The importance of political reforms to sustain economic reforms, which was the keynote of the policies advocated by Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, has been given less importance in the deliberations preceding the new Party Congress, says B Raman
Anwar's move came a day after media reports quoted Pawar having told a Marathi news channel that he did not think people had doubts over the prime minister's intentions in the Rafale fighter plane deal.
Shiv Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray on Sunday accused Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party of forging an alliance for the February 16 polls to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation with the sole purpose of filling their pockets with taxpayers' money. "These parties (Congress and NCP) have stooped so low that they are attacking each other in their election campaigns for Zilla Parishad polls. They have joined hands to contest the Mumbai civic poll," he said.
While Prakash Karat was re-elected as the general secretary of the CPI-M, veteran leaders Jyoti Basu and Harkishen Singh Surjeet will no longer be part of the party's politburo, but will stay on as senior figureheads. West Bengal ministers Nirupam Sen and Mohammed Amin, and Kerala home and tourism minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan are the new members in the politburo.
With an intention of pinching the opposition, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday launched a verbal attack, saying the Congress, Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party believe in 'kuch ka saath kuch ka vikas'.
The Chinese Communist party has not closed its door of contacts and negotiation with the Dalai Lama, a senior Communist leader wrote recently. Former RA&W officer and China expert Jayadeva Ranade explains what the thinking on Tibet is likely in Beijing.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday said that her party is contesting the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections for forming a government and not for striking a coalition with any party.
Despite desertion by 40 MPs, the NDA's vote count went down by only six.
There is growing alarm at the inexorable rise of China, both of its military prowess and its aggressive bullying of other countries plus its subjugation of whole portions of its own population.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan on Tuesday said he will speak to leaders of his party Congress and those from ally Nationalist Congress Party before taking a decision on the resignation of his deputy Ajit Pawar.
Chinese Vice-President Xi Jinping is virtually confirmed to be the successor to outgoing President Hu Jintao after he was formally designated as the secretary general of the once-in-a-decade leadership meet of the ruling Communist party beginning in Beijing on Thursday, signalling smooth transfer of power.
To rise quickly in the PLA's hierarchy, you need to be close to Xi Jinping. Retired RA&W officer Jayadeva Ranade on the changes in China's military leadership.
"We will introspect into the reasons for our loss and will rededicate ourselves to the service of the people with greater vigour", Gandhi said in a statement.
Former Bahujan Samaj Party leader Swami Prasad Maurya has described Congress Uttar Pradesh chief ministerial candidate Sheila Dikshit as discard from Delhi, drawing sharp reaction from her party leaders on Thursday.
Rejecting the opposition's charge that the bill will weaken the act, the government said it was fully committed to transparency and autonomy of the institution.
The fate of Gu Kailai, the high profile wife of disgraced Chinese Communist Party leader Bo Xilai who has confessed to murdering a British businessman, will be announced on Monday.
The Nationalist Congress Party took strong exception to Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan's view that the state home minister should have been from the Congress and not from the Sharad Pawar-led party.
While the Congress has convened a meeting of all its MLAs on Wednesday to take stock of the evolving situation, the BJP legislators have been shifted to Haryana in an attempt to keep the flock together and thwart any poaching attempt by the Congress-JDS combine.
A look at Reuters Photojournalist of the Year Damir Sagolj's photographs.
N Rangasamy, nicknamed 'Junior Kamaraj' for his simple living and unassuming style, took sweet revenge on his former party Congress which unceremoniously removed him as chief minister of Puducherry. Sidelined by the Congress, Rangasamy felt humiliated and launched his own outfit All India N R Congress on the eve of the assembly polls and signed a poll pact with the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam.
Reflecting the growing bonhomie between the two parties, Congress has decided not to field any candidate against Uttar Pradesh Chief minister Akhilesh Yadav's wife Dimple Yadav, the Samajwadi Party candidate in the Kannauj Lok Sabha by-election.
Claiming that his party could come to power at the Centre, Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav on Saturday said the present political equations indicate that both Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party would not be able to get a majority in the 2014 general election.
The outgoing leadership of the ruling Communist Party held its last meeting in Beijing on Thursday ahead of the November 8 Congress that will select a new set of leaders, amid allegations of amassing wealth by some leaders and a scandal related to disgraced party leader, Bo Xilai.
Battling factionalism within the party, Congress candidate and multi-lingual cine actress Ramya is fending for herself to reclaim the Mandya Lok Sabha seat which she won only eight months ago in bypolls.
Aam Aadmi's Party's Dr Virendra Singh -- a popular doctor-turned Lok Sabha election candidate -- is already making a difference with his folded hands and beaming smiles in Jaipur. Shanawaz Akhtar reports.
The Communist Party of India leader A B Bardhan on Wednesday said there was room for a credible alternative of Left and secular parties in the country to fill the "political vacuum" created by people's rejection of the two alliances led by Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party in the recent Assembly elections.
Hailing the Lokpal bill as the single most powerful anti-corruption law in independnent India, Congress on Thursday cautioned parties obstructing the legislation that they will face the anger of the people.
He also hit out at Akhilesh Yadav, saying the UP chief minister is neither with Backward Classes nor Dalits.
Can you imagine that in the upcoming Uttar Pradesh assembly election Bharitya Janta Party can get almost 24 per cent votes to come second in the four-cornered contest between ruling Bahujan Samaj Party, Samajwadi Party, Congress and BJP?
N Rangasamy, who ended the reign of his former party Congress in a stunning electoral debut for his outfit, was sworn in as chief minister of Puducherry for a third term on Monday.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered a stay of the implementation of the contentious three new farm laws hoping this will end the prolonged protests by the farmers and also constituted a four-member panel of agri experts to resolve the impasse between their leaders and the Centre.
The Congress president's absence from the party's campaign in the five poll-bound states has left everyone and guessing whether she is prepping her son to take over.
The PDP has 28 MLAs, followed by NC with 15 and Congress with 12 which will make up for a clear majority.
A chastised Aiyar did proffer a conditional apology, but that did not apparently smooth the ruffled feathers of the troubled Congress leadership.
Rahul also held a 75-km long road show and a Nukkad Sabha in Haridwar.
'India and China are at new inflection points, domestically and internationally. India needs to throw up a new leader whose vision is clear, experience laden with wisdom and articulation brimming with restraint and tolerance,' says Ambassador K C Singh.
Attacking the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Samajwadi Party, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday sought a chance for the party to rule Uttar Pradesh, promising to change the state in the next ten years when people from outside will flock there for jobs.
He also played down reports of Shivpal planning to form new party post the assembly polls.
All India NR Congress founder N Rangasamy, whose party made a stunning electoral debut in alliance with the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam to dethrone his former party Congress in the assembly elections, is likely to be sworn in as Puducherry chief minister on Monday. However, there is no clarity as yet on whether 61-year old Rangasamy would head a coalition government or not. AINRC had won 15 seats and the AIADMK five in the 30-member assembly.
Telugu Desam Party chief N Chandrababu Naidu blamed the ruling Congress for the present state of affairs in Andhra Pradesh and asked the party to bail the state out of the crisis. "This has become such a complex issue that divisions have taken place in political parties. Congress is responsible for this and they should solve the problem," Naidu, on a tour of West Godavari and East Godavari districts in coastal Andhra, said at Tanuku.