The Big Story: Maharashtra muddle
With all eyes focused on the big India-Pakistan contest in Adelaide, a more subtle game is being played in Maharashtra. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday not only met Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar in the latter's pocket borough of Baramati, but also praised him for his years of experience. Modi added that he speaks to Pawar once or twice every month to get advice.

This is significant for two reasons: it's one of Modi's sharpest political reversals, offering praise just months after calling Pawar and his family corrupt. (The NCP chief on the other hand is much more familiar with u-turns). But it's also another clear sign that the Bharatiya Janata Party and its coalition allies, the Shiv Sena, are almost at war with each other. The Sena is seeing it in the same way, claiming it is the BJP's attempt to put the smaller party in its place. In the aftermath of the BJP's rout in the Delhi elections, expect to see a lot of parties attempting to realign their equations with the Centre.

The Big Scroll
Last year's Maharashtra Assembly election results made an NCP-BJP alliance almost as likely as a BJP-Sena one, and there are many within Modi's party who would like to see this become a reality.

Need to Know 1: India-Kashmir-Pakistan
The chief of Kashmir's People's Democratic Party, Mufti Mohammed Sayeed called Modi's phone call to Pakistani PM Nawaz Sharif a "gigantic step" as we get closer and closer to a BJP-PDP government in Jammu & Kashmir. It's also emerged that Modi and Sharif had a quiet meeting in Nepal on the sidelines of a summit, two months ago, discussing how to proceed once elections in J&K were completed.

Need to Know 2: Arvind Kejriwal gets going
Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal was sworn in as chief minister of Delhi on Saturday, but will not be keeping any portfolio in the state, and instead focus on "overall functioning." His speech at the ceremony pushed back against all the expectations being placed on the AAP government, saying the party's aims are on a five-year timeline. He also cautioned his own party workers from becoming too arrogant or attempting to spread the AAP far and wide before they build Delhi.

Politicking:
Dinesh Trivedi, who has often been on the verge of leaving the Trinamool Congress, is now vice-president in the party, while Mukul Roy, once party chief Mamata Banerjee's most trusted aide, has been demoted.

Bihar chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi has been making lots of cabinet decisions even as the political fate of the state remains up in the air.

Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah is under fire for allegedly providing preferential treatment to mining firms.

Giggle

Neighbourhood Watch
Praveen Swami reports on Indian fears in Afghanistan as the US prepares to pull out, with billions of dollars of investment now in limbo.

Newly elected Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena is India from February 15 to 18, where he will be expected to further the process of realigning Colombo away from China and towards New Delhi.

Punditry: AAP all over the place
All the columns, everywhere, seem to be about the Aam Aadmi Party this Sunday.

Scroll takes you to Ramlila Maidan where discussions with AAP supporters reveal just how deep and diverse the party's appeal is.

Then there's P. Chidambaram drawing some lessons, Tavleen Singh saying she's happy, Meghnad Desai calling on them to deliver and Swaminathan Aiyar saying he is excited about the Modi-plus-Kejriwal narrative.

Shiv Visvanathan, Mail Today: "The AAP has to build the city around people. Instant cities, Shanghai style may be a temptation but the AAP has to create a city which becomes an experiment in the diversified city, where migrants, minorities, margins have a creative role to play. In one sense, I see AAP as the biggest challenge to the new incarnation of the Planning Commission."


Also worth reading is an interview of AAP leader Yogendra Yadav in the Economic Times: "We practice class politics without the ideology of class struggle and without the doctrine of state being the only instrument. "

And check out the Indian Express' longread on how the AAP sketched out its astounding victory in Delhi.

Don't miss:
Aarefa Johari recounts the story of a young woman in Madhya Pradesh whose voice is lost in the 'love jihad din:

If male chauvinism cannot accommodate the sexual freedom of a woman, religious bigotry has no compunction in distorting the narrative of consensual relationships to serve its agenda of social strife. Together, patriarchy and communalism might have once again altered the life of a young woman whose voice, at least for the moment, remains lost to us.