Janata Dal-United MLAs gathered at Nitish Kumar's official residence for the crucial legislature party meeting on Sunday to choose a new leader in the House after the JD-U leader's resignation following the ruling party's debacle in the Lok Sabha elections in the state.
The BJP, which has clinched 31 more seats than the 43 pocketed by Kumar's Janata Dal-United, is likely to have two deputy chief ministers on the lines of Uttar Pradesh. The names of four-time MLAs Tarkishore Prasad and Renu Devi, who were chosen the leader and the deputy leader of the BJP legislature party on Sunday, are doing the rounds for the post.
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has already taken a lead with his knock-on-door campaign.
The Congress had won over 400 seats in the 1984 Lok Sabha election after which Rajiv Gandhi became the prime minister.
The 2020 assembly polls marked the coming of age of a politician who valiantly went down fighting an army of battle-hardened veterans.
Baghel went on to allege that the RSS brought "aggressive Hindutva" here, saying that it believes in "destroying everyone whose thinking does not match theirs".
"You don't change party leadership for losses in one or two elections. The leadership is ideology. They make teams. Our team failed there (in UP)," he said.
The ruling coalition won 125 seats in the 243-member state assembly against 110 clinched by the opposition Grand Alliance to pave the way for a fourth successive term for Kumar in office.
Finding Rahul Gandhi's successor is likely to top the agenda when the party's top brass meets.
Tharoor also said that he certainly thinks Rahul Gandhi has the "mettle, capability and aptitude to once again lead the party", but if he does not wish to do so then the party must "take action" to elect a new chief.
Party leaders, sources said, maintained that Congress cannot afford to have a new leader at the helm for rebuilding the organisation at this juncture and that the responsibility for the defeat is collective and not individual.
The Congress, notwithstanding its depleted bench strength, failed to corner the government on a range of crucial issues during the just-concluded Parliament session, says Kavita Chowdhury
The Narendra Modi government should adopt an aggressive "tit for tat" policy towards Pakistan and should teach it a lesson if it creates trouble for India, National Democratic Alliance constituent Shiv Sena said on Tuesday.
Congress gets into the opposition groove but still has miles to go, says Saroj Nagi.
At its Jaipur meeting, the BJP will focus on this year's assembly elections in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh while the Congress's Chintan Shivir in Udaipur will discuss how it can resurrect itself.
Kumar, who looks on course to becoming the longest serving chief minister of the state during his new term, was expected to take oath on or after Monday next week before which he will send his resignation to the governor since his current tenure expires at the end of November.
Assam Congress on Friday decided to take collective responsibility for its "failure" soon after Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi announced he would resign taking full responsibility for the party's debacle in the Lok Sabha polls in the state.
Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray on Saturday warned his party cadres not to indulge in indiscipline or face his wrath.
Nationalist Congress Party president Sharad Pawar on Sunday declared that he was not going to be the party's chief ministerial candidate for the forthcoming Maharashtra assembly election slated for September-October.
A victory in Nandigram would not only establish him as one of the tallest BJP leaders in Bengal but would push him miles ahead of others in the chief ministerial race if the party is voted to power.
Toughening his stance against the Congress high command, former Union Shipping Minister G K Vasan gave ample indications of breaking away from the party and reviving the erstwhile Tamil Maanila Congress.
A party leader, who is known to be close to Rahul, said he would be elevated "sooner than you think".
Defence Minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday ruled out the release of the classified Henderson Brooks Report on the 1962 India-China war that is said to be openly critical of the Indian political and military structure of the time, saying its disclosure would not be in national interest.
"The Delhi results are indication of shape of things to come in our future politics. The sweep of AAP and just three seats to BJP showed hollowness of Modi's political hype", he noted.
'Gehlot is right now doing things, which are not appreciated by the Gandhis.' 'The Gandhis have realised that their writ does not run in Rajasthan, therefore they have deflected the issue to Kharge.'
Sixteen Congress secretaries drafted a letter on September 2 to be sent to party general secretaries and Congress Working Committee members, criticising senior leaders (without names, of course!) for their comments, asking the old guard to introspect about what went wrong at the general election.
The JD-U Legislature party on Sunday decided to take the final call on choosing a new leader on Monday in the wake of the resignation of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
Nationalist Congress Party leader and Baramati Member of Parliament Supriya Sule on Friday said the Congress-NCP coalition in Maharashtra must pull its socks up and bury the differences ahead of the coming assembly elections, conceding that "all is not well".
In a surprising move, the Rashtriya Janata Dal announced it would support the new Janata Dal-United government in Bihar headed by Jitan Ram Manjhi.
Indian elections are won and lost on 'negative' imageries and campaigns - but not certainly on 'negativity' as a political trait and electoral creed, asserts N Sathiya Moorthy.
Party sources in the party said the Padyatra could begin either from Vidarbha in Maharasthra or some district including Medak from Telangana -- the two regions which have been in the news for farmer suicides.
Seeking to defend its leadership from the attack by its veterans, the BJP said the "healthy precedent" of collective responsibility for poll defeats was set by Vajpayee and Advani.
The PM asserted that 'we know how to take challenges head-on'.
What is being exposed is we have no real doctrine and no idea how to deal with the world, asserts Aakar Patel.
Khurshid also asserted that the Congress was going through a "transitional process", but there was no leadership crisis plaguing the party as Sonia Gandhi was there at the helm.
The divide between 'teams' of Congress president Sonia Gandhi's and that of vice president Rahul Gandhi is increasing by leaps and bounds, according to party sources. There appears to be no common ground between the two sides, with both blaming the other for the state of affairs in the party. Renu Mittal reports
Yet to come to terms with the poll drubbing, knives are out in the Congress state units against Prithviraj Chavan, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Tarun Gogoi and Partap Singh Bajwa as there's a gradual crescendo seeking their resignations. Anita Katyal reports.
Congress spokesperson Rajeev Gowda tells A Ganesh Nadar why his party may join the Nitish Kumar-led Janata parivar alliance.
According to Yashwant Sinha, a national-level pre-poll alliance of all opposition parties should be formed or a nationwide pre-poll alliance of regional parties should be made to defeat the BJP in the general elections.
The meeting of the party's highest decision-making body will go into the reasons behind the party's debacle and discus as to why its poll narrative failed to convince the people.
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