He was elected as a local body councillor in 1976 in Bharuch Municipal body of Gujarat at the age of 25 years and became the political secretary of Sonia Gandhi and remained a bridge during UPA-I tenure between the party and the government.
Pranab's earlier fear of Sonia relying too heavily on a coterie due to her lack of experience turned out to be unfounded. As per Pranab, Sonia had her close advisers but she did not follow anyone's advice blindly. A fascinating excerpt from Sharmistha Mukherjee's Pranab, My Father: A Daughter Remembers.
In the event that like in the 17th Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi again gets locked out of the House, the Congress needs a second-in-command who will keep the momentum going inside Parliament, notes Saisuresh Sivaswamy.
'I believe the Bharat Jodo Yatra has the power to unite a divided India.'
The Indian authorities have to reconfirm that Prabhakaran is dead. It may require seeking assistance from Interpol and also involve the re-opening of the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, and more so, the investigations, formally or otherwise, asserts N Sathiya Moorthy.
Most politicians and even non-politicians have been honoured because of what they were purported to be electorally worth for the ruling party of their time, argues N Sathiya Moorthy.
"The situation has become irretrievable", Azad, 73, said in his parting shot to Sonia Gandhi, whose trusted confidante he remained right from the time of Sitaram Kesri's unceremonious exit as the party's chief in 2000.
His five-year rule saw the Babri Masjid demolition, the rise of the saffron forces and also the country being placed firmly on a new economic path, away from the Nehru years of public sector socialism.
Senior Assam Congress leader Debabrata Saikia has filed a police complaint against Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma for his alleged "hateful statement" such as Lok Sabha MP and former party president Sonia Gandhi's "residence should be burnt".
The petition, which was filed in the apex court on Tuesday by Lucknow-based advocate Ashok Pandey, said it is challenging the August 7 notification issued by the Lok Sabha restoring Gandhi's membership.
Modi was expected to arrive in Wuhan in the evening on April 26 and join Xi in the informal summit at a picturesque location the next day.
A three-hour heavy downpour accompanied by a dust storm hit Delhi-NCR early morning on Friday, causing flight delays and traffic disruptions as seven people were killed in rain-related incidents across north India.
Both are under home isolation in Virudhunagar. Their samples would be sent to the state lab for whole genomic sequencing.
The Congress has consciously contested on a lesser number of seats in this Lok Sabha election as part of a strategy to keep the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) together and defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge has said.
Only two bowlers stood out from Sunday's game.
'If the Congress loses this time, Rahul Gandhi will not look back at Amethi ever again.'
Gandhi said he was proud that his father Rajiv Gandhi and grandmother Indira Gandhi got killed while standing and defending something.
Pakistani presenter Zainab Abbas, part of the ICC digital team covering the ODI World Cup, on Monday left India after facing backlash on social media over her alleged anti-India posts in the past.
Images from the IPL match between Punjab Kings and Sunrisers Hyderabad, at the Rajiv Gandhi stadium, Hyderabad, on Sunday.
He asserted that the BJP does not carry out any action with a vindictive approach.
"The open-ended nature of Section 6A has, with the passage time, become more prone to abuse due to the advent of forged documents to establish, inter-alia (among other things), wrong date of entry into Assam, inaccurate lineage, falsified government records created by corrupt officials, dishonest corroboration of the date of entry by other relatives so as to aid illegal immigrants who are otherwise not eligible under Section 6A by virtue of having entered into Assam after March 24,1971," he noted in a separate 127-page dissenting judgment.
'My father lived and died in the service of India. The views of a character on a fictional web series can never change that,' Rahul Gandhi said on Twitter.
Delhi recorded a voter turnout of over 19 per cent in the first four hours of polling on Wednesday across 70 assembly constituencies, with the highest voter participation witnessed in North East district.
May we suggest that Rahul spend Tuesday night with the homeless in Delhi who are shivering in cold and frosty conditions?
'Harassment' is the objective, not detention.
When it comes to spying, our netas are habitual offenders. Vicky Nanjappa digs up past records of prying politicians that date back to the 80s.
Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Tuesday sought to give credit to his party for the women's reservation bill but Home Minister Amit Shah refuted his claim, saying that the legislation brought by the Manmohan Singh government had lapsed following the dissolution of the 15th Lok Sabha.
The new party president, the sixth member of the Nehru-Gandhi family to lead the political outfit, takes charge from his mother Sonia Gandhi at a time when the party is facing one of its worst crises, with the Bharatiya Janata Party occupying the centre stage of national and state politics.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is now the only person to be protected by the about-4,000-personnel-strong SPG.
Warner was pumped up, jumped with joy in front of his team dugout, then punched the air as he let out a big scream after Mukesh Kumar bowled a phenomenal last over to help Delhi to victory.
What some of our leaders were up to on Wednesday, September 20, 2023.
The sources said Gandhi wants India to lead in the niche area which comes after software development.
'Shivakumar is an andhbhakt of Congress ideology and principles.'
'I think the position that we are in we were playing for pride today. We tried to put in the best performance that we can'
'The Lok Sabha Speaker is the custodian of Parliament and the Speaker has invited the prime minister'
When events like these take place, it is easy for the BJP to portray the Gandhis as latter-day versions of the Borgias or Medicis, who toy with their nobles and promote favourites, points out Vir Sanghvi.
'If there is a vulnerable family anywhere in the world, it is the Gandhis,' notes Aakar Patel.
Section 6A, which was incorporated in the Citizenship Act 1955 following the signing of the 1985 Assam Accord, was upheld by the Supreme Court.
Gandhi, who appeared to lose his cool, responded after reporters asked him about the BJP's attack on his tweet.
The last Bharat Ratna award was conferred upon Pranab Mukherjee in 2019 and was posthumously awarded to Bhupendra Kumar Hazarika and Nanaji Deshmukh. The award was not given to anyone between 2020 and 2023.
