The division bench completed the hearing of arguments and said it will pronounce its order on Friday, requesting the Speaker too to extend his deadline for accepting the MLAs replies to the notices. The notices had followed a Congress complaint that the 19 MLAs should be disqualified from the assembly for defying a party whip.
'He is not acting solo.' 'The plot may have people within the Congress and outside.'
The stage is set for the re-entry of K Muraleedharan, son of veteran leader late K Karunakaran, to the Congress as the state leadership is planning to formally appeal to party president Sonia Gandhi to take him back. Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee president Ramesh Chennithala on Friday said he and former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy will meet Gandhi early in February to request the re-admission of Muraleedharan, who broke ranks with the parent body six years ago.
The Assam government announced a compensation of Rs 5 lakh and a job for the next of the kin of the deceased.
Parrikar, who is suffering from pancreatic ailment, presented a revenue surplus state budget sitting on his chair in the state assembly, with a tube inserted through his nose.
Ahead of the all-party delegation's visit to Kashmir Valley next week, Congress President Sonia Gandhi held deliberations with senior party leaders on the strategy for the troubled state.
After losing both the seats in the by-polls of the Karnataka legislative assembly, state Pradesh Congress Committee's working president D K Shivakumar and Leader of Opposition Siddaramiah resigned from their posts on Thursday. The two leaders resigned after accepting the moral responsibility for the party's defeat in Kadur and Gulbarga. The Bharatiya Janata Party won the Kadur seat while the Janata Dal Secular won the Gulbarga seat.
The Congress leadership is moving towards implementing the one-man one-post norm when the All India Congress Committee and Pradesh Congress Committees are reconstituted, said highly placed sources in the AICC.
Ripun Bora in a letter wrote, "It is very surprising that you (Mukherjee) are going to attend the meeting of such an organisation which is totally opposed to the Congress's ideology of secularism, which is not only the basic foundation of the Constitution but also the social fabric of our nation."
Nationalist Congress Party in Goa on Friday took strong cognisance of a statement by a Congress leader that the Sharad Pawar-led party was colluding with Bharatiya Janata Party to destabilise the Congress-led government in the state.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Monday summoned party general secretary in-charge of Bihar Mukul Wasnik and asked him to explain his position on the allegation that he had sough financial favours to allot seats in the recent Bihar assembly elections, where the party faced a thorough drubbing.
Congress leaders say that after the huge drubbing received by the party in Bihar, this is just the beginning of what is in store.
Andhra Chief Minister K Rosaiah on Friday arrived in Delhi to meet Congress chief Sonia Gandhi to discuss various issues including the controversial padayatra undertaken by party leader Jaganmohan Reddy, expansion of the state cabinet and the selection of candidates for the by-elections in the Telangana region. He is also expected to raise the issue of Praja Rajyam leader Chiranjeevi's increasing proximity to the Congress.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi has directed state units to ensure that one-third members of the All India Congress Committee and Pradesh Congress Committees are women.
The counsel appearing for the poll panel told a bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde that Nath's petition has become infructuous as the campaigning has ended and the voting is on Tuesday.
The Congress said it would look into the proposal for government formation in Jharkhand if the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha and other secular parties came up with the issue, following the Bharatiya Janata Party's withdrawal of support to the Shibu Soren government.
Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee president Mehboob Ali Kaiser and Congress Legislative Party leader Ashok Ram figure in a list of 77 candidates announced by the Congress for the six-phase Bihar assembly elections beginning on October 21. While Kaiser, who was appointed the PCC chief a few months ago, will be contesting from Simri Bakhtiarpur segment, Ram will fight the elections from Kusheshwar Asthan seat.
Reflecting new strains in the Congress-Trinamool tie up, Union minister Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday asked his party to counter Mamata Banerjee's charge that Congress was responsible for the break up of the alliance for the upcoming civic polls.
Gandhi has expressed "deep pain and anguish" over what has happened in Uttar Pradesh, All India Congress Committee general secretary Janardan Dwivedi quoted her as saying. Dwivdei told media-persons that the party regrets the personal elements in reference to Chief Minister Mayawati in Joshi's remarks.
Guru Nair, the vice-chairman of the cultural cell of the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee, has written to both the President and Prime Minister, questioning the legality of the auction.
Seeking to buy time, the Congress high command appears to be toying with the idea of having a deputy chief minister and Pradesh Congress Committee chief in Andhra Pradesh from Telangana region amid a growing clamour for a separate state
The Congress took the gamble of going it alone but Rahul Gandhi's magic, like it did in Uttar Pradesh, failed this time in Bihar with the party recording its worst-ever performance in assembly elections in the state in last 10 years.
