'If Kerala votes back the LDF, if Tamil Nadu brings the DMK and if Bengal votes for the Trinamool, we will project a formidable opposition to the BJP.'
'Can you believe Ashok Chavan was with me in the senior leaders' meeting one day, and next day morning, he switched sides!'
Uttam Ghosh asks if Mamata Banerjee plans to make the Congress redundant in the run-up to the 2024 elections.
'Even if the BJP's hope of a Congress-mukt Bharat is realised, it will still have to contend with Mr Gandhi's god-like status in the foreseeable future,' says Amulya Ganguli.
KCR, as Rao is popularly known, was administered the oath of office and secrecy by Governor E S L Narasimhan at a simple ceremony on the lawns of Raj Bhavan.
Hitting back at Bharatiya Janata Party President Amit Shah for his dynastic politics jibe, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Tuesday termed it as "hypocrisy," saying the party should first "lecture" its friends in Maharashtra and Punjab.
Sonia, Rahul and former prime minister Manmohan Singh gave fiery speeches attacking the Modi-led government.
Referring to party's win in Assam and rise in its vote share in Kerala and West Bengal, and 'unequivocal rejection' of the Congress by voters in the recent assembly polls in five states, it said the National Executive notes with 'pleasure' that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's call for 'Congress-mukt Bharat' has today become a 'people's mission'.
Bharatiya Janata Party national president Amit Shah on Thursday described the upcoming assembly elections as the second leg of the party's "Congress free India movement."
The Congresshas announced a three-phased campaign, "Mehngai-mukt Bharat Abhiyaan".
'The decline of the Congress party and its inability to play the lead role in Opposition politics has created a space for the TMC to expand.'
'An old party like the Congress cannot rely solely on the prescriptions of a 'Doctor' whose motives and intentions are still unknown and that he does not look attached towards any party or ideology,' point out Sunil Gatade and Venkatesh Kesari.
'Rahul Gandhi might not be holding any post as of now but everyone knows that he is the "captain of the ship'
'We never looked at the Common Civil Code or the Ram Mandir from a narrow electoral outlook or treated them as electoral planks.'
Even Subramanian Swamy, who says he is an ardent supporter of the prime minister, has been taking proxy pot shots at him.' 'At the ground level too, there is resentment from workers and local leaders who have perhaps not got whatever they may have wanted,' notes T C A Srinivasa-Raghavan.
The Congress party just lost power in Arunachal Pradesh once again!
'Every Congressperson is disillusioned in different degrees.'
Modi kept away from the media during his visit to the party headquarters in New Delhi. Though he was welcomed with bursting of crackers, beating of drums and slogan shouting, Modi chose to wave from inside his bullet-proof SUV. He did not speak to the media and left after attending the parliamentary board meeting which analysed the BJP's performance in the four states and decided the future course of action.
The party managed only 52 seats on its own and many of its top leadership, including Rahul Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge and Jyotiraditya Scindia were defeated in the polls.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was the Trojan horse of the Bharatiya Janata Party and should be kept out of all efforts to cobble up an opposition platform ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, senior Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury alleged on Wednesday.
'The Kerala BJP leadership is doing the job of clerical staff. What the boss orders, they just follow them.'
Modi-Shah can complain about the Congress playing caste politics but the fact is that in Gujarat it is threatening to return to the old normal. Caste again threatens to divide what Hindutva has kept united for 25 years, says Shekhar Gupta.
'People will realise sooner or later that there are no jobs, inflation is unchecked and loads of corruption charges are coming from various states which the government is totally brazen about.'
Some names like 'Bharat Rashtriya Samiti', 'Ujwal Bharat Party' and 'Naya Bharat Party' were discussed for the new outfit.
"Rahul Gandhi is de facto Congress chief but he should become de jure" and make the party battle ready without waiting for anti-incumbency to build up against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, senior party leader Jairam Ramesh said.
Deriving from Narendra Modi's continuing charisma, the proposed scheme, if and when implemented, can cut both ways. That is to say, if Modi can win, he can lose. Or, someone else in his place, later on, could lose as much as he could win in his time, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
'Now they're talking about changing the Constitution; they feel they have no reason now to hide their intentions.'
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.
An inchoate anger is brewing within the party against the central leadership after the poor show in the assembly polls.
Gandhi said India has been devastated by demonetisation and the Goods and Services Tax (GST).
The Sena said Congress president Rahul Gandhi and Patidar leader Hardik Patel had been ridiculed as "monkeys" but "these 'monkeys' have slapped the 'lion'.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi didn't hold back on Wednesday when he launched a scathing attack on the Gandhi family and the Congress in Parliament during a debate on the motion of thanks for the president's address.
Ending speculations, Telangana Rashtra Samiti president and Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao on Sunday said he would launch a national party following more discussions with a cross-section of society.
'His success confirms that the infirm 132-year-old party can still get to its feet if it allows regional leaders to come to the fore,' argues Amulya Ganguli.
The Congress resisted all temptation to comment on senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani's decision to step down from key party posts on Monday, but there was a palpable sense of relief that Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's elevation had not been a smooth affair and had, in fact, triggered a major storm in the opposition camp, feels Anita Katyal.
'Even though we are very religious and God fearing, we do not subscribe to the kind of Hindutva they practise, a very hierarchical, Brahmanical, Hindutva.'
Defending his economic policies, Modi said demonetisation was 'a very big success story'.
'I am requesting Sonia Gandhi to listen to her inner voice again.' 'Then, she will know this is the time for the family to step aside.'
Mother and son refuse to go away despite indications blowing in the wind that their leadership is ringing the death knell of the party, observes Ramesh Menon.
'Her presence before and during the Lok Sabha election will electrify the political environment.'
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