Congress leader Jitin Prasada joined the Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday, in a boost to the saffron party as it works to strengthen its social coalition ahead of assembly elections in the politically crucial state of Uttar Pradesh early next year.
A member of the 1983 cricket World Cup-winning squad, Azad was suspended from the Bharatiya Janata Party for openly targeting the then Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley over alleged irregularities and corruption in the Delhi and District Cricket Association in December 2015. He joined the Congress in 2018.
The Year of the Rabbit, according to the Chinese calendar, began on Sunday, January 22.
Union minister Ramdas Athawale on Wednesday said the Congress had back-stabbed Sharad Pawar and not the other way round, two days after Shiv Sena leader Anant Geete accused the veteran politician of backstabbing Congress and forming the NCP in 1999.
Nothing 'accidental' about this movie, feels Syed Firdaus Ashraf.
Sonia Gandhi, who is set to be re-elected as the Congress chief for a record fourth term after holding the top post for 12 years, was once a reluctant politician.
'Sonia Gandhi can't rejuvenate the party, her heir is fodder for stand-up comedians, and nobody in the Congress has the guts to question the Nehru-Gandhis.'
'People of the state who bless me will give a befitting replay to the Congress.'
Mayawati's failure to contest the election as also her not organising large election rallies, as she once did, have led political pundits to conclude, rightly or wrongly, that she is 'out of the race', Sunil Gatade and Venkatesh Kesri point out.
'It is a well-entrenched belief in the downtrodden, the deprived sections, that Modi cares for them. He has come to occupy their mindspace as their messiah.' 'And it is this deprived, dispossessed section that is powering his electoral performance, breaking ancient shibboleths and shackles like religion and caste and region and language,' argues Saisuresh Sivaswamy.
Some of the Congress's new-found enthusiasm for hitting the streets will show its result in the Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, and Karnataka elections. That is when we will know if the Congress will go to the regional parties or the parties will come to the Congress.
In a statement, the lawyer of Irani's daughter, said his client is neither an owner nor operating the restaurant called Silly Souls Goa.
If not now, when, asks Virendra Kapoor.
Speaking to reporters at the joining ceremony, the actor from Tamil Nadu said she had come to the understanding over a period of time that if the nation has to move forward, then someone like Prime Minister Narendra Modi is needed to take the country "in the right direction and to its glory".
Ashok Gehlot can never be a challenger to the first son of the Congress party. The Scindias and Pilots will be Rahul's rivals should the party's fortunes revive, says Dr Sudhir Bisht.
The tumultuous Winter session of Parliament ended on Wednesday a day before schedule with proceedings in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha marred by repeated disruptions by the opposition over which the government and the Congress traded charges and the presiding officers expressed their anguish at the conduct of some MPs.
From the point of view of qualification, Murmu is probably educationally the least qualified among India's recent Presidents. But then, with the BJP in command, she will be required to do little but sign on the dotted line.
After Rahul's Bharat Jodo Yatra began criss-crossing the Hindi heartland, BJP leaders have revived their attacks on 'dynasty politics' and 'family rule' in the Congress, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera tweeted, "Shayad meri tapasya mein kuch kami reh gayi (Maybe my penance fell short)."
It was a many splendoured political career, which ended at the presidential palace. But the prime minister's post eluded him, even though it was a position he openly aspired for.
Sonia Gandhi and the PM are not in conflict about aam-aadmi policy
Sidhu and Amarinder Singh have been at loggerheads for the past some time, with the Amritsar (East) MLA recently attacking the CM over the desecration cases.
Rahul Gandhi's mother and senior Congress leader Sonia Gandhi has also got at least five refunds since the assessment year 2001-02, but there is no adjustment against any outstanding demand for her in this time period.
The fear that Mamata might snatch the mantle of Opposition leadership which the Gandhis firmly believe to be theirs by birthright seems to have persuaded Sonia and Rahul to give up their hoity-toity ways, observes Virendra Kapoor.
Team Anna proved to be a big hit in Lucknow where thousands converged on the banks of the Gomati river to cheer social activist Arvind Kejriwal and others who swore to not just unseat corrupt politicians but to bring grassroots changes in the system of governance.
Invoking Telugu pride, Bharatiya Janata Party prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi on Thursday alleged that the United Progressive Alliance government has insulted Telugu people often and divided Andhra Pradesh without taking people into confidence.
Sonia, Sumitra Mahajan share a laugh at the event
Is anyone in the BJP listening -- to what Nitin Gadkari had to say, but possibly left unsaid? asks N Sathiya Moorthy.
Hitting out at Tharoor, Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee working president and the party's chief whip in the Lok Sabha, Kodikkunnil Suresh on Friday said everybody in the party should work according to it's policies and programmes.
'He always avoided eating non-vegetarian food in presence of his deputies if they were fasting for the month of Shravan.' 'There were no Hindu, Jain, Parsi and Swaminarayan festivals he would forget.' 'He was a conservative Muslim and therefore could get along well with conservative Hindus.'
By the looks of it, the Congress cannot hope to return to power even in election 2024. What it can do is to start from the bottom, hold organisational elections, which are honest, and co-opt those elected to form teams of office-bearers at all levels, right up to the working committee. By the very nature of the elections that they are going to lose, the party should use the interim to shore up youth power, or whatever remains, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
The Opposition unity to fight the Bharatiya Janata Party seems to have run into rough weather as the Trinamool Congress and the Congress are at daggers drawn over the recent instances of 'poaching' by the Mamata Banerjee-led camp, with the grand old party finding itself in a tight spot.
Congress leader Sanjay Nirupam on Thursday demanded the sacking of Bharatiya Janata Party MP Giriraj Singh for his remarks against Congress President Sonia Gandhi but evaded questions on the statement he made on Union Minister Smriti Irani in 2012 during a television debate.
They will fawn over a prize catch who has brought a rich dowry of Gwalior-Chambal politicians. But in the end, all BJP members are prajas of Amit Shah and Narendra Modi, notes Sunanda K Datta-Ray.
'There were any number of Congress leaders who disliked Sonia Gandhi, but they were very close to Ahmed Bhai and he would listen, and give a shoulder to cry upon.'
She was admitted to Escorts hospital a few days ago.
Here are some of the big political leaders' who await their fate on Monday.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in Karnataka had the last laugh as it won all the three Rajya Sabha seats it had contested in, out of total of four from the state that went for polls on Friday, while the Congress managed to win only one of the two seats to which it had fielded its candidates.
The politics of polarisation became part of the political landscape of the national capital after the Batla House encounter.
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.
