Tarun Gogoi is all set to become the chief minister of Assam for the third consecutive term with the Congress Legislature Party unanimously electing him as its leader in the meet held at the central hall of Assam assembly complex in Guwahati on Tuesday afternoon. The meeting was held in the presence of the All India Congress Committee observers in-charge of Assam Pranab Mukherjee and Digvijay Singh, state Pradesh Congress chief Bhubaneswar Kalita and many senior leaders.
All eyes are on Congress chief Sonia Gandhi as top leaders converged at her 10, Janpath residence in New Delhi on Monday after a series of developments in the last 24 hours in Rajasthan, where a majority of the party MLAs have rebelled against Sachin Pilot and want Ashok Gehlot to continue as the chief minister.
Congress Legislature Party leader Ashok Gehlot will be sworn in as Chief Minister of Rajasthan on December 13, a Raj Bhavan spokesman said on Thursday.
In a day of frantic developments, Digvijaya Singh entered the fray for the Congress president's election as Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot opted out of the race and the suspense over his continuation at the helm in the state deepened with the party saying it would be decided in a day or two.
The Congress high command on Monday evening selected Vijay Bahuguna, the member of Parliament from Tehri Garhwal, to be the next chief minister of Uttarakhand.
The Congress leadership on Friday held separate meetings to review its performances in the assembly polls in Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, and said its defeat in the two states at the hands of the BJP was unexpected.
The Congress has projected unity to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party in the assembly polls in Rajasthan but "core issues" between Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and his bete noire Sachin Pilot remain unresolved, according to sources close to Pilot.
Rawat through his tweets on Wednesday had expressed anguish at the factionalism in the state unit and noted that thought has been crossing his mind that "it is time to rest".
Congress observers for Rajasthan on Tuesday recommended disciplinary action against three key loyalists of Ashok Gehlot but did not seek any action against the chief minister, as the party scampered to resolve the crisis that has cast a shadow on the election of the party president.
Hours after Nationalist Congress Party-Sharadchandra Pawar president Sharad Pawar said that the Maha Vikas Aghadi allies can not demand that a Leader of Opposition must be appointed as they do not have the required numbers, Shiv Sena-Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray leader Bhaskar Jadhav on Saturday claimed there is no provision in the law which talks about the appointment of the LoP in legislature merely on the strength of the party.
The Congress party on Friday advised Uttar Pradesh government to strengthen its intelligence network, which proved to be a failure during the recent surprise visit of the party general secretary Rahul Gandhi to rural areas in the eastern part of the state.
Pilot had claimed that the Ashok Gehlot government was in minority and more than 30 Congress and some independent legislators have pledged support to him.
Speaking to the media persons in Delhi on Sunday, the Rajya Sabha member said: "I have declined the offer to be the next Punjab CM. I believe Punjab CM face should be a Sikh."
The Haryana victory will be a morale booster for the Bharatiya Janata Party and increase its bargaining power in the Mahayuti's seat-sharing talks for the upcoming Maharashtra assembly elections, according to political analysts.
Addressing a Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meeting at a resort in Jaisalmer, he said, "We are all democracy warriors. We are going to win this war and also win the (assembly) election after three-and-a-half years."
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.
Here is a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis of the two aspiring CMs.
Even as the Congress Legislature Party is set to meet on Friday afternoon to elect the new Karnataka chief minister, at the moment, it appears that it would be a closely contested battle between Siddaramaiah and Mallikarjuna Kharge.
Hectic lobbying for the post of Karnataka's next chief minister is on ahead of the crucial Congress legislature party meeting to be held at 12.30 pm Friday in Bangalore.
Dikshit was elected at a meeting of 42 party legislators in New Delhi on Wednesday afternoon. The meeting was attended among others by All India Congress Committee General Secretary Mohsina Kidwai, Minister of State for Finance P K Bansal and Delhi Pradesh Congres Committee chief Jai Prakash Aggarwal.
State Congress legislators made a pitch for a change in party leadership by bringing in more new faces, especially youngsters in their Thursday meeting.
Senior Congress leader Oommen Chandy is set to become the Kerala chief minister with Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee president Ramesh Chennithala on Sunday opting out of the race for the top post. A meeting of the senior party leaders held at the KPCC headquarters in Thiruvananthapuram unanimously decided Chandy should lead the United Democratic Front ministry. The Congress Legislature Party meeting scheduled in Thiruvananthapuram later on Sunday will formalise the decision
The action comes two days after Congress president Sonia Gandhi held a key meeting and broke the ice by starting dialogue with some of the prominent 'letter-writers', who had earlier written to her demanding an overhaul of the party and an effective leadership.
Amid speculation that he has been asked to come to the national capital by the high command, he said: "I have not received any call yet. Let's see."
Singh, along with five cabinet ministers, were administered oath by Governor La Ganesan.
Maharashtra Industries Minister Ashok Chavan will be the next chief minister of the state.The decision comes after long deliberations by the Congress high command, which on Wednesday had asked Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh to resign, following the terror attack in Mumbai last week. Chavan has been nominated the leader of the state Congress Legislature Party by Congress president Sonia Gandhi, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee told reporters on Friday.
"I sometimes think of leaving it, but the chief minister's post doesn't leave me," Ashok Gehlot famously said earlier this year, in part as a signal to the Congress top brass not to pick someone else for the job if the party wins the assembly polls.
Trinamool Congress first timer Biman Bandopadhyay was today elected unopposed Speaker of the West Bengal Assembly. Leader of the House Partha Chatterjee proposed his name which was supported by the Chief Whip of Trinamool Congress Legislature Party Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay.
The Congress on Monday appointed the party's Punjab unit chief Navjot Sidhu as chairman of the state election committee.
A crucial meeting of the Congress Legislature Party to choose Goa's next chief minister got underway in Panaji on Thursday.
Dorjee Khandu, who led the Congress to an absolute majority in the assembly elections in Arunachal Pradesh, was on Saturday elected the Congress Legislature Party leader, paving the way for his second stint as chief minister. Khandu's election was announced by central observer V Narayanasamy after all the 42 Members of Legislative Assembly, in a resolution, authorised Congress president Sonia Gandhi to take a decision on the leadership.
He also said the expansion of his cabinet would take place once state Congress leaders get an approval from their high command.
Meghalaya Chief Minister D D Lapang resigned on Wednesday just before the trust vote in the assembly, saying his government was unable to muster a majority. "Congress could not get the requisite support, so the Congress Legislature Party decided to resign," Lapang told reporters shortly after a CLP meeting on Wednesday morning. He said he was going to Governor S S Siddhu to submit his resignation.
By getting Jagdeep Dhankhar to resign at short notice, Narendra Modi has sent a message to his own ideological clan that he brooks no one trying to get too big for their boots, observes Modi biographer Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
Five Goa Congress MLAs, who went incommunicado a day before, attended the state assembly proceedings on the first day of the monsoon session on Monday, and claimed there was 'nothing wrong' in the opposition party.
"Around 20 candidates have been shifted to Jaipur from Assam today," said Congress chief whip in the Rajasthan assembly, Mahesh Joshi.
Offering to trade second preference votes with the Congress, Janata Dal-Secular leader H D Kumaraswamy on Tuesday said his main agenda is to defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party in the contest for fourth seat, during the June 10 Rajya Sabha polls from Karnataka.
The Congress Legislature Party (CLP) in Maharashtra authorised All India Congress Committee president Sonia Gandhi to choose a new leader to succeed Ashok Chavan who resigned as chief minister in the wake of Adarsh Housing Society scam.
Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole on Wednesday said Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has made it clear that there was no proposal to recommend dissolution of the state assembly.
