Azad would be accorded a grand reception on his arrival from Delhi Sunday morning, and a procession would accompany him to the venue of the public meeting at the Sainik Colony.
Former Congress president Sonia Gandhi, BJP chief J P Nadda and new party entrant Ashok Chavan and Union ministers Ashwini Vaishnaw and L Murugan were among the 41 candidates elected unopposed to Rajya Sabha on Tuesday while Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh will witness polling on February 27.
The Congress released a booklet 'Nau saal, Nau sawaal', asking nine questions from Modi. The BJP rejected the Congress' criticism as a 'bundle of lies and mountain of deception' and said the questions are born out of 'pathological hatred' of the PM.
Hours after the Congress party released its first list of 144 candidates for the upcoming Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections, Vice President of Congress Media Department Ajay Singh Yadav resigned from his post as fewer candidates from backward classes have been fielded by the party.
The Congress had won 77 seats in the 2017 assembly elections. Of these 77 legislators, as many as 20 resigned during the past five years, with three quitting in the last two days alone.
The Uddhav Thackeray faction of the Shiv Sena on Monday moved the Supreme Court challenging Legislative Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar's order declaring the Sena bloc led by Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde as the 'real political party' after its split in June 2022.
The leaders of the Opposition INDIA bloc are meeting on Monday morning ostensibly to redraw their strategies to take on Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led BJP both inside the Parliament and in the electoral arena.
Saini, who is an MP from Kurukshetra, was unanimously elected as the leader of the state BJP legislature group and will be sworn in later in the day, party MLAs Subhash Sudha and J P Dalal told reporters.
The newly-elected MLAs of Telangana would take oath during the first session of the Legislative Assembly scheduled to be held on Saturday.
The ruling Eknath Shinde camp in Maharashtra told the Supreme Court on Tuesday that the rival side led by Uddhav Thackeray wanted the speaker of the state assembly to "usurp" the powers of the Election Commission when the ultimate test of majority in a democracy -- the floor test -- was ordered by the governor during the 2022 political crisis.
Joining the Himachal assembly poll campaign, Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi on Thursday played to the hilt the Congress' 'aam admi' plank by accusing the Bharatiya Janata Party of blocking legislations benefiting the people at large and stressed that the United Progressive Alliance had taken strict action against corruption.
Few in Varanasi expect the result to be different from 2014 and 2019. The only point of interest is whether Narendra Modi will increase his winning margin against his rivals.
Aam Aadmi Party legislator Vinod Kumar Binny on Wednesday said the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress should support the government over issues pertaining to the people.
Congress leader Charanjit Singh Channi was on Monday sworn in as the chief minister of Punjab, making him the first Dalit to hold the top post in the state.
The elections to 32 assembly constituencies in Sikkim were held simultaneously with the first phase of Lok Sabha elections on April 19.
Janata Dal-Secular chief HD Kumaraswamy alleged "horse-trading" in the Karnataka Rajya Sabha elections claiming that Congress leader Siddaramaiah was pressurising JD-S MLAs to not vote for their own party but that of the candidate of the grand old party.
'If, as happened in Baramulla during the 2024 Lok Sabha election, the youth in the Valley get triggered enough to jump into the wider fray, the end result would be difficult to predict, especially as the state's post-August 5, 2019 political format remains substantially fragmented and foggy,' points out Mohammad Sayeed Malik, the veteran commentator on Kashmir affairs.
The BJP tops the list with 43 (80 percent) of 54 MLAs each having declared assets valued at more than Rs 1 crore.
Sunil Jakhar was among the front runners for the chief ministerial post after the exit of Amarinder Singh. But the party preferred Charanjit Singh Channi, who became the first chief minister of Punjab from the Scheduled Caste community.
The Congress has decided to shift its MLAs in Rajasthan to a Udaipur hotel, with party sources saying they fear that the Bharatiya Janata Party will poach them ahead of the June 10 Rajya Sabha elections.
Electoral setbacks and thwarted ambition can have an unpredictable effect on leaders,, observes Aditi Phadnis.
All guns blazing, Modi on Saturday mounted a scathing attack on the Congress over corruption, and asserted it will become "Punjab, Puducherry, Parivar" Congress after its defeat in the Karnataka assembly polls.
'Even if we have laws in place, which we must, we need a societal change.' 'Rather than telling our daughters that, "Listen, leave your house at so and so time, come back by so and so time," we must tell the men and boys that "Whatever point of time you encounter a woman in public space or wherever, you treat her with respect, dignity, and as an equal participant in these public spaces".'
Senior BJP leader and Patnagarh MLA KV Singh Deo and debutant from Nimapara assembly segment Pravati Parida took oath as deputy chief ministers.
The MNS joining the BJP-led alliance in Maharashtra could help it with a 'Thackeray versus Thackeray' narrative, fielding Raj Thackeray, an articulate speaker, to take on his cousin Uddhav Thackeray.
Governor Biswabhusan Harichandan administered the oath of office to 61-year-old Netam at a function held at the Raj Bhawan in Raipur.
The BJP in Himachal has its own problems. But it is not a party that sits around twiddling its thumbs.
Asserting that her government has zero tolerance to incidents of rape, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday said an amendment to existing laws will be passed in the state assembly next week to ensure capital punishment to convicted rapists.
'We would continue with the Congress government's schemes with a review to enable it reaches the beneficiaries.'
Former Congress MLA from Barnala, Kewal Dhillon, and former Shiormani Akali Dal MLAs Sarup Chand Singla and Mohinder Kaur Josh also joined the BJP.
Bypolls in three assembly constituencies in as many states passed off peacefully on Monday with around over 70 per cent voter turnout, though some technical glitches in electronic voting machine were reported in Tamil Nadu and the ruling Trinamool Congress in West Bengal alleged that the Central Reserve Police Force was "influencing" voters.
In the five years in politics Priyanka Gandhi has undeniably emerged as a thorn in the BJP flesh, notes Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay. It is time that this thorn is twisted a wee bit more when the elections have become far more uncertain than what it was when the Election Commission announced the poll schedule.
Rebel Himachal Pradesh Congress MLA Rajinder Rana on Saturday claimed that nine more party legislators 'feeling suffocated' due to Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu's style of functioning are in touch with him as he called the chief minister 'liar number one'.
Campaigning for the fifth phase ended on Friday evening, and all necessary arrangements have been completed, state Chief Election Officer Ajay Kumar Shukla said in Lucknow on Saturday.
The last time when more than 200 MLAs were part of the state government was in 1972, but at that time all the 222 legislators belonged to Congress. Also, the strength of the House was 270 at that time, a former state legislature official said on Monday citing data.
Observing that the name and photographs of Sharad Pawar cannot be used by the Ajit Pawar faction for political gains, the Supreme Court on Thursday sought a response from the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) faction led by the Maharashtra deputy chief minister on a plea of the veteran Maratha leader alleging misuse of his popularity by the rival camp.
In the past the Congress had cold-shouldered overtures from the Samajwadi Party chief, leading to bad blood between the two parties.
As the campaign for the Lok Sabha elections gathers momentum, Sharad Pawar and Uddhav Thackeray, the leaders of two prominent regional parties in Maharashtra, are fighting a battle for political survival.
Congress legislators spent the whole night inside the Karnataka Legislative Assembly and Council, escalating demand for the dismissal of Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Minister K S Eshwarappa over his statement regarding the national flag.
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