The khichdi was prepared with 400 kg rice, 100 kg lentils, 350 kg vegetables, 100 kg desi ghee, 100 litres of oil, 2,500 litres of water and 250 kg spices, one of the cooks said.
"This is all about distraction, basic issue is of caste census and participation, in whose hands is the money of the country going. They (BJP) don't want to discuss this issue, they are afraid of it and run away from it," Gandhi told reporters outside Parliament.
The Congress on Saturday resolved to make the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) an 'ideological and electoral success' to free the country from 'divisive politics' and ensure that people get a government that is sensitive and accountable.
Even as the two parties appeared confident that they have reached out to every voter and publicised their new symbols, experts suggested varying impact of the split and the symbols on the vote bank.
A senior SP leader requesting anonymity said that the party chief had called a meeting to brief the MLAs about the voting process of the Rajya Sabha elections.
The chief minister said no one should indulge in vote bank politics
"Whatever rights Dalits and backwards had is due to Bhim Rao Ambedkar and there is no contribution of the Nehru-Gandhi family," Mayawati said while addressing a gathering after inaugurating the 'Bhim Rao Ambedkar Samajik Parivartan Sthal' in Lucknow. She alleged that 'Congress and company' had conspired against Ambedkar so that he could not become a member of the Constituent Assembly.
As the campaign for the Lok Sabha elections gathers momentum, Sharad Pawar and Uddhav Thackeray, the leaders of two prominent regional parties in Maharashtra, are fighting a battle for political survival.
'In Parliament, he was the one person who stood for democracy and secularism even when the principal Opposition party was not very forthright in taking on the BJP and RSS.'
A case has been registered against a youth Congress leader and two others for allegedly kidnapping and raping an 18-year-old dalit girl in Raigarh district of Chhattisgarh, the police said on Monday.
A sessions court in Gujarat's Mehsana district on Wednesday set aside a lower court order sentencing Congress MLA Jignesh Mevani and nine others to three months in jail in a 2017 case of taking out a public rally without police permission, noting debates and bona fide criticism of government actions are essential for the existence of democracy.
The Delhi high court on Thursday asked Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to take down his social media post which revealed the identity of a minor Dalit girl, raped and murdered in 2021, so that the child's identity is protected worldwide.
The minorities and Dalits, who constitute 40 per cent of the Telangana population, are now saying that they will prefer to remain in a united Andhra Pradesh rather than have a Telangana which is controlled by "communal forces", reports Vicky Nanjappa
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Monday expressed apprehension that the 2024 Lok Sabha elections would be the last opportunity for the people to save democracy, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi might prefer dictatorship in case his party wins the upcoming polls.
An eighth BJP candidate on Thursday filed his nomination for the Rajya Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh, setting the stage for a contest with the Samajwadi Party on February 27.
He also termed the draft notification issued by the state government providing Kunbi certificates to all Marathas as a mere 'eyewash', and said caste is determined by birth and not affidavits.
In the morning, he offered prayers at the Dashashwamedh Ghat and the Kaal Bhairav temple in Varanasi.
'For voters, PM Narendra Modi's name and developmental works in Rajkot are enough reasons to support the BJP'
Modi launched a scathing attack on the Congress alleging that the opposition party has become outdated and has always been against any kind of reservation.
Hitting out at opposition parties for calling his visit to Dalit homes as "madness", Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday said he would continue to indulge in such an act all his life.
'The Shiv Sena and the Ambedkarites are two powerful social forces in Maharashtra with a presence in the toiling classes. However, they were made to fight each other by the powers that be. Now, they are joining hands while overcoming this contentious past.'
Saini's elevation as Haryana chief minister fits in with a pattern that has gathered pace in the BJP after the Congress and its allies like the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh and the Rashtriya Janata Dal in Bihar began making an aggressive bid to woo the largest group of communities and politically most significant, especially in Hindi-speaking states, by pushing for a caste census.
Cooperation Minister K N Rajanna on Saturday floated the idea of having three more Deputy Chief Ministers in Karnataka, and said he will discuss it with the Congress high command, keeping in mind the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
Along with Modi, senior BJP leaders including Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah, Nitin Gadkari, Nirmala Sitharaman and S Jaishankar, all ministers in Modi 2.0 Cabinet, took oath as cabinet ministers at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. In all, 71 ministers were sworn-in along with Modi, taking the strength of the Union council to 72.
The houses of a sitting and a former MLA, both Dalits, were set afire by a violent mob.
Senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh on Saturday backed Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati's demand for inclusion of a Dalit representative in the Lokpal drafting committee while Justice Santosh Hegde does not seem to find any merit in it.
'We were at war with the BJP in the 1990s. We were burning down each other's offices then. I don't want that to happen again.'
From taking charge of Jharkhand as its youngest chief minister at 38 to establishing himself as a 'fighter' for tribal rights, Hemant Soren, who was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate, is an accidental leader thrust into politics after a family tragedy.
The first day of Congress president Sonia Gandhi's three-day visit to Rae Bareli, her parliamentary constituency, was devoted to Dalits and Muslims. She visited several villages on Monday and took stock of implementation of various centrally-sponsored schemes.
"Whoever said all those words you mentioned, I did not respond in kind because it is not the way I am built and we now have to move on, let bygones be bygones, whatever was said, we need to forget and move forward. It is not about individuals or positions or someone's statements now. It is about the country and the party," Pilot said.
The longest-serving state party president since October 2010, Parameshwara has remained a hardcore loyalist of the party ever since his political debut through the Congress.
The outcome of the polls to the Rajya Sabha is likely to have an impact in the politically crucial state just ahead of the general elections in the country.
Cooperation Minister K N Rajanna had on Saturday floated the idea of having three more DCMs in Karnataka and said he would discuss it with the Congress high command, keeping in mind the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
'What should surprise BJP supporters is Modi's call for 'stability' at the manifesto launch, a theme that he and his team members had not touched ahead of the Lok Sabha polls in 2014 and 2019.' 'The last time the party called for 'stability at the Centre' was in 1998 and 1999,' recalls N Sathiya Moorthy.
A 75-year-old Dalit man who was surviving on begging allegedly committed suicide after not being able to get food in Darguwa village
The AIMIM chief claimed top leadership of the Congress has "ignored" important elections in Maharashtra and Haryana.
A senior official said that Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje gave the direction in this regard to the home department yesterday following which remarks of the director general of police were sought on Wednesday.
The SP chief said, "If the Congress behaves like this, who will stand with them."
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday picked first-time MLA Bhajan Lal Sharma as Rajasthan's new chief minister, ending days of speculation that followed its victory in the assembly polls.
Six people were arrested on Thursday in connection with the rape and murder of the two girls.
