Former Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh passed away on Thursday night at the age of 92. He was brought to the emergency department of AIIMS Delhi in critical condition after "sudden loss of consciousness."
The whole drama of the Congress Working Committee meeting was enacted precisely to underline the First Family's supremacy and, more particularly, to insulate Rahul Gandhi from any harsh criticism for the party's humiliating poll drubbing, reports Anita Katyal.
Chhatrapati Yadav, the MLA from Khagaria Sadar, has shot off a letter to Congress high command, demanding that he be considered, by virtue of his caste, for a berth in the new cabinet headed by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
Speaking to the media, Gehlot, who is in Kerala to take part in the Bharat Jodo Yatra, said, "I said earlier that I will request him (Rahul Gandhi) to accept this post when all the Congress Committees are passing resolutions in this regard. He made it clear that no one from the Gandhi family will become the next chief. He said he has decided this due to some reasons, a non-Gandhi family member will become the party chief."
Rasheed Kidwai captures the moment in the Congress party's history when Sonia Gandhi, in May 1991, who had just lost her husband to a political assassination, refused the leadership of the party. An exclusive excerpt from Kidwai's book, 24 Akbar Road -- A Short History of the People Behind the Fall and Rise of the Congress, to mark the 15th anniversary of Sonia Gandhi taking over the Congress presidency today.
United Progressive Alliance chairperson and Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Saturday expressed the Congress' readiness to face elections while Prime Minister Manmohan Singh sought to play down speculation that the country was headed for mid-term polls. "Not at all. If there are elections you face it," Gandhi said.