Pulling up out-of-context facts to arrive at completely random conclusions seems to be a trend among our netas. Backing the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, Amit Shah said the Congress had divided the country on religious lines (TL;DR: they didn’t). And our Environment Minister claimed that pollution does not affect lifespans.

The target of this week’s need for some comic relief is none other than Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who forgot for a second that she was supposed to be in charge of the Indian economy, and instead revealed her disgust for onions.

Does the new alliance in Maharashtra mean — as a few of us would like to believe — that the Shiv Sena has given up on Hindutva ideology and is now a secular party? Or does this mean that the Congress and NCP have now agreed that the only way to win an election is to pretend to be on the same side as the BJP and Shiv Sena?

By tonight, the floor test in the State Assembly may finally provide Maharashtra with a CM, over a month after elections. But voters are unlikely to be pleased, considering they’ll have to live with some combination of parties they didn’t vote for (and in some cases actively campaigned against).

Nehru’s 130th birth anniversary marks the rare occasion where he isn’t being criticised by rivals of the Congress party. The last few years have seen Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru become the right wing’s favourite punching bag.

It’s only the third time in Maharashtra’s history that President’s Rule has been imposed, and like the previous two times, Sharad Pawar is at the centre of the action. For the experienced campaigner looking for his next big victory, could the third time be lucky?

In an interview from 1999, which had gone viral earlier this week, Bal Thackeray said he would never join hands with Sharad Pawar. Getting the CM’s post then would be a short-term victory for Uddhav, but if the Shiv Sena is perceived as having turned its back on Bal Thackeray’s legacy, the win could be a self-defeating one.

Looking for a show to binge-watch but can’t decide? The Maharashtra political crisis has everything you need.

2019 has been an interesting year for Dushyant Chautala, from losing his Lok Sabha seat to a BJP candidate in May to winding up in a position to see BJP’s government in Haryana unseated in October.

Amid last-minute campaigning for Maharashtra, the promise of “one crore jobs and better healthcare”, is lost in the noise created by the latest political debate: Should Savarkar be conferred the Bharat Ratna? This new “burning question” has everyone from Arnab Goswami to WhatsApp uncles offering opinions.

#GoBackModi has been trending every time the Prime Minister visits Tamil Nadu, or even so much as thinks about curd rice. This weekend, however, the BJP seemed to have had enough of this pesky hashtag.

If there was one person in the country whom you’d expect to be paying attention to all the “maths” regarding India’s economy, it would have been Commerce and Industry minister Piyush Goyal. Apparently, the best way to deal with a slowing economy is to completely stop acknowledging all statistics and percentages related to it altogether.

Seven men – including a BJP youth leader – arrested for inciting violence that led to the murder of a police inspector in Bulandshahr last December, were welcomed with garlands after they were released on bail. We’ve had criminal netas for as long as we can remember, but what has changed now?

With Arun Jaitley gone, the BJP loses a key mind and a visionary. But, more importantly, India loses a statesman who spoke clearly, concisely, and in a manner that had you considering whether there was still some good in Indian politics.

In a government that is often criticised for its inaccessibility and opaqueness, Swaraj won hearts around the world for her ability to reach out and make a difference. And her outreach efforts began well before the advent of social media.

Some politicians endear themselves to their core base and no one else, alienating those across the aisle. Swaraj was not that type of politician. Despite being a BJP lifer, she had a bipartisan appeal and an air of dignified approachability.

Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan made unsavoury remarks about BJP lawmaker Rama Devi in Lok Sabha. This is not the first time Khan has stuck his foot in his mouth – and Devi is not the first woman politician to face disgusting sexism in the workplace.

Sheila Dikshit, the former Delhi CM who died on Saturday, attempted to change the city’s uncaring image by pulling Delhi’s toes across the line of modernism. She did everything in her power to reform its public image – from the Metro to the Commonwealth Games – with varying results.

With the matter of their resignations being heard in the Supreme Court today, Karnataka’s rebel MLAs have had the most dramatic quitting saga since Rahul Gandhi’s stepped down as Congress party president. Rahul finally set a political trend, but unfortunately it wasn’t the one he’d hoped for.

Whether you agree with first-time Trinamool MP Mahua Moitra’s maiden speech in Lok Sabha or not, it can’t be denied that she possesses a rare courage and conviction. At a time when the Opposition is often labelled toothless, it is leaders like Moitra that give us hope.

The ill-fated ventures that were Rahul Gandhi’s election campaign and the final season of Game of Thrones have many parallels. But perhaps the greatest similarity between the two is the feeling of utter dissatisfaction at the way things panned out in the end and the hype around The Prince that Was Promised.

Disappointment for the anti-Modi crowd was as inevitable as someone saying “Winter is coming,” on a Game of Thrones episode. Still, that doesn’t make the bitter pill any easier to swallow. These are the five stages of grief, as experienced by non-BJP supporters.

Democracy’s true essence isn’t the elections, but the days that follow after it ends, when we shed our voting hats and return to the routine of being citizens. Everyday life does not depend on political beliefs. So despite what we may feel about our differences, we work and live alongside people without bothering to identify someone as “sickular”, “bhakt”, or “commies”.

If exit polls are to be believed, the BJP is likely to improve its tally in Mamata Banerjee’s West Bengal. Some suggest a neck-and-neck fight between Trinamool and the BJP. But for those hoping for a change in the state, the two parties have more in common than they would like to admit.

Even though West Bengal sends 42 MPs to Parliament — six less than Maharashtra and 38 less than Uttar Pradesh — all eyeballs seem to be on the current battle between Didi and Modi. Didi’s final walk in the heart of Kolkata on Thursday had the air of a Bengal tigress prowling her territory.

During BJP President Amit Shah’s roadshow, BJP and Trinamool workers clashed on the streets of Kolkata. A statue of 19th century reformer Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar was vandalised. And though the violence was unprecedented, for as long as I can remember elections in the state have been a bloody affair.

#TheArréWeeklyPodcast: This Lok Sabha election has thrown up some exciting contests, but few are as thrilling as the battle between AAP's education expert Atishi and BJP's former World Cup winner Gautam Gambhir. A day before Delhi goes to vote, join our panellists as they try and figure out which of these two candidates deserves the vote. Also let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

It is remarkable that for elections in the national capital of the country, political parties have pretty much taken the electorate for granted. A majority of the candidates contesting from Delhi, especially the ones who have been parachuted in at the last minute, look like complete misfits.