In the manifesto released on Saturday, the Congress also promised unemployment allowance of Rs 3,000 per month, Rs 2,000 pension to divyangs, widows, senior citizens and needy women, and waiver of loans of up to Rs 3 lakh of all fishermen, among other things.
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.
Kharge or somebody else, whoever becomes the chief, he will only be a face to show, Sushil Modi said.
They said that as Congress MPs, they are concerned about the transparency and fairness of the election process for the president of the party.
The notification for the Congress president's election will be out on September 22 by when all the PCC delegates will be finalised and electoral roll published and the election, if required, will be held on October 17.
Manish Tewari, Prithviraj Chavan, Anand Sharma and Bhupinder Hooda are the members of the pro-reform G23 group who wrote a letter to party's interim president Sonia Gandhi.
Mistry said the poll body satisfied the candidate on every complaint but despite that he raised all those points in the media before bringing them to "our notice".
'A brief statement was made by the Army on the sensitive issue. But no questions were taken,' a member said.
The Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi's key confidants -- general secretaries Madhusudan Mistry, P C Joshi and Mohan Prakash -- were clearly among the most notable absentees. Rediff.com contributor Anita Katyal reports
'I would like to see Kharge include Shashi in the Congress Working Committee.' 'The other alternative is that the Congress will marginalise him.'
Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Monday claimed he has the support of party workers from across the country for his bid to fight the AICC president polls.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said there was a competition among Congress leaders as to who will use the most abusive words against him, referring to the opposition party president Mallikarjun Kharge's 'Ravan' jibe at him.
The BJP on Tuesday retained the prestigious Vadodara Lok Sabha seat in Gujarat vacated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with a huge margin of more than 3.29 lakh votes.
New members have to give a declaration that they will not own any property in excess of ceiling laws and will undertake tasks including "manual labour" prescribed by the party.
BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi on Friday won Vadodara Lok Sabha seat by a margin of 5,70,128 votes.
Mistry said the election authority is in the process of finalising the AICC delegates who will vote in the crucial election for the top party post.
Modi had said he receives "2.5-3 kg" of abuses everyday, but he turns the harsh remarks into positive energy.
In its third list of candidates for the coming Lok Sabha elections, the Congress on Tuesday fielded 58 candidates, mostly tried and tested ones. While most sitting ministers, including Kapil Sibal (Chandni Chowk), Krishna Tirath (Northwest Delhi), Sachin Pilot (Ajmer) and Srikant Jena (Balasore) were retained, the surprise elements were state Youth Congress President Vishwajeet Kadam replacing tainted Suresh Kalmadi from Pune and cricketer Mohammed Azharuddin from Tonk-Sawai Madhopur (Rajasthan).
Hectic preparations were underway at the Congress headquarters for the ceremony where party president Sonia Gandhi will hand over the baton to her successor, Mallikarjun Kharge, the first non-Gandhi to head the outfit in 24 years.
While Kharge is considered the firm favourite with his perceived proximity to the Gandhis and a large number of senior leaders backing him, Tharoor has pitched himself as the candidate of change.
The Congress dismissed as "mere speculation" reports that Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi are to offer their resignation at the Congress Working Committee meeting on Monday called in the wake of the party's worst-ever electoral defeat.
Speaking to the media, Gehlot, who is in Kerala to take part in the Bharat Jodo Yatra, said, "I said earlier that I will request him (Rahul Gandhi) to accept this post when all the Congress Committees are passing resolutions in this regard. He made it clear that no one from the Gandhi family will become the next chief. He said he has decided this due to some reasons, a non-Gandhi family member will become the party chief."
Hitting back at the Congress after its Saharanpur leader Imran Masood threatened to chop Narendra Modi to pieces in a hate speech, Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje said the Lok Sabha results will clearly show who will be cut to size and who will be the winner.
The Congress on Sunday said it will give a "good fight" to Bharatiya Janata Party leader Narendra Modi on Varanasi seat and did not rule out fielding an outsider.
The central election authority of the Congress met and finalised the initial program of the process.
Congress party will hold a protest rally called Zameen Wapsi Andolan in New Delhi on Wednesday.
The comment by the minister sparked anger with the Congress's Ghulam Nabi Azad saying it was sad that foreign media knew of it, but the minister didn't know of the incident.
For those having any 'fear or doubt' in their mind, Tharoor said, the party has made it clear that it will be a secret ballot.
Voting began on Monday in the Congress presidential polls as senior leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Shashi Tharoor face-off for the post of All India Congress Committee (AICC) chief.
He also asked why anyone seeking to contest the Congress president's election should go to the PCC office to get the electoral roll as this does not even happen in a club election.
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Congress general secretaries Digvijay Singh and Madhusudan Mistri are among the five Congress nominees for the Rajya Sabha elections announced on Monday. However, suspense still remains on whether former Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit will join them.
However, Gehlot, said he will make one last-ditch effort to convince Rahul to take up the party president's post.
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 Bharatiya Janata Party's Ranjan Ben Bhatta will be pitted against Congress's Narendra Rawat for the Vadodara Lok Sabha seat vacated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The Congress party is thinking of ways to counter the BJP in Lok Sabha constituencies is it unlikely to win, reports Renu Mittal.
BJP prime ministerial nominee Narendra Modi is likely to give a miss to campaigning in Vadodara constituency from where he is contesting Lok Sabha election.
Senior Congress leader Rashid Alvi on Monday joined the party men who have offered to contest against Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi from Varanasi Lok Sabha seat.
Union Minister Kumari Selja was named the Congress nominee for Rajya Sabha elections, putting an end to speculation that former Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit could be brought to the Upper House from Haryana.
Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi has directed party leaders of five election-bound states to keep candidates with criminal background out.
Mallikarjun Kharge was on Wednesday elected the Congress president after defeating Shashi Tharoor in an electoral contest, the sixth in the party's 137-year-old history.
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