The Congress on Monday promised that a government led by it will conduct a nationwide caste census and implement 33 per cent reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and state legislative assemblies at the earliest, including adequate representation for women belonging to the OBC community.
It said the Congress will infuse new blood in leadership roles without creating new fault lines and cementing its ideological moorings.
The Congress is likely to hold its plenary session in Mumbai or in some other part of Maharashtra in December, indicate highly placed congress sources.
The cable in which Rahul Gandhi tells the US ambassador Timothy Roemer that radical Hindu groups pose a bigger threat than the LeT could haunt the young leader, says Sheela Bhatt.
The Congress's loss in the three states in the North-East, a region it had dominated for decades, shows there is a lot left to do to reclaim its political turf despite the Bharat Jodo Yatra which it had touted as a successful experiment in mass public outreach.
A cursory look at the speech revealed that the telling lines where he says that he has nothing to hide and makes the offer of appearing before the PAC, "I sincerely believe that like Caesar's wife, the prime minister should be above suspicion and it is for this reason that I am prepared to appear before the PAC even though there i no precedent of this."
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday said he has never owned a house and noted that this experience had helped him 'change' his Bharat Jodo Yatra and connect with the people.
The YSRC will now have to seek the Election Commission of India's nod to let Jagan be the party chief for life.
If the corruption issue doesn't claim Mr Baghel, the Congress's chances in the assembly election later this year are good, observes Aditi Phadnis.
This will be the third plenary of the decade-old party, and the first since it came to power in Andhra Pradesh three years ago.
To highlight alleged misgovernance by the present regime, its first nationwide campaign ahead of the 2024 parliamentary elections.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday wrote to the Public Accounts Committee expressing his willingness to appear before the panel which is looking into the 2G spectrum allocation scam. Following up his announcement at the Congress plenary session, Dr Singh made the offer in his letter to PAC Chairman Murli Manohar Joshi. Addressing the concluding day of the Congress plenary, Dr Singh had said he would be 'happy to appear' before the PAC though there was no precedent.
Asked whether he regretted the remarks over which he was arrested, Khera alluded to a Hindi film song -- "Hum bolega to bologe ki bolta hai", and added that, "Is liye hum kuch nahi bolega (that is why I will not say anything)." "Will speak when the time comes. A legal process is on and it is not proper to comment on it," he told a press conference on the sidelines of the Congress plenary session.
Throwing his party's weight behind the Congress to ensure an Opposition win in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam president and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin on Wednesday said arguments by some favouring a front without the grand old party should be rejected.
Unprecedented scenes were witnessed as Congress leaders sat on a dharna near the aircraft at the tarmac and raised slogans such as 'Jab jab Modi darta hai, police ke peeche chupta hai' and 'Tanashahi nahi chalegi'.
Reacting to news reports that the Congress party in its plenary session is likely to demand for a Central Bureau of Investigation probe against the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh links to terror attacks organised by the radical Hindu organisations, BJP Vice President Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said that this was just a desperate attempt by the United Progressive Alliance government and the Congress party to divert the attention from corruption issue.
Yeddyurappa was the most chanted name at the ongoing Congress plenary session at New Delhi. Almost every speaker at the plenary termed the Karnataka CM as the most corrupt chief minister in India.
'Rahul should have learnt so much in the last 20 years. But give him a mic and he begins to talk without thinking about its consequences.'
Trinamool Congress national spokesperson Saket Gokhale was earlier arrested in December for a tweet endorsing an alleged fake news report about Prime Minister Modi's visit to Gujarat's Morbi town after the collapse of a suspension bridge in October. Gokhale was detained at Jaipur in Rajasthan and taken to Ahmedabad before getting a bail.
Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, speaking on the second day of the Congress plenary meet on Monday in New Delhi, said the PM's post should be above suspicion and that he is ready to appear before the Public Accounts Committee in the 2G spectrum scam even though there was no precedent to do so.
Finishing in the same vein as she started, Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Monday closed the party's 83rd plenary in New Delhi on Monday with an attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party and its National Democratic Alliance government.
Minutes after Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh's speech at the 83rd Congress plenary on Monday, where he offered to appear before the Public Accounts Committee in the wake of scams that have rocked the nation, he came under the fire of the Opposition.
Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, speaking on the second day of the Congress plenary meet on Monday in New Delhi, said the PM's post should be above suspicion and that he is ready to appear before the Public Accounts Committee in the 2G spectrum scam even though there was no precedent to do so.
The BJP leader said Congress leaders "flouted law" by starting protests on the Delhi airport tarmac and endangered the lives of fellow passengers. People were inconvenienced by the Congress' protests, he said.
The Congress steering committee on Friday approved several amendments to the party constitution, one of which is to give permanent membership to former prime ministers and former party presidents in the all-powerful working committee.
Thorat had last week resigned as CLP leader after criticising Maharashtra unit chief Nana Patole's style of functioning.
Xi, who will turn 70 on June 15, was re-elected by the once-in-a-five-year Congress of the ruling Communist Party of China as its leader in October last year, becoming the first Chinese leader after Mao Zedong to continue in power beyond two five-year terms.
Launching a scathing attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party, senior Congress leader and Home Minister P Chidambaram on Monday said the opposition party would not come to the power in the next decade and even after.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy's mother Y S Vijayamma on Friday resigned as honorary president of YSR Congress party to stand by her daughter Sharmila, who is now heading the YSR Telangana party in the neighbouring state.
She urged the Congress workers to tackle the current regime with vigour and reach out to people to convey the party's message.
The Congress president will have to set up a new CWC in place of the steering committee which was formed after the working committee was dissolved by him.
Start afresh! This is the message of Congress President Sonia Gandhi to partymen from Bihar in the wake of the party's drubbing in the recently concluded Bihar assembly polls.
In what is being seen as a great irony, Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi's face has been removed from the latest posters, billboards and advertising campaign of the Congress party.
The Congress on Sunday gave a call to party leaders in poll-bound states to work with unity to ensure victory that will 'set the tone' for 2024 Lok Sabha polls even as it showed willingness to forge an alliance of 'like-minded' parties.
Was the prime minister's offer to appear before the Public Accounts Committee 'precedent' an afterthought? Looks like it, if one were to go carefully through the press handout being distributed at the media centre at the Congress plenary in New Delhi.
Sonia Gandhi has the record of holding the longest tenure as Congress chief.
Rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt presents an inseiders view of the Congress plenary held at Burari.
'The challenge can only be met if Sonia Gandhi asserts herself and sets a clear Left-of-Centre direction for the Congress and the UPA. The Congress's best bet lies in building a new social coalition based on the most disadvantaged strata of subaltern groups, including Dalits, OBCs and Muslims, driven by a pro-poor programme.'
The youngest in the CWC is 31-year-old Neeraj Kundan, who is an ex-officio member of the body as the president of the National Students Union of India, the students' wing of the party.
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