Normal life remained crippled for the second day on Saturday in coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions where a bandh is being observed to protest the Centre's decision to bifurcate the state.
Addressing a press conference, Pawar said the trends of the assembly polls (in five states set to be held in November) suggest the situation is favourable for the opposition, but added he had no authentic information to comment on whether there would be a change (in government) at the national level.
Realising that there was no possibility of being re-elected on a Congress ticket, Rao has now decided to hitch his wagon to the Bhartiya Janata Party. In an exclusive interview with Rediff.com's Anita Katyal Union Textiles Minister K S Rao explains the reason for leaving the Congress, his assessment of Rahul Gandhi's leadership and his future plans.
The Congress leaders from Telangana region have made it clear that they would not resign from their posts as there has not been any indication from the party that they would not grant a separate state.
Denying allegations of orchestrating the latest delay in the formation of the Telangana state, Jagan Mohan Reddy's YSR Congress is going all out portraying the Congress and the Telangana Rashtra Samithi as the real villains. Vicky Nanjappa reports
No time-frame can be fixed for solving the complex issue of Telangana statehood as it requires political consensus, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhar Reddy said on Monday.The demand for carving out a separate state was under active consideration of the Congress high command, he said a day after the Telangana Rashtra Samithi, spearheading the statehood movement, received a huge setback in the by-elections.He said the Cong high command was trying to reach consensus.
Congress suggestion of a Gorkhaland model of autonomy, has only further angered Telangana activists, who are unwilling to settle for anything short of a separate state.
Senior Congress leader from Andhra Pradesh Keshav Rao resigned from his party on Thursday and joined the K Chandrashekhar Rao-led Telangana Rashtra Samithi in Hyderabad.
Other prominent candidates among the 904 in the fray are Union minister Anurag Thakur, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's nephew Abhishek Banerjee, RJD supremo Lalu Prasad's daughter Misa Bharti.
Cross-voting by Left and Congress MLAs on Friday helped Trinamool Congress gain an extra seat in West Bengal while a similar action by Congress MLAs in Andhra Pradesh saw the Telangana Rashtra Samithi making its debut in Rajya Sabha as high drama marked the polls to the upper House in the two states.
More than 50 workers were at work in the night shift when the mishap occurred in unit-4.
All India Congress president Sonia Gandhi has invited Praja Rajyam Party president and Tirupati Member of Legislative Assembly Chiranjeevi to New Delhi to meet her anytime between August 7 and 10 to formally take primary membership of the Congress party.
The Congress may have reviewed its poll debacle in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab, but unease is growing in the party in crucial states such as Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, which had returned spectacular results in the last two Lok Sabha elections.
Telugu film star and Jana Sena Party chief Pawan Kalyan has launched a vitriolic attack on the Centre for denying special category state status to Andhra Pradesh.
Seven Congress MPs from the Telangana region of Andhra Pradesh put off their decision on Tuesday to forward their resignation -- both from Lok Sabha and the party -- by a day, as they reportedly could not iron out differences among themselves on the issue.
According to the officials, the funds to the Congress were sent by Hyderabad-based Megha Infrastructure and Engineering.
The Congress feels that the people of Telangana must agree to some sort of a compromise formula and once the statehood is announced then they would not argue too much on this issue. The Congress says it has to take care of the interests of each and every person and this is the best workable solution available to them
BJP heavyweights Smriti Irani, Arjun Munda, Ajay Mishra Teni and Kailash Chaudhary were among the 13 Union ministers who tasted defeat in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, as stunning losses in three Hindi heartland states forced the BJP to rely on allies to form the government.
The Andhra Pradesh Congress has managed to put off the Telangana issue for a while following the Srikrishna Commission report. For the first time, legislators from the Andhra assembly misbehaved with each other at the start of the budget session.
The Congress will be wiped out in the next elections, Rayapati Sambasiva Rao, one of the six MPs who was expelled by the Congress for opposing the creation of Telangana, tells Rediff.com's Vicky Nanjappa.
'I am disappointed by all political parties; they have all let down the people of Andhra Pradesh,' TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu tells Rediff.com's Anita Katyal
The Congress wants to reinforce the tax more powerfully now after its four generations reaped benefit of the wealth passed on to them, he said.
By announcing Telangana, the Congress aims to kill two birds with one stone.
With Andhra Pradesh assembly Speaker Nadendla Manohar making a formal announcement in the House on Monday accepting the merger of Praja Rajyam Party with the Congress, the chapter of the Chiranjeevi-led party has come to an end in the political history of the state.
The Congress party is upset with Jaganmohan Reddy's Odarpu Yatra and the axe is likely to fall soon. This fact came to light when a member of Parliament from Andhra Pradesh wrote to party president Sonia Gandhi about the structure of Reddy's proposed Odarpu Yatra (condolence tour) and the politics behind it
The ruling Congress party in Andhra Pradesh finally got a dash of glamour with popular Telugu actor Rajasekhar and his wife and film director Jeevitha formally joining the party.
YSR Congress, which is fourth largest party with 22 members in the 17th Lok Sabha, wants to maintain equidistance from both the ruling and opposition sides.
With no debate whatsoever happening on the Telangana Bill in the Andhra Pradesh assembly, Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy is once again set to seek a four-week extension of the deadline to discuss and submit a report on the Bill.
Those joining Prime Minister Narendra Modi's council of ministers for the first time include three former chief ministers -- Shivraj Singh Chouhan (Madhya Pradesh), Manohar Lal Khattar (Haryana) and H D Kumaraswamy (Karnataka).
An organisational portfolio in the Andhra Pradesh unit of the Congress party seems to be all that Y S Jaganmohan Reddy--son of late chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy--will get for the time being. Halting his aspirations of taking over the mantle from his father, the Congress high command has decided to continue with current Chief Minister K Rosaiah for the time being.
Interestingly both parties in question are in denial mode, but reliable sources say that the offer to merge was made by the Congress.
Alamgir Alam had distanced himself from the activities of Lal while speaking to reporters after the ED raids, pointing out that he had earlier served with other ministers of the state government too.
Congress on Friday said consultation process with regard to separate Telangana demand is on at various levels, but refused to set any time-frame for arriving at a decision.
Ramamurthy Naidu met Sonia Gandhi at her Parliament House office and expressed willingness to work for the party, to which she agreed.
The Congress believes the Telangana Rashtra Samithi will decide in favour of a merger as the decision on statehood has deprived the regional party of its chief electoral plank and an issue that defined its identity. Anita Katyal reports
Elections will be held on June 10 to fill 57 Rajya Sabha seats from 15 states falling vacant due to the retirement of members on different dates between June and August, the Election Commission said on Thursday.
Modi told Times Now that the responsibility to take action in the raging matter lay with the state government as it was a law and order issue, according to the transcript of the interview provided by the broadcaster.
In the last five years, 480 candidates with declared cases related to hate speech have contested elections to state assemblies, the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, the ADR said.
But the atmosphere is now conducive for the Mahayuti to continue in power in Maharashtra thanks to the government's people-centric schemes, while the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) is giving promises that it cannot execute, he said.
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