The Congress party may have its eyes firmly set on the Bharat Jodo Yatra, but it kept its fingers crossed as it waited for Thursday's counting of votes for the assembly elections in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh.
Denying talks about power sharing and speculations that deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar will take over as CM after two-and-half years or after 2024 Lok Sabha polls, minister MB Patil on Monday evening said Siddaramaiah will remain the chief minister for a full five-year term.
Akbar said the next general election "will be won on the basis of governance and not on journeys".
The Congress seems to be heading for the Karnataka polls so far on the strength of its local leadership and focusing on issues concerning the state, making corruption a central theme of its campaigning.
The Congress would also take inspiration from history as it was from Karnataka that an embattled Indira Gandhi had revived her dwindling political future by winning a Lok Sabha bypoll from Chikmagalur.
Mapanna Mallikarjun Kharge, a staunch Gandhi family loyalist from Karnataka, has become the Congress' first non-Gandhi president in 24 years.
NCP's Kandhal Jadeja was the only MLA to win from the party.
'An old party like the Congress cannot rely solely on the prescriptions of a 'Doctor' whose motives and intentions are still unknown and that he does not look attached towards any party or ideology,' point out Sunil Gatade and Venkatesh Kesari.
Mallikarjun Kharge, meanwhile, came to the defence of his son, saying he never made those comments.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is arriving in New Delhi on Thursday for a four-day visit during which she is likely to meet senior leaders and attend a Niti Aayog meeting on August 7, sources said.
"Earlier, governments were busy in vote bank appeasement but we are busy satisfying people," the prime minister said.
Kumar's comment comes days after a section of JD-U leaders in Uttar Pradesh announced that they would join the Congress' 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' in the state.
This is a complete betrayal of the mandate of the people of the Sagardighi Assembly constituency, Ramesh said on Twitter.
The state is mainly witnessing a three-cornered contest between the ruling BJP, the Congress and former prime minister H D Deve Gowda's Janata Dal (Secular).
Ahead of the last Assembly polls, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had promised to implement a farm loan waiver scheme in the state if the party came to power.
'Rahul Gandhi might not be holding any post as of now but everyone knows that he is the "captain of the ship'
While the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress alleged that the killings were a fallout of the TMC's infighting, the ruling party pointed fingers at the grand old party of India.
Mehdi said he made a mistake by crossing over to the AAP and asserted that he is a "loyal worker" of the Congress and Rahul Gandhi
'She showed courage at every turn in her political career.'
Sparks flew on the first day of the debate on the no-trust motion moved by the Congress with the Opposition on Tuesday asserting that it was forced to do so to break Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'maun vrat' (vow of silence) on Manipur and the treasury benches hitting back saying it was a no-trust vote against a 'poor person's son' who has worked for the welfare of the people.
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.
In its second list of 46 candidates, the grand old party has also named four Muslim candidates.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, along with several party leaders, embarked on the 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' from Kanyakumari on Thursday, marking the beginning of a challenging journey through which the party is seeking to reach out to people and rejuvenate its organisation.
A renewed energy seems to have been infused into the 75-year old Congress leader Siddaramaiah's gait as he walked to address a packed press conference in Mysore on Saturday.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday slammed the opposition alliance INDIA as a collection of arrogant dynasties who will take India back by two centuries as he exuded confidence that people will bless the "garib ka beta" with a record-breaking mandate in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
The scam-ridden Congress government in Chhattisgarh has become a model of misrule and people have decided to root it out in the upcoming assembly elections, he said.
'If the situation arises, the committee will decide on Pawar's successor and the decision will be unanimous'
The Congress on Friday welcomed the statements of opposition leaders condemning Rahul Gandhi's disqualification from the Lok Sabha and said it was now time for the party to take on the job of building the opposition unity in a "systematic way".
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said the Bharatiya Janata Party has decided it would not adopt the path of appeasement and vote bank politics.
'The Congress don't have the zeal to fight the BJP. The party is so bogged down by infighting that it hardly has time or energy to build an opposition. The UPA does not exist'
Almost every year, three to four waves of flood ravage Assam. The average annual loss due to the disaster is to the tune of Rs 200 crore, according to a state government website.
The meeting between the two leaders, which was also attended by Bihar's deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav, was described as 'positive'.
No matter how smug they sound on the surface about the potential of the dissenters to disturb the proverbial applecart, the Congress and the BJP know that their electoral calculations are precariously hinged in a seemingly tight contest.
Dev, who was one of the national spokespersons of the grand-old party and its women's wing chief, switched over to the Mamata Banerjee-led camp last month.
In an editorial in party mouthpiece Saamana, the party said that while on the one hand the Bharatiya Janata Party has already started preparing for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the Congress is in dire straits.
Sibal, a prominent Opposition voice and a former Congress leader, also said that instead of a common minimum programme, the Opposition parties should talk about a 'new vision for India'.
In earlier elections, the Congress was considered the only major contender for Muslim votes in Gujarat, but this time the main opposition party is facing stiff competition from smaller outfits to get minority electors on its side.
Accusing the Congress of also abusing the dominant Lingayat community in poll-bound Karnataka, the prime minister further said the grand old party had even abused Babasaheb Ambedkar and were engaged in abusing Veer Savarkar.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Sunday met his Delhi counterpart Arvind Kejriwal at the latter's residence in New Delhi and extended 'complete support' to him in the Aam Aadmi Party government's ongoing tussle with the Centre over the control of administrative services.
The septuagenarian leader has with this victory, broken the record of veteran leader SC Jamir, who helmed the northeastern state thrice.
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