Left, Right & Centre

From floundering alliances, to unconvincing arguments on national security, has the opposition lost control of the narrative in these elections?

After the Trinamool Congress and the BJD announce reservations in ticket distribution to women in these Lok Sabha polls, Rahul Gandhi promises voters the Congress will pass the women's bill and promises reservations for women in government jobs. With nearly half of voters women, is this a serious attempt by political parties and does it go beyond tokenism?

Several airlines around the world and several countries in fact, including the UK, China, Singapore and Australia have grounded the Boeing 737 Max aircraft after the Ethiopan Airways crash, the second in five months of the new airliner which has been reported to have a design defect which could prove to be fatal. But in India, we continue to allow operations of the aircraft. Is it time for the aviation watchdog to ground the Boeing 737 Max aircraft?

The Congress takes the battle to PM Narendra Modi's Gujarat, where Priyanka Gandhi Vadra holds her first ever political rally outside the Gandhi family constituencies in Uttar Pradesh. In her speech today, she targeted PM Modi without once naming him. The big question though: at a time when the Congress party is struggling with alliances, and is losing leaders to the BJP, can Priyanka Gandhi change the political fortunes of the Congress party in the run up to the elections?

Will young voters and those 130 million voting for the first time be the key factor in these elections? What are the issues that matter to young people? Jobs or national security?

Chanda Kochhar has been sacked by ICICI following an inquiry that found her guilty of "conflict of interest" in sanctioning a loan for Videocon which had close business ties with her husband. While the focus has been often on PSU banks, is there a bigger rot in India's private banking system?

Months before the Lok Sabha polls, Trinamool and BJP workers clashed in Bengal. Both the parties blamed each other for violence. While the Trinamool leaders claimed that the chaos was preplanned, the BJP said it will approach the election commission over violence at Amit Shah's rally. Is this going to be the template ahead of the general elections?

Does the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 violate India's Constitution? The bill changes the definition of illegal migrants by amending the Citizenship Act, 1955 to provide citizenship to illegal migrants, from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan, who are Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi or Christian. However, the Act doesn't have a provision for Muslims. Many see this not just as unconstitutional, but as a clear attempt to mitigate the potential damage to the BJP's Hindu vote bank in the light of the National Register of Citizens. On the show, the BJP's defense of the controversial citizenship bill: Does it fail the constitutional test?

24 hours ago, Rahul Gandhi dropped political bombshell of promising a minimum income guarantee. This means, he said, every poor person in India will have a minimum income. Today, he repeated this, first saying it will cover all Indians, then appearing to clarify that it is for poor Indians. We decode the Congress's mega dole scheme, which some are calling NEW-REGA (a play on NREGA).

Karnataka Congress leader Dinesh Gundu Rao has been married to Tabassum Rao for about 25 years now. However, it appears that BJP leaders are still not done attacking the couple for their inter-faith marriage. When Union Minister Ananth Kumar Hegde was criticised by her husband, who is the Karnataka Congress chief, for his objectionable comments on Muslims, the BJP leader dismissed it as saying that he "only knew Mr Gundu Rao as being the person who ran behind a Muslim lady".

Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy on Monday threatened to quit as he reacted furiously to questions on Congress MLAs criticising him and saying they considered former chief minister Siddaramaiah as their chief minister. The Congress responded by saying they party won't tolerate such comments as it crosses the 'Lakshman Rekha' of the coalition 'Dharma'.

Congress chief Rahul Gandhi on Monday announced what promises to be the party's big pitch in the coming general election -- a guaranteed minimum income scheme for the poor across the country. The Congress announcement comes just four days ahead of the budget and amid reports that the government is considering a populist new scheme that would see cash transfer to farmers instead of subsidies as a sort of monthly income support. The idea also takes forward the MNREGA, the UPA government's flagship rural employment guarantee scheme that ensured 100 days' work to every person.

A day after the CBI filed a case against former MD and CEO of ICICI Bank, Chanda Kochhar, along with her husband Deepak Kochhar and Videocon Group's VN Dhoot for alleged cheating and conspiracy, the officer investigating the case has been shunted out. SP Sudhanshu Dhar Mishra, who had signed the Chanda Kochhar FIR on January 22, was transferred to Ranchi the very next day. Two days later, Union Minister Arun Jaitley wrote a blog against that CBI FIR calling it "investigative adventurism" and a "journey to nowhere" after the CBI said the roles of other big names in the banking industry also needs to be investigated beyond the three prime accused. CBI sources said the officer was being probed for delays in the investigation and after suspected information leaks.

A total of 148 women of the Assam Rifles, the oldest paramilitary unit in the country, created history at Rajpath on Republic Day. Major Khushboo Kanwar led the contingent in a historical first. She's a mother, a wife, a leader and also the daughter of a bus conductor. On Left, Right and Centre, in an exclusive, Major Kanwar speaks to NDTV and focuses on her inspirational journey and has a significant message to the youth for achieving success.

Former president Pranab Mukherjee has been awarded the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian honour, along with music maestro Bhupen Hazarika and Jan Sangh member and social activist Nanaji Deshmukh. Many believe the choice of Pranab Mukherjee, a lifelong Congressman, for the top award delivers a less-than-subtle political message in election season. Interestingly, writer Gita Mehta, who is Odisha Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik's sister, declined the award saying that in an election year, the timing could be misconstrued. So are this year's awards as much about political messaging than they are about recognising service to the nation? In his thank you message, Pranab Mukherjee chose to remind the importance of the Constitution in the context of India's ethnic and religious diversity.