The Haryana victory will be a morale booster for the Bharatiya Janata Party and increase its bargaining power in the Mahayuti's seat-sharing talks for the upcoming Maharashtra assembly elections, according to political analysts.
Maken is considered a close confidant of Rahul Gandhi and was without any post ever since he resigned as Congress general secretary in charge of Rajasthan a few months ago.
The Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party have united in their demands, calling for the immediate resignation and arrest of P P Divya, a Communist Party of India-Marxist leader and district panchayat president, who leveled graft accusations against ADM Naveen Babu at his send-off function organised by colleagues at the Kannur district collectorate.
As Congress president Sonia Gandhi appeared before the Enforcement Directorate (ED), party MPs and Congress Working Committee (CWC) members 'courted mass arrest' outside the All India Congress Committee headquarters in New Delhi on Thursday in a show of collective solidarity with her.
He said the multi-party committee formed by the Speaker in Himachal Pradesh would discuss all issues about street vending on October 3. Singh's remarks came a day after the Congress top brass chided him over his remarks on mandatory display of names by the street vendors and told him that no one was allowed to go against the party's policies and ideologies.
As the triangular political contest in Telangana intensifies, many believe that for the regional major BRS, it is a battle for survival after being routed in the assembly polls held late last year. What is haunting the party this time is the scams, the 10-year anti-incumbency factor, and family dominance in the party.
The All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) has announced its intention to challenge the Waqf (Amendment) Bill in court, labeling it a "black law" that threatens the community's rights. The AIMPLB, a major organization representing Muslims in India, asserts that the Bill, if passed, would lead to the seizure of Muslim properties and undermine the autonomy of Waqf Boards. The organization plans to launch nationwide protests against the Bill, echoing the farmers' agitation, and has urged all citizens to resist the legislation. The Bill has been met with criticism from various quarters, including opposition parties, who claim that the Centre is rushing it through Parliament without adequately addressing concerns raised by the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC).
The second phase of Rahul Gandhi's 'Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra' in Jharkhand, which was scheduled to commence on Wednesday, has been cancelled, a party official said.
Several top Congress leaders including party general secretary organisation K C Venugopal, Sachin Pilot, Randeep Surjewala and Shashi Tharoor, wished the former party chief on her birthday.
The parliamentary committee scrutinising the Waqf bill is set to propose that existing 'Waqf by user' properties will remain so if not in dispute or are government facilities but they must be registered before the new law takes effect, providing little relief to Waqf bodies in their unverified title claims.
Former deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot, who has been involved in a leadership tussle with Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, skipped his interaction.
Otherwise detractors, Congress general secretary Ahmad Patel and Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dixit appeared to team up to keep Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee chief Salman Khurshid out of Delhi.
Tharoor also said the Congress must decentralise authority and truly empower the grassroots office-bearers of the party.
The plenary session in Chhattisgarh's Nava Raipur will start from February 24 and is expected to be attended by around 15,000 delegates.
The opposition Congress in Karnataka will complete the process of identifying probable candidates in 150 assembly segments in the state by March-end in anticipation of a snap poll this year.
Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was given a rousing welcome by thousands of people, including United Democratic Front leaders and workers, at Kalpetta in Wayanad on Wednesday as she prepares to make her electoral debut by filing nomination papers for the coming Lok Sabha bypoll.
In Bihar, there is all kind of trouble for the party after its All India Congress Committee general secretary in charge of Bihar, Jagdish Tytler, and Pradesh Congress Committee President Anil Sharma released a list of 569-member state committee. What is shocking is that the caste of each member has been written next to his or her names.
Ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, the Congress on Wednesday announced five guarantees for women, including annual direct cash transfers of Rs 1 lakh to one woman from each of the country's poorest families and 50 per cent quota in all new recruitments in central government jobs.
Apparently aimed at keeping the flock together ahead of the Rajya Sabha polls, all ruling Congress MLAs in Karnataka will stay put together at a hotel in Bengaluru on Monday after the budget session of the state legislature concludes and will later also travel together for voting the next day.
The parliamentary committee scrutinizing the Waqf (Amendment) Bill has been granted an extension until the last day of the next Budget Session. This decision follows a heated meeting marked by a walkout from opposition members who expressed concerns about the committee's draft report. The committee will visit several states to meet stakeholders and finalize its report.
The Congress on Wednesday filed a police complaint over the recent statements of leaders belonging to the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) targeting Rahul Gandhi.
The opposition party is set to stage protests across the country against the questioning of its chief and has slammed the agency's action against its top leadership as "political vendetta".
Khera told reporters in Hyderabad that the views of the newly-elected MLAs have been elicited and the central leadership is seized of the matter.
Seat sharing and campaign is likely to be top of the agenda, they added.
The All India Congress Committee (AICC) on Wednesday morning changed its earlier announced candidates from Sumaoli, Pipariya, Badnagar and Jaora assembly seats.
Gaurav Gogoi will head the screening committee for Rajasthan with Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and former deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot included among the ex-officio members of the panel.
Rahul Gandhi had earlier talked to the MLAs over the phone ahead of the meeting of the AICC panel on Punjab.
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.
Sharmistha Mukherjee, daughter of former President Pranab Mukherjee, has alleged a "rot" within the Congress party and called for serious introspection. She criticized the party's lack of ideology and its treatment of non-dynastic leaders, citing the case of former Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao. She also questioned the party's failure to convene a Congress Working Committee meeting after her father's death, highlighting a perceived loss of institutional memory. Mukherjee, who has since left politics, also advocated for a memorial to former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and a posthumous Bharat Ratna award for him.
Sources said Rahul Gandhi is likely to contest from Rae Bareli, but a final call is yet to be taken by the first family of the Congress.
Congress expels writer for Sonia remarks
Kanugolu had also made forays in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh following a directive from the party's central leadership but regional satraps Ashok Gehlot and Kamal Nath reportedly were not on the same page as the poll strategist.
Political sources say Modi is 'keen' on getting the NCP (SP) over to the Mahayuti to counter Eknath Shinde's 'demands' and to act as a cushion against his present allies, Nitish Kumar and N Chandrababu Naidu, 'in case their relationship became untenable'.
This comes days after the party stated it would move the Supreme Court after the Gujarat high court refused to stay Gandhi's conviction in a 2019 defamation case over his 'Modi surname' remarks.
"Gruha Lakshmi" scheme, rolled out amid fanfare, is one of the five pre-poll 'guarantees' of the Congress, which ousted the Bharatiya Janata Party from power in the May assembly elections.
The Sports Ministry on Tuesday lifted its suspension on the Wrestling Federation of India, paving the way for the organisation of domestic tournaments.
Political parties and leaders wait with bated breath for the Haryana and Jammu-Kashmir assembly poll results on Tuesday.
They are Congress President Sonia Gandhi's field marshals -- the 100 men and women who will drive the party's campaign in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections. The "war team" announced on Thursday night included state-wise screening committees constituted under the leadership of a dozen leaders for selection of candidates.
Congress general secretary Bhanwar Jitendra Singh on Tuesday said there is no truth in the speculation of senior party leader Kamal Nath joining the Bharatiya Janata Party and claimed such talks were a creation of the media and the saffron party.
With the date for the Goa assembly poll results nearing, the Congress has said it is open to a post-poll alliance with parties other than the Bharatiya Janata Party to form the next government, if it does not get a majority on its own.
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