The preferred format would be for the top BJP leadership in the government to reach out to the alliance leaders on a case-to-case basis.
Former Congress president Sonia Gandhi, BJP chief J P Nadda and new party entrant Ashok Chavan and Union ministers Ashwini Vaishnaw and L Murugan were among the 41 candidates elected unopposed to Rajya Sabha on Tuesday while Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh will witness polling on February 27.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Telugu Desam Party President Nara Chandrababu Naidu walked out of the Andhra Pradesh assembly after allegedly abusive comments were made about his wife by Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress supporters in Guntur.
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
The BJP senior leadership believes the YSRCP is a more reliable potential ally post-2024 Lok Sabha election than the TDP.
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 new chief minister, if from the Congress, will have little or no time for political administration, to ensure that he does not lose the voter's goodwill even before the Lok Sabha polls. He can count only on one thing. That the BJP may not want to upset him too early lest an early failure should become an added problem for the party in all the polls to follow, predicts N Sathiya Moorthy.
According to the officials, the funds to the Congress were sent by Hyderabad-based Megha Infrastructure and Engineering.
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
On balance, RG contesting from Raebareli instead of Amethi isn't the masterstroke the party's adherents are touting it to be, but neither is it the blunder the BJP and its tame media is framing it as, points out Prem Panicker.
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.
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.
More than 50 workers were at work in the night shift when the mishap occurred in unit-4.
Tamil Nadu's Deputy Chief Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin has reacted to Andhra Pradesh counterpart Pawan Kalyan's out-of-turn taunts with a one-liner, 'Let's wait', and thereby hangs a tale, notes N Sathiya Moorthy.
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.
Surprisingly, the BJP's nearest rival in ad spend was not the Congress, but the Bharat Rashtra Samithi.
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.
When the Bharatiya Janata Party's Mukesh Dalal was declared elected unopposed to the Lok Sabha from Surat on Monday, he became the first candidate to achieve the feat from Gujarat since its formation 64 years ago though the erstwhile state of Saurashtra saw a similar instance in 1951.
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.
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.
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
In its closure report on Rohith Vemula's death, the Telangana police claimed he was not a Dalit and died by suicide in 2016 as he feared that his "real caste" would be discovered.
Voting for the second phase of Lok Sabha polls will be held on Friday for 88 seats in 13 states with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi seeking a second-straight term from Wayanad in Kerala.
With the Congress in power in the state and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) snapping at its heels, the BRS is now fighting an existential battle.
Rebel Congress leader and former Member of Parliament from Kadapa, Y S Jaganmohan Reddy will formally launch his much awaited regional political party at his family estate Idupulapaya on Saturday.
Former party General Secretary Satyavrat Chaturvedi has been given nomination from Uttaranchal.
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YSR Congress Party chief Jagan Mohan Reddy's unexpected release on bail -- after spending 16 months behind bars on charges of corruption -- has set many tongues wagging.
YSR Congress Party honorary president Y S Vijayalakshmi began her indefinite fast against the proposed division of Andhra Pradesh and accused TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu of having a tacit understanding with Congress on the separate statehood issue.
