A fierce competition among parties to offer freebies and guarantees, a scramble for tribal, OBC, women votes and a touch of Hindutva -- all have combined to make the Madhya Pradesh assembly polls a high-stakes battle with main rivals BJP and the Congress pulling out all the stops to gain power.
The Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee is keen to field senior leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra from Varanasi and will soon send a proposal in this regard to the top leadership, said newly appointed party's state president Ajay Rai on Sunday.
The Opposition party asked whether the prime minister will take responsibility for the 'deadliest rail tragedy' of this century.
The bench agreed to hear the plea on Friday and told Singhvi to ask his junior counsel to go to the mentioning officer.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in a white t-shirt in the biting cold has been a hot topic of discussion -- and not just in top political circles.
Leaders of 38 parties have confirmed their participation in a meeting of the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) to be held in the national capital on Tuesday, Bharatiya Janata Party president J P Nadda said.
Congress deputy leader in Lok Sabha Gaurav Gogoi also alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party's nationalism is "fake" and "they are not patriots".
Union minister Smriti Irani reacted furiously to the Congress leader's barb at the prime minister over the Rafale purchase and the tense situation in Manipur.
It was not just these instances but also some images from the Congress' 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' last year when it was passing through the state remain etched in people's memory.
Chief ministers of 3 Congress-ruled states, other national and state party leaders are also likely to accompany Rahul to the court.
Gandhi undertook the journey Monday night and in visuals and videos, the former party chief, donning his trademark white T-shirt, is seen sitting inside a truck, travelling with one of the drivers and speaking to truck drivers at a dhaba.
Priyanka Gandhi's son Rehan was also seen matching steps with Rahul Gandhi.
The party said it was 'an inexcusable slip-up', for which responsibility was being fixed and action would be taken.
Modi slammed the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) as the most directionless the country has ever seen and cited reviled names, such as East India Company and Indian Mujahideen, to assert that people cannot be misled merely by the use of the country's name.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Sunday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party-led central government of being 'undemocratic', and said people will have to strongly fight against its 'dictatorship' to save democracy.
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.
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.
'I have never seen a common man tapping a chief minister on the shoulder and giving him his petition, like needing money for a child admitted in a hospital.'
Amid speculation that he has been asked to come to the national capital by the high command, he said: "I have not received any call yet. Let's see."
Congress leader and All India Congress Committee (AICC) in charge of Karnataka Randeep Surjewala said on Sunday that the Congress Legislative Party (CLP) has unanimously passed the resolution and the observers will seek the opinions of all MLAs and convey it to the party high command.
Citing news reports, Ramesh said they have "exposed" in considerable detail how the process was manipulated to help the Adanis.
Hindenburg Research has alleged that Adani Group was "engaged in a brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud", a charge the conglomerate described as malicious, unsubstantiated, one-sided, and having done with malafide intention to ruin its share-sale.
The Congress has projected unity to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party in the assembly polls in Rajasthan but "core issues" between Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and his bete noire Sachin Pilot remain unresolved, according to sources close to Pilot.
Without taking names, in a tweet in Hindi, Priyanka Gandhi said the law of the country is written in the Constitution and this law is paramount.
The Congress needs to reorganise itself at the grassroots, infuse younger blood, and have more boots on the ground. Just offering freebies is not the answer anymore. Leadership matters, asserts Ramesh Menon.
Priyanka was in Lucknow on Wednesday to address a state-level 'Chintan Shivir' and returned to Delhi on Thursday.
The Congress on Thursday said it firmly believes that India's democratic processes themselves have to deal with the threats posed to its democracy, remarks that came after the Bharatiya Janata Party attacked the opposition party for its leader Digvijaya Singh thanking Germany for "taking note" of Rahul Gandhi's disqualification from the Lok Sabha.
The Congress on Thursday slammed the Centre after a May 4 video of two women being paraded naked in Manipur surfaced, with party president Mallikarjun Kharge accusing the Narendra Modi government of turning democracy into 'mobocracy'.
Sources said the Congress may consider opposing the bill when it is introduced in Parliament. The Aam Aadmi Party, which is in power in Delhi, has been seeking the support of various political parties on the matter.
Amid speculation over Congress leader Sachin Pilot's next move, sources close to him on Tuesday said he was firm on his demands, including action against alleged corruption during the previous Vasundhara Raje government, and was waiting for a definitive response from the party high command.
Posting a picture of Gandhi walking with the girl wearing a hijab, Patra tweeted in Hindi, "When votes are accounted for on the basis of religion then it is called appeasement."
The Gorakhpur-based Gita Press, which is the world's largest publisher of Hindu religious texts, has declined the Rs 1 crore cash award for the Gandhi Peace Prize amid a political row over its selection for the prestigious honour.
The Maharashtra Congress has convened a meeting of its legislators on Tuesday in view of the developments in the state that saw a split in the Nationalist Congress Party and Ajit Pawar being inducted as deputy chief minister in the Eknath Shinde government.
Savadi would now be the grand old party's candidate in Athani in Belagavi district, Congress leaders said.
The Congress leadership is caught in a peculiar situation and wants to find a middle path to the issue, party sources said.
Jinnah said I can accept only one leader and that is Subhas Bose, Doval said.
'Entire process of meeting individual legislators of Congress party has been completed with great bohemia.'
A day after Singh stirred up the hornet's nest and the Congress distanced itself from the leader, party MP in charge of communication, Ramesh told the media while walking for the Bharat Jodo Yatra in Jammu and Kashmir that all queries related to the surgical strike uproar have been answered by his party and the media needs to aim its questions at Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The assault and humiliation of two women paraded naked in a Manipur village in May sparked nationwide outrage on Thursday with Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying the incident had shamed 140 crore Indians and the Supreme Court terming it 'simply unacceptable'.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi will travel abroad for medical check-ups and Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will accompany her, the party said.
