He told PTI in an interview that parties that are still thinking of 'being the leader' of a possible united front against the Bharatiya Janata Party in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls have not understood the gravity of the situation at all.
The cross-country foot march stayed in the news almost right through, mostly for the barbs between the BJP and the Congress and occasionally for other reasons, including infighting in the opposition party.
There are three things you never do in a small North East state: Undermine local leaders, divide and rule, push homogenisation, asserts Shekhar Gupta.
India and China made progress in five-six friction points along the Line of Actual Control in eastern Ladakh through talks in the last three years and efforts are underway to resolve the remaining issues, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Monday.
For the most battle-hardened, specialised and successful counter-insurgency army in the world, this is an unfamiliar, first-time experience of dealing with the north east's deepest complexities, observes Shekhar Gupta.
' These youngsters don't have patience, which is a key trait in politics'
Assam minister Dr Himanta Bishwa Sarma who on Monday quit from the Tarun Gogoi cabinet said that he had been forced to take the step after the Congress leadership had repeatedly ignored the representations made by the rebel MLAs about the 'inefficient' handling of affairs by the chief minister.
The resurgence that Congressmen feel is in fact more sentimental than substantive. The substantive reality is that the Congress is a party in terminal decline since 1989, says Shekhar Gupta.
If only the Congress could rebuild on its strengths and develop a modern enough ideology, we could again be moving towards a clearer two-party political landscape, asserts Shekhar Gupta.
Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Saturday dubbed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's move to release Cheetahs in a Madhya Pradesh national park as a 'tactic to divert attention' from the grand old party's 'immensely successful' 'Bharat Jodo Yatra'.
In his hunger for power, the prime minister has forgotten raj dharma, the Congress alleged.
Bharatiya Janata Party president Rajnath Singh on Sunday termed the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government as the most corrupt in independent India and pledged to send corrupt ministers of the outgoing administration to jail once his party is voted to power.
The Congress Working Committee will meet on Sunday to discuss the outcome of the assembly elections in five states where the party received a drubbing, sources said.
The youth leadership taking the reigns of the states was a rare event in the last century as very few broke the glass ceilings.
'The Congress may have made mistakes, but their ideology is not wrong. India will not function if you do not believe in unity in diversity,' declares filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt. Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com reports from Lucknow.
Besides law and order, the long standing demand for junking Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, economic woes of the land-locked state which has hardly any industries, are expected to figure high on the agenda of the unfolding electoral battle between the two main parties with smaller local parties such as National People's Party and the Naga People's Front chipping in with their own demands.
Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi had brought in the United States style 'primaries' with much fanfare to empower grassroot leaders to fight the Lok Sabha elections.
Among the 17 new AICC secretaries named so far, 10 are below 50 years of age, indicating the generational change in the 132-year-old Congress being brought in by 47-year-old Rahul, reports Amit Agnihotri.
After Bihar elections, Rahul Gandhi's go-it-alone strategy seems to have taken a back seat.
Over 83 per cent of the more than 13 lakh electorate cast their vote on Monday in the single-day Nagaland state election which passed off by and large peacefully, Chief Electoral Officer V Shashank Shekhar said.
'The dialogues and language used in this movie are indecent. In Tulasidas' Ramayana, Lord Ram was portrayed as 'Maryada Purushottam' and decent language was used. In Adipurush, dialogues of characters are of very low level'
Adequate security and Covid safety measures have been put in place for the electoral exercise.
Addressing a press conference in Kanyakumari ahead of the launch of the party's 3,570-km 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' from Kanyakumari to Kashmir, Gehlot also said the party's rank and file is in favour of Rahul Gandhi becoming Congress president again.
Shah, 55, stated on Twitter that he has tested positive for the infection and is getting admitted to a hospital on the advice of doctors.
The leadership styles of the two Gandhis being different, the party appears to be pulling in different ways. While Sonia Gandhi, the longest-serving Congress president, seems more predisposed to holding the government accountable on issues of probity, the younger Gandhi is more keen on taking up battles that ensure immediate victories.
Digital canvassing is expected to benefit from political money looking for alternative blow horns.
However, the saffron party's hold of the landmark may be tenuous as polls to around 52 more seats will be held soon, and it is expected to suffer reverses in states like Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Jharkhand.
By comparing I.N.D.IA. with banned terror outfits, Modi has exhibited the kind of nervousness never ever associated with him even at the height of the Gujarat riots, and certainly since his prime ministerial days, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari has tested positive for Covid-19.
Gearing up for the upcoming state assembly polls, the Bharatiya Janata Partyon Wednesday named its organisational spearheads for the elections, putting Union ministers Dharmendra Pradhan, Pralhad Joshi, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat and Bhupender Yadav in charge for the contest in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab and Manipur respectively.
Eight BJP-ruled states have fully vaccinated 50 per cent of their eligible population with the coronavirus vaccine and seven of them have inoculated 90 per cent people with the first dose, numbers not yet achieved by any state ruled by the Congress and its allies, official sources said Monday.
'She showed courage at every turn in her political career.'
Voting will be held on Thursday for the first phase of Gujarat Assembly elections in 89 seats spread across 19 districts in Saurashtra-Kutch and southern parts of the state where 788 candidates are in the fray.
It seems the Congress just does not have the energy and vitality to break through even in the states where it has a ground presence and the wind of anti-incumbency on its back, says Aakar Patel.
The BJP can't be sure if it should celebrate that the old rival is fading or worry that new ones are rising. Because the last thing the BJP wants to see is alternatives rising, if only to the Congress, observes Shekhar Gupta.
Responses quickly poured in from all quarters of the Opposition hailing the Supreme Court verdict on Arunachal Pradesh.
Scinida quit the Congress on Tuesday. He is an influential leader of Madhya Pradesh where 22 Congress MLAs, most of whom loyal to him, have resigned from the assembly in a bid to topple the Kamal Nath-led government.
'These cases are filed against me to prevent me from working for the weaker and deprived sections of the country.'
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.
Addressing the Sena workers in Mumbai for the second consecutive day, he also said that doors of the state and party are closed for the rebels MLAs.
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