Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi held a virtual meeting on Friday evening with leaders of 19 Opposition parties, including the chief ministers of some Opposition-ruled states, amid efforts to boost Opposition unity and evolve a common strategy against the National Democratic Alliance government.
Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Wednesday admitted a no-confidence motion moved by Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi against the Narendra Modi government after a head count of over 50 MPs as required under the rules.
The government on Monday said that matters regarding Chinese intrusion can't be discussed in Parliament as it concerns the security of the country.
The Congress will launch a two-month door-to-door campaign across India from next week to spread Rahul Gandhi's message among the masses, senior leader Jairam Ramesh said on Friday.
Several leaders from the Congress and its alliance partners from across the country attended the event.
At a time 20-odd opposition parties, many of them regional rivals, joined forces over the Adani issue, Nationalist Congress Party supremo Sharad Pawar's open support for industrialist Gautam Adani has put a question mark on the durability of a non-Bharatiya Janata Party block in the run-up to the 2024 parliamentary elections.
As the deadlock over government formation in Jammu and Kashmir continued, the state unit of Congress on Thursday backed Peoples Democratic Party patron Mufti Mohammad Sayeed to lead the new dispensation to respect the people's verdict in the just-concluded assembly elections.
The two leaders also discussed the special category status promised to the southern state.
Narendra Modi and the father-son duo of Farooq and Omar Abdullah were on Monday engaged in bitter sparring, with the Bharatiya Janata Party prime ministerial candidate alleging that the biggest blow to secularism in the country was delivered in Kashmir from where Kashmiri Pandits were forced out due to their religion.
Top opposition leaders including Rahul Gandhi and Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday agreed to work together to prepare a common minimum programme.
'We repent our decision today as we feel we betrayed our (Congress) party, while the DAP betrayed us'
"NC is not power hungry... We shunned prospects of an alliance with the BJP a year ago and the reasons for having done that remain unchanged," Omar wrote on his official Facebook page.
The attack took place at 1:20 pm in Hari Singh High Street market area.
Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar on Monday met political strategist Prashant Kishor in New Delhi and will host a meeting of leaders from several parties and eminent personalities on Tuesday to discuss the current scenario in the country, his party said and asserted that the Maratha strongman is working to unite the Opposition.
'They hate him so much that if PM Modi says the Sun rises in the east the Congress will say the Sun rises in the west.'
The PDP is the front-runner in the Jammu and Kashmir assembly polls. The ruling National Conference and the Congress will be lucky to reach double figures.
The Lok Sabha, chaired by Speaker Om Birla, has been working for more than its scheduled time and has sat till midnight on two occasions to complete its legislative business.
A recap of events that occurred in India in the past week.
Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde on Tuesday asked former army chief V K Singh to name Jammu and Kashmir politicians who were allegedly paid money by the army for "stability", saying if details are given the government was ready to probe.
The veteran politician, who has been chief minister of the erstwhile state three times as well as union minister, also said the time has come for the opposition parties to come together and fight the forces who are bent on destroying the secular fabric of the country.
The prime minister has called a meeting of chiefs of all parties having representatives in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha on June 19 to discuss 'one nation, one election'.
The number of seats that the state parties will win will be much more than the BJP's, she further claimed.
Last week's heavy snowfall seems to have affected electioneering in Kashmir. South Kashmir's Anantnag and the prestigious Srinagar constituencies go to polls on April 24 and April 30 in the five phased Lok Sabha polls in the state.
Sixteen Congress secretaries drafted a letter on September 2 to be sent to party general secretaries and Congress Working Committee members, criticising senior leaders (without names, of course!) for their comments, asking the old guard to introspect about what went wrong at the general election.
Only three per cent of women candidates have been allotted tickets in Jammu and Kashmir assembly polls.
The authorities also sealed the Lal Chowk city centre - the commercial hub of the city - by placing barricades and concertina wires on all entry and exit points leading to the area.
The weekly flea market opened in Srinagar on Sunday as several vendors put up their stalls on the TRC Chowk-Polo View axis, the officials said.
The officials said restrictions have been lifted from most areas of the valley, but security forces continued to be deployed to maintain law and order.
The mortal remains of former Union Minister Arun Nehru, who died in News Delhi on Thursday night, were consigned to flames on Friday in the presence of his relatives, including family of his cousin Rajiv Gandhi, and a host of leaders.
A PAGD leader said the meeting was held at the residence of alliance chairperson and National Conference president Farooq Abdullah at the Gupkar locality of Srinagar.
'This move rendered the chiefs of important investigative agencies to the status of daily wage earners. It undermined the autonomy and independence of the agencies.'
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in all-party meeting on Jammu and Kashmir, on Wednesday said that his government is fully committed to the 'democratic process' in the region and holding the assembly elections is a priority, sources said.
The polling was slated for March 5, March 7, March 9, March 12, March 14, March 16, March 18 and March 20.
>All old signposts have been uprooted and milestones bulldozed. New ones have yet to emerge. The old order stands degraded in the new landscape whose contours are indistinct, observes Mohammad Sayeed Malik, the distinguished commentator on Kashmir affairs.
'There is a trust deficit between Delhi and Srinagar. It is there even today.'
'You cannot achieve peace if your objective is not to make political accommodations,' notes Dr Nyla Ali Khan, Sheikh Abdullah's grand-daughter, Dr Farooq Abdullah's niece and Omar Abdullah's cousin.
The biggest electoral upset in the state was witnessed in Anantnag with National Conference candidate and former high court judge Hasnain Masoodi defeating former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti.
'This silence is an eloquent testimony to the fact that such private armed mobs enjoy the luxury of official patronage'
People's Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) leaders, including three former chief ministers, were put under house arrest on Saturday before a protest against the proposals of Jammu and Kashmir Delimitation Commission, prompting angry reactions from political parties which said such steps will only 'incentivise and facilitate' violent agitations.
