New members have to give a declaration that they will not own any property in excess of ceiling laws and will undertake tasks including "manual labour" prescribed by the party.
With only weeks to go before the state assembly elections, the Congress's Karnataka unit is desperately trying to hush up its perpetually squabbling leaders. Senior Congress leaders like Siddaramaiah and Dr Parameshwar have directly appealed to their party workers to fight the elections in a united manner, but they are in no mood to listen.
However, Gehlot, said he will make one last-ditch effort to convince Rahul to take up the party president's post.
Madhusudan Mistry, Congress general secretary, spoke to in an exclusive interview to rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt as soon as Congress crossed majority mark in Karnataka. At the end of the interview, Mistry insisted that his criticism of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi should be carried as it is.
In a move signalling his larger role in the party, Rahul Gandhi was on Thursday made the head of the Congress coordination committee for 2014 Lok Sabha polls.
They said that as Congress MPs, they are concerned about the transparency and fairness of the election process for the president of the party.
Madhusudan Mistry, who once worked as a mason in Ahmedabad earning Rs 2 daily, now shares the credit for the Congress's handsome victory in Karnataka.
While Kharge is considered the firm favourite with his perceived proximity to the Gandhis and a large number of senior leaders backing him, Tharoor has pitched himself as the candidate of change.
Launching our new Election Gupshup series: Congress pulls out its Brahmastra to dent the Modi mystique.
Most senior leaders were not present at the Congress headquarters in New Delhi on the day of the outcome of poll results in five states. The leaders present at the headquarters stayed glued to television sets throughout the day, analysing results
The notification for the Congress president's election will be out on September 22 by when all the PCC delegates will be finalised and electoral roll published and the election, if required, will be held on October 17.
For those having any 'fear or doubt' in their mind, Tharoor said, the party has made it clear that it will be a secret ballot.
He also asked why anyone seeking to contest the Congress president's election should go to the PCC office to get the electoral roll as this does not even happen in a club election.
Mistry said the election authority is in the process of finalising the AICC delegates who will vote in the crucial election for the top party post.
Mistry said the poll body satisfied the candidate on every complaint but despite that he raised all those points in the media before bringing them to "our notice".
There's a quiet before the storm within the ruling party. Illustration: Uttam Ghosh/Rediff.com.
Senior Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Shashi Tharoor will face-off in an electoral contest on Monday for the post of All India Congress Committee chief, as the party gets set to have a non-Gandhi president in over 24 years.
Will he, will he not? That is the question on every Congress leader's mind as Rahul Gandhi has still not indicated whether he is ready to take on the mantle of party president.
Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa of the Akali Dal said the Sikh boy had tried to stop four hooligans from eve teasing. The miscreants caught hold of the Sikh boy, cut his hair and insulted him.
The central election authority of the Congress met and finalised the initial program of the process.
The Congress' central election authority on Thursday issued a notification for the All India Congress Committee president polls, setting the ball rolling for electing the successor to the longest-serving party chief Sonia Gandhi.
'If the Congress gets to form the government in 2024, then Sonia Gandhi by virtue of being CPP chairperson will have the authority to decide who will be the prime minister and not Kharge.'
Mallikarjun Kharge was on Wednesday elected the Congress president after defeating Shashi Tharoor in an electoral contest, the sixth in the party's 137-year-old history.
Congress presidential candidate Shashi Tharoor on Tuesday claimed many electors have been instructed by 'their leaders' to support his rival but they may eventually vote for him in a secret ballot.
No one from the Gandhi family was present at the All India Congress Committee headquarters when the leaders filed their nominations for the election.
By filing his nomination as Congress president on Friday, Shashi Tharoor has shown he is no 'quockerwodger' -- a word he introduced into our lexicon which means someone acting on the instructions of an influential third party.
'In some quarters it has been suggested that there will be an 'official candidate' backed by the leadership but on the contrary, it has been repeatedly stressed by Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra in my conversations with them over the last two weeks that the Nehru-Gandhi family welcomes these elections'
'Gehlot is right now doing things, which are not appreciated by the Gandhis.' 'The Gandhis have realised that their writ does not run in Rajasthan, therefore they have deflected the issue to Kharge.'
Voting began on Monday in the Congress presidential polls as senior leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Shashi Tharoor face-off for the post of All India Congress Committee (AICC) chief.
Ignoring controversies surrounding him over Adarsh housing scam, the Congress has decided to field ex-Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan for the Lok Sabha polls and has fielded Madhusudan Mistry, a close aide of party vice president Rahul Gandhi to take on Narendra Modi in Vadodara. Anita Katyal reports
'The Bharat Jodo Yatra has done very well in the south, and if they are able to pull voters in the south and rely on their allies in the north like in Bihar, UP and do well in Rajasthan, then there are chances that there might be a formidable opposition or at least a force to fight the BJP.'
Asked about the organisational changes made by Gandhi and the subsequent reported statements by some leaders who had written to her over party reforms, Congress' chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said he had not seen a single statement by any Congress leader on the issue and cannot comment on that.
BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi on Friday won Vadodara Lok Sabha seat by a margin of 5,70,128 votes.
'A brief statement was made by the Army on the sensitive issue. But no questions were taken,' a member said.
In its third list of candidates for the coming Lok Sabha elections, the Congress on Tuesday fielded 58 candidates, mostly tried and tested ones. While most sitting ministers, including Kapil Sibal (Chandni Chowk), Krishna Tirath (Northwest Delhi), Sachin Pilot (Ajmer) and Srikant Jena (Balasore) were retained, the surprise elements were state Youth Congress President Vishwajeet Kadam replacing tainted Suresh Kalmadi from Pune and cricketer Mohammed Azharuddin from Tonk-Sawai Madhopur (Rajasthan).
The BJP on Tuesday retained the prestigious Vadodara Lok Sabha seat in Gujarat vacated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with a huge margin of more than 3.29 lakh votes.
Congress party will hold a protest rally called Zameen Wapsi Andolan in New Delhi on Wednesday.
The Congress dismissed as "mere speculation" reports that Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi are to offer their resignation at the Congress Working Committee meeting on Monday called in the wake of the party's worst-ever electoral defeat.
There is speculation that the Congress may bring Priyanka Gandhi, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Randeep Surjewala and RPN Singh, among others, to the upper house.
Hitting back at the Congress after its Saharanpur leader Imran Masood threatened to chop Narendra Modi to pieces in a hate speech, Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje said the Lok Sabha results will clearly show who will be cut to size and who will be the winner.
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