Congress President Sonia Gandhi held a meeting with senior party leaders on Wednesday amid reports that a final call on the fate of Uttarakhand Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna will be taken soon.
While 39 members of the all-important panel are general members, it has 32 permanent invitees, including some in-charges of state and 13 special invitees.
Former Finance Minister P Chidambaram is Congress nominee from Maharashtra for the biennial elections to Rajya Sabha while senior leaders Kapil Sibal and Jairam Ramesh have been named from Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka respectively.
Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu on Thursday said legislators across the country should be driven by passion, performance and procedural integrity, and desist from disrupting law-making bodies.
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".
The Congress is likely to get 11 Rajya Sabha seats in the upcoming election cycle with some of its top leaders, including P Chidambaram and Jairam Ramesh, eyeing another term.
On the eve of Congress President Sonia Gandhi's birthday on December 9, the party handed over a 4-0 defeat to her in the assembly elections in Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh.
FDI inflows in the manufacturing sector rose by almost 45 per cent between October last year and this February.
It was after a gap of two decades that saw such an occasion where MPs of the upper house enthralled their fellow colleagues at a dinner hosted by Chairman and Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu for 72 retiring members.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday put the onus on the People's Democratic Party over the formation of a new government in Jammu and Kashmir, and said that they do not have any objection to PDP president Mehbooba Mufti becoming the chief mkinister.
It comes a day after party chief Sonia Gandhi proposed, at a meeting of the Congress Working Committee, the formation of a group to assess the party's losses in Kerala, Assam, West Bengal and Puducherry.
The interim panel headed by him would take the place of the Congress Working Committee, the apex decision-making body, till a new CWC is formed after Kharge's election is ratified at the party plenary.
He was elected as a local body councillor in 1976 in Bharuch Municipal body of Gujarat at the age of 25 years and became the political secretary of Sonia Gandhi and remained a bridge during UPA-I tenure between the party and the government.
According to information received from sources, there will be a meeting at 5 pm through video conferencing but its agenda is not clear.
The former Punjab Congress chief had been upset with the party for serving him a show-cause notice.
Sonia Gandhi on Sunday hosted her first Iftar in three years, which saw the Congress president sharing a table with leaders of RJD and its new-found ally Janata Dal-United.
Some Congress leaders consider Kishor as an "overrated" person and argue that in 2017 assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, he led to the decline of the party.
P Chidambaram proposed that Sonia should be made the party's interim president.
Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot will meet the Congress high command in New Delhi on Wednesday amid suspense over whether he will file nomination for the post of party president, sources in Jaipur said.
The Congress vice president, who began his three-day visit to Jammu and Kashmir, spoke to the families of six civilians including a headman and a teacher who were killed in ceasefire violations by Pakistan in Balakote on Independence day.
He also lashed out at veteran Congress leader Ambika Soni for her statement on the "repercussions of having a Hindu chief minister in Punjab".
Amid a series of deliberations over a strategy for upcoming general and assembly elections by poll strategist Prashant Kishor, a group of senior leaders of the Congress has given its recommendations to party president Sonia Gandhi and left it to her to take a call on them and initiate organisational changes.
Top Congress leaders are learnt to be discussing the current political situation.
The central government was aware of illegal immigration in Mizoram and would take measures to check it, Congress President Sonia Gandhi said on Monday.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Syed Shahnawaz Hussain was made to wait a good 30 minutes on Tuesday outside the gate of the Mahabodhi temple, the site of serial blasts on Sunday, due to the visit by United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde.
Facing allegations of corruption, Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh on Wednesday made it clear to the Congress high command that there is no truth in the charges against him.
In her letter to Congress President Sonia Gandhi three days ago, Kidwai said she was relinquishing charge as party general secretary and Mahila Congress chief as he felt that Rahul Gandhi should be given the necessary space to bring in younger leaders of his choice
There is no threat to the Amarinder Singh-led government in Punjab and the party's victory prospects for the upcoming assembly elections, Rawat said.
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.
Union Cabinet met in New Delhi on Saturday night to consider the situation in Uttarakhand amidst speculation that it may consider the option of President's Rule in the state.
The meeting also includes some of Sonia Gandhi's close associates and is the first effort by the Congress leadership for a reproachment with those who raised questions over the leadership.
The Congress steering committee on Friday approved several amendments to the party constitution, one of which is to give permanent membership to former prime ministers and former party presidents in the all-powerful working committee.
The motions were moved over misinformation on PM Modi's Lahore visit and the Bandung Conference.
The letter signed by other Congress leaders stated that the PM had used "threatening and intimidating" language against them.
Congress observers for Rajasthan on Tuesday recommended disciplinary action against three key loyalists of Ashok Gehlot but did not seek any action against the chief minister, as the party scampered to resolve the crisis that has cast a shadow on the election of the party president.
The Congress will hold a chintan shivir immediately after the Budget session of Parliament and the CWC will meet again before that, he told reporters
'Temperamentally, they are quite alike.' 'Ahmed Patel avoided the limelight and was not a power seeker.' 'The Gandhis too are not power wielders, but trustees of power.'
Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari, who is not contesting Lok Sabha polls as he is ailing, has been made acting in-charge of the AICC Communication department along with party spokesman Randeep Surjewala.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi also decided to convene a 'Chintan Shivir', a brainstorming session from May 13-15 in Udaipur.
Gandhi's flying into Srinagar to meet Mehbooba assumes significance as there are reports that the PDP and the BJP are bargaining afresh over the formation of a new government.
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