Rahul has been pushing for greater democracy within the party, a suggestion frequently side swept by Sonia Gandhi, says Renu Mittal
'The Congress wants to deprive Modi another term in 2024 and for that they are ready to make any sacrifice.'
The minister was admitted in the new private ward under the supervision of Dr Rajesh Malhotra who heads the orthopaedic department there, said a senior doctor at AIIMS.
Congress leaders at the All India Congress Committee presented Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram their most important wishlist for the coming budget, when he came calling at 24 Akbar Road on Thursday evening: 'Since they are now in the election year the Congress needs a people-friendly and a vote-friendly budget'.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi along with party top brass will be present at the All India Congress Committee headquarters tomorrow as Congress completes 127 years of its existence.
For two years beginning 1961, the Congress party's headquarters in New Delhi played host to Aung San Suu Kyi, Nobel laureate and leader of the non-violent movement for human rights and democracy in Myanmar (the erstwhile Burma), who is currently on a visit to India. Suu Kyi was barely 15 when she arrived at 24 Akbar Road with her mother, recounts Rasheed Kidwai
Bhartiya Janata Party's top leadership has been trying to avoid queries on whether Payal Singh, wife of Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister and National Conference leader Omar Abdullah, is joining the party. Omar and Payal been estranged for a while now. Payal is living separately in New Delhi at Akbar Road and is trying to find a footing in the political sphere.
"We in the satta bazaar trust Sonia Gandhi's manoeuvring skills. Now that it has become a major ego issue for the UPA, Mamata will be isolated. UPA may manage to get Mukherjee elected as President with the help of Mayawati and other smaller parties," said a bookie from Delhi
Two days after Kamran Siddiqui threw black ink on Baba Ramdev after addressing a press conference, Ramdev's supporters held a demonstration at the Congress headquarters on Akbar Road. One of the agitators even threw black ink on a poster of Sonia Gandhi.
Beset by troubles on multiple fronts within, the Congress faces the danger of imploding with party veterans Ghulam Nabi Azad and Kapil Sibal on Wednesday sharply questioning the decision-making process, saying there are 'no monopolies', and demanded convening an urgent meeting of the Congress Working Committee for a 'dialogue'.
Water is going to be a central part of the government's 2024 election campaign. And Gajendra Singh Shekhawat's work will be crucial for it.
The party's history shows that it has had at least 13 presidents from outside the Nehru-Gandhi clan since independence as against five from its first family. Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi have headed the party for the majority of the period since independence.
In this interview with rediff.com's Sahim Salim, Kidwai talks about the book, the challenges he faced while researching for it and the state of the Congress party today. Talking about party general secretaries Rahul Gandhi and Digvijaya Singh's experiments in Uttar Pradesh, Kidwai says that it is interesting, but that Rahul has to reconcile with what the Central government is offering in terms of agricultural reforms, etc.
Rasheed Kidwai, associate editor of The Telegraph newspaper who is the author of Sonia: A biography and 24 Akbar Road, made an exclusive appearance on Rediff Chat on Monday where he fielded wide-ranging questions about the Presidential poll. Here is the transcript from the chat..
Wanted: Hindi-speaking spokesman for the Congress; a former minister is all set with his 23rd book; polling staff feign fever to slink out of poll duties in the bitter cold; pilot-turned railway minister caught in a tug-of-war... Political gushup from the Dilli Darbar.
It was a battle of wits between IBN-18 network editor-in-chief, Rajdeep Sardesai, and Congress leaders Digvijay Singh and Mani Shankar Aiyar.
Sheela Bhatt tries to make sense of the rising stature of Congress leader Digvijay Singh and his brand of politics.
After the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam pulled out of the United Progressive Alliance government on Saturday night after a fall out over seat sharing, the big question being asked in the power corridors in New Delhi was whether the Congress will go alone in the upcoming Tamil Nadu polls.
President Pratibha Patil, Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Saturday visited the residence of Arjun Singh to pay their last respect to the party veteran who died in New Delhi.
The function, which took place after heavy rains had almost drowned the lawns of 10 Janpath, was a picture of an almost collapsed marquee, a waterlogged venue with the leaders and others having to wade through water and mud.
AAP volunteers and its frontal organisations protested near BJP headquarters on the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Marg, demanding the party to clear its stand on full statehood to Delhi.
'Cultural nationalism or the victim card that you play is okay when people are well fed.' 'But if you are not well fed, then it puts a question mark (on your leadership).'
Sources said the issue was discussed at the core committee meeting held last week where it was decided that Rahul would hoist the flag if he is back in New Delhi before the August 15. Sonia is expected to return after another 2 weeks at a conservative estimate.
Congress MP Mani Shankar Aiyar on Tuesday said it was not the party but the "mela" at its headquarters that he had described as a "circus" and hoped that it has not lost its capacity to laugh at itself.
The Supreme Court's decision to take up the case on Friday without granting him any interim relief, put to rest all the strategies being worked upon.
A court in Goa capital Panaji on Wednesday issued a warrant to search Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar's official residence in Delhi to trace former Goa minister Francisco 'Miccky' Pacheco who is reported to be absconding for a fortnight since his conviction in a 2006 assault case.
There's a quiet before the storm within the ruling party. Illustration: Uttam Ghosh/Rediff.com.
Interestingly, this is not being done surreptitiously or secretly but is a decision taken by senior AICC general secretaries who feel there is nothing wrong with the practice. This though is a first of its kind move by the AICC leaders.
Vajpayee's last rites will be performed at the Rashtriya Smriti Sthal in New Delhi at 4 pm on Friday.
An exclusive extract from 24, Akbar Road, a new book to be released by Hachette Books India in August, reveals how Rahul Gandhi has introduced a dynamic brand of leadership in the Congress party.
The Congress is quietly dropping an All India Congress Committee session planned in New Delhi on December 28, to kick off the year-long celebrations of the party completing 125 years.
'Ghulam Nabi Azad and Kapil Sibal are the two people who have been marked and punished'
A senior Congress politician and a minister close to the Prime Minister's Office told the media, "Yes, we do feel we have been saved (bachgaye)," and added, "Now we have time. We read these elections differently. The people of this country believe that India should have a united response against terrorism. We can't do anything without the opposition's support."
It was Rahul Gandhi's day out in Mumbai as he hopped out on to a local train and mingled with the people of Mumbai. Rahul's little detour send turned out to be a nightmare for Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan, who set alarm bells ringing all the way to Delhi and forced Sonia Gandhi out of the Congress Working Committee meeting, being held at 24 Akbar Road.
The Congress will soon shift to its new headquarters at Kotla Road in New Delhi with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and party chief Sonia Gandhi laying the foundation stone of the Indira Gandhi Bhavan on Monday.
It was a perfect setting for a birthday -- a cake, balloons, flowers and crackers but the birthday boy was missing.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh sent one of his officials to the 20, Akbar Road residence of the Speaker on Friday morning to convey his birthday wishes to Chatterjee. The official presented a bouquet to him on behalf of Dr Singh.
'If you compare the record of the BJP and NDA government they have a pathetic record of tackling terrorism, still they kept on talking about the recent incidents. They had no other issue to talk about because their performance in the Karnataka government was pathetic so they kept talking about national issues in the assembly elections.'
'He is not acting solo.' 'The plot may have people within the Congress and outside.'
The Congress cannot do without the Gandhi-Nehru family, and they ensure the unity of the party. The Congress experimented with a Narasimha Rao and went back to the family. Sonia Gandhi neither faces a threat to her leadership nor a prospect of a split, which her mother-in-law had to contend with. But she will have to show a resoluteness she displayed in early 2004 if the party is to revitalise
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