Tharoor said Rahul Gandhi's disqualification from Lok Sabha following his conviction in a 2019 defamation case has generated a 'surprising wave of Opposition unity' with many parties having begun to feel the truth of the adage -- united we stand, divided we fall.
Adequate security and Covid safety measures have been put in place for the electoral exercise.
A party without a 'high command' would be 'anarchy,' he said.
'It is not just about numbers. Sometimes coalitions and alliances have symbolic value.'
In UP and Bengal, it is willing to sacrifice its interests to stop the BJP and would work towards ensuring the BJP did not win incremental seats in Odisha and Telangana.
'The presence of Rahul Gandhi and his campaigning for the Congress will make a general difference, but whether it will make a saving difference, not sure.'
The constituencies spread across lower and central Assam will have 12,699 polling stations where 1,04,35,271 voters will be able exercise their franchise.
Opposition parties, including the Congress, Trinamool Congress, Bharat Rashtra Party and Samajwadi Party, came together in a show of unity on Thursday and accused the Modi government of getting the second half of the budget session washed out, while asserting that if this attitude continues, the country will move towards a "dictatorship".
With Maharashtra and Haryana assembly elections, results for 51 assembly and two Lok Sabha bypolls spread across 18 states were declared on Thursday. Here are state-wise results of the bypolls.
As the counting begins on Friday the public focus in Assam will be mainly on how helpful the 'Modi Wave' has been for the Bharatiya Janata Party to challenge a confident Congress in Assam. Both the parties have contested in 13 out of 14 parliamentary seats.
If they will allow I will speak inside the parliament, the Wayanad MP said.
'The government or the ruling party has indicated indirectly that you are not supposed to publish anything critical of the government or the senior functionaries of the government.'
Opposition parties on Sunday lashed out at the Bharatiya Janata Party after Nationalist Congress Party leader Ajit Pawar and eight others were inducted into the Eknath Shinde-led Maharashtra government, saying the ruling party's 'washing machine' has resumed its operation to clean tainted leaders and it was an 'ED-facilitated power grab'.
A number of Indian diaspora organisations in the UK have issued letters objecting to the creation of a new cross-party parliamentary group for British Gujaratis, warning that the move could be "divisive".
Away from the distraction of its new high-profile politics, Wayanad's worries seemed very down to earth, discovers Shyam G Menon.
More than 750 constituencies spread across four states and one union territory will go to the polls on Tuesday
Image used for representational purpose only. Photograph: Jayanta Dey/Reuters The Congress also said demonetisation has come a full circle and added that the Rs 2,000 note was a "band-aid to cover up the foolish decision of demonetising" Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes.
Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on Thursday rejected claims by Bharatiya Janata Party MP and his former deputy chief minister Sushil Modi that the Janata Dal-United had split with the National Democratic Alliance as the chief minister was not made the Vice President.
Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Monday met Sonia Gandhi and expressed his intention to contest the upcoming AICC chief polls, while the Congress president conveyed that she would stay "neutral" in the elections, sources said.
Announcing that a district-wide bandh was being organised in protest against the killing, Chaudhary said that if no headway is made in the investigation within 48 hours, there will be a state-wide stir.
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.
In the Congress, Sushmita Dev enjoyed the indulgence of the Gandhi family. She has been true to them and has been graceful in her gratitude to the party that gave her unparalleled political opportunities.
While Himanta Biswa Sarma scotched rumours that he would be the king this time, political sources in Guwahati maintained that he, and not Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, had a bigger say in choosing candidates, reports Radhika Ramaseshan.
Whether it is Sri Lanka, Maldives, or Nepal, quietly but steadily, India has been reclaiming some of the ground it had lost to China, observes Aditi Phadnis.
The public protest had erupted over the demand for rehabilitation of nearly 800 families evicted from the land they were living on for decades.
The Congress's share has almost halved, down from 12 in 2014 to six now.
Forced to cross the Nanoi, a channel of the Brahmaputra, over 7,000 people uprooted from their homes and farms in Darrang district of Assam now use the stream's muddy water to drink and cook and defecate in the open as `Swachh Bharat' toilets built in their villages are now guarded by policemen who do not allow them to re-enter any part of the lands they have been thrown out of.
Even if the Congress is unable to defeat the political appeal of Narendra Modi, the resources and talent of the BJP and its managers, it is relying on issues like the Citizenship Amendment Act and the perceived threat to Assamese identity, along with the future threat of the National People's Register to ensure it continues to be a force in the state. Aditi Phadnis reports.
For the chief minister and Assam alike, the road ahead is full of challenges, notes Aditi Phadnis.
Liberal Democrat Member of the European Parliament Chris Davies said the decision showed the Indian government was trying to hide the "reality of its actions" and blocking absolute freedom of the press.
Hearing the Centre versus the Delhi government over the issue of demarcation of power, a constitution bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud said an elected government needs to have control over the administration.
'The way discrimination against Muslims has become almost normalised is very upsetting.'
Rahul said that if you ask the BJP why a train accident happened, they will say the Congress Party did such and such thing 50 years ago, taking a swipe at the government following the Odisha train accident, one of the worst railway tragedies in the country.
Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Saturday said he does not see a 'middle path' to end the logjam in Parliament as the Opposition's demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the Adani issue was 'non-negotiable' and the question of an apology over Rahul Gandhi's remarks in the United Kingdom does not arise.
Gautam Adani's alleged proximity to Narendra Modi may dent the latter's self-styled image of incorruptibility, points out Kanika Datta.
Aditi Phadnis predicts frequent stand-offs between the Centre and states in the future.
Following the killing of an SDPI state secretary late Saturday night, a BJP leader was hacked to death less than 12 hours later on Sunday morning and later, prohibitory order under Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) Section 144 was imposed in the entire Alappuzha district, additional police force was deployed there and senior officers camped there to monitor the law and order situation.
Trinamool Congress MP Derek O'Brien said the situation in Bihar is one of the reasons behind the Parliament session being cut short by the government.
Gandhi claimed that authoritarian tendencies are becoming clearer, with the erosion of fundamental rights being accompanied by a narrow imposition of conformity and obedience from dutiful citizens. voters polarised for electoral gains
Sarma said his government had prepared a dossier on PFI and would be taking action against the outfit in the state.
