The Congress on Monday put the ball in Aam Aadmi Party's court over government formation in Delhi saying that 16 of its 18 demands need just administrative decisions and have nothing to do with Parliament or assembly.
"Before the BJP came into existence, its forerunners Jan Sangh and RSS had opposed Babasaheb while the Constitution was being adopted," Prakash Ambedkar, who heads Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi, told reporters in Pune.
EPS has had its way on most things, alliance-wise. A week earlier, he reiterated that he would not re-admit OPS and Sasikala Natarajan back in the party. It was a message not just to detractors in the AIADMK. It was even more so for the BJP leadership in Delhi. Even more important for the AIADMK was their demand for accepting EPS as the chief ministerial candidate of any alliance that the party would form, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
The war of words between the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party over 'who is corrupt and who is not' is all set to increase by leaps and bounds in the days ahead, says Renu Mittal
Targeting All India Congress Committee general secretary Rahul Gandhi, Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray said the Congress leader has no prospects of becoming prime minister of the country.
Those responsible for protecting MPs have failed in their constitutional duties, said Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge.
Calling the action of the ED as harassment, he questioned the timing of the summons when the Congress' Bharat Jodo Yatra was on and when the State Assembly session was underway.
It also requested the police that an 'urgent and immediate' first information report (FIR) be lodged against the former Bharatiya Janata Party chief and others for the 'offences'.
Right to apprenticeship, legal guarantee for MSP, passing a constitutional amendment to raise the 50 per cent cap on reservations for SCs, STs and OBCs, a nation-wide caste census and scrapping of Agnipath scheme are among the promises made by the Congress in its Lok Sabha polls manifesto released on Friday.
However, the Congress asserted that its coalition government led by the Jharkhand Mukti Morchais "completely secure and stable'' and would complete its term.
Rahul Gandhi's yatra was marked with high drama on Monday as he was denied permission to visit the Sri Sri Sankardeva Satra in Nagaon district and also from holding a meeting in the Morigaon district, triggering a strong reaction from the Congress leader who protested and asked whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi will now 'decide who will visit a temple and when'.
Dikshit was elected at a meeting of 42 party legislators in New Delhi on Wednesday afternoon. The meeting was attended among others by All India Congress Committee General Secretary Mohsina Kidwai, Minister of State for Finance P K Bansal and Delhi Pradesh Congres Committee chief Jai Prakash Aggarwal.
With ally Nationalist Congress Party surging ahead of Congress in the recent local body elections in Maharashtra, All India Congress Committee general secretary Rahul Gandhi's one-day visit to Mumbai on Friday is being viewed in party circles as a move to put the state unit into a pro-active mode and retrieve lost ground.
The Congress has proposed AAP should contest five seats while the Samajwadi Party and Left parties could contest one seat each.
Rahul Gandhi is not to be blamed if the Congress does not perform well in the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, whose results will be out on Tuesday, party leaders said on Saturday. "A leader creates an atmosphere. To convert that atmosphere into votes and seats is the responsibility of candidates and the organisation," All India Congress Committee general secretary in-charge for Uttar Pradesh Digvijay Singh said.
United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi is said to be travelling abroad for a routine checkup in connection with her treatment.
The Congress leadership on Friday held separate meetings to review its performances in the assembly polls in Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, and said its defeat in the two states at the hands of the BJP was unexpected.
"I sometimes think of leaving it, but the chief minister's post doesn't leave me," Ashok Gehlot famously said earlier this year, in part as a signal to the Congress top brass not to pick someone else for the job if the party wins the assembly polls.
The Congress on Monday supported Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh's statements for a "reasoned debate" on the Lokpal Bill and that there is a "lot of scope for give and take" on the issue.
