Prashant Kishor, the man who led Narendra Modi and Nitish Kumar to victory, has his task cut out for him as he tries to secure victory for the Congress in Punjab and Uttar Pradesh
The party has not applied the "one-family, one-ticket" formula for the Karnataka polls which it followed in the Punjab polls held last year.
Ahead of the crucial third round of discussions, the opposition INDIA bloc on Wednesday exuded confidence that it would provide a formidable alternative to bring political change in the country and asserted that it has several prime ministerial faces against BJP's only one.
A court in Varanasi on Monday convicted gangster-politician Mukhtar Ansari in the murder of Congress leader Awadhesh Rai more than 30 years ago.
Ahmed Patel, K C Venugopal and Jairam Ramesh will be part of the Rajya Sabha Committee, which will also include Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad and party's deputy leader Anand Sharma. Azad and Sharma are signatories to the letter that demanded an overhaul of the Congress party and a new 'full-time and visible' party president.
The young and suave candidate of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, Bhavya Bishnoi, looks to defend his 'family bastion' for five decades, while the main opposition Congress has placed its bet on veteran leader Jai Prakash in the Adampur bypoll in Haryana.
The electoral fortunes of top leaders-- Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai of the BJP, Congress heavyweights Siddaramaiah and D K Shivakumar and JD-S' H D Kumaraswamy, among many others will be known on Saturday.
Finding Rahul Gandhi's successor is likely to top the agenda when the party's top brass meets.
Barring a brief lull in 2008 triggered by her standoff with Congress president Sonia Gandhi over the issue of family entitlement in ticket distribution, the suave and soft-spoken Alva's career has largely been a dream run.
As the party moves forward into the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, it not only needs to strengthen the state units and reach out to the grassroots level, but also forge alliances with like-minded parties.
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).
"You vote thinking that you are voting to make Arvind Kejriwal as the chief minister (of Punjab). Your vote is for Kejriwal," Delhi's Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said.
As the new year arrives, what is clear is that the BJP's stars continue to shine the brightest while its rivals' search for a way to dim their glow go on.
'In Punjab, disappointment among the people about the AAP government has already set in.'
Even as Congress has announced plans to hold year-long celebrations to commemorate the 125th birth anniversary of BR Ambedkar, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to lay the foundation stone for the 'Ambedkar International Centre' in New Delhi, the legacy of the Dalit icon becoming the focus of a contest between the rival parties
The former Haryana chief minister also reiterated his demand for an impartial inquiry into the allegations levelled against the head of the Wrestling Federation of India.
Pawar said even during the Emergency years there was a feeling in political circles that nothing would change for the next 25 years, but people ushered in change the very next year in 1977.
Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge, general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, senior leaders K C Venugopal, P Chidambaram and Salman Khurshid were among the party's top brass taking part in the satyagraha at Rajghat.
The 58-year-old surrendered shortly after 4 pm, and was taken for the mandatory medical examination, conducted at the Mata Kaushalya Hospital.
Often credited with his party's victory in the 2012 assembly polls, now 59, he became the youngest chief of the Shiromani Akali Dal, when he was elevated to the post in 2008.
Former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and chief ministers of Congress-ruled states of Rajasthan, Punjab and Chhattisgarh are among those named by the party as its star campaigners in Uttar Pradesh.
This comes after the agency conducted searches at his residence earlier in the day in connection with the case.
From the voter-level, traditionally anti-BJP, anti-Hindutva minorities and other secular voters would have an option, especially in the face of the mounting anti-incumbency against the ruling party -- as it happened in the 2001 assembly polls, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
Amarinder, 75, was sworn in as the state's 26th chief minister along with nine ministers, including Navjot Singh Sidhu.
Channi claimed that the permission given to his chopper to fly to Hoshiarpur from Chandigarh was cancelled.
The bone of contention is believed to have been the number of the seats the Congress wants to contest in the national capital.
Nearly five years ago when he joined the Congress, ex-cricketer Navjot Singh Sidhu had said he is a 'born Congressman' now coming back to his roots.
Sibal, who quit the Congress last year, said the party's Kanyakumari to Kashmir Yatra "optically" seems to have succeeded and gotten the support of non-Congress elements as well.
After the Gujarat and Himachal elections and the municipal polls in Mumbai and Delhi, Karnataka, Rajasthan, MP and Chhattisgarh will elect new assemblies next year leading up to the Lok Sabha election in April-May 2024, points out Virendra Kapoor.
'Delhi 2015 is a warning of an intensifying nightmare in the offing.'
'This individual's constant endeavour at self-glorification, even at the cost of both the government and the party, has the potential to subvert whatever genuine efforts that Channi has been making since he became CM.'
'There is a need for a younger person at the top, but the old guard wants to grab the post themselves,' points out Amulya Ganguli.
The resurgence that Congressmen feel is in fact more sentimental than substantive. The substantive reality is that the Congress is a party in terminal decline since 1989, says Shekhar Gupta.
Pawar made the announcement at the 25th anniversary of the party, founded by him and P A Sangma in 1999.
Lok Sabha proceedings were adjourned on Monday amid protests by Opposition members, over the issue of Kerala CM Chandy being reportedly asked not to attend a function.
BJP president JP Nadda held a meeting with the ministers on Wednesday to deliberated on the exercise to be held between May 30 and June 15, and to finalise the tour plans.
The opposition on Wednesday lambasted the government in the Lok Sabha for making "tall promises" which were "difficult to achieve" to garner votes and asked the Bharatiya Janata Party-led ruling dispensation to explain how they would fulfill the aspirations of the people.
Priyanka Gandhi was earlier actively involved in key decision making in the party along with her mother and brother, including the selection of new chief ministers for Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh recently.
More and more Congressmen are breaking their silence and coming out in the open blaming party vice president Rahul Gandhi for the poll drubbing. Renu Mittal reports.
