Seeking to put its house in order in Andhra Pradesh, the Congress on Monday appointed senior state minister Botsa Satyanarayana as Pradesh Congress Committee president.
The decision is being seen as a balancing act in the faction-ridden party in the state.
The stage is set for a direct contest between NDA nominee C P Radhakrishnan and joint opposition candidate B Sudershan Reddy for the September 9 vice-presidential election. Nominations have been scrutinized and accepted.
The Indian National Congress, India's oldest political party, is moving from its longtime headquarters at 24 Akbar Road to a new building called Indira Gandhi Bhawan. The move marks the end of an era for the Congress, which has been headquartered at 24 Akbar Road for nearly 50 years.
The Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Congress's alliance in Uttar Pradesh came under scrutiny as both parties did not hold a single joint campaign for the bypolls to nine assembly seats. While both parties maintained that the alliance is strong, BJP ally Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) claimed a crack in the alliance. The Congress opted out of the bypolls and announced coordination committees for all nine seats to support the SP. However, the absence of joint rallies raised questions about the alliance's strength. The SP campaign was spearheaded by its chief Akhilesh Yadav, while the Congress cited its leaders' busy schedules in Maharashtra and Jharkhand for the lack of joint campaigns. The bypoll results will be announced on November 23.
Congress supporters celebrate the Supreme Court's interim order to stay Rahul Gandhi's conviction in a 2019 criminal defamation case.
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).
Himachal Pradesh's ruling Congress Member of Legislative Assembly Ram Kumar, arrested in a murder case in adjacent Haryana, was on Wednesday suspended from primary membership of the party. Pradesh Congress Committee chief Sukhvinder Singh Sukkhu said Kumar had also been removed from the post of general secretary forthwith. His suspension would remain in force till he was absolved of the murder charge.
The 'Make Rahul Gandhi All India Congress Committee president again' chorus is growing louder in the Congress with half a dozen state units so far seeking his elevation to the top post, even as uncertainty and suspense persisted over whether he would take on the mantle.
Tewari's consideration to contest comes amid the reports of several party top leaders being in the fray.
Senior Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Shashi Tharoor will face-off in an electoral contest on Monday for the post of All India Congress Committee chief, as the party gets set to have a non-Gandhi president in over 24 years.
Tharoor's close aide Aalim Javeri collected the forms from the office of the party's central election authority chairman Madhusudan Mistry on the first day of the start of the nomination process, all but confirming an electoral face-off for the top party post with Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot.
'If you fight you win, if you don't fight, how will you win?'
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday hoisted the national flag at the 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' camp site in Srinagar and followed it with a fun snowball fight with his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.
Yashpal Arya and his son, along with their supporters, joined the Congress in the presence of senior party leaders Harish Rawat, K C Venugopal and Randeep Surjewala in New Delhi.
"If our suggestions on development are not heard, there could be any decision any time," said Jharkhand Pradesh Congress Committee president Pradeep Kumar Balmachu. On October 1, Congress in-charge of Jharkhand Ajay Maken had told the Koda government in clear terms that the continuation of the party's outside support depended on development in the state and steps taken to check corruption. The chief minister, however, expressed optimism that the problems will be solved.
As the triangular political contest in Telangana intensifies, many believe that for the regional major BRS, it is a battle for survival after being routed in the assembly polls held late last year. What is haunting the party this time is the scams, the 10-year anti-incumbency factor, and family dominance in the party.
Terming the severe floods in Orissa as man-made, Congress on Tuesday accused Biju Janata Dal government in the state of failing to provide relief to marooned people after exposing its inability in preventing the calamity.
Congress on Tuesday slammed the Railway Budget as "pro-rich" with former Congress leader Mukesh Sharma removing Sadanand Gowda's nameplate, stepping on it in protest of what the party has called a anti-poor budget.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Sunday said that the Brahmos missile proved instrumental in Operation Sindoor and since then, more than a dozen countries have expressed interest in it.
Speaking to media after meeting party functionaries at Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee office in Mumbai, the former diplomat also said his aim was to make Congress stronger before the 2024 polls.
Reflecting the growing strains in relations between the two United Progressive Alliance allies, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday criticised attempts of Trinamool Congress to marginalise Congress in West Bengal.
The Congress party suffered a crushing defeat in the Delhi elections, failing to secure a single seat in the 70-member assembly for the third consecutive time. Key candidates, including Sheila Dikshit's son, Sandeep Dikshit, lost their deposits. The only consolation for the party was a slight improvement in its vote share, which they attribute to a vigorous campaign and a renewed focus on contesting elections independently. However, the defeat raises questions about the party's ability to compete in the upcoming 2024 Lok Sabha elections, particularly in light of its performance in other recent state elections.
A case is filed by the Bharatiya Janata Party's Karnataka unit for issuing "defamatory" advertisements in mainstream newspapers.
The panel, headed by Congress MP Saptagiri Sankar Ulaka, had called Patkar to hear her views on the implementation and effectiveness of the land acquisition law enacted by Parliament when the Congress-led UPA government was in power in 2013.
'People in Punjab put their opinion very strongly there and it looks like they will fight. But, there is nothing like that, and they find solutions to their problems'
This comes a day after he targeted the saffron party and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, asking why they were not chanting 'Jai Siyaram' and 'Hey Ram'.
The stage is set for a direct contest between NDA nominee C P Radhakrishnan and joint opposition candidate B Sudershan Reddy for the vice-presidential election. The BJP-led alliance has a clear edge in the poll necessitated due to the sudden resignation of Jagdeep Dhankhar.
A revamp of the All Indian Congress Committee is also on the cards.
A day after senior Congress leader Anand Sharma resigned from the chairmanship of the party's Steering Committee for Himachal Pradesh, interim party president Sonia Gandhi on Monday asked All India Congress Committee in charge of the Himachal Pradesh, Rajeev Shukla to pacify the issue.
'There will be no compromise with someone who has betrayed the party at this stage even if she is my sister,' Congress MP K Muraleedharan told reporters.
Former BJP union Minister Taradevi Siddartha, former Kannada Paksha MP S B Sidnal and former Janata Parivar Karnataka Assembly Legislator Jayaprakash Hegde on Tuesday joined the Congress in the presence of Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) President Mallikarjun Kharge. Speaking to newspersons, Kharge said Congress chief Sonia Gandhi has approved their induction into the party.
The election process of the Congress president that was to end by September 20 is likely to be delayed by a few weeks with the party focused on the 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' and some state units not completing the formalities, sources said on Thursday.
The Congress on Saturday made a stunning comeback in Karnataka ousting the Bharatiya Janata Party from its lone southern citadel with a comfortable majority in a morale booster win that will be key for reviving its electoral fortunes ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
A day after the Congress's second straight defeat in the national election, resignations were flying.
The Congress said that the move is meant to keep away candidates who are not serious.
Tripura Pradesh Congress Committee general secretary and Member of Legislative Assembly Subal Bhowmick on Monday alleged that a group of Congress activists had assaulted Abhijit Mukherjee, a Congress MLA from West Bengal and son of President Pranab Mukherjee, on Thursday at Bamutia, nearly 35 km from Agartala.
