Love him or hate him, you just canâ€™t ignore him. He is Modi, Narendra Modi, the chief minister of Gujarat. The mere mention of his name evokes controversy. To his admirers, the Gujarat CM is a no-nonsense leader --decisive, single-mindedly purposeful and with an uncontested reputation for honesty and personal integrity. To his bÃªte noirs, Modiâ€™s style of functioning is authoritarian, divisive and unsuited to a diverse country such as India.

Mind your language, Mr Modi, if you want to win India

Business Standard

Monsoon scare: Govt says rains are likely to be lower than normal.

Recovery under a cloud

Expressing confidence that its allies in Third Front will not desert the alliance, the CPI today said the efforts of Congress and BJP to woo them shows &quot;lust for power&quot; and &quot;desperation&quot; of both the parties.

"Desperate" Cong, BJP wooing third front allies: CPI

Press Trust of India

As political parties eagerly await for Lok Sabha election results, Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia today expressed confidence that the Left, Samajwadi Party and JD(S) would support a Congress-led government at the Centre.

Cong open to all like-minded parties for alliance: Scindia

Even as Congress is trying to woo it into UPA fold, Biju Janata Dal (BJD) today stuck to its familiar stand of favouring a non-Congress and non-BJP government at the Centre.

BJD maintains non-Cong, non-BJP govt stand

LJP Chief Ram Vilas Paswan today dubbed as &quot;nautanki&quot; (drama) Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's demand to accord a special status to the state as a pre-condition for support.

Paswan dubs Nitish's demand for spl status as 'nautanki'

The enduring legacy of one of the poster boys of state-level reforms is also built on a myth&mdash;that Naidu focused only on the state capital and on IT while ignoring the countryside, thereby losing the assembly elections of 2004. The truth is that Naidu worked tirelessly to improve irrigation and water management, encouraged the creation of thousands of village self-help groups of women who were able to get bank finance as a result, emphasised rural development, and ensured that subsidised

N Chandrababu Naidu: Poster boy of state-level reforms

None of M G Ramachandran&rsquo;s (MGR) female co-stars was as deeply influenced by his politics as Jayalalithaa Jayaram whose first film with MGR was Aayirathil Oruvan in which he was a Robin Hood-type of figure, dashing and adventurous. Despite a 32-year age difference, the pair clicked and the film was a runaway hit.

Jayalalithaa Jayaram: From silver screen to the political stage

For one who jokingly says that others have made the most important decisions for him&mdash;even the date of his wedding was decided by someone else!&mdash; Prakash Karat has great political clarity. He keeps &lsquo;politics in command&rsquo; without getting sidetracked by the ancillary aspects of a political problem.

Prakash Karat: Puritan communist

Lalu Prasad belongs to the first generation of Indian politicians with no experience of colonial rule, born as he was in 1948. He began his political career in the rough-and-tumble of student politics that gripped India in the troubled 1970s when economic growth was slow and inflation high. This coloured his language, style, oratory, and his rustic, if lumpen, brand of politics.

Lalu Prasad: Defying stereotypes

Her signature colour is pink and she loves diamonds&mdash;wearing them, getting them as gifts, collecting them. There was a time when, for a woman of her caste, these &lsquo;weaknesses&rsquo; could cause her eyes to be gouged out by the upper castes, or her ears cut off for coveting something denied to her on account of her low birth.

Mayawati: The child of affirmative action

Mulayam Singh Yadav was the man who once ran the government in Uttar Pradesh. For most of the last five years, with 36 members of parliament (the number has gone down to 29 because some have defected to other parties) in the Lok Sabha, this man has been sitting and twiddling his thumbs. And then when he gritted his teeth and girded his loins to fight the 2009 Lok Sabha elections on his own, fate intervened in the form of the Indo-US nuclear deal.

Mulayam Singh Yadav: The man who saved the UPA government

Naveen Patnaik (Pappu to his friends, and he has many) may be looking at a third term as Chief Minister of Orissa. In the last 11 years, he has lost touch with many of his friends from his earlier life, some of whom lament that he is a changed man.

Naveen Patnaik: Gentleman around town, turned politician

The counting for 21 parliamentary constituency and 147 assembly constituency in the state which went into polls in two phases will be held tomorrow. The Election Commission has made elaborate arrangements including security for the counting of votes.

Counting of votes today

Smaller political parties have begun listing the price for their support.

Counting the cost as the countdown begins

Counting of votes polled in the 15th Lok Sabha elections began today at over 4,000 counting halls across the country during which the fate of 8,070 candidates will be known.

Counting of votes begin

President Pratibha Patil will meet with former Attorney General Ashok Desai to consult on formation of government.

President to consult former AG on Govt formation

The Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) is racing ahead of the ruling LDF headed by CPI(M) in Kerala as the early trends of the Lok Sabha polls started trickling in from the 20 seats in the state.

UDF ahead in Kerala

In Idukki, P T Thomas of INC leads by 133 votes against Francis George of Kerala Congress-Joseph. Congress's P C Chacko leads C N Jayadevan of CPI in Thrissur by 21 votes.

P Sathidevi of CPI-M leads

UPA was ahead of the NDA in early trends for 172 seats in the Lok Sabha elections as counting of votes in the&nbsp; Lok Sabha elections was taken up today.

UPA ahead of NDA in early trends

The trends showed that Congress and its allies are ahead in all the three regions of the state - Travancore, Kochi and Malabar.&nbsp;&nbsp;In 2004, the UDF got only one seat and the Congress drew blank.

Cong ahead of allies in three regions of Kerala

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