The less charitable in the party say he owes his appointment Sonia Gandhi -- the family wanted someone who wouldn't talk back and would not exert himself too much, notes Aditi Phadnis.
'Leave aside the negative fallouts of phraseology like 'urban Naxals' and 'terrorists', both the BJP and the Congress have to re-discover themselves in the context of the 2024 election results, including those of the upcoming ones for Maharashtra and Jharkhand,' observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
'This kind of poisonous and anti-national activities happening in the country and the economic failure of the Modi government may boomerang in the form of a Congress revival.'
The event assumes heightened political significance at a time when Chirag Paswan is embroiled in a bitter dispute with his uncle and Union Minister Pashupati Kumar Paras to claim the legacy of his father.
The comedy of errors comes close on the heels of a similar goof up reported from the adjoining district of Arwal where the names of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Bollywood celebrities Priyanka Chopra and Akshay Kumar figured in the list of "beneficiaries".
The Union home ministry has cancelled the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) registration of the Centre for Policy Research (CPR) for alleged violation of laws, a move the public think-tank termed "incomprehensible and disproportionate" and vowed to seek legal recourse against.
Mapanna Mallikarjun Kharge, a staunch Gandhi family loyalist from Karnataka, has become the Congress' first non-Gandhi president in 24 years.
Chidambaram said he was honoured that the two leaders visited him.
The Congress had released 'Farmers Declaration', 'SC, ST Declaration' and 'Youth Declaration', comprising its promises to the Telangana voters in the assembly polls scheduled to be held in a couple of months.
It was soon after that call that Rahul Gandhi and Tejashwi Yadav spoke to each other.
Mulayam sparks controversy; says government is tapping Amar Singh's phone. Government hits back with grit.
As Bharatiya Janata Party's war of words with the government intensified, party chief Nitin Gadkari on Monday asked Congress president Sonia Gandhi what 'action' she intends to take against Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Home Minister P Chidambaram, who have been dragged in the 2G scam by jailed former Union minister A Raja.
A delegation of Congress leaders, including Lok Sabha MP Gaurav Gogoi and All India Congress Committee general secretaries Jitendra Singh and Ajoy Kumar were stopped at Jorhat airport by the district administration on Wednesday when they were on way to Nagaland, where the Army gunned down 13 civilians in a botched anti-surgency operation.
All MPs of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, including nominated members, are entitled to vote in the vice presidential election.
The Bharatiya Janata Party's first list of 20 candidates for Lok Sabha elections in Karnataka has caused dissidence among leaders in the state with few claiming that they would switch over to Congress.
The oath taking took place as the House witnessed a virtual slogan-shouting contest between treasury and opposition benches.
A blame game began in the Congress on Tuesday as it failed in its bid to come back to power in Haryana after 10 years, with senior party leader Kumari Selja saying the party high command should assess all reasons that led to the disappointing result and identify the people responsible.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was questioned for over eight hours by the Enforcement Directorate for the second consecutive day in the National Herald money-laundering probe and was again summoned on Wednesday, even as the opposition party continued its protests and sparred with the BJP, accusing it of conspiring to defame the Gandhi family through the ''false'' case.
The Bhartiya Janata Party and the Rashtriya Swyamsevak Sangh have taken strong exception to the statement made by Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shide at the Chintan Shivir in Jaipur.
Union Home Minister P Chidambaram on Tuesday evening asked Delhi Police Commissioner B K Gupta to revoke the detention orders against veteran activist Anna Hazare and all his supporters with immediate effect, sources told rediff.com.
These include key constituencies held by Opposition parties such as Uttar Pradesh's Rae Bareli (Sonia Gandhi, Congress) and Mainpuri (Mulayam Singh Yadav, SP); Maharashtra's Baramati (Supriya Sule, Nationalist Congress Party); West Bengal's Jadhavpur (Mimi Chakraborty, TMC); Telangana's Mahabubnagar (Srinivas Reddy, TRS) and Madhya Pradesh's Chhindwara (Nakul Nath, Congress).
Besides the national capital, polling for the sixth round of the marathon seven-phase elections will be held Saturday in 14 seats in Uttar Pradesh, all 10 seats of Haryana, eight seats each in Bihar and West Bengal, six seats in Odisha, four seats in Jharkhand and one seat in Jammu and Kashmir.
Rediff.com takes a look at life inside a relief camp in Kokrajhar, which was the epicenter of the recent ethnic violence, which claimed 77 lives.
The government plans to convene a special session of Parliament for passage of the Food Security Bill as a divided Cabinet Thursday shunned the idea of promulgating an ordinance to implement the watershed legislation.
Scindia, earlier met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah in New Delhi.
An interim report on the action has also been sent by the field investigation wing of the income tax department to the Central Board of Direct Taxes in Delhi, the administrative body for the department.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar condemned the violence at the Jawaharlal Nehru University and said that it was a "disturbing and fascist strike" by the Bharatiya Janata Party.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday threatened to block proceedings in the upcoming Budget Session of Parliament if Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde was not sacked over his controversial remark on 'Hindu terror'.
Attorney General G E Vahanvati has complained to the Delhi police over a hoax call he received from a woman imitating Congress President Sonia Gandhi regarding some high profile cases in the Supreme Court following which a police probe has begun.
However, he pointed out that the manner in which Smriti Irani was taking the name of President in the House was not proper and in consonance with the status and position of the President.
Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury accused the ruling dispensation of resorting to diversionary tactics.
The NCP chief says, "Self-styled' loyalists of 10, Janpath, convinced Gandhi that it would be better to back Narsimha Rao in 1991 as prime minister over him as the "Gandhi family was not about to let someone with independent mind" to get the top post, Sharad Pawar has claimed.
In a scathing attack on Sushilkumar Shinde over his 'Hindu terror' remarks, Bharatiya Janata Party president Rajnath Singh has said the Union home minister had hurt India's image by his comments.
On Tuesday, 49 opposition MPs were suspended for the remaining part of the session for disrupting proceedings, taking the total tally of suspended MPs in Lok Sabha to 95.
It seems Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde has annoyed both his bosses in the Congress and the government by his over-the top statement that Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi were not aware of the secret operation of Ajmal Kasab's hanging and came to know about it only through television.
Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh summoned Governor of Andhra Pradesh ESL Narasimhan to New Delhi on Saturday to discuss the political situation in Andhra Pradesh, including the ongoing agitation on Telangana.
Aiming to retain power at the Centre for the third time in a row, the Bharatiya Janata Party while banking heavily on its sitting MPs on Saturday released the first list of 51 candidates from Uttar Pradesh for the Lok Sabha elections.
A plea was on Friday filed in a Delhi court to seek its nod to examine Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi as witnesses in a private complaint case filed against Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde for his alleged "Hindu terror" remarks made at Jaipur.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi was on Monday night admitted to AIIMS hospital after she was taken ill in the Lok Sabha where her pet welfare legislation and UPA's ambitious Food Security Bill was in the final stages of adoption.
