The Congress on Sunday retained the Mandi Lok Sabha seat when its candidate Pratibha Singh, wife of Himachal Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, trounced her BJP rival Jai Ram Thakur by a huge margin of over 1.36 lakh votes.
In an embarrassment to the United Progressive Alliance, voices of dissent emerged from within the Congress over the government's decision to bring an ordinance on convicted lawmakers with Union Minister Milind Deora today apprehending that the move "can endanger already eroding public faith in democracy".
However, the tilting factor still remains: Can the rivalling 'Modi brand' of 'soft Hindutva' and 'hard-sell nationalism' garner more votes for the NDA in Tamil Nadu, asks N Sathiya Moorthy.
The party maintained that it will respond to the apex court's judgement after studying its order in detail and claimed the verdict was not a setback to it.
With the results of the Jammu & Kashmir assembly elections out, hectic lobbying among the political parties has started, with a visible sign of the People's Democratic Party and the Congress warming-up to form the government.
The Congress on Friday suspended two of its legislators for voting for the Trinamool Congress in the Rajya Sabha biennial election for five seats in West Bengal.
Aam Admi Party, the second largest group in Delhi assembly with 28 seats, on Friday night spurned Congress' offer of unconditional support to form a government as the city state stared at the prospect of President's Rule.
Dissident Trinamool Congress MP Somen Mitra on Friday said he has decided to leave the party and go back to the Congress, while stating he would resign from his Lok Sabha membership first.
Congress on Friday made it clear that it was in no hurry to reconsider its support to the Aam Aadmi Party government in Delhi, but expressed disappointment over its functioning and also condemned the criticism by its minister Somnath Bharti of President Pranab Mukherjee's speech on the eve of the Republic Day.
Congress on Monday demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi "break his silence" over the alleged "provocative" statements by the Bharatiya Janata Party leaders in connection with the Dadri lynching, saying that not doing so would suggest that they had his "approval".
Congress leadership would take a call on who would be its deputy chief minister on Tuesday.
In the eye of a storm, controversial Delhi Law Minister Somnath Bharti on Saturday accused the media of taking money from Narendra Modi and slammed the Delhi Commission for Women.
As the tables turned on the Congress in the Delhi polls, several heavyweights including three-time chief minister Sheila Dikshit, four-time member of Legislative Assembly A K Walia and senior Delhi Bharatiya Janata Party leader Vijender Gupta failed to save their seats.
Chhattisgarh Congress expelled party MLA Amit Jogi and passed a resolution seeking party high command's nod for termination of the membership of his father and state's former CM Ajit Jogi over the Antagarh assembly by poll audio tape row.
Congress and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha appear to be inching closer towards forming an alternative government in Jharkhand which has been under President's Rule imposed after fall of the Arjun Munda government on January 8.
Modi said that the JD-S was going to finish a "poor, distant third".
Advocating for Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, yoga guru Ramdev on Monday accused the Congress of creating economic and social anarchy, and said only Modi can save the country from corruption.
Congress on Monday appointed five new PCC chiefs.
Bukhari also backs Trinamool Congress but says no support to SP and BSP. Kavita Chowdhury reports.
A divided house until recently, Congress is putting up a spirited campaign to checkmate BJP in its erstwhile stronghold of Naxal-dominated Bastar region of Chhattisgarh where the ruling party hopes to cash on its developmental agenda coupled with Chief Minister Raman Singh's clean image in the Assembly elections.
Protesting legislators of Congress caused 'injury' to Maharashtra Governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao on the first day of the session today when they tried to block his entry into the legislature complex in Mumbai, revenue minister Eknath Khadse said.
Lt Governor Najeeb Jung on Wednesday decided to invite political parties to explore the possibility of government formation in Delhi, a day after Supreme Court's rap over delay in taking a decision on the issue.
The Janata Dal-United, Rashtriya Janata Dal and Congress legislators on Wednesday created ruckus in both Houses of Bihar legislature over recovery of Rs 1.14 crore, $600 and ornaments stolen from the house of Bharatiya Janata Party MP Giriraj Singh and demanded his arrest and termination of Parliament membership alleging it as "black money".
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today slammed the Congress saying it has put the issue of special category status for Bihar on the "back burner" under the influence of its "natural ally".
Assembly elections in Assam used to be a quiet affair and people outside the state would take little interest in the outcome. This time, even in faraway Delhi, people are keeping tabs on political developments in Assam.
Major rival parties in poll-bound Madhya Pradesh are literally waging a 'war of words' by coining meanings to alphabets to highlight issues of corruption allegedly linked to each other.
By-elections to Lok Sabha and assembly seats in the states of Assam, Tripura, Madhya Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Tamil and West Bengal passed off peacefully on Saturday amidst tight security.
Even as the Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Party and Congress were burning the candle at both ends to hammer out a deal over forming the government in Maharashtra, the Amit Shah-led BJP was quietly planning its moves.
Rahul Gandhi attacked the Bharatiya Janata Party government in Chhattisgarh for its failure to act against Maoists responsible for killing many Congress leaders in May.
Rumblings within Congress over its decision to form Telangana grew on Friday with its seven MPs, a state minister and seven MLAs from Andhra and Rayalaseema regions quitting amid indications that some more are likely to follow suit.
Accusing Congress of "trying to hide in the bunker of secularism", Narendra Modi on Sunday said that it was fighting for its survival with even a 100-seat mark in the new Lok Sabha appearing "an uphill task for it".
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.
Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi attacked the Congress and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday for "failing" to ensure development of Northeast though he represented Assam for the last 23 years in the Rajya Sabha.
Shivakumar's lawyers Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Dayan Krishnan opposed the ED's plea for custodial interrogation saying that he had joined the probe and never absconded.
In a setback to the Bharatiya Janata Party which dominated the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, the party managed to win only from three seats while the Aam Aadmi Party made its debut by winning five seats and the Congress wrested four seats in the bypolls to 13 wards.
A lot is riding on the Rajya sabha polls that are scheduled for Saturday. Major parties are whisking away candidates of other parties, while protecting their own, MLAs are being sent to 'camps' in the final countdown to the polls for 57 seats. Here is a state-by-state look:
The Palaniswami camp on Friday got a jolt when one of its MLAs R Natraj, a former state DGP, said that he would vote against the chief minister's motion of confidence.
'America's withdrawal from Vietnam was an inspiring moment for all of us. We believed that it was a glorious victory of ideology and spirit and as historic as the defeat of the Nazis exactly 30 years ago,' remembers Kumar Ketkar 40 years after the end of the Vietnam War.
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