'Amit Shah was, briefly, a stockbroker before devoting himself to politics. By instinct or training, he knows the value of keeping blue chips in one's portfolio.'
Addressing a joint press conference after a meeting of 26 opposition parties in Bengaluru, Kharge said, "This was a very important meeting to save democracy and the Constitution in the interest of the people of the country."
Indian celebrities and politicians ranging from Bollywood mega stars Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and several chief ministers lost verified blue ticks on their Twitter accounts after Elon Musk's microblogging site started removing check mark icons from accounts that did not pay Rs 650 per month subscription fee.
Slogans of 'Make Rahul Gandhi INC president' rent the air on Sunday as thousands of Congress supporters reached the Ramlila Maidan in New Delhi to raise their voice against price rise and unemployment.
In the wake of communal violence in West Bengal and Bihar, Sibal had on Sunday questioned the "silence" of Prime Minister Modi over the matter, and said "let not 2024 general elections be the reason" for the violence.
As the lower house took up the motion moved by Gogoi, there were heated exchanges between the opposition and treasury benches after Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi wondered why Rahul Gandhi's name as lead speaker was withdrawn at the last minute.
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.
'Usually, the Left backed the Congress and other 'secular' parties on the justification of keeping the BJP out. In Bengal, the alliance targets a truly secular rival,' says Shekhar Gupta.
At the moment the process of "cooling down" was on at the Bagree Market and 15 fire tenders have been pressed into service for it.
'The BJP while being in government in Gujarat continues to campaign like an Opposition party whereas the Opposition does the opposite.'
The All India Football Federation (AIFF) on Friday got a former player as its first president in its 85-year history with Kalyan Chaubey beating the legendary Bhaichung Bhutia in the election for the top post.
'There was trust, but perhaps there was also this apprehension that given the supreme post of prime minister, Sonia Gandhi felt her authority may be a challenged.'
Governors must be impartial, fair, and above narrow politics to uphold the values and spirit of the Constitution. But in a rapidly changing political culture where the unstated rule is to crush the Opposition, such values have no meaning. At stake are Constitutional values, federalism and governance, asserts Ramesh Menon.
She said no government can declare anyone dead without proof and her government does not believe in the theory of 'missing, believed to be killed'.
According the latest CNN-IBN-CSDS-Lokniti post poll survey, the National Democratic Alliance is projected to win 274 to 286 seats, and the Bharatiya Janata Party is projected to win 230 to 242 seats on its own, it best ever poll tally.
The party leadership also thanked the people of Assam and credited the victory there and increased vote share in other states to party workers, state leaders and PM Narendra Modi.
On one hand, South Indian states have been complaining about denial of a proportionate portion of the sharable funds from the Centre, based on population. On the other hand, they stand to lose Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha seats that again are based on population, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
India has seven recognised national parties - Congress, BJP, BSP, CPI, CPI-M, NCP and AITC.
Opposition parties on Sunday lashed out at the Bharatiya Janata Party after Nationalist Congress Party leader Ajit Pawar and eight others were inducted into the Eknath Shinde-led Maharashtra government, saying the ruling party's 'washing machine' has resumed its operation to clean tainted leaders and it was an 'ED-facilitated power grab'.
"My heart is full of pain and anger," he told reporters in his remarks ahead of Parliament's Monsoon Session, amid his criticism by opposition parties for not speaking on the ethnic violence in the north east state.
Prashant Kishor expressed the view that the recent 'chintan shivir' could not achieve "anything meaningful".
'We defeated together in Bengal, now we will defeat in UP. This is a promise to Didi, we will emerge winners. Warm welcome and greetings to Didi in UP,' the SP chief tweeted sharing a picture with Banerjee.
The BJP is confident of winning all the 29 Lok Sabha seats in Madhya Pradesh and even political experts believe the Congress stands no chance. Bikash Mohapatra reports
Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday urged party leaders in Kerala to shed their differences and fight the coming assembly polls unitedly
"It is about time that India and its institutions are protected from these 'institution wreckers'," said Jaitley.
Banerjee had last week sought an appointment with Modi.
Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla has referred petitions submitted by the Trinamool Congress and the YSR Congress under the anti-defection law against their respective leaders Sisir Adhikari and K Raghu Rama Krishna Raju to the privileges committee.
What some of our leaders were up to on Monday and Tuesday.
Patel's victory, which came against heavy odds, has given the Congress and the rest of the Opposition the confidence that Modi and Shah weren't invincible.
Surjewala made the case for state-specific alliances while arguing for a larger coalition with like-minded parties in 'national interest'.
Opposition leaders on Saturday lauded the Congress for its victory in Karnataka and thanked the people of the state, saying that this win has showed that 'Modi is not invincible'.
Senior Congress leader Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday night had a meeting with party MPs, district presidents, Pradesh Congress Committee chief and Congress Legislature Party leader of West Bengal to discuss the strategy for the upcoming assembly polls in the state.
As part of the efforts to bring several opposition parties together on a common platform to defeat the BJP in 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Pawar met Kharge on Thursday evening.
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.
"Didi has already said in Delhi that if Akhilesh Yadav needs our help, we are ready to extend help. The gesture of senior SP leader Jaya Bachchan seeking votes for the TMC during the West Bengal Assembly elections will be reciprocated in Uttar Pradesh," said Laliteshpati Tripathi, who recently joined the TMC.
The Left has ideologically become irrelevant globally, says the finance minister.
Reacting to the statement, the Congress in Goa accused the TMC of entering the poll fray in the state in order to 'divide secular votes and give mileage to the ruling BJP', and also alleged that Kishor's remarks exposed Mamata Banerjee-led party's agenda.
The results of bypolls to three Lok Sabha and 29 assembly seats spread across 13 states and a union territory have been a mixed bag for the BJP as its fortunes continue to nosedive in West Bengal against the might of Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee while bad tidings have also come from states like Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan.
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.
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