Left, Right & Centre

Hours to go for PM Modi's oath ceremony, the focus now shifts to government formation. Who will PM Modi's new ministers be? There is huge speculation over whether Amit Shah will move to the government and if he does, what does that mean for the BJP? One thing that is certain, however, is that India will get a new finance minister as citing his poor health, Arun Jaitley has written to the PM, opting out.

As world leaders from the BIMSTEC countries get set to attend the PM's swearing in, what will PM Modi's focus be in his second term? Will be see an even more muscular approach with Pakistan or will PM Modi surprise us again and mend ties with Islamabad? Both PMs may meet next month on the sidelines of the SCO summit. Is it time to talk?

Newly-elected Bihar lawmaker Chirag Paswan said on Tuesday that he would not be a minister in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's new government; his father Ram Vilas Paswan would continue to be in the cabinet. Ram Vilas Paswan, who did not contest the election, had said he would like his son to be a minister this time. "I want to categorically say this. The Lok Janshakti Party will be represented in the cabinet by Ram Vilas Paswan. I will only be leading the party in the Lok Sabha. I will not be in the cabinet," Chirag Paswan, 36, told NDTV.

Many people thought that this election was a vote against dynasty politics, but that wasn't the case. We have record number of 'dynasty' MPs in Lok Sabha. In fact, 30% of the MPs in the new Lok Sabha are dynasts. So what does that tell us about our politics and why people vote the way they do?

On Left, Right & Centre, we look at the meltdown in Congress party - from Rahul Gandhi's resignation drama that's playing out in Delhi, to the crisis that the party is facing in Gujarat, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. The Congress faces an existential question today - after Rahul Gandhi, who can lead the party into next election?

Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his speech in parliament had said the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) must reach out to minorities and win their trust. Since that day at least two attacks on Muslim men from different parts of the country have been reported. Is the Prime Minister's message not reaching the BJP's rank and file?

The largest number of parliamentarians with criminal record is in this new Lok Sabha, according to the Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR). What does this tell about the state of India's democracy?

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made history by becoming the first non-Congress full-majority Prime Minister to get re-elected with a stronger majority, and as he was appointed for a second term by President Ram Nath Kovind, PM Modi in a speech in parliament struck a note of inclusion. A reassuring speech, but will the rank and file foot soldiers get that message? According to NDTV's hate tracker, hate speech by high-ranking political functionaries, mostly targeting minorities, has skyrocketed 695 per cent in the last five years. At least 75 per cent of the offenders are from the BJP. Is "Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas" is a slogan that no one can disagree with but can PM Modi walk the talk?

The Prime Minister, unanimously declared NDA leader - went on to deliver a statesmanlike, prime ministerial speech where he said we must take everyone along, even those who didn't vote for us. Rahul Gandhi wanted to resign and his party rejected that but, the Congress chief is adamant about stepping down and it seems his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra agreed with him and asked him to give the party some time to come up with an alternative plan. Tonight we ask, can there be a non-Gandhi at the helm of the Congress party, can it look beyond dynasty?

As the crucial national election draws to a close, Ashok Lavasa, one of the two Election Commissioners, felt compelled to stop attending meetings to decide on violations of the Model Code of Conduct. This is as a protest over his dissent view in the Election Commission's clean chits given to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP President Amit Shah in six instances going unrecorded. The three-member Election Commission consists of the Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora and two election commissioners - Ashok Lavasa and Sushil Chandra, and they take the final decision on complaints of code of conduct violations made by political parties against opponents. While the poll panel's rules allow for majority decisions in this election, for the first time the Election Commission has stopped including the dissent view in their final orders.