The Bharatiya Janata Party's comprehensive defeat to the Congress in Karnataka where the two parties ran a campaign of contrasts has left the ruling party much to ponder as the two rivals are facing a direct contest in three more state polls this year in the run-up to the all-important 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
In a setback to the Congress in Kerala, senior party leader K Sudhakaran on Thursday said he would not contest against Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan in Dharmadom constituency in northern Kannur district.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi has approved the proposal for the candidature of Yadav and Jabbar, the All India Congress Committee said in a release.
Senior AICC member and former Union minister K V Thomas, who has been at loggerheads with the party's state leadership, on Wednesday said he would campaign for the ruling Left Democratic Front candidate Jo Joseph in the upcoming by-poll in the Thrikkakara Assembly constituency, but reiterated that he would not quit the Congress.
'The situation in India is much more grave and serious than all of us think.' 'That's why it's important to defeat the BJP in 2024.'
A protest march of the SFI, the students wing of ruling CPI-M, against Congress MP Rahul Gandhi's office in Wayanadon Friday turned violent as a group of protestors allegedly entered the Lok Sabha member's office and vandalised it.
The ruling BJP in Karnataka, where Assembly elections are due in April-May next year, considers Lingayats as its key vote-base.
Speaking to reporters after meeting the family, he said, as MLA of the locality, Arvind Limbavali is said to have tried to settle things.
If elected, he will be the second All India Congress Committee president from Karnataka after S Nijalingappa, and also a Dalit leader to hold the post after Jagjivan Ram.
More screenings are expected to take place in some colleges in Ernakulam and Thiruvananthapuram later Tuesday, a senior police officer said.
The Lok Sabha MP said a clear picture about the Congress president poll can be known on September 30 and the Yatra would cross the state's borders the next day.
Setting the mood for the assembly elections in Karnataka due next year, former Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Friday exhorted party leaders in the state to work together, as he set an ambitious target to win a minimum of 150 seats.
The Congress party's Bharat Jodo Yatra entered the second day in Kerala on Monday, amid an encouraging turnout of people who have been lining up the streets of the state in thousands to extend support to Rahul Gandhi who has embarked on the 3,500 km Kanyakumari-Kashmir foot march.
'How and why did we lose so many seats in places where we were expected to win?'
Hitting out at Congress leaders for the party's performance in the Lok Sabha polls, Baig, a MLA from Shivajinagar, had recently held Siddaramaiah's "arrogance" and KPCC president Dinesh Gundu Rao's "immaturity" responsible for the "flop show."
A construction firm in Kerala had filed the civil suit recently over alleged non-payment of dues to the tune of Rs 2.8 crore in the construction of the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Development Studies complex by KPCC at Neyyar.
Gandhi attacked the BJP by alleging that the saffron party has proved that hatred can be used politically and to win polls, but cannot generate employment.
Khan while reacting to party's state president DK Shivakumar's attempt to consolidate the Vokkaliga community, had recently said that nobody can become the chief minister with support from just one community.
Heather Constructions has alleged that it was given a contract for construction of Rajiv Gandhi's statue and is yet to receive dues amounting to Rs. 3.5 crore.
The Congress said it will continue their march once the COVID third wave declines and the curbs are relaxed.
'People of the state who bless me will give a befitting replay to the Congress.'
A day ahead of the Rajya Sabha polls for four seats from Karnataka, Congress Legislature Party leader Siddaramaiah on Thursday wrote an open letter to Janata Dal-Secular MLAs requesting them to cast their 'conscience vote' in favour of his party's second candidate Mansoor Ali Khan, stating that his win will be a victory of 'secular ideology' followed by both parties.
Congress Member of Parliament Shashi Tharoor on Monday said he accepts the party's decision to remove him as party spokesperson for praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi, but regretted that he did not get an opportunity to respond to the charges levelled against him by the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee.
The direction to Kerala Rail Development Corporation Ltd (KRDCL), or K-Rail as it is popularly known, was welcomed by Congress-led United Democratic Front opposition as they termed it a victory of the first phase of the struggle against the semi-high speed rail corridor.
Jitu Patwari, was briefly detained along with a few Congress supporters as he sought to enter the resort in the Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled Karnataka.
Pandemonium prevailed in the Karnataka assembly on Wednesday with Minister for Rural Development and Panchayat Raj K S Eshwarappa and State Congress president D K Shivakumar charging towards each other stopping short of coming to blows.
It may be for the first time that any leader in any political party in Kerala had taken such a step to register their protest against the party leadership for denying poll ticket.
'There cannot be an alliance with Congress that does not honour the coalition dharma'
"One can understand when a woman is raped once. But what if she repeatedly says it. A woman with self respect will either die by suicide after she is raped or try not to be sexually assaulted again."
After coming under fire for his sexually-coloured remarks against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, former member of Parliament Joyce George on Tuesday withdrew his comments and expressed regret publicly, even as the national party demanded his arrest while the ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist distanced itself from the slur.
Kharge, who was popularly known as "solillada Saradara", (a leader without defeat) faced his first electoral loss in his political life spanning several decades against BJP's Umesh Jadhav in Gulbarga by a margin of 95,452 votes in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
With the cabinet expansion being deferred repeatedly, several aspirants, especially those from Congress, had openly expressed their displeasure over the delay, piling pressure on the party to fill its quota so as to avoid any trouble ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
All senior leaders will be along with Rahul Gandhi during these programmes and this will be the 'first leg' of the campaign by the Congress president.
Nilekani has been maintaining silence on reports about his political plans, which has gained more currency after the KPCC reportedly shortlisted his name among the three probable candidates for Bangalore south recently.
In key organisational changes, the Congress on Wednesday appointed young face Anil Chaudhary as its Delhi unit chief and named D K Shivakumar, known to be the party's chief troubleshooter in crisis situations, as the head of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee.
Hitting out at Tharoor, Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee working president and the party's chief whip in the Lok Sabha, Kodikkunnil Suresh on Friday said everybody in the party should work according to it's policies and programmes.
Expressing resentment at party MP Shashi Tharoor praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress' Kerala unit on Wednesday decided to submit a report to the party high command seeking suitable action in the matter.
In a blow to the Congress in poll bound Kerala, Senior leader P C Chacko on Wednesday announced his resignation from the party, alleging group interest in deciding party candidates for the assembly elections.
Discord in the Congress in Kerala between Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and KPCC president Ramesh Chennithala has sharpened after the possibility of the latter's entry into the state cabinet with a plum portfolio got dimmed.
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