Addressing election rallies in the district headquarters towns of Shivamogga and Raichur, Gandhi alleged that the prime minister was in the know about the sex scandal and he could have got Prajwal arrested within seconds but allowed him to flee the country.
The Congress's loss in the three states in the North-East, a region it had dominated for decades, shows there is a lot left to do to reclaim its political turf despite the Bharat Jodo Yatra which it had touted as a successful experiment in mass public outreach.
On the 32nd day of the yatra that started on September 7, Gandhi said some political parties were trying to spread hatred in the country by misleading youngsters.
Extending its winning run in the south, the Congress on Sunday won 64 assembly seats to form government in the Bharat Rashtra Samiti-dominated Telangana, with the southern solace coming in the midst of a saffron sweep of the Hindi heartland where the Bharatiya Janata Party wrested two states from the grand old party and retained one.
Ramesh told PTI that an east-to-west yatra, probably from Pasighat in Arunachal Pradesh to Porbandar in Gujarat, was being considered but its format could be a bit different from the Bharat Jodo Yatra.
Some of the Congress's new-found enthusiasm for hitting the streets will show its result in the Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, and Karnataka elections. That is when we will know if the Congress will go to the regional parties or the parties will come to the Congress.
The Bharatiya Janata Party suffered stunning losses in three Hindi heartland states, partial poll results showed Tuesday, forcing the party to rely on allies to form the government after a bitter and divisive election that was projected as a referendum on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's popularity.
Amid the political crisis in Himachal Pradesh, Chief Minister Sukhwinder Sukhu on Thursday left for Delhi to 'meet' the Congress high command.
Karnataka Congress president DK Shivakumar on Monday said the party's national general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has agreed to campaign and spend time in the state, for the assembly elections next year.
Those joining Prime Minister Narendra Modi's council of ministers for the first time include three former chief ministers -- Shivraj Singh Chouhan (Madhya Pradesh), Manohar Lal Khattar (Haryana) and H D Kumaraswamy (Karnataka).
"No MLAs will be going anywhere," DK Shivakumar said.
Nagaraj reached Mumbai accompanied by Karnataka BJP president B S Yeddyurappa's personal assistant Santosh and BJP MLA R Ashok.
Senior leader P Chidambaram whose Rajya Sabha tenure is ending from Maharashtra is under consideration from Tamil Nadu as the Congress is all set to get the support of alliance partner the DMK. The G-23 leaders, including Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma and Vivek Tankha, are also said to be in contention.
Close to half of the total 543 Lok Sabha seats are bracing for multi-cornered fight this time, making the contest way more interesting and intense than it was in the 2019 elections.
Megha Engineering and Infrastructure, the little-known Hyderabad-based firm that in recent years won the prestigious Zojila tunnel deal among other projects, forayed into city gas and acquired a media group, was the second largest donor to political parties using electoral bonds.
The Congress has 40 MLAs while the BJP has 25 in the 68-member state assembly. The remaining three seats are held by independents.
Election Commission data shows 15.88 crore (158.8 million) voters are eligible to exercise their franchise in the second phase on Friday.
Ramesh, however, said it was too early to talk about all this right now as the Congress' first priority was the upcoming elections in Karnataka and the string of state polls this year.
After losing both the seats in the by-polls of the Karnataka legislative assembly, state Pradesh Congress Committee's working president D K Shivakumar and Leader of Opposition Siddaramiah resigned from their posts on Thursday. The two leaders resigned after accepting the moral responsibility for the party's defeat in Kadur and Gulbarga. The Bharatiya Janata Party won the Kadur seat while the Janata Dal Secular won the Gulbarga seat.
Cong could win only 2 of 15 seats. Siddaramaiah wrote to Sonia expressing regret.
The party fielded Maneka Gandhi from Sultanpur, while Uttar Pradesh minister Jitin Prasada has replaced Varun Gandhi in Pilibhit.
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."
The 57-year-old Vokkaliga strong man, who has his own support base in parts of old Mysuru region of Bengaluru Rural, Ramanagara, Mandya and neighboring areas was greeted by supporters with flowers, crackers and a mammoth apple garland upon his arrival.
He said the then prime minister Manmohan Singh had given a speech in which he had said Muslims have the first right to the country's resources.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday named 72 more candidates for the Lok Sabha elections, including Union ministers Nitin Gadkari, Piyush Goyal and Anurag Singh Thakur, and former chief ministers Manohar Lal Khattar, Trivendra Singh Rawat and Basavaraj Bommai.
Raut said they do not require the exit polls as they work on the field and know the "undercurrent".
Chief Minister Kumaraswamy, on private visit to the United States, said he was keeping a tab on the developments while the state Congress attacked the Bharatiya Janata Party, alleging the opposition party was trying to destabilise the government.
External Affairs Minister S M Krishna on Sunday said the law of the country would take its own course in fishermen killing case in which the crew of an Italian ship fired at and killed two Indians off Kollam coast in Kerala.
Singh has questioned the reliability of the EVMs on more than one occasion following the Congress' defeat in the recent assembly polls in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh.
She said she had told the party leadership last year that it was difficult to travel in the three hill states due to her health.
Lok Sabha constituencies that sprung a surprise in the 2024 polls.
For renomination to the Rajya Sabha, Nadda will have to look for a seat outside his home state of Himachal Pradesh as the Congress is in power there.
The Congress had released 'Farmers Declaration', 'SC, ST Declaration' and 'Youth Declaration', comprising its promises to the Telangana voters in the assembly polls scheduled to be held in a couple of months.
Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com does a deep dive into four elections when Narendra Modi resorted to anti-Muslim fervour and points out that Hindu-Muslim politics does not necessarily mean victory for the BJP.
BJP heavyweights Smriti Irani, Arjun Munda, Ajay Mishra Teni and Kailash Chaudhary were among the 13 Union ministers who tasted defeat in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, as stunning losses in three Hindi heartland states forced the BJP to rely on allies to form the government.
Shivakumar also said that the central observers have spoken to Sukhu, party MLAs and state unit chief Pratibha Singh and all differences have been ironed out.
The meeting was convened by the party to assess whether its flock was intact amid speculation that some of the MLAs had switched over to the Bharatiya Janata Party.
The Congress on Monday promised that a government led by it will conduct a nationwide caste census and implement 33 per cent reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and state legislative assemblies at the earliest, including adequate representation for women belonging to the OBC community.
In a notice issued to Congress MLAs, CLP leader and former chief minister Siddaramaiah warned that absence of MLAs at Friday's meeting would be viewed 'seriously'.
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