The Congress and the National Conference on Monday announced they will fight the Lok Sabha polls in Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh, in alliance, with both parties contesting three seats each.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the Union Budget on Tuesday as the Monsoon Session of Parliament gets underway next week with the united opposition set to corner the National Democratic Alliance government on issues ranging from the NEET paper leak case and railway safety.
On Saturday, Delhi unit of the Congress unanimously adopted a resolution urging Rahul to take over as the president.
The parties reiterated that they are bound, wholly, by the contents of the 'Gupkar Declaration', a resolution issued after an all-party meeting on August 4, 2019 at the Gupkar residence of NC president Farooq Abdullah.
He said a detailed schedule of the Yatra for J&K is being worked out in consultation with the agencies concerned, especially the security establishment.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi Tuesday appointed former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Ghulam Nabi Azad as the party's campaign committee chief in the union territory, but he declined the offer.
The resolution said that any changes to the status of Jammu and Kashmir must be made with the direct consultation of the Kashmiri people, who must play a central role in the determination of their future.
Gandhi also raised questions over the Union territory status given to Ladakh after the bifurcation of Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories following the abrogation of Article 370.
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.
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.
'Unlike in the sporting arena, where sports federations moved from partisan to impartial referees, in Indian democracy's biggest festival, it appears we are moving backward from unbiased and objective to one-sided and partisan,' observes Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
Voting for the second phase of Lok Sabha polls will be held on Friday for 88 seats in 13 states with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi seeking a second-straight term from Wayanad in Kerala.
Rahul Gandhi arrives in Kashmir Valley on Thursday on a two-day visit, bringing along a strong business delegation that will include Ratan Tata and Kumar Manglam Birla, to a state seeking more investments.
He said the party has not extended an invitation to Singh to join the yatra.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who set off a national debate when he walked the Bharat Jodo Yatra in a T-shirt in north India's cold winter, donned a pheran to ward off Kashmir's bone-freezing chill on Monday.
The Congress on Tuesday said that the party's stand on the resolution seeking amnesty for Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru will be decided by its legislators.
From steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal to billionaire Sunil Bharti Mittal's Airtel, Anil Agarwal's Vedanta, ITC, Mahindra and Mahindra, and a lesser-known Future Gaming and Hotel Services were among the prominent buyers of the now-scrapped electoral bonds for making political donations.
Congress's Lok Sabha members Shashi Tharoor, Manish Tewari, Karti Chidambaram, Pradyut Bordoloi and Abdul Khaleque said this list must be made available in order to verify who is entitled to nominate a candidate and who is entitled to vote.
The Union government has ordered the complete withdrawal of the counter-terrorist commando force NSG from VIP security duties and handing over its nine "high-risk" VIPs to the CRPF by next month, official sources said Wednesday.
The Congress said the foot march, being led by party leader Rahul Gandhi, will proceed according to its schedule and reach Jammu on Monday afternoon.
As a group of Bharatiya Janata Party workers chanted 'Jai Shri Ram' and raised 'Modi, Modi' slogans in front of Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra bus in Nagaon, the Congress leader waved, gave flying kisses and stepped down to meet them.
Upbeat over the outcome of the assembly elections, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will hit the campaign trail in Jammu and Kashmir on December 14.
Party president Sonia Gandhi nominated Mukut Mithi (Arunachal Pradesh), Peerzada Sayeed (Jammu and Kashmir), Prabha Rau (Maharashtra), B D Kalla (Rajasthan) and Salman Khurshid (Uttar Pradesh).\n\n
Taking to Twitter, the Jammu and Kashmir Police said, 'JKP was not consulted before taking any decision on discontinuation of Yatra after conducting 1 km yatra by organizers. The rest of yatra continued #peacefully. There was no security lapse at all. We will provide foolproof security (sic).'
The Congress will launch a two-month door-to-door campaign across India from next week to spread Rahul Gandhi's message among the masses, senior leader Jairam Ramesh said on Friday.
'Ashok Gehlot is a senior and experienced political leader. Whatever differences he has expressed with his younger colleague Sachin Pilot will be resolved in a manner that strengthens the Congress party,' All India Congress Committee general secretary communications Jairam Ramesh said in a statement.
Congress asked the government to clear its stand on whether it intended to hold talks with Pakistan.
Matondkar, 48, had resigned from the Congress in September 2019 after a short association of six months, and joined the Shiv Sena in 2020.
Seventeen former leaders of the Democratic Azad Party (DAP), including ex-deputy chief minister Tara Chand and ex-Pradesh Congress Committee chief Peerzada Mohammad Sayeed, on Friday returned to the Congress fold and were welcomed back by the party which said they were on a 'leave of two months'.
Sources said besides giving approval to the polls schedule, the members of the CWC, the party's highest decision-making body, could also express confidence in the leadership provided by Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi.
The padyatra concluded at the Lal Chowk area on Sunday with Rahul Gandhi unfurling the national flag but the official closing would take place on Monday in Srinagar, amid snowfall.
The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the proposal for 'one nation, one Election' as recommended by the Kovind panel, Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Wednesday.
Asked how many seats the Congress would fight on, Singh said they would be flexible in seat sharing.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has created such an atmosphere in Kashmir that any Indian can hoist the national flag with pride at Lal Chowk in Srinagar, the Bharatiya Janata Party said on Sunday and asked Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to thank him for the change in the Valley.
"Everything may look normal in Kashmir. Everything may look normal here. We may be celebrating the victory, although of course some people believe that that victory or that success of 2024 was perhaps only marginal, perhaps a lot more needs to be done," he said.
The party, the sources said, has also approved 50 per cent representation to SCs, STs, OBCs and minorities at all levels of the organisation, as part of its social engineering efforts to win the confidence of the weaker and oppressed sections of society.
Former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir Ghulam Nabi Azad will contest the Lok Sabha elections from Anantnag -Rajouri constituency, his party Democratic Progressive Azad Party (DPAP) said.
Maharashtra Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant hit out at the actress for leaving Mumbai for her home state Himachal Pradesh without giving information about drugs to government agencies.
'Strange when people who don't have the capacity to fight a ward poll, were "chaprasis" of Congress leaders give "gyaan" about the party it's laughable'
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