (down from 122 after its MLA Govind Rathod died of a heart attack on after the election on October 26) in the 288 (effectively 28

Five Major Issues in J&K Elections By  Deepak Parvatiyar November 13, 2014 The 2014 state elections in Jammu & Kashmir are different from the previous elections in the state because of several reasons. To name a few, they are being held on the sidelines of the devastation wrought by unprecedented floods in the state; intermittent cross-border firing has aroused sentiments particularly in the Jammu region; Prime Minister Narendra Modi has spent considerable time in the state ever since assuming office; anti-incumbency factor has resulted in the breakup of the ruling alliance of the National Conference and the Congress, and prompted the NC’s failed bid to postpone the elections; and most significantly, the issue of development has got precedence over politics of separatism and violence. Such developments are set to impact the poll in the state to be held in five phases between November and December 2014. Some of the major election issues revolve around the followin