For the first time, Modi is eyeball to eyeball with his bete noire, sitting a few feet across him. Given the last 10 years, a confrontation between them was unavoidable, inevitable, points out Saisuresh Sivaswamy.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday said his party would conduct a "caste census" if elected to power as only such an exercise would ensure the "participation of OBCs, Dalits, tribals and women".
Gandhi thanked the people of Wayanad for electing him for a second term in Lok Sabha and said, "I look forward to seeing you soon."
Rizwan Kadri, a member of the Prime Minister's Museum and Library (PMML) Society has written a letter to the Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi requesting to give back the documents, that he called are 'important aspect of its history' and were withdrawn from the museum allegedly on the order of Congress senior leader Sonia Gandhi.
Sources said the party has picked up some other leaders who will represent it during the 16-hour debate.
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Monday indicated his party could field a candidate in the next election from the high-profile Amethi seat, which it used to leave for the Congress.
Kalyan Banerjee said that he did not intend to hurt anyone but did not offer any apology for the mimicry act which has been described by Dhankhar as an insult to the post of vice-president, the farmers and his own community.
Gandhi, a former Congress president, represented Amethi in Parliament from 2002 till 2019.
Even before the first votes are counted in Maharashtra, fissures have emerged within the ruling Mahayuti and the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) on who will head the next government. Both camps are claiming the chief minister's post, with constituents in both camps laying claim over the chief minister's post. The MVA, consisting of the Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (SP), and the Mahayuti, comprising the BJP, Shiv Sena and NCP, have expressed confidence that their respective alliance will form the next government after votes are counted on Saturday. While a majority of exit polls have predicted that Mahayuti will retain power, a few have favored the MVA.
The party has tried to downplay its vice-president's sudden move, saying he is the leader and will come back soon to play a pro-active role in party affairs
The simple 1,500 square feet house will be in some contrast to the spacious 12, Tughlaq Lane Lutyens Delhi bungalow that was Rahul Gandhi's home for 19 years.
The clarification came amid a demand, including from Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, that the landslide tragedy in Kerala's Wayanad be declared a national disaster.
'Maybe this has created some minor issues which can happen in any party.'
Tharoor also raised questions regarding the judgment of the Surat court, which convicted and sentenced Gandhi.
Rahul Gandhi said he stood by his remarks on Twitter terming Pragya Thakur a "terrorist" and was ready to face any action.
Gandhi said he would bring in experts from Andhra Pradesh to suggest ways and means for proper implementation of NREGS.
In a major organisational revamp, the Congress on Friday appointed former Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel as general secretary in-charge of Punjab and Rajya Sabha MP Syed Naseer Hussain as general secretary for Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.
Questioning the Congress's stand on caste census, the BJP leader made certain remarks on Gandhi's caste that triggered the uproar and had Congress members trooping into the well of the Lok Sabha. "Anurag Thakur insulted me and I don't want any apology from him. Abuse or insult me as hard as you can but don't forget we will pass the caste census in this Parliament for sure," the Leader of the Opposition said.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has asked Congress president Sonia Gandhi to depose before it on July 21 for questioning in the National Herald newspaper-linked money-laundering case, officials said on Monday.
'Everyone knows there is no point in contesting elections from Gujarat as a Congress candidate because they know they will be wiped out.'
National Democratic Alliance nominee Om Birla was elected as Lok Sabha speaker on Wednesday after a motion moved by Prime Minister Narendra Modi was adopted through voice vote, capping intense debate on the issue with the opposition in a rare move proposing its own candidate.
Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi's reaction to President Droupadi Murmu's address to the Joint session of the Parliament on Friday stoked a controversy.
Opposition parties allege the Modi government is attempting to turn India into a 'dictatorship' with the introduction of three Bills that seek to provide for removal of the prime minister, chief ministers and ministers arrested on serious charges, and vowed to oppose it 'tooth and nail'.
The Congress on Friday welcomed the statements of opposition leaders condemning Rahul Gandhi's disqualification from the Lok Sabha and said it was now time for the party to take on the job of building the opposition unity in a "systematic way".
The resignation also signals a continuing saga of unaddressed concerns of young leaders, once considered close to former Congress president Rahul Gandhi.
Taking to Twitter, the Jammu and Kashmir Police said, 'JKP was not consulted before taking any decision on discontinuation of Yatra after conducting 1 km yatra by organizers. The rest of yatra continued #peacefully. There was no security lapse at all. We will provide foolproof security (sic).'
'You've got to understand it is not easy to die by suicide.' 'People commit suicide only when they lose everything and find no other way to live.'
Rahul Gandhi said that the ongoing Lok Sabha election is aimed at saving the country's Constitution.
The Congress MP is in London to attend the Ideas for India conclave; on Monday, he will speak at Cambridge, a university his father attended in the early 1960s and where Rajiv met and fell in love with Sonia.
BJP derided Gandhi saying he "always talks trash" and claimed that unemployment was at its lowest in the last six years.
The complainant referred to Gandhi's comment that the BJP claims to believe in honest and clean politics but has a party president who is an "accused" in a murder case.
"If you get employment, you will watch Reels for half an hour and work for 12 hours," the Congress leader said.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has alleged that Robert Vadra, husband of Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, provided evasive responses during questioning regarding a 2008 land deal in Haryana. The ED claims Vadra placed blame on deceased associates and exerted undue influence on government officials.
He has, for the first time, been entrusted with the all-important task in the politically crucial Uttar Pradesh, where a 7-phased Assembly poll is slated to take place over April and May.
Both the BJP leaders asserted that Gandhi's disqualification was a natural outcome of the law as the Supreme Court has made it clear that a lawmaker stands disqualified from the time of his conviction.
Rahul Gandhi challenged the BJP to fight on secular terms instead of using the temple as a poll plank.
'They hate him so much that if PM Modi says the Sun rises in the east the Congress will say the Sun rises in the west.'
Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was given a rousing welcome by thousands of people, including United Democratic Front leaders and workers, at Kalpetta in Wayanad on Wednesday as she prepares to make her electoral debut by filing nomination papers for the coming Lok Sabha bypoll.
The BJP keeps taking dips till it appears good on the camera, he said.
Gandhi is scheduled to visit Amethi from October 4-6.
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