According to insiders, their lack of enthusiasm is showing on the ground. There is nothing to suggest that their enthusiasm will return in the final four phases of polling, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday slammed the opposition alliance INDIA as a collection of arrogant dynasties who will take India back by two centuries as he exuded confidence that people will bless the "garib ka beta" with a record-breaking mandate in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
In the coming days, unless Modi tones down the communal spiel, it will be clear that anxiety continues to drive his mind and clouds his judgment, observes Modi biographer Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
He was administered the oath of office by Governor Rajendra Arlekar at the Raj Bhavan in Patna.
India's grand old party is still not able to comprehend what the country's largest minority group wants. What their issues are. What their demands are. With whom they want to associate. And what their needs are, says Ehtasham Khan
The meeting between the two leaders, which was also attended by Bihar's deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav, was described as 'positive'.
Sibal, a prominent Opposition voice and a former Congress leader, also said that instead of a common minimum programme, the Opposition parties should talk about a 'new vision for India'.
Trump, 74, who faces a formidable challenge from former Democratic vice president Joe Biden, 77, is scheduled to deliver his acceptance speech from the South Lawn of the White House on August 27.
Gohil, who is also one of the party's national spokespersons and a Rajya Sabha member from Gujarat, made the disclosure on his official twitter handle. 'Due to personal reasons, I have requested our party high command to allocate me lighter work for next few months and to relieve me ASAP as #Bihar in charge,' Gohil tweeted, tagging his party, its units in Bihar, Gujarat and Delhi besides a number of colleagues.
Rediff.com's data journalists have found out the constituencies that are most important to the Congress
'An entire operation was running systematically prior to the revoking of Article 370.'
'She showed courage at every turn in her political career.'
Reacting sharply to Banerjee's fulminations, the Congress struck back pointing out that Prime Minster Narendra Modi's and her stand were similar, with one seeking a 'Congress 'Mukt' (Free) India' and the other, an 'Opposition coalition sans Congress'.
After arriving in Guwahati on a special flight from Goa, Gandhi straightaway reached Srimanta Sankardeva Kalakshetra, where the three-time chief minister's body has been kept for the public to pay their last respect.
Sober by temperament and nature, Kharge has never landed in any major political trouble or controversy.
Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) international joint general secretary Surendra Jain on Tuesday warned All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen chief Asaduddin Owaisi for his comment on the inauguration of Ram Temple in Ayodhya.
The youth wing of the Bharatiya Janata Party in Assam on Monday claimed its activists have filed more than 1,000 complaints against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi at various police stations in the state over his tweets that left the Northeast out of India's geographical expanse while he talked about the country's unity.
While Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao has made his national ambitions amply clear, even rechristening his party to aid the process, his Tamil Nadu counterpart M K Stalin insists he is already in the national scene and used his birthday rally on March 1 to not only strongly pitch for the Congress as a force to reckon with in the efforts to dislodge the Narendra Modi-led dispensation at the Centre, but also sought to shoot down the prospects of a Third Front.
Why weren't the chief ministers of Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Kerala, Maharashtra and Telangana -- all of which have borders with Karnataka -- not invited to Saturday's swearing-in ceremony, asks Shyam G Menon.
Eyeing the revival of the crisis-ridden party ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the party chief Sonia Gandhi described the march as a "landmark occasion" and hoped that the march would help rejuvenate the grand old party.
BJP candidate and former chief minister Bhajan Lal's grandson Bhavya Bishnoi on Sunday defeated his nearest rival and Congress nominee Jai Prakash in the Adampur assembly seat by-election, retaining the family bastion.
Team Rediff.com asked veterans Congress watchers all over India to give their opinion about Congress's weaknesses and strengths in the states and how people perceive the local leadership. The opinions outline the perception that the party is suffering from terminal cancer. Only a miracle can save it.
RSS joint general secretary Manmohan Vaidya, apparently referring to the Congress's Bharat Jodo Yatra, described it as a "political gimmick" that will not serve its stated purpose of uniting masses.
The 53-year-old legislator from Adampur met with the BJP leaders in New Delhi and later, heaped praises on them. He was expelled by the Congress from all party positions last month.
Just weeks ahead of Uttar Pradesh assembly polls, Singh quit the Congress party on Tuesday and joined the BJP, in a setback for the grand old party.
The cross-country foot march stayed in the news almost right through, mostly for the barbs between the BJP and the Congress and occasionally for other reasons, including infighting in the opposition party.
In Phase 6, indications are that the BJP, which is defending 40 seats, will lose in double digits and gain in single digits. Not good, if you are the ruling party scrambling to earn a working majority, with just one phase left to go, argues Prem Panicker.
Fears of the Congress not having a credible face, after the death of its three-time chief minister Sheila Dikshit last July, and ceding its vote bank to the Aam Aadmi Party came true with the Arvind Kejriwal-led party capturing the space once occupied by the grand old party.
'There is no law or Article in the Constitution that says the prime minister must inaugurate the new Parliament, but Article 79 of the Constitution says the President of India is the competent person.'
Historian Ramachandra Guha on what the Congress means for India today, what could lurk for the party in the future and the importance of Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi.
Sparks flew on the first day of the debate on the no-trust motion moved by the Congress with the Opposition on Tuesday asserting that it was forced to do so to break Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'maun vrat' (vow of silence) on Manipur and the treasury benches hitting back saying it was a no-trust vote against a 'poor person's son' who has worked for the welfare of the people.
The CPI-M's allegations were termed a political conspiracy by the opposition Congress which accused the Left party of stooping low to target its political opponents.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said the Bharatiya Janata Party has decided it would not adopt the path of appeasement and vote bank politics.
The Blair model, used to turn the Labour Party's flagging fortunes around in Britain over a decade back, has come in handy for India's grand old party, which is in search of a winning formula after successive electoral defeats including in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh.
The Grand Old Party must bring widespread reforms across all levels of the organisation to show it is no longer in a state of inertia and to present itself as a viable political alternative to the Bharatiya Janata Party, Congress veteran Kapil Sibal said.
Rahul Gandhi has become a symbol of 'Bharat jodo' (unite India) and will be seen in a new avatar post the Congress' pan-India march, senior party leader Digvijaya Singh said.
Former Union home minister Chidambaram lashed out at the government over the alleged sluggish pace of inoculation against the viral disease and claimed that the country will not achieve 100-per cent first-dose vaccination by December 31.
Five-time former Punjab chief minister and Shiromani Akali Dal patriarch Parkash Singh Badal, who was admitted to a private hospital in Mohali over a week ago, died on Tuesday. He was 95.
Opposition leaders on Saturday lauded the Congress for its victory in Karnataka and thanked the people of the state, saying that this win has showed that 'Modi is not invincible'.
While a total of 377 reports on Congress appeared in the Delhi edition of four leading English newspapers -- Indian Express, Times of India, Hindustan Times and The Hindu the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party could get their affairs onto the front page only 138 times during the first six months of this year.
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