'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'
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.
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.
'...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.
The Bharatiya Janata Party hit out at the Congress over Patil's remarks and accused it of playing vote bank politics.
'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 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'.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
'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'
Exigencies of electoral politics and individual ambitions often stoke family feuds and sibling rivalries.
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.
The Congress president said, in these contests, the numbers may be against them but "the battle must be fought and fought hard".
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.
'Even if we have laws in place, which we must, we need a societal change.' 'Rather than telling our daughters that, "Listen, leave your house at so and so time, come back by so and so time," we must tell the men and boys that "Whatever point of time you encounter a woman in public space or wherever, you treat her with respect, dignity, and as an equal participant in these public spaces".'
In a significant development, the Supreme Court on Friday agreed to consider the separate pleas of opposition-ruled Kerala and West Bengal, alleging the denial of assent to bills passed by the respective legislative assemblies.
The recent 'revelation' by TN fishers freed by Sri Lanka after they had paid up Lankan rupees 50,000 each in fines, that their hair was tonsured in prison and they were forced to remove their garments other than the underpants, and were also made to clean toilets, as if with vengeance, has touched a raw nerve this time, just as another issue or issues had done it ahead of the Jallikattu protests, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
The Maldives media reported Azim's win as a 'landslide' and 'victory by a large margin.'
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.
"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.
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.
Congress in Maharashtra had made efforts to woo the Raj Thackeray-led party to back UPA nominee Pranab Mukherjee for the presidential poll.
'Corporates who donated to political parties were guaranteed by the electoral bond scheme that their names and to who they were donating funds will be not disclosed.'
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.
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.
Biden said America is in a stronger position to win the competition for the 21st Century against China.
The EU mission noted that political and campaign fundraising and financial expenditure lack transparency and effective oversight.
He said in categorical terms that CAA was brought in to provide citizenship and not to take away anyone's citizenship.
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.
Colorado election officials have said the matter needs to be settled by January 5, which is the statutory deadline to set the list of candidates for the GOP primary scheduled for March 5.
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."
'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'
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.
Congress in-charge for Rajasthan Ajay Maken on Monday slammed the MLAs loyal to Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot for setting conditions for a party resolution, terming it a "conflict of interest", and said their decision to hold a parallel meeting amounted to indiscipline.
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.
Modi knows how to turn Gujarati pride into an emotive issue at election time and a Gujarati President would have its own electoral resonance and significance, note Sunil Gatade and Venkatesh Kesari.
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