BSP chief's hard blows meet with timid retort from India's Grand Old Party.
'We are going to need more technical people in government.' 'You can't expect a generalist to understand the complicated world of financial engineering.' 'I regret to say that most of our politicians have no competence to deal with these things. Nor is there a willingness to learn.'
Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, state Bharatiya Janata Party chief Vasundhara Raje and Pradesh Congress Committee president Chandrabhan were among 861 candidates who filed their nomination papers for the Assembly elections on Monday.
'It is mind-boggling that a party can be in rigor mortis even after numerous electoral defeats,' observes Ramesh Menon.
The first meeting of the reconstituted Congress Working Committee under Mallikarjun Kharge's presidency will be held in Hyderabad on Saturday during which the party's top brass will deliberate on evolving a strategy for upcoming assembly polls in five states and the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Refuting allegations of divisions in the Congress in Rajasthan, Corporate Affairs Minister and Member of Parliament from Ajmer, Sachin Pilot, speaks to Kavita Chowdhury on a range of issues, including the Congress's prospects in the coming Rajasthan Assembly polls.
The BJP also wrote to the EC, urging it to postpone the date of counting as Sunday is a sacred day for Christians, and the entire day is devoted to church services throughout the state.
While the BJP and the Congress have always supported the bill, opposition by other parties and demands from some for quota for backward classes within the women's quota have been key sticking points.
Leaders of the opposition INDIA bloc are set to meet at the residence of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge in Delhi on December 6 to formulate a strategy for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Addressing a joint press conference in New Delhi, All India Congress Committee general secretary organisation K C Venugopal and AICC general secretary, communications Jairam Ramesh, said the Bharat Jodo Yatra has so far covered 3,122 km from Gandhi Mandapam in Kanyakumari to the Red Fort in Delhi.
Aggressive campaigning and the existing 'Modi wave' and a lack of will on part of the Congress has put the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in Rajasthan far ahead of others. The party is comfortably placed in 21 out of the 25 seats, and they have been able to do this because of maintaining the same tempo that enabled them to defeat the Congress badly in December's assembly elections. P B Chandra reports
With the CAA rules being issued, the Modi government will now start granting Indian nationality to persecuted non-Muslim migrants -- Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis and Christians -- from the three countries.
In a big organisational rejig, the BJP named Union minister G Kishan Reddy, Sunil Jakhar and Babulal Marandi as party presidents in Telangana, Punjab and Jharkhand respectively.
Delayed by more than four years, rules for the CAA are a must for its implementation.
Modi can abandon the path of Hindutva only at risk to his position within his own fraternity. But if he pursues a hard line, he faces the risk of being hauled up by his coalition-partners. For the first time in a decade, Modi is not in enviable situation, observes Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
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.
The brutal incident came to light after a video of the assault went viral. In the video, a group of men is seen thrashing two persons with rubber belts. They later torture one of the victims by pouring petrol on his private parts with a piece of cloth wrapped on a screwdriver.
Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, who have extended support to the Congress to form the government in the state, were not present.
The Congress alleged that Delhi Police personnel forcibly entered its headquarters and beat up party workers and leaders on Wednesday, on a day the party staged vociferous protests against the questioning of Rahul Gandhi by the Enforcement Directorate for the third consecutive day.
A majority of Congress leaders said the party will face desertions if Rahul Gandhi does not remain the leader.
IOA's ad-hoc committee, tasked with conducting the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) elections, on Monday called five disputed state bodies for a hearing on June 21.
The Congress party's first list of 194 Lok Sabha candidates released on Saturday night has no major surprises. Anita Katyal reports
The Bharat Nyay Yatra will be mostly covered by bus along with short stretches of walking.
Amit Shah wants to increase the party's nationwide vote share by at least 10 per cent from the 37.7 per cent it secured five years ago and ensure above 50 per cent vote share in the states where it came close to that benchmark, but couldn't cross it.
'If Rahul Gandhi is doing so much for the country and the party without thinking about his own health, then I realised that the only way to impress upon Soniaji and all those who are campaigning against him about how ordinary party workers are looking up to Rahulji was to write a letter in blood.'
The consent is akin to a blanket nod for the agency to probe scheduled offences specified in the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act (DPSE) Act, 1946.
By Monday morning, a dozen dissidents were ready to leave the Pilot camp. Having found a hole at the bottom of his boat, Pilot, with dwindling numbers, in sheer desperation, connected with Priyanka Gandhi, reveals Prakash Bhandari.
Sources said that despite senior leaders making serious attempts to convince him to rethink on his decision, Gandhi is said to be unfazed.
Long queues were seen at outpatient department ticket counters in government hospitals, where senior doctors joined their junior colleagues in the protest.
Another meeting convened by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge at his residence in New Delhi on Wednesday with the floor leaders of the INDIA constituents in Parliament will, however, go ahead according to its schedule to formulate the opposition strategy for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
Party leaders, sources said, maintained that Congress cannot afford to have a new leader at the helm for rebuilding the organisation at this juncture and that the responsibility for the defeat is collective and not individual.
The division bench completed the hearing of arguments and said it will pronounce its order on Friday, requesting the Speaker too to extend his deadline for accepting the MLAs replies to the notices. The notices had followed a Congress complaint that the 19 MLAs should be disqualified from the assembly for defying a party whip.
The cross-country foot march stayed in the news almost right through, mostly for the barbs between the BJP and the Congress and occasionally for other reasons, including infighting in the opposition party.
Rahul feels collective decisions taken with his mother and sister helped the party in the December assembly elections. Hence, he wants to follow the same strategy for the Lok Sabha election, too.
According to the TMC, the momentum built by the INDIA bloc over three successful meetings has dwindled in the last few months due to inactivity, with the Congress preoccupied with elections in three states.
According to a senior Congress leader, the constituents of the opposition alliance intend to move forward with the theme "Main Nahin, Hum (We, Not Me)" at the meeting.
The victim was identified as Sanjay Sharma, a resident of the Achan area in the south Kashmir district, they said, adding that the incident took place at around 11 am.
'Gehlot is right now doing things, which are not appreciated by the Gandhis.' 'The Gandhis have realised that their writ does not run in Rajasthan, therefore they have deflected the issue to Kharge.'
For the first time in his political career, he failed to carry his party to even a working majority -- and again, for the first time in his career, he finds himself in a situation where he cannot rule by dictatorial fiat, points out Prem Panicker.
