Denying rumours that he may opt out of the presidential race due to meagre support, Tharoor said he was very much in the fray and has been receiving support from various quarters.
Strengthening the party's communication strategy to improve public engagement is foremost on the Congress agenda after Rahul Gandhi had stressed that they "have to go back to the people" at the Udaipur meeting.
Mapanna Mallikarjun Kharge, a staunch Gandhi family loyalist from Karnataka, has become the Congress' first non-Gandhi president in 24 years.
Senior Congress leader M Mallikarjun Kharge is not averse to running for the AICC president's election if party chief Sonia Gandhi asks him to contest, sources close to the veteran leader said on Wednesday.
Today even those who support Prime Minister Modi feel there is a certain sense of listlessness in this government. What is it intending to achieve? This is not easy to say, notes Aakar Patel.
The Bharatiya Janata Party hit out at the Congress over Patil's remarks and accused it of playing vote bank politics.
'Trump's disregard for norms and institutions could prove very costly for America's social fabric.'
'Gehlot is right now doing things, which are not appreciated by the Gandhis.' 'The Gandhis have realised that their writ does not run in Rajasthan, therefore they have deflected the issue to Kharge.'
The Congress president said, in these contests, the numbers may be against them but "the battle must be fought and fought hard".
The meeting comes in the backdrop of the shock resignation of party veteran Ghulam Nabi Azad on Friday and his letter to party president Sonia Gandhi in which he lashed out at Rahul Gandhi for 'demolishing the party's entire consultative mechanism'.
Speaking at the Conservative Political Action Committee in Orlando, Florida on Sunday, the 74-year-old leader, who left the White House on January 20, stopped short of announcing to run for the president in 2024, although he gave enough indications that he is moving in that direction.
Congress observers for Rajasthan on Tuesday recommended disciplinary action against three key loyalists of Ashok Gehlot but did not seek any action against the chief minister, as the party scampered to resolve the crisis that has cast a shadow on the election of the party president.
Murmu's address to the joint sitting of Parliament will also be the first after the constitution of the 18th Lok Sabha.
The Congress Working Committee (CWC), the party's highest decision-making body, will hold a virtual meeting on Sunday to approve the exact schedule of dates for the election of the Congress president.
In his 'last appeal' to the over 9,000 Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) delegates who constitute the electoral college to pick the next All India Congress Committee (AICC) chief, Tharoor noted that from his conversations over the last few days he gathered that many of them may have concerns or hesitation about change.
Congress in Maharashtra had made efforts to woo the Raj Thackeray-led party to back UPA nominee Pranab Mukherjee for the presidential poll.
"There was a meeting between Pawar and Gandhi, in which the issue of candidates for the post of president was also discussed. Pawar clearly informed Gandhi that she should consider somebody else's name," NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik said.
With several names doing the rounds for the presidential election, the Bharatiya Janata Party leader Mukhtar Naqvi on Friday said there should be a consensus on the candidate.
George Clooney, the Hollywood actor and influential Democratic financial supporter, has called for United States President Joe Biden to end his re-election campaign, arguing that the president is too old to run again.
Former United States president Donald Trump has announced that he will run for the president in 2024 to make America 'great and glorious' again, vowing to fight like no one to defeat the 'radical left Democrats' that are trying to destroy the country from within.
The avoidable stresses and strains in ties helped in one way. It showed for the entire region how a matured India handled diplomatic relations, especially with a smaller and suspicious neighbour, with practised dignity and patience, unruffled by provocations in word, deed and action, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Dubbed as the "Super Bowl of American Democracy", Trump, 74, and Biden, 77, would respond to questions on their track record, the Supreme Court, economy, race and violence in cities and integrity of the elections at the Case Western Reserve University and Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio -- a key battleground state.
Sonia stated that it was not surprising that people would back one of their own, said Tharoor.
A total of 20 forms were received during the nomination process. Four of them were rejected as signatures were repeated or did not match, he said.
Although India-US relations have strengthened significantly in recent years, partly because of the security situation in the region, the Indian policy establishment would have to be prepared to protect India's interests in a world that could get more unpredictable.
'I am not waiting for the completion of those reports, and I've directed the Secret Service to take immediate steps to ensure our protectees are indeed safe. I am committed to pursuing accountability for the Secret Service's failure in Butler, Pennsylvania'
The 'Make Rahul Gandhi All India Congress Committee president again' chorus is growing louder in the Congress with half a dozen state units so far seeking his elevation to the top post, even as uncertainty and suspense persisted over whether he would take on the mantle.
Thakurs of all shades and complexions will synergise and chip in with all their might to see senior Thakur Shekhawat securely ensconced in Rashtrapati Bhavan.
The high-level committee on 'one nation, one election' approached 62 parties out which 47 responded -- 32 in support of holding elections simultaneously, 15 against it.
'...We should first look at and acknowledge what we have done to ourselves.' 'To not do so opens us to the accusation of rank hypocrisy and also reduces the stature of our globetrotting peaceniks,' asserts Aakar Patel.
Other members of the group are former prime minister Manmohan Singh, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Communist Party of India-Marxist chief Sitaram Yechury.
Amid a show of strength, United Progressive Alliance nominee Pranab Mukherjee on Thursday filed his nomination papers for the July 19 Presidential elections in the presence of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress President Sonia Gandhi and a host of leaders.
Exigencies of electoral politics and individual ambitions often stoke family feuds and sibling rivalries.
'The PM who is first among equals, who has to listen to others, take their point of view into account and who would have to be a good manager'
The Maldives media reported Azim's win as a 'landslide' and 'victory by a large margin.'
"Anybody fighting for an ideology and appealing to the voice of conscience cannot be a scapegoat. I am a fighter and I will fight and I am sure that many will join me in this fight," she said in response to a question whether she was being made a scapegoat in the presidential election.
Modi and Shah have finalised names for the Rashtrapati's post, which the BJP boss has discussed with the RSS chief.
Speaking to the media, Gehlot, who is in Kerala to take part in the Bharat Jodo Yatra, said, "I said earlier that I will request him (Rahul Gandhi) to accept this post when all the Congress Committees are passing resolutions in this regard. He made it clear that no one from the Gandhi family will become the next chief. He said he has decided this due to some reasons, a non-Gandhi family member will become the party chief."
"I will miss his tantrums" is what Congress president Sonia Gandhi said while bidding farewell to Pranab Mukherjee from the Congress Working Committee at a meeting which formally approved his name as the United Progressive Alliance's presidential nominee in June 2012.
'In some quarters it has been suggested that there will be an 'official candidate' backed by the leadership but on the contrary, it has been repeatedly stressed by Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra in my conversations with them over the last two weeks that the Nehru-Gandhi family welcomes these elections'
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