"Rahul Gandhi is de facto Congress chief but he should become de jure" and make the party battle ready without waiting for anti-incumbency to build up against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, senior party leader Jairam Ramesh said.
'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.'
Terming the UGC directive on the rollback of the four-year undergraduate programme as a decision taken in "haste", the Congress on Tuesday said the step was going to "boomerang" on the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance government.
Harish Rawat, a Union Minister, was on Saturday sworn in as the new chief minister of Uttarakhand, succeeding Vijay Bahuguna who was asked by the Congress high command to step down in a bid to boost the party's prospects ahead of the April-May Lok Sabha polls.
The Congress on Thursday downplayed a survey which projected major gains for the Aam Admi Party in big metropolises pushing Rahul Gandhi to third position as prime ministerial choice after Narendra Modi and Arvind Kejriwal, saying it will comment on its strategy at an appropriate time.
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 Congress will hold a chintan shivir immediately after the Budget session of Parliament and the CWC will meet again before that, he told reporters
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.
Members in Rajya Sabha on Monday voiced concern over official records not showing Bhagat Singh as a martyr, prompting the government to promise remedial steps.
The names of Meenakshi Natarajan, considered close to party Vice President Rahul Gandhi, and Oscar Fernandes are being mentioned in Congress circles for a possible berth in the Union council of ministers.
Congress MPs Ambika Soni, Pratap Bajwa and Shamsher Singh Dullo said they would move a motion against Swaraj in the Upper House after compiling documents and information on the issue.
Several newly elected MLAs including Navjot Singh Sidhu, Manpreet Singh Badal, Brahm Mohindra, Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa, Rana Gurjit Singh, Pargat Singh, Razia Sultana, O P Soni are in the race for becoming ministers, party sources said.
Hundreds of Congress workers on Monday clashed with the police during a protest against the BJP government's Land Acquisition Bill, saying it was anti-farmer.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi also decided to convene a 'Chintan Shivir', a brainstorming session from May 13-15 in Udaipur.
The battered Congress has slammed the BJP on its decision to hike rail fares, the power crisis in the Capital and the abduction of Indians in Iraq. Anita Katyal reports how the Congress is wasting no time to criticise the ruling party.
P Chidambaram and Rajeev Shukla of the Congress, Bharatiya Janata Party's Sumitra Valmiki and Kavita Patidar, former Congress leader Kapil Sibal, Rashtriya Janata Dal's Misa Bharti and Jayant Chaudhary of the Rashtriya Lok Dal were among the 41 winners declared elected unopposed to Rajya Sabha.
'Ghulam Nabi Azad and Kapil Sibal are the two people who have been marked and punished'
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Wednesday said she was undergoing tests at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi for a kidney transplant.
42 MLAs, including leader of Opposition Charanjit Singh Channi, went to the assembly and submitted their resignations.
He has also convened the first meeting of the extended CWC on July 22 to chalk out the party's future strategy.
Congress chief Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday launched a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and charged that the National Democratic Alliance government has 'dictatorial' tendencies even as her party's leaders met in New Delhi to draw up a strategy for painting the ruling alliance as being "anti farmer".
No one from the Gandhi family was present at the All India Congress Committee headquarters when the leaders filed their nominations for the election.
Gandhi came along with Mukherjee and while the former president left after sometime, the Congress chief offered to drop him back but Mukherjee politely refused.
The issue of the teen molested and thrown off a bus in Punjab and the demand for a HC in Telangana created a storm in Parliament
In an apparent message to the G23, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi on Saturday said she is a full-time, hands-on party president and there is no need for leaders to speak to her through the media.
Gandhi said around 400 Congress members will be attending the Chintan Shivir in Udaipur from May 13 to 15 and stressed on the message of every leader holding one party post.
Surjewala said the party's 10-day agitation was formalised at a meeting in which Rahul Gandhi participated in, but neither he nor Sonia Gandhi would be participating in the state and district level programmes.
Amarinder, 75, was sworn in as the state's 26th chief minister along with nine ministers, including Navjot Singh Sidhu.
'I told Rahul: "You have to become president. Taalne se nahin hoga (you can't avoid the responsibility any longer)".' 'Rahul said: "I will think about it".'
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna is on his way out, according to Congress sources, and Union Minister Harish Rawat and state minister Pritam Singh are emerging as the frontrunners for the top job in the hill state.
The ruling coalition between the Congress and the National Conference in Jammu and Kashmir may split amid indications that Chief Minister Omar Abdullah was considering resigning following sharp differences between the two parties.
There was considerable disquiet in the Congress after Mukherjee accepted the invitation of the RSS to address its workers at its headquarters in Nagpur.
The Congress picked Charanjit Singh Channi as the next chief minister of Punjab, making him the first Dailt to hold the post in the state, a day after Amarinder Singh resigned following a bitter power tussle in the party.
The House witnessed heated exchanges between Congress and Samajwadi Party members.
The Congress, however, downplayed it saying the party did not want to involve its senior leaders in the issue.
Under the Supreme Court-monitored proceedings, the result of the vote will be given to the court on Wednesday morning.
Addressing a press conference in Dehradun, Harish Rawat accused the BJP-led central government of 'killing democracy' by using its brute majority to cause 'political instability' in a small state.
Office space allotted to its functionaries at the Congress headquarters on 24 Akbar Road has, over the years, emerged as a reliable yardstick to measure a leader's standing in the party hierarchy, says Anita Katyal.
While the Congress will contest the Jammu and Udhampur Lok Sabha seats, National Conference will fight from Srinagar.
Rahul feels collective decisions taken with his mother and sister helped the party in the December assembly elections. Hence, he wants to follow the same strategy for the Lok Sabha election, too.
