The Congress, which is not very keen on having an alliance with the TMC, called it 'an untrustworthy ally', which is trying to grow at its expense.
The letter to Sonia Gandhi reminded her of the party's 18-point agenda "given to the last chief minister" of Punjab and said that those were "equally relevant today".
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.
The party also named Dinesh Pratap Singh as its candidate from Rae Bareli, a Gandhi family bastion which was won by former Congress president Sonia Gandhi five consecutive times.
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.
For the Congress' revival, the eclipse of the Gandhis is absolutely necessary, asserts Virendra Kapoor.
'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.
Besides