The Congress on Wednesday said senior party leader Ghulam Nabi Azad was consulted several times before finalising the names in the revamped Jammu and Kashmir unit of the party, rejecting reports that the former Union minister was not on board.
Akbar said the next general election "will be won on the basis of governance and not on journeys".
'It is very unfortunate that the AAP seems to be looking at the issue through the prism of rivalry with Congress in Delhi and Punjab'
He said the purpose of Gandhi's Yatra from Kanyakumari to Kashmir is to remove the hatred and fear and not to unite the opposition parties under the banner of his party.
Last week's heavy snowfall seems to have affected electioneering in Kashmir. South Kashmir's Anantnag and the prestigious Srinagar constituencies go to polls on April 24 and April 30 in the five phased Lok Sabha polls in the state.
Kashmiris hope that India and Pakistan can find a lasting solution to what many call the Kashmir 'problem'.
The alliance leaders are getting together for the third round of the brainstorming session in Mumbai, after Patna and Bengaluru, to chalk out their common campaign strategy to take on the NDA in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Gandhi was also asked what he applies on his skin. The answer -- he never applies cream or soap on his face and only washes it with water.
Priyanka Gandhi made a low-key visit to Kashmir during which she offered prayers at the Mata Kheer Bhawani shrine in Ganderbal district, officials said on Friday.
Despite heavy snowfall in Srinagar, the rally to mark the culmination of Bharat Jodo Yatra went ahead, with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and other prominent leaders of opposition parties addressing the march.
The Union home ministry on direction of Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh is preparing a road map for relocation of the security forces in the Kashmir Valley -- the major demand of agitators across the state. Unified command of the security forces in the Valley is also involved in this process.
SS Randhawa mentioned Modi's statement 'ghar me ghus ke marenge' and asked how did the Pulwama terror attack take place then.
India's recent move to remove additional 'retaliatory' duty on eight products from the United States (US), including apples and walnuts, would not have any negative impact on the domestic producers, the government clarified, even as the issue threatened to snowball into a political slugfest between the ruling and Opposition parties. The move would, in fact, result in competition in the premium market segment, ensuring better quality at better prices for consumers, especially for apples, a senior government official said. "There were certain concerns that were being raised on the mutually agreed solution that has come in, more specific to seven-eight agriculture products where we had levied additional import duties in retaliation to the steel and aluminum measures (imposed by the US)," Peeyush Kumar, additional secretary in the commerce department, told reporters in a briefing.
When the assembly election comes around later this year with Nayab Singh Saini, from the OBCs, at the helm, the sense of victimhood non-Jats feel will propel the BJP into power again, predicts Aditi Phadnis.
After Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Telangana and Mizoram would go for polls this year.
Azad, 73, former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, ended his five-decade association with the Congress on Friday, terming the party "comprehensively destroyed" and lashing out at Rahul Gandhi for "demolishing" its entire consultative mechanism.
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday alleged that "Congress government" at the Centre was trying to dilute the Indian position on Jammu and Kashmir.
The bypoll on September 5 is also a litmus test for all three political outfits, with the BJP hoping to check its erosion in its vote share and retain the seat, the TMC aiming to wrest the tribal-dominated assembly segment and the CPI(M)-Congress alliance hoping to regain its traditional seat.
Addressing a rally in the Balpur area in Gonda in Uttar Pradesh on the completion of nine years of the Narendra Modi government, Singh skipped any direct reference to the wrestlers' protest for his arrest and chose to target the Congress over the Emergency, Ram temple, the 1984 anti-Sikhs riots and other issues.
'Should the Congress take Jyotiraditya's departure as good riddance?', asks Mohammad Sajjad.
As the adjournment of Parliament for an indefinite period with the Rajya Sabha also adjourning sine die kickstarts the final countdown for the general elections, Modi said the last five years were a period of "reform, perform and transform" with the country moving towards "big changes" at a fast pace.
Singh was under investigation by the federal agency as part of the case lodged under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) against an educational trust run by his wife and former legislator Kanta Andotra, they said.
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.
