The Grand Old Party must bring widespread reforms across all levels of the organisation to show it is no longer in a state of inertia and to present itself as a viable political alternative to the Bharatiya Janata Party, Congress veteran Kapil Sibal said.
Amid a series of deliberations over a strategy for upcoming general and assembly elections by poll strategist Prashant Kishor, a group of senior leaders of the Congress has given its recommendations to party president Sonia Gandhi and left it to her to take a call on them and initiate organisational changes.
Kumar on Tuesday resigned from the Congress after a 46-year association, saying he can best serve national causes outside the party fold.
Earlier, only Azad was scheduled to meet Sonia Gandhi.
Old-timers seem not impressed with the idea of dropping from the RJD poster its jailed supremo who is acknowledged, across party lines, as the biggest crowd puller ever seen in Bihar's poitical arena.
At a time when none in Kerala's Left politics questioned the chief minister's authority, MLA P V Anvar hurled a series of accusations against Pinarayi Vijayan's government, notes Shyam G Menon.
'The greatness of India can be experienced by meeting Indians on the frontiers of India.' 'Every citizen on the border is a soldier'
The bills that repeal and replace the Indian Penal Code, Code of Criminal Procedure and the Indian Evidence Act will usher in a new era in the criminal justice system, Home Minister Amit Shah said
Rumblings in the Maha Vikas Aghadi camp came to the fore on Wednesday with Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole accusing ally Nationalist Congress Party of being a "backstabber", a day after the Sharad Pawar-led party joined hands with rival Bharatiya Janata Party in Gondia zilla parishad elections to keep the Congress from power.
The Congress is a dismal third in 17 of the 19 constituencies where the party's general secretary (east) campaigned in Uttar Pradesh.
The former Meghalaya chief minister, who recently switched over to the TMC along with 11 other Congress MLAs, told PTI in an interview that the political dynamics in the entire region is going to change with him quitting the grand old party.
The meeting between the two leaders, which was also attended by Bihar's deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav, was described as 'positive'.
Eyeing the revival of the crisis-ridden party ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the party chief Sonia Gandhi described the march as a "landmark occasion" and hoped that the march would help rejuvenate the grand old party.
Contests in 13 seats would attract most attention during the Chhattisgarh assembly elections as they feature prominent leaders of the Congress and BJP.
Modi had said he receives "2.5-3 kg" of abuses everyday, but he turns the harsh remarks into positive energy.
While Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao has made his national ambitions amply clear, even rechristening his party to aid the process, his Tamil Nadu counterpart M K Stalin insists he is already in the national scene and used his birthday rally on March 1 to not only strongly pitch for the Congress as a force to reckon with in the efforts to dislodge the Narendra Modi-led dispensation at the Centre, but also sought to shoot down the prospects of a Third Front.
Reacting to TMC's jibe, West Bengal Congress president Adhir Chowdhury said "agents of BJP" should not advise the party how to fight against the saffron camp.
The youth wing of the Bharatiya Janata Party in Assam on Monday claimed its activists have filed more than 1,000 complaints against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi at various police stations in the state over his tweets that left the Northeast out of India's geographical expanse while he talked about the country's unity.
Republicans convened their national convention in St Paul, Minnesota on a subdued note focussing much of their attention on how best they could rally forces to the beleaguered folks of Louisiana and Mississippi affected by Hurricane Gustav.
Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Saturday dubbed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's move to release Cheetahs in a Madhya Pradesh national park as a 'tactic to divert attention' from the grand old party's 'immensely successful' 'Bharat Jodo Yatra'.
Former Union home minister Chidambaram lashed out at the government over the alleged sluggish pace of inoculation against the viral disease and claimed that the country will not achieve 100-per cent first-dose vaccination by December 31.
After barring Assam minister Himanta Biswa Sarma from campaigning in the assembly polls for 48 hours, the Election Commission has also transferred his brother and Goalpara Superintendent of Police Sushanta Biswa Sarma from the district.
With Lok Sabha elections just a year away, a key committee of the Congress embarked on an exercise aimed at turning around the electoral fortunes of the grand old party, which has been been on a losing spree.
RSS joint general secretary Manmohan Vaidya, apparently referring to the Congress's Bharat Jodo Yatra, described it as a "political gimmick" that will not serve its stated purpose of uniting masses.
Madhavrao Scindia briefly left the Congress in 1996 and was later pacified to rejoin ranks
Apart from Kerala, in no state did the Grand Old Party scored in double digits.
His likable boy-next-door face and casual approach to public speaking have a unique appeal for the younger generation, but it stops there, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
All the candidates checked in the resort on Tuesday evening with their luggage, indicating that the government formation may be a long haul.
Stressing the need to support the party high command, he said, "... we have to fight unitedly. It has pained me that some senior leaders have spoken against the party and its leadership."
The cross-country foot march stayed in the news almost right through, mostly for the barbs between the BJP and the Congress and occasionally for other reasons, including infighting in the opposition party.
Twenty-three million tuned in to watch the opening ceremony in France - more than for matches in the Euro 2024 soccer championship.
At Congress' 'Jan Vedna Sammelan' earlier this month, Gandhi had made comments co-relating his party's symbol 'hand' with religious gods.
Germany's left-leaning, Social Democrats Party (SPD) won in the German federal election with over 25 per cent votes, but uncertainty remains over the next leader as results showed that the party won narrowly.
He claimed media reports stating that talks between the AAP and the Congress had been finalised were planted by the grand old party.
In the Grand Old Party, no one else has the record of a hat-trick term in the top office of a state other than Mohan Lal Sukhadia, who was the chief minister of Rajasthan for 17 long years, and Krishna Sinha in Bihar for 14 years.
Once considered the unlikely heir to the political legacy of the Gandhi family, Sonia has earned the distinction of being the longest serving president of India's grand old party.
A lacklustre show by the Congress in Bihar seems to have proved costly for the opposition grand alliance, as it dragged down the RJD too from government formation in the Hindi heartland state.
Rahul Gandhi has become a symbol of 'Bharat jodo' (unite India) and will be seen in a new avatar post the Congress' pan-India march, senior party leader Digvijaya Singh said.
The CPI-M's allegations were termed a political conspiracy by the opposition Congress which accused the Left party of stooping low to target its political opponents.