The Congress in Karnataka got a shot in the arm with former state minister and JD-S leader Iqbal Ansari joining the party on Tuesday.
The leaders alleged that those who had no contribution in the freedom struggle wanted to spread fear 'in the name of nationalism', suppress the voice of people and were questioning the legacy of Congress.
Giving impetus to Congress' election campaign in Haryana ahead of next month's assembly polls, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, party chief Sonia Gandhi and general secretary Rahul Gandhi will address public rallies in various parts of the state.
The rank and status of the president of the Meghalaya unit of Congress, Friday Lyngdoh, has been elevated to that of a chief minister, an official notification said on Sunday. "The rank and status of Lyngdoh has been upgraded from the rank of deputy chief minister to that of chief minister. He shall continue to function as a political advisor to the chief minister," it said. The elevation of Lyngdoh's status is seen as a move to pacify a simmering resentment among Congress.
The alleged misappropriation of flood relief funds, which has hit the Bharatiya Janata Party government in Karnataka, has also torched the Opposition Congress party in the state.
With 'go solo' being the mantra for Congress after its success in Lok Sabha polls in Uttar Pradesh, the party is now set to dump Lalu Prasad's Rashtriya Janata Dal in the Bihar assembly elections scheduled later this year. An indication to this effect came when All Indian Congress Committee in-charge of the state Jagdish Tytler and Pradesh Congress Committee president Anil Sharma recently met party president Sonia Gandhi.
The nation on Saturday remembered former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on her 31st death anniversary with President Pranab Mukherjee, Vice President Hamid Ansari and other leaders paying tributes at her memorial in New Delhi.
About 75 percent of sitting Jharkhand legislators lost the assembly elections, while just 25 percent retained their seats.
Congress Member of Parliament Mohammad Azharduddin on Friday courted arrest, along with his supporters in Moradabad, to protest against the ransacking of Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi's residence in Lucknow. Azharuddin, after offering Friday's namaz at the Jama Masjid in Moradabad today afternoon, took out a march along with his supporters from Jama Masjid despite prohibitory orders.
The Janata Dal-United won seven seats, the National People's Party five, the Congress four, the People's Party of Arunachal one and Independents two.
Naik, 71, is the first senior Congress leader to resign after Rahul Gandhi announced on Sunday in his concluding speech that he wants to give the younger generation a chance to come forward and lead the party.
Jharkhand Chief Minister Shibu Soren will have to face a united and determined Opposition when he decides to contest a by-election to become a member of the Legislative Assembly, as all Opposition parties have decided to put up a consensus candidate against him, Jharkhand Pradesh Congress Committee president Pradip Kumar Balmuchu said on Monday.In order to retain the chief ministership, Soren must be elected to the assembly as a Member of Legislative Assembly.
The Congress, which ended up six seats short of a simple majority in the 90-member Haryana assembly, will meet Governor Jagannath Pahadia in Chandigarh on Friday to stake claim to form the government. "We are going to meet the governor shortly with letters of support from independent candidates and stake our claim," said Pradesh Congress Committee chief Phool Chand Mullana. When queried about how many independents were supporting the Congress, he said, "All of them."
Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee President V M Sudheeran on Monday flayed the Narendra Modi government's move to scrap Planning Commission and bring in an alternative body in its place.
The Congress' Maharashtra unit said on Friday that it wanted a fresh negotiation with its 10-year-old ally Nationalist Congress Party, a move that comes barely a month ahead of the Assembly elections and is likely to delay seat-sharing talks.
The Goa Pradesh Congress Committee on Saturday warned its legislators against venting out their anger in public against the party leadership. The GPCC meeting, which was held against the backdrop of a rebellion by five legislators demanding leadership change in the state, was also attended by Goa Chief Minister Digamber Kamat. Goa Congress leaders who took a dig at rebellious legislators, however, shielded the chief minister and refused to seek an explanation from him.
The Uttar Pradesh government on Sunday announced a Crime Branch-Crime Investigation Department inquiry into the arson at Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi's home following her derogatory remarks against Chief Minister Mayawati, but the Congress leader demanded a Central Bureau of Investigation probe.
Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee president Rita Bahuguna Joshi was on Thursday remanded to judicial custody for 14 days for allegedly making derogatory remarks against Chief Minister Mayawati.The state police, who took her into custody late on Wednesday night while she was on her way from Ghaziabad to New Delhi, produced her before Moradabad's chief judicial magistrate, who ordered her to be sent to 14 days judicial custody. She was then sent to the Moradabad jail.