Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee president Manikrao Thakre quit his post owning moral responsibility for the party's defeat in the state assembly elections on Sunday.
Announcing the decision at the party headquarters in Hyderabad on Tuesday, All India Congress Committee general secretary K C Venugopal said the swearing-in will take place on December 7 in Hyderabad.
Hitting out at Congress leader Vijay Wadettiwar for indulging in a blame game over the MVA's defeat in the state assembly, Raut said those who don't believe in consensus and compromise have no right to be in an alliance.
Leader of Opposition in Maharashtra legislative assembly Eknath Khadse has welcomed the hanging of 26/11 terrorist Ajmal Kasab saying that justice has been done.
A meeting of the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party coordination committee in the state would take place around August 2 or 3, in the backdrop of the recent standoff between the two parties.
Top Congress leadership on Tuesday discussed the issue of government formation in Telangana.
Party insiders say the high command could consider replacing state chief Manikrao Thakre, reports Sanjay Jog.
Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar on Saturday refuted the allegation that the Nationalist Congress Party ditched the Congress in recent elections to the posts of Zilla Parishad chairman and vice-chairman in the state, saying it was the Congress which had failed to honour the `dharma' of coalition.
Congress Vice President Rahul is meeting with workers and leaders from the party's faction-ridden city unit in Mumbai on Friday.
The controversy over fund collection for Congress president Sonia Gandhi's rally at Sevagram in Wardha district on Friday could land Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee chief Manikrao Thakre in trouble. The All India Congress Committe indicated that it was not coming to the rescue of the beleaguered leader, amid questions whether he was off the hook or being proceeded against.
A fresh controversy has erupted after Maharashtra Congress President Manikrao Thakre announced formation of a 21-member 'Coordinating Committee' to work out electoral strategy for the forthcoming civic polls here, with the anti-Kalmadi faction within the party alleging that the panel was dominated by loyalists of the tainted MP who brought disrepute to the city which he represented in Parliament.
The Congress' Maharashtra unit said on Friday that it wanted a fresh negotiation with its 10-year-old ally Nationalist Congress Party, a move that comes barely a month ahead of the Assembly elections and is likely to delay seat-sharing talks.
The Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party have resolved most of the issues on seat-sharing for the Maharashtra assembly polls but there was no clarity on whether there would be a joint campaign and manifesto.
Amid speculation that the candidature of Rajendra Shekhawat, son of President Pratibha Patil, has been cleared for Maharashtra Assembly polls, the state Congress leadership left it to the party high command to decide the issue of tickets to kins of senior leaders.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi has called off her Maharashtra visit on Sunday because of health reasons, party sources said.
The Congress has finalised almost all the 174 seats it plans to contest in the October 13 Maharashtra polls but did not rule out exchange of few seats with the Nationalist Congress Party for the 288-member assembly.
After four rounds of negotiations, the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party have agreed to contest from 40-41 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra while a decision on the remaining eight seats will be taken soon. The two parties agreed on seat-sharing for 41 of the 48 Lok Sabha constituencies in Maharashtra. Sources in the Congress-NCP alliance said the two parties have agreed to contest 19 seats each out of the 40-41 seats.
Of the total 48 Lok Sabha seats in the state, the two parties have agreed on 42 seats, said Manikrao Thakre, president of the Congress' state unit, adding that talks over the remaining six seats were still inconclusive.
Unfazed by the Congress attack over the letter row involving him, Bharatiya Janata Party president Nitin Gadkari on Saturday said that even Congress Chief Minister of Maharashtra Prithviraj Chavan and its state chief Manikarao Thakre had written letters in favour of the Goshikhurd project.
'Chavan's political clout began declining since his Lok Sabha defeat in 2019.'
Putting pressure on ally Congress over the deadlock regarding seat sharing for the Maharashtra Assembly polls, NCP said a meeting of its core committee in Mumbai on Monday will take a final call on the matter even as it asserted that it is sticking to its "original demand".
In a major organisational rejig ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, the Congress on Saturday appointed Avinash Pande the general secretary in-charge of Uttar Pradesh, replacing Priyanka Gandhi Vadra while Sachin Pilot was made the general secretary in-charge of Chhattisgarh.
The Congress will not allow the Maharashtra state assembly to function and will corner the Bharatiya Janata Party-led state government, Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee said on Sunday.
Rao said his party Bharat Rashtra Samithi has always maintained that parties should unite based on people-centric issue.
The leaders met Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, former party chief Rahul Gandhi in the presence of general secretary (organisation) KC Venugopal and Telangana Congress chief A Revanth Reddy.
A day after Konkan strongman Narayan Rane quit the Maharashtra cabinet, efforts to persuade him to take back his resignation failed on Tuesday and the matter would now be referred to Congress president Sonia Gandhi for resolving it.
Gaurav Gogoi will head the screening committee for Rajasthan with Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and former deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot included among the ex-officio members of the panel.
Congress MLA Nitesh Rane has stoked a controversy by saying that he wants to begin Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'Clean India' campaign from Mumbai by cleaning the city of all the Gujaratis who hate Marathis.
The election will be held on Sunday, a day after the ruling alliance cleared the floor test.
Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who is leading the 3,570km-long foot-march, expressed grief over the death of Seva Dal general secretary Krishna Kumar Pandey.
A post-mortem examination was conducted on Saturday on the body of veteran communist leader Govind Pansare, who died in Mumbai after he was airlifted to the city from Kolhapur for treatment.
Pawar's daughter and Baramati Lok Sabha member Supriya Sule, former assembly speaker Dilip Walse Patil, state NCP chief Sunil Tatkare, NCP group leader in the assembly, Jayant Patil were present at the meeting.
At least half a dozen toll plazas were vandalised on Monday by suspected Maharashtra Navnirman Sena activists in Thane after party chief Raj Thackeray asked workers not to pay toll tariff and "crush" the toll gates.
Maharashtra will witness a triangular contest for the post of the Speaker of Legislative Assembly on Wednesday, with the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Shiv Sena and the Congress putting up candidates. Haribhau Bagde of the BJP, Vijay Auti of Shiv Sena and Varsha Gaikwad of the Congress have filed nominations for the post. The deadline for withdrawal is 10 am on Wednesday.
The blame game has started in Maharashtra Congress over the party's unprecedented defeat in the state.
In its complaint against Shah, the Congress told the EC that the home minister claimed in a speech in Chhattisgarh's Rajnandgaon on October 16 that "...Bhupesh Baghel's government, for appeasement politics and vote bank politics, lynched Chhattisgarh's son Bhuneshwar Sahoo and got him killed..."
State Congress legislators made a pitch for a change in party leadership by bringing in more new faces, especially youngsters in their Thursday meeting.
The Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party leaders met on Tuesday morning to decide on seat sharing for the upcoming Maharashtra assembly elections but the talks were "inconclusive." With only four days left, to file nominations for the October 15 polls, time's running out for the 15-year-old alliance.
Senior Nationalist Congress Party leader and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Saturday said decision as to when to hold the meeting on seat-sharing for Maharashtra Assembly polls will be taken after consulting the state Congress chief Manikrao Thakre.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan came under a scathing attack at a meeting of the All India Congress Committee headed by senior leader A K Antony, with some state leaders telling the high command that the party's fate would be no better in the assembly polls due by October.
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