Senior Congress leader Motilal Vora on Monday hoisted the national flag at the party headquarters in New Delhi in the absence of Sonia Gandhi, who is recuperating in a hospital in the United States. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, All India Congress Committee general secretary Rahul Gandhi, many senior Congress leaders and ministers were present on the occasion. Rahul Gandhi, who had accompanied his mother to the US, arrived in New Delhi on Sunday.
"Simpleton" Anna Hazare is being made a scapegoat to fulfil the political ambitions of some "very smart people" in his own team, senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh has alleged.
The Congress on Friday criticised L K Advani for describing Manmohan Singh as the "weakest" prime minister and said the Bharatiya Janata Party leader's Jan Chetna Yatra was "a ploy" to keep himself in "national politics and power".
The Congress on Monday announced its alliance with the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam would continue for Lok Sabha polls, setting at rest speculation about the future of the tie-up in the wake of All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam's overture to the lead United Progressive Alliance party.
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
Pilot, who is also the president of the state unit of the party, on Tuesday night claimed he has the support of 30 MLAs and the Gehlot government is now in minority.
Former union parliamentary affairs minister Matang Singh has been re-inducted into the Congress with immediate effect, said All India Congress Committee General Secretary Singh on Saturday. However, Janardan Dwivedi, AICC media in-charge, has denied this claim.
'There is some deep rot that has set in the Congress party. This requires an organisational surgery.'
Apart from being the CM twice earlier, he has won a series of Lok Sabha and assembly elections from the state and headed the Rajasthan Pradesh Congress Committee four times.
Ramesh Chennithala appointed KPCC president.
The withdrawal of the candidature by DPAP leaders on the last day on August 30 is seen as a boost to the NC-Congress alliance.
Team Anna on Monday asked the Congress to make public expenses incurred for hiring choppers for the just-concluded assembly elections to five states, particularly for party chief Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul. Anna Hazare and his close aide Arvind Kejriwal demanded that the expenses should be made public.
In an exclusive interview with Rediff.com's Anita Katyal, Singh speaks about his candidature from Varanasi, the party's prospects in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls and how the Congress is likely to fare in Andhra Pradesh.
In a threatening tone, indicating that it had reached the end of its patience with the Bharatiya Janata Party and its aggressive style of politics, the Congress warned the top BJP leadership that if it did not change its style of politics and stop its 'personalised attacks' on Congress leaders, the party 'could retaliate and this could prove costly for the BJP.'
Rahul Gandhi, the All-India Congress Committee general-secretary and the man leading the revival of the party's youth wing, may have suffered a setback in the Bihar assembly elections. But his supporters are putting a distance between the Congress defeat and the 'Rahul effect'.
Rahul Gandhi on Thursdat claimed seven out of 10 youths in Punjab have a drug problem, triggering a controversy with ruling the Akali Dal asking how the Congress leader came to this "mathematical conclusion" on drug addiction in the state.
The Congress on Wednesday suggested that Jaswant Singh has been handed out poetic justice by the Bharatiya Janata Party, which expelled him today in the wake of his controversial book, projecting Mohammad Ali Jinnah as greater than Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. "We had rejected the contents of the book. The BJP has rejected the author himself," All India Congress Committee general secretary Janardhan Dwivedi said.
The brainstorming session (chintan shivir) of the Congress will be held in Jaipur from January 18 to 20 to discuss political and economic situations and seek new ideas ahead of the next Lok Sabha elections.
Sources said the Congress leadership is also in talks with AAP leaders and senior leaders within the party are trying to convince Delhi Congress leaders for an alliance.
Rahul Gandhi is learnt to have taken All India Congress Committee general secretaries and state in-charges to task for failing to implement the Sonia Gandhi-driven Burari agenda on corruption. He was also unhappy about their failure to spread awareness about the Centre's flagship programmes in states ruled by Bharatiya Janata Party and to implement the Congress president's five-point action programme, outlined in her speech at the party plenary in Burari.
After Union Home Minister P Chidambaram it now appears to be the turn of Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal, who is under attack by Congressmen both within and outside the government.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances