Sources said the Congress leadership is also in talks with AAP leaders and senior leaders within the party are trying to convince Delhi Congress leaders for an alliance.
Asking party members of Parliament from Uttar Pradesh to gear up for the next Lok Sabha polls, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday expressed confidence that Congress would be able to double the number of seats it had won in 2009 general elections in the state.
If the already demoralised Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam cadre, beaten worse by the shocking parliamentary poll debacle in May 2014 thought that the political set-back suffered by rival All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, Jayalalithaa Jayaram, in the light of a Bangalore court ordering a jail-term for her in September was a boon for their leadership, it's not to be.
Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad was literally caught napping in the Lok Sabha on Monday. Prasad was seen catching his forty winks while being seated in his allocated first row seat, which is right in front of the Speaker's chair.
The fourth phase of Lok Sabha elections began on Friday, covering seven constituencies in four states where over half-a-crore voters decide the fate of 74 candidates.
The Congress on Monday dared social activist Anna Hazare to contest from the Chandni Chowk Lok Sabha seat in New Delhi after the latter released findings of his team's survey in Union Minister Kapil Sibal's constituency on the Lokpal issue
The Congress' Assam unit is banking heavily on party veterans to win the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections, indicates a list of the 11 candidates released by the party. The party is contesting from 13 LS constituencies out of the total 14 seats. It has left one seat to its ally Bodo People's Front.Candidates from Lakhimpur and Dhubri are yet to be announced.
Observers say the one on one meeting between Jaya and Vaiko, lasting 15 minutes, is significant from the forecast of early Lok Sabha polls, as her party the All India Anna DMK is ready to offer two Lok Sabha seats to the MDMK
Atal Bihari Vajpayee's protg Lalji Tandon was on Friday declared as Bharatiya Janata Party's candidate for the Lok Sabha polls from the Lucknow constituency in Uttar Pradesh.
It does not stop here, though. According to field information, state ministers, AIADMK candidates and campaigners are asking BJP cadres accompanying them not to carry party flags at common rallies and also avoid their saffron shawl on those occasions. BJP cadres are also asked to stay out of the common campaign when it enters a minority-dominated areas, especially of Muslims, and re-join later, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Abjijit Mukherjee, son of President Pranab Mukherjee and Congress candidate on Saturday won the Jangipur Lok Sabha by-election by 2,536 votes defeating his nearest Communist Party of India-Marxist rival Muzaffar Hussain.
Notwithstanding the hiccups over seat sharing in Uttar Pradesh between the Congress and the Samajwadi Party , SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav on Saturday claimed that the two parties will face the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls in 'perfect coordination'.Mulayam told media persons that despite the visible tug-of-war over sharing the 80 Lok Sabha seats in the country's most populous state, all was well between the two parties.
Is the Bharatiya Janata Party back to its hackneyed Hindutva agenda? The question is being raised following the party's decision to entrust the leadership of the party's campaign for the forthcoming state bye-election in Uttar Pradesh to the saffron clad rabble-rouser Mahant Adityanath.
Should the ruling AIADMK in Tamil Nadu not make the required five out of 22 by-election seats, or even otherwise, the temptation to poach, especially from the Congress or starting with the Congress may be high on Chief Minister Edappadi K Palanisami's agenda, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Purno Sangma's daughter Agatha K Sangma of the Nationalist Congress Party won the Tura parliamentary bypoll on Sunday defeating the Congress candiate Zenith Sangma by a margin of 99,855 votes.
The BJP on Thursday announced a seat-sharing arrangement with the Asom Gana Parishad, saying that it will contest eight of the 14 Lok Sabha seats in Assam while the regional party will field candidates in rest of the six constituencies.
The Aam Aadmi Party has to return to the drawing board and learn from this experience. The party is here to stay and make its mark in Indian politics, says AAP members in the US. Ritu Jha/Rediff.com reports from California.
By getting the Tamil Nadu assembly to act on his very imaginative public declaration to keep petro-chemical industries out of the Cauvery delta, which has traditionally been a DMK stronghold, Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami has not only set the ball rolling for the assembly elections due a year later but also sent out a strong message to the BJP government at the Centre, which took a unilateral decision to exempt petro-complexes from environmental clearance, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Rajya Sabha members alleged that their counterparts in Lok Sabha get preferential treatment at Parliamentary functions.
PIX: Moderate to high turnout in 5th phase of LS polls
The Payment of Gratuity (Amendment) Bill and The Specific Relief (Amendment) Bill passed amid din.
Mayawati added that the BSP's relationship with the SP is never going to end and she will try to ensure that their relationship stays intact.
In a major exercise ahead of Lok Sabha polls, Congress on Thursday night constituted screening committees for all states and union territories for early selection of candidates.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Priyaranjan Dasmunsi gave this information to reporters on Thursday.
Notwithstanding the party denial of the possibility of national campaign by her, the Congress on Tuesday saw demands that Priyanka Gandhi contest Lok Sabha elections.
In bad news for Congress, Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi has opined that the party has no case for claiming the Leader of Opposition post, saying there is no precedent since the days of the first Lok Sabha when Jawaharlal Nehru was the Prime Minister.
Every general election since 2004 has been seeing the foray of one or two new parties into the political battlefield in Andhra Pradesh.
Terming the Lok Sabha elections a "prestige issue" for the Bahujan Samaj Party, its supremo Mayawati on Monday asked the partymen to set aside their differences and redouble their efforts to ensure maximum representation in Parliament.
The Asom Gana Parishad on Monday announced the names of its candidates for the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls and vowed to give a tough challenge to the ruling Congress in the state.Announcing the name of the party candidates, AGP president Chandra Mohan Patowary said, "An united AGP armed with a seat sharing arrangement with the Bharatiya Janata Party will form a formidable force against the Congress, which is already jittery over our tie up with the BJP."
Sriram Sena will hold a meeting to decide its role for the coming Lok Sabha polls on March 8, its chief Pramod Muthalik said.
The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha on Wednesday said they had no differences with the United Progressive Alliance and would contest the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls in alliance with UPA and its allies in Jharkhand. JMM MP from Giridih, Teklal Mahto, said, "We had contested the last election together and won 13 of the 14 Lok Sabha seats in the state. JMM would contest the forthcoming election with the UPA."
Controversial Bharatiya Janata Party MP Babubhai Katara, allegedly involved in the infamous human trafficking case, was expelled from the Lok Sabha on Tuesday, taking the total number of members axed in the current term to a record 11. Katara, representing Dohad (ST) seat in Gujarat, was shown the door after the House adopted a resolution expelling him, a day after a Lok Sabha panel recommended his removal for "grave misconduct".
As the second phase of polling commenced on Thursday amid heightened security, bigwigs came out to cast their votes for constituting the 17th Lok Sabha. Among those who took to their respective polling booths were former Finance Minister P Chidambaram, actor-turned-politician Rajinikanth, BJP candidate from Bengaluru South Tejasvi Surya, and defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman, among others.
The Congress on Wednesday said that the process of declaring its candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha election would start soon."Party leaders sent to various constituencies for selection of nominees have already submitted their reports. The party will soon announce its candidates in certain seats, where there is a unanimous opinion on nominees," All India Congress Committee general secretary Digvijay Singh said.
Medhavi Kirti, the granddaughter of late veteran Congress leader Babu Jagjiwan Ram, has been campaigning against her aunt Meira Kumar, Lok Sabha Speaker and Congress candidate from Sasaram Lok Sabha seat in Bihar.
The bypolls to four Lok Sabha and 18 Assembly seats are slated for May 29. Barring two assembly seats, the vacancies in the remaining Lok Sabha and Assembly constituencies were caused by the en masse resignation of TRS MPs and MLAs led by KCR. Jeevan Reddy decided to quit the minister's post following the Congress high command's decision to field him in the Karimnagar bypoll.
According to some of those present in the meeting, Mayawati also referred to the family feud in the Yadav clan, saying after Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav's younger brother Shivpal decided to contest separately the community votes were not transferred to the BSP, and the SP could not even save its "family seats".
Lok Janshakti Party chief Ram Vilas Paswan is working overtime to ensure the victory of his son Chirag Paswan, who is contesting from the Jamui parliamentary constituency in Bihar.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav's wife Dimple is likely to try her luck at the hustings once again. Her name was already being projected as the Samajwadi Party frontrunner for the forthcoming by-election for the Kannauj Lok Sabh seat, vacated by none other than her husband after he became UP chief minister.
Filmmaker-turned-politician Prakash Jha is set to contest the Lok Sabha polls from the Bettiah parliamentary seat in Bihar as a Janata Dal-United nominee.
