In a veiled reference to West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee, state Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said he cannot speak in favour of someone who wants to finish him politically and his party in the state.
Villagers alleged that a seven-month-old child was snatched from her mother's lap and thrown away by miscreants in Sandeshkhali.
'Arithmetic could decide the Haryana election given the presence of multi-cornered contests.'
Senior leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress were stopped by police on Friday from visiting the trouble-torn Sandeshkhali, escalating the political tensions in the state as the leaders accused West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of fostering a 'lawless situation' and attempting to 'communalise' the issue.
The meeting started under the presidency of Mallikarjun Kharge but former presidents Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi were yet to arrive and are unlikely to attend the steering committee meeting.
Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole has said that his party's top brass will discuss with Nationalist Congress Party founder Sharad Pawar his much-debated meeting with politically estranged nephew and state Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar when the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) holds its conclave in Mumbai later this month.
Pawar said some programmes have been decided for the unity of the alliance.
The Congress in Maharashtra has a plan in place in the event of alliance with anti-Bharatiya Janata Party outfits doesn't materialise, state unit party president Nana Patole said on Wednesday amid buzz about the future of tripartite Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA).
Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president Sharad Pawar on Tuesday said although his outfit does not agree with the demand of anti-Bharatiya Janata Party outfits for a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) probe into allegations against the Adani group, it will not go against their stand for the sake of Opposition unity.
'At no point did Kamal Nath and Digvijaya indicate that the Opposition bloc was formed only to fight the Lok Sabha polls.'
The Congress leader said that the party has taken up the "biggest task" of fighting against the "dictatorial government" alleging that there is an "emergency-like situation" in the country.
A meeting of Opposition parties, organised by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, will be held in Patna on June 23, his deputy Tejashwi Yadav said on Wednesday.
In an interview with PTI, Chidambaram said the Congress has a 'unique position' in the ranks of the opposition parties but there was 'no need to talk about it now'.
Top leaders of Opposition parties will brainstorm at a meeting in Patna on Friday to chalk out a roadmap for the formation of an anti-Bharatiya Janata Party front for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, with sources saying that they would look to avoid the prickly leadership question and emphasise on common ground.
Sources said that Congress leaders, including Kamal Nath, Digvijaya Singh, Mukul Wasnik, KC Venugopal, Jairam Ramesh, AK Antony, Ambika Soni and Randeep Surjewala, are also taking part in the meeting at Sonia Gandhi's 10 Janpath residence.
The PM targeted the Opposition after launching the National Sickle Cell Anemia Eradication Mission 2047 by unveiling a portal and releasing a guideline for the management of the disease and different modules at Shahdol in Madhya Pradesh.
Marking a vertical split in the Nationalist Congress Party, its senior leader Ajit Pawar joined the Eknath Shinde-led Maharashtra government as deputy chief minister on Sunday.
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.
The Congress is planning to call a meeting of Opposition parties in May. It is possible to keep all possibilities open in case Karnataka yields a hung House, leading to a recalibrated Opposition.
Sources said the opposition parties would look to avoid the prickly leadership question as of now and emphasise on building a common ground.
The joint statement was issued by senior leaders of 13 opposition parties, including interim president of Congress Sonia Gandhi, the Nationalist Congress Party patriarch Sharad Pawar, and the West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
Reacting sharply to Banerjee's fulminations, the Congress struck back pointing out that Prime Minster Narendra Modi's and her stand were similar, with one seeking a 'Congress 'Mukt' (Free) India' and the other, an 'Opposition coalition sans Congress'.
Soon after meeting, Raut hinted at a pre-poll alliance with the Congress in UP and Goa, stating that the parties are thinking of working together in both the states that are scheduled to go to assembly polls early next year.
The development is a major boost for West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee, who has been trying to expand her party's footprint beyond her native state.
The leaders attacked the BJP, accusing it of trying to create "Hindu-Muslim disturbances" to benefit politically and making false claims and promises.
Amid signs of increasing bonhomie between her and her Telangana and Tamil Nadu counterparts Rao and Stalin, Banerjee had approached the two on Sunday to set up meetings of opposition chief ministers.
The survey comes amid an opposition attempt to forge an alliance against the BJP ahead of the national elections.
Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee has recently written to all opposition parties including the Congress, calling on everyone to come together and put up a united fight against saffron forces.
The TMC, which is keen to leave a mark in its outing in Goa, had suggested a broad alliance but not much has moved on the proposal due to competing interests and apparent lack of faith between the opposition parties.
The Congress, which is in the Opposition at the national level, has turned 'feeble and disintegrated', Shiv Sena mouthpiece Saamana said on Saturday, and suggested that all anti-Bharatiya Janata Party parties, including the Sena, should come together under the UPA banner to provide a formidable alternative.
The NCP, along with other opposition parties, had repeatedly raised concerns over the possibility of EVM tampering.
The Mumbai ATS should investigate the blasts thoroughly and need not hesitate to have a second look at the Samjhauta Express explosions, but they should do it in a professional manner, not in a manner that adds to suspicions that the investigation has taken a pre-election political turn -- with the objective being to fix the Hindu nationalists and not to fix the terrorists, says B Raman
Jharkhand Mukti Morcha working president Hemant Soren was on Sunday sworn in as the 11th chief minister of Jharkhand at Morhabadi Ground in Ranchi. Governor Droupadi Murmu administered the oath of office and secrecy to Soren, in the presence of senior political leaders and chief ministers from across states.
The SP chief said they will now "consult" the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Gondwana Gantantra Party for the Madhya Pradesh polls.
Congress workers turned up in large numbers at 10 Janpath residence of party president Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi Friday and extended full support to her, a day after she resigned from Lok Sabha and as chairperson of the National Advisory Council.
A meeting of opposition leaders from many anti-Bharatiya Janata Party parties, most of them regional forces, hosted by the veteran leader and Nationalist Congress Party president Sharad Pawar on Tuesday is being seen by political pundits as a beginning of an exercise by them to join forces to put up a more cohesive challenge to the saffron party.
Reacting to allegations that his party was dividing anti-BJP votes, Owaisi said he was running a political party that has a right to contest on its own.
The Congress Working Committee (CWC) member also reminded regional parties opposed to the BJP of the defeat in the 2019 general elections when Narendra Modi powered the National Democratic Alliance to a second straight term in office due to a fragmented opposition, warning the 'BJP is coming after them' in their respective states.
Is Stalin positioning himself as a central figure in the anti-Bharatiya Janata Party, anti-Narendra Modi formation?
RJD chief Lalu Prasad's elder son Tej Pratap Yadav, was interrupted twice by Governor Ram Nath Kovind and asked to repeat after he misspelled a part of the oath.
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