As the Bharatiya Janata Party looks set to retain Haryana, the Congress' poll campaign, which was built around various issues including unemployment, farmers' plight and Agnipath scheme, appeared to have failed to click with a majority of the voters.
Speculation is rife in political circles over the past few days that he is likely to join the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena.
Congress leader and former Maharashtra minister Baba Ziauddin Siddique, popularly known as Baba Siddique, on Thursday said he had resigned from the party and will be joining the Ajit Pawar led-Nationalist Congress Party.
The current situation in Kerala politics is perhaps best described as a case of the state's traditional two front politics now seeing a third front (the BJP) muscling in with the potential outcome being either a messy three front affair or a renewed endorsement of the two front pattern but with one of the old fronts compromised or quashed, observes Shyam G Menon.
In signs of friction in the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) over the chief minister's post, Shiv Sena-Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray leader Sanjay Raut on Friday said ally Congress should understand his party's contribution in increasing the grand old party's tally in the Lok Sabha polls.
The overtures by CPI-M state secretary MV Govindan had upset the Congress that had, subsequently, accused the Left party of turning the UCC into a Hindu versus Muslim issue for gaining political mileage.
Union Minister Suresh Gopi on Wednesday described former PM Indira Gandhi as the 'mother of India' and late Congress Chief Minister K Karunakaran as a 'courageous administrator'.
The Congressman is said to have written a letter to party president Sonia Gandhi apprising her of his decision.
'If a person wanted to contest from such a difficult seat, then it is meaningless to say that he is afraid of losing elections'
At least five Congress MLAs did not attend a meeting of the party's lawmakers in Maharashtra on Thursday, called in the aftermath of the high-profile exit of former chief minister Ashok Chavan that has triggered speculation about more such defections.
The Congress continued its losing spree on Saturday posting its worst-ever show in Maharashtra and ending up a distant junior partner to the ruling Jharkhand Mukti Morcha in Jharkhand, further diminishing its role in the opposition bloc as other allies perform better.
China and Pakistan are in a tight strategic alliance. India must deal with them one at a time, but be prepared in case they decide to collude, points out Shekhar Gupta.
In the purported five-second clip, Reddy is seen addressing a poll rally in Nalgonda on Tuesday and is heard saying in Telegu 'Sonia Gandhi is going to give the CM position to me if the party comes to power. There is no one senior to me here'.
Chavan said the Mahayuti and BJP's policy was Viksit Bharat and Viksit Maharashtra, as spelt out by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Modi also said the grand old party was being run not by its leaders but by some "behind the curtain" elements who are in nexus with anti-national forces.
The ruling Mizo National Front led by Zoramthanga is looking for a second straight term in the 2023 assembly polls.
Modi said that Congress' tally in the Lok Sabha polls will be an "all-time low"
Kumar leaves in the midst of assembly polls in five states and ahead of the February 20 election in Punjab.
Biswas had won the Sagardighi seat on a Congress ticket in a by-poll held earlier this year.
Kharge also hit back at the BJP for criticising his party colleague Rahul Gandhi over a copy of the Constitution with a red cover. He showed a picture of PM Modi gifting a similar copy to former president Ramnath Kovind.
Navigating a history of animosity and mistrust, negotiations for a potential Congress-Trinamool Congress alliance in West Bengal face significant challenges while addressing the shared adversary of the Bharatiya Janata Party, with the Bengal Congress unit appearing reluctant to engage in an electoral pact.
The Congress accused the BJP-led government of "destroying parliamentary norms" by ignoring the claim of Suresh, a eight-term Lok Sabha member, to the post of the pro-tem Speaker.
Sadanand Dhume, one of the rising stars in the Washington, DC, policy wonk circles, particularly among Conservatives, argues that while President Obama can take Indian Americans support for granted, their natural home should be the Grand Old Party
"During the Congress regime, the news headlines were of India handing over another dossier to Pakistan about terror activities. Some of our friends in media used to clap after such any such dossier was sent," Modi said at an election rally in Maharashtra's Latur.
Sources said the leaders during the meeting discussed the possible reasons for the "unexpected" results in Haryana and decided to set up the team to ascertain the reasons behind such results and also look into complaints of "discrepancies" in EVMs, as alleged by party candidates.
In a series of tweets, Gehlot said the party has seen various crises, including in 1969, 1977, 1989 and 1996, but has come out stronger every time due to its ideology, programmes, policies and the firm belief in its leadership.
It is in power on its own only in three states -- Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh and Telangana -- with a big question mark on whether it can even stake claim to be head of the INDIA bloc.
In a scathing attack on the Congress in his address in the Lok Sabha, Modi also called it parjeevi (parasitic) party and claimed that it ate into the votes of its allies.
There have been media reports of Banerjee meeting Rahul Gandhi at his residence in New Delhi on Wednesday morning. A leading Bengali daily had reported the meeting.
If the only superpower, which calls India an ally, sees the region through an India-Pakistan prism, it is unacceptable. Rather than endorse India's sphere of influence, this undermines it, asserts Shekhar Gupta.
Ever since, he has remained Thiruvananthapuram preferred MP, winning four elections on the trot, including the closely fought battle with Bharatiya Janata Party's Rajeev Chandrasekhar in 2024. This could well be his swansong from the capital segment.
Meanwhile, the Congress' data analytics department chairperson Praveen Chakravarty on Tuesday wrote to Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar, seeking assembly-wise voter rolls in excel sheet format for the Lok Sabha elections and the assembly polls in Maharashtra.
Speaking at a party meeting, Sharmila said she waited for four months for a response from the Congress leadership on her proposal to merge her party or work with the grand old party.
Banerjee, who was seated in front beside the driver, was injured after her head hit the windscreen, he said.
As the Congress batted for a national caste census with an assertion that rights should be proportionate to population, its senior leader Abhishek Singhvi on Tuesday created a flutter by saying "it will eventually culminate into majoritarianism", a remark he later withdrew from social media and blaming it on his staff.
'There are people who left and abused the party, so they should not be taken back'
The Congress on Wednesday removed its former Uttarakhand unit chief Kishore Upadhyay from all positions for anti-party activities, pending further action in the matter.
The feisty TMC boss also accused the CPI-M of ruining her party's relationship with the Congress, its ally in the Opposition bloc INDIA at the national level.
"Sometimes Sachin Tendular scored a century, sometimes he got out for Zero," Biswa said while reacting to party's loss in Karnataka.
BJP's candidate from northwest Delhi constituency Hans Raj Hans, Union minister and Chandni Chowk candidate Harsh Vardhan and other party leaders were also present.
