Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said there was a competition among Congress leaders as to who will use the most abusive words against him, referring to the opposition party president Mallikarjun Kharge's 'Ravan' jibe at him.
Kharge accused PM Modi of inciting people over the issues "that the Congress will never do".
'It is mind-boggling that a party can be in rigor mortis even after numerous electoral defeats,' observes Ramesh Menon.
Earlier, Vijay Wadettiwar questioned the recent meeting between Sharad Pawar and his nephew Ajit Pawar, who heads the rival faction of the party.
Karnataka Congress president DK Shivakumar on Monday said the party's national general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has agreed to campaign and spend time in the state, for the assembly elections next year.
The Congress high command has so far maintained that the party will fight the February 20 elections to the 117-member assembly under a "collective leadership"
Dashing the last hopes of the Congress high command, Telangana Rashtra Samiti President K Chandrasekhar Rao on Saturday categorically ruled out even an electoral alliance with the party for the forthcoming polls to the Lok Sabha and the state assembly.
'By design or default, the BJP's election strategy militated against the very essence of Karnataka politics and the idea of Karnataka.'
The announcement from the Congress lawmaker brought fore cracks in the party, which on Tuesday lost the sole Rajya Sabha seat to the Bharatiya Janata Party and is apparently scrambling to keep its members together to prevent the fall of its government.
'We trust Congress President Sonia Gandhi's assurance that her party will not give up the coalition dharma,' the DMK said.
'The Congress's allies won't be left behind in looking out for their own interests. Some will demand a bigger share of the ministerial or electoral pie, others will simply jump ship,' says T V R Shenoy.
Terming as "unfortunate" the incident being turned into a controversy, Mahadevappa said he respects the honour and dignity of every individual and has no intention of displaying superiority by making someone help him to wear his shoes.
Uttam Ghosh offers his take on the political crisis in Maharashtra where more than a fortnight after the election results, the state still does not have a government in place.
The tussle for power between Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel and health minister TS Singh Deo appears to have quietened at the top, but the feud is very much visible at the lower level in the ruling Congress.
A 10-member delegation of Haryana Congress on Tuesday was stopped from entering violence-hit villages of Nuh district, police said.
'The Congress can exist without (someone from) the Nehru-Gandhi family being its president.'
Gehlot, whose government had faced a rebellion led by his former deputy Sachin Pilot in 2020, said he has adopted the policy of "forgive and forget" and has moved on. He asserted that he has not opposed grant of any party tickets to Pilot's supporters.
There are lessons for the Congress to learn from the Karnataka elections of how burying the hatchet among top leaders and not washing dirty linen in public can help, says Ramesh Menon.
'The BJP will not win a single seat in Punjab.'
'At a time when people don't like to even sacrifice their panchayat seat, Biplab Kumar Deb sacrificed the chair of chief minister with a smiling face.'
She praised the chief minister for leading the party to "many victories" and taking Punjab on a "road to progress".
Seven Congress legislators and three Aam Aadmi Party MLAs who recently switched over to the ruling party also said Navjot Singh Sidhu was a celebrity and was no doubt an asset to the party but condemning and criticising his own party and government in public has only created a "rift in the cadres and weakened it".
Barely a week after Infosys co-founder and Chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India Nandan Nilekani made known his intentions of fighting the elections he is facing opposition from within the Congress party.
Pilot said rules and discipline of the party apply to all, adding that he hoped Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge would take a decision in the matter soon.
'In Kerala, we are part of the government and our MLA is a minister there. These units understood the situation that made us to go with the BJP and supported our move. Our minister in the Left party's government (K Krishnankutty) in Kerala has given consent to us'
China also removed Finance Minister Liu Kun and appointed Lan Fo'an in his place. Liu is the third senior Cabinet minister to be replaced without any explanation.
Congress leaders from the Telangana region who have submitted their resignations to further press their demand for a separate state said that a permanent solution to the issue may come about only by November, reports Vicky Nanjappa.
'Change was very much needed for the Congress to win the 2022 assembly elections.'
The MLAs were upset ever since the cabinet reshuffle and expansion on December 22 that saw removal of Jarkiholi.
The Congress party's Bihar unit has suspended controversial party leader Sadhu Yadav on Wednesday for opposing the passing of the women's reservation bill and criticising the party high command for it.
"The Congress in a way is in the grip of urban Naxals. That is why its thought has become negative," Modi alleged in his 90-minute speech.
The Congress had taken action against them on July 17 after three audio tapes allegedly pertaining to the conspiracy to topple the government surfaced.
Uday K M, also known as 'Kadalur Uday Gowda, was welcomed into the party fold in the presence of state Congress president DK Shivakumar.
'Had the Congress made Sidhu its CM face, they would have won 80 out of 117 seats.'
The development is being viewed by many as a show of strength but sources in the Baghel camp insisted that the MLAs were reaching Delhi on their own accord and there was no show of strength going on.
It is a question now whether the makers of the statue had comprehended all these factors before making it, the senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader said.
He also said the expansion of his cabinet would take place once state Congress leaders get an approval from their high command.
'I was never why I was denied a ticket to contest the assembly elections.'
The political drama in Rajasthan over leadership change continued on Monday with MLAs loyal to Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot remaining non-committal on holding a meeting with Congress observers, who are likely to return to Delhi to apprise the high command about the developments.
In private, questions are being raised about the wisdom of a 'dual-SIM' leadership during the long run-up to the 2026 assembly polls where 'family rule' could become an election issue, reports N Sathiya Moorthy.
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