Launching a frontal attack against the Congress top brass including Manmohan Singh, Bharatiya Janata Party leader Narendra Modi on Thursday took swipes at him over a book written by his former aide and said the current Lok Sabha polls was all about a "decisive" prime minister.
He said Karnataka's decision to release water will help Tamil Nadu's farmers.
Amit Shah seemingly encouraging AIADMK dissident Sengottaiyan after party boss Edappadi K Palaniswami had removed his one-time mentor from all party posts has not gone down well with party cadres. They are now ready to buy Team EPS' theory that the BJP and Amit Shah are out to liquidate the AIADMK, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
Mother and son refuse to go away despite indications blowing in the wind that their leadership is ringing the death knell of the party, observes Ramesh Menon.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra would participate in the Karnataka leg of the "Bharat Jodo Yatra" led by Rahul Gandhi that will be entering the state on September 30, state party chief D K Shivakumar said on Friday.
Karunanidhi also met NCP supremo Sharad Pawar, and CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat where the issue of a successor to President A P J Abdul Kalam came up for discussion.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Tamil Nadu opposition leader J Jayalalitha are likely to meet at Vigyan Bhavan on Monday, where both the leaders will be present at the 60th anniversary celebrations of the Election Commission.
"In your long years of dedicated public service, you have contributed tremendously for the progress of the nation," Sonia said in a message to the veteran Tamil Nadu politician.
Amid reports that Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader and Union Minister M K Alagiri has submitted his resignation from the Union Cabinet to party president Karunanidhi, DMK leader TR Baalu met Congress president Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi to discuss "alliance matters".
'Most leaders, from Lalu Yadav and Mamata to M K Stalin, respect and trust Sonia. She should continue unless she expressly declines.'
After a see-saw week, the Congress-Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam alliance seems to firmly back on track with reports suggesting that DMK chief and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi will speak to Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday and thank her for the Congress's acceptance of their seat-sharing formula.
Sonia Gandhi hit out at the BJP for being determined to destroy constitutional values.
The party members professed their unflinching loyalty to Rahul Gandhi and said he represents the emerging youth leadership of the country.
The Congress and DMK are in alliance in Tamil Nadu.
EPS' acceptance of Amit Shah's proposal for an electoral alliance with the BJP is being interpreted to mean how the AIADMK has signed up the NDA national leader as a junior partner. Not many have appreciated EPS for this strategic move that has now forced the BJP to play second fiddle to the AIADMK. This has meant that the BJP has buried its ambitions of capturing power in Tamil Nadu now, and is willing to wait until after the 2029 Lok Sabha polls, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Talks between Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leaders M K Alagiri and Dayanidhi Maran late on Monday night appeared to have made no headway in securing a breakthrough in the stalemate on seat-sharing between the two parties for Tamil Nadu assembly polls though DMK put on hold its decision to pull out of the United Progressive Alliance government.
This is the first time that Gandhi will be meeting Congress leaders face-to-face, months after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The presidential poll is fast becoming a race for posturing by political parties, all of who are keeping an eye on the general election scheduled for 2009
Rajiv, who was the sixth and youngest prime minister of India, was assassinated on May 21, 1991 at Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu during a poll campaign.
The PM name is to be decided only after the Lok Sabha results, a top opposition leader said.
'My statements are on record. There is no change in my stand,' the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief told Karan Thapar's 'Hardtalk' programme on BBC.
"An impression is created that Congress president Sonia Gandhi personally talked to M Karunanidhi to keep the Hogenakkal project on hold," he said in a statement in New Delhi on Wednesday, backtracking on his previous statement in Bangalore on the subject.Karunanidhi has already said that the decision was not based on any request made by the Congress and was meant for the welfare of the people of both the states.
Stalin also heaped praise on "brother" Rahul Gandhi, saying he is the "ideal antidote" to the BJP's "parochial" politics.
As Congress President Sonia Gandhi turns 70, here's recalling her extraordinary life in pictures.
What he has said is shocking and shameful, former Union minister and BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said, noting that the son of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin has repeated his remarks.
'We shall not see the like of Kalaignar again, and our nation is poorer without his wise statesmanship, and his dedication to our country and our people,' she said.
All political parties were asked at the dinner meeting on Monday night to suggest names for the alliance and the same would be discussed and consensus would be arrived at during the deliberations.
The timeline of events in the case in which the Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered the release of A G Perarivalan, who has served over 30 years in jail in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case invoking its extraordinary power under Article 142 of the Constitution.
Parliament's approval of the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, a contentious piece of legislation aimed at reforming Waqf bodies, has sparked strong reactions from the opposition, who allege that the bill was "bulldozed" through Parliament. The bill, considered the government's most consequential legislation in its third term, was passed with comfortable majorities in both the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha despite opposition claims of a lack of consultation and an intrusion into religious affairs. Other notable bills approved during the session included the Finance Bill, Appropriation Bill, Immigration and Foreigners Bill, and Tribhuvan Sahkari University Bill. The session, which saw high productivity, also witnessed debates on issues such as economic distress, delimitation, and the three-language policy. While the government touted its achievements, the opposition criticized the government's approach and vowed to challenge the Waqf bill in court.
'Rahul Gandhi's problem is that he doesn't think big.' 'He looks more like an activist, while politics is like a game of chess. You attack and then defend and have a game-plan.'
United Progressive Alliance chairman and Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Sunday visited the injured in hospitals and kin of children who died in the tragedy.
Scenes from day two of the Opposition conclave in Bengaluru on Tuesday, July 18, 2023.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, along with several party leaders, embarked on the 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' from Kanyakumari on Thursday, marking the beginning of a challenging journey through which the party is seeking to reach out to people and rejuvenate its organisation.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered the release of A G Perarivalan, who has served over 30 years of life term in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.
During his meetings with the UPA boss and the prime minister, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader is expected to discuss two thorny issues affecting Dr Singh's government -- the 2G spectrum row involving Telecom Minister and DMK MP A Raja and the continued absence of his son M K Alagiri, the Union chemicals and fertilisers minister, from Parliament and Cabinet meetings.
On Monday, Shashi Tharoor met Sonia Gandhi and expressed his intention to contest the upcoming AICC chief polls.
'When I said the Gandhi family had to step aside, it was because we have consistently seen that the public has not accepted them.'
As many as 28 out of 41 sitting women MPs, including Sonia Gandhi, Hema Malini and Kirron Kher, retained their seats in Lok Sabha.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday granted bail to A G Perarivalan, serving life sentence in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.
