Senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad on Friday resigned from all party positions, including its primary membership, delivering another blow to the embattled party that has seen a series of leaders leave it.
Once considered the unlikely heir to the political legacy of the Gandhi family, Sonia has earned the distinction of being the longest serving president of India's grand old party.
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.
'It was my first day in office, so you cannot blame me for the missing photos.' 'I had to join the office and sit on the chair at a particular mahurat time.'
Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Sunday night hosted her first Iftar in three years, which saw the Congress president sharing a table with leaders of RJD and its new-found ally Janata Dal-United.
Congress general secretary and chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said Gandhi is stable and will be in the hospital for a few days.
Sources said Sonia Gandhi referred to Azad and others twice during her brief address and the issues raised by them.
Several top Congress leaders including party general secretary organisation K C Venugopal, Sachin Pilot, Randeep Surjewala and Shashi Tharoor, wished the former party chief on her birthday.
The former Union minister said it is 'quite heartening' to see that Gandhi has taken up the initiative to involve Kishor to come out with a strategy for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, and the party's revival plan.
Mamata Banerjee, the outgoing Chief Minister of West Bengal, has refused to step down after her party's defeat in the assembly elections, alleging a conspiracy and irregularities in the counting process. She also accused the Election Commission of working in favour of the BJP and announced a fact-finding committee to investigate post-poll violence.
The Congress president had left on August 23 to visit her ailing mother, who was in her 90s.
'You have all the qualities to become a world champion.'
Congress President Sonia Gandhi, who was taken ill during a roadshow in Varanasi and forced to return to the national capital, was "stable".
She was down with viral fever and doctors advised her to be under medical supervision.
Hackers broke into the Congress's official website and replaced part of Sonia Gandhi's profile with some objectionable material in a cyber attack coinciding with the party chief's birthday.
"This is not a new thing that Kalam saheb has said. He has said this before as well. Just because he has written this in his forthcoming book, Sonia Gandhi does not become an epitome of sacrifice. She is still the super-Prime Minister. She has a bigger secretariat (NAC) than the PM," BJP Vice-President Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi told PTI.
The 77-year-old former Congress president is set to enter the Upper House for the first time from Rajasthan.
The Lok Sabha witnessed a heated debate between BJP and Congress members regarding the handling of Naxalism, with the BJP accusing the previous UPA government of failing to contain left-wing extremism and the Congress defending its efforts to curb the threat.
Sources said the Congress Parliamentary Party authorised Gandhi to pick the party's leader in Lok Sabha.
Amid speculation over leadership change in Karnataka, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said the issue will be resolved after discussions with senior leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, while deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar claimed there is unity in the party.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi was discharged from the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital in New Delhi on Monday evening and was advised rest at home, the party said.
The situation in the Karnataka unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party appears to be grim with 21 leaders (9 Members of Legislative Assembly and 12 Members of Parliament) expressing their open support to former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa in case he decides to quit the party. But what has taken everyone by surprise is the open praise lavished upon Congress president Sonia Gandhi by Yeddyurappa.
Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu has been at loggerheads with the chief minister, attacking him on issues like the alleged delay in the completion of a probe into the 2015 desecration of Sikh texts and the subsequent police firing on protesters.
Party sources said United Progressive Allinace chairperson Sonia Gandhi is likely to reach Delhi on Wednesday from Himachal Pradesh and is expected to meet some leaders who are part of the decision-making process in Karnataka.
She was born in 1946 in the town of Or Orbassano, near Turin (Italy) and married Rajiv Gandhi in 1968.
Her medical condition was stable and she has been advised rest.
The opposition party also vowed to expose the "vendetta politics" against its leadership, asserting that the Congress cadre is agitated and is going to show its strength against the "misuse of agencies."
China's ruling Communist Party on Tuesday confirmed that Congress president Sonia Gandhi has accepted President Hu Jintao's invitation to visit the country, saying the event will further enhance friendship between leaders of the two countries.
Her move comes after doctors advised her to get away from the heavy pollution in the national capital in view of her chronic chest infection, party insiders said.
A new book reveals that Atal Bihari Vajpayee rejected an offer to become President of India, a move that would have made Lal Krishna Advani Prime Minister. Vajpayee believed that a sitting PM becoming President would set a bad precedent for Indian democracy.
Democracy in India is too important to be left to a leader with a limited appeal. If Rahul Gandhi cares for India, he should step aside for a new crop of leaders, suggests Harishchandra.
The original Mrs Gandhi -- Indira -- had delivered a second successive election victory for the Congress in 1971 but before that she had to win a war. The reigning Mrs Gandhi -- Sonia -- has also led the Congress to consecutive poll successes (in 2004 and 2009) but she hasn't had to go so far as to fight an external war, though there have been many domestic battles, writes Kidwai, whose second book on Sonia Gandhi, 24 Akbar Road, is soon to be released by Hachette Books
All eyes are on Congress chief Sonia Gandhi as top leaders converged at her 10, Janpath residence in New Delhi on Monday after a series of developments in the last 24 hours in Rajasthan, where a majority of the party MLAs have rebelled against Sachin Pilot and want Ashok Gehlot to continue as the chief minister.
A Delhi court has ordered the confiscation of several properties belonging to UK-based arms consultant Sanjay Bhandari under the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act, following his declaration as a fugitive in a money laundering case.
The action came after investigations carried out by an inter-ministerial committee formed by the home ministry in 2020.
There was a celebratory mood outside her Delhi residence.
For the second consecutive day on Friday, several Indian journalists went to the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre on 68th Street and York Avenue in Manhattan, New York, where Congress chief Sonia Gandhi has reportedly undergone a surgery
The meeting came a day after Rashtriya Lok Dal president Ajit Singh met the Congress chief for a tie-up in Uttar Pradesh.
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