Filing of nominations for the post of Congress president is scheduled to begin on Saturday with a contest between Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and former Union minister Shashi Tharoor on the cards.
Amid criticism that the Congress had given a walkover to Irani in Amethi, sources said, the party in its wisdom believed that Rae Bareli's historical, emotional and electoral importance for the Gandhi family was higher than that of Amethi.
After Congress president Sonia Gandhi met leaders of the G-23 grouping to resolve internal party issues, former Punjab Congress chief Sunil Jakhar on Wednesday said "indulging the dissenters too much" will encourage more dissent.
Under SPG protection, Sonia Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi were using Range Rovers.
Gandhi, then a newly appointed Congress chief, had staked claim to form the government at the Centre after the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had lost the vote of confidence in the Lok Sabha on April 17, 1999.
The Congress will launch a nationwide campaign against the repeal of the United Progressive Alliance-era rural employment legislation Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) on January 5, similar to the pushback against the three farm laws which eventually forced the Narendra Modi government to rollback its decision, party president Mallikarjun Kharge said.
NCP supremo Sharad Pawar had asked Rahul Gandhi to tone down the criticism of Savarkar and reminded the Congress leader that the real fight of the opposition parties was with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP.
After being elected president of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) in 1999, Najma Heptulla rang up the then Congress chief Sonia Gandhi from Berlin to convey the news but had to hold the phone line for an hour as a staff told her that 'madam is busy'.
"Sonia Gandhi is currently travelling on a short international visit for personal reasons," the Congress party's chief spokesman Randeep Surjewala said.
A United States court has ordered Congress President Sonia Gandhi to provide a copy of her passport as documentary evidence by April 7 to determine if she was in America in September last year when a Sikh rights group claims it had served summons on her in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots case.
Terming Congress president Sonia Gandhi as "gangotri" (fountainhead) of corruption in the country, Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy said on Wednesday that the Opposition should not play her game.
'This plan was never official. It was there secretly. It was by the high command.'
Sources in the Congress and NCP said the draft CMP and allocation of portfolios between the three parties will be discussed in the meeting.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Sonia Gandhi and party leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury have received invitations for the consecration ceremony of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya on January 22.
Also, with Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra not in the running for the party president's post, a non-Gandhi would be at the helm after over 24 years following the polling on Monday and counting on Wednesday.
Accusing the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party of weakening the country's democratic institutions, Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Sunday challenged the graft charges leveled against the government, and said that those who lecture on corruption, are themselves neck-deep in corruption.
Union minister for Women and Child Development Maneka Gandhi asked officials in her Lok Sabha constituency of Pilibhit to follow the example of Sonia in order to check corruption in the education department.
Attacking the Modi government, Sonia said it has sought to erode our institutions.
Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge stated that the party high command will decide on the ongoing speculation about a chief minister change in Karnataka. This comes amid intensified power tussle within the ruling party as the Congress government reached the halfway mark of its five-year term.
Party President Sonia Gandhi left for the United States on Wednesday and is reported to have undergone a major surgery in a New York hospital on Thursday morning local time, which is being described as 'successful.'
Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, who had gone abroad for a "routine checkup" on February 27 following a surgery six months back, returned to New Delhi on Monday.
The Congress on Sunday night sought to downplay the remarks of its president Sonia Gandhi at a public meeting in Haryana that the opponents of India-United States nuclear deal were enemies of development. The party said the comments were not directed at the Left parties.
Arun told rediff.com that this was an "unwarranted and senseless attack against Sonia Gandhi," and challenged those responsible for the ad, "Who among us is so straightforward as to be able to speak on or about Sonia?"
Dr Singh's eldest daughter Professor Upinder Singh gently reminded the gathering that this was a moment for prayer, not accolades.
A day after the Congress brainstormed over its electoral reverses, senior leader M Veerappa Moily on Monday said Sonia Gandhi should take "full control" of the party with a free hand to change non-performing leaders, and asserted that a "mere culture of tweets and social media propaganda" would not take the organisation forward.
A meeting of the newly elected Congress Members of Legislative Assembly in Maharashtra on Saturday authorised party president Sonia Gandhi to nominate their new leader, who will be the next chief minister. A one-line resolution, authorising Sonia Gandhi to name the new leader, was passed at the first meeting of the Congress Legislature Party, convened in Mumbai to elect the leader, two days after the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party combine stormed back to power.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Thursday challenged Congress president Sonia Gandhi to provide details of the 'additional' financial assistance provided by the Centre to the state.Kumar was reacting to remarks made by Gandhi earlier, when she had claimed that Bihar had received the maximum amount of financial assistance from the Centre for development and welfare programmes during the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance's tenure.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi was on Sunday greeted by a host of dignitaries, including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, on her 62nd birthday.
May 21 is the 13th death anniversary of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.
The two leaders have returned to the country amid a growing clamour for structural changes within the party after its debacle in the crucial Uttar Pradesh polls.
"Politics of revenge has recoiled back and Sonia Gandhi has become a victim of her own conspiracy. This grand standing will not help," party General Secretary Arun Jaitley told reporters.
The meeting comes amid continued attack by former Punjab minister Navjot Singh Sidhu on the chief minister.
Yoga guru Baba Ramdev, who is a known supporter of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has said that he sees a lot of 'Indianness' in Congress president Sonia Gandhi's daughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.
According to sources, Sonia Gandhi took a jibe on party leaders, "You all are sitting together right but otherwise you don't even talk to each other."
The Congress president had in September last year made a similar trip abroad for a routine medical check-up after undergoing surgery for an undisclosed ailment in August 2011.
A United States federal court in New York has given Congress president Sonia Gandhi time till January 2 to respond to charges of "shielding, protecting and rewarding" the perpetrators of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.
"Soon it will be done," Sonia said when asked by reporters repeatedly as to when Rahul Gandhi, who is at present the vice president of the party, will be elevated.
More than 300 people from different parts of India and abroad would participate in the march, Dutt said. They would retrace the steps Mahatma Gandhi took and travel more than 240 miles.
The Centre has told the Supreme Court that Congress president Sonia Gandhi can hold constitutional posts. In a counter-affidavit, the Centre also said that Sonia Gandhi has been in India for more than 35 years as a citizen, and she is an Indian.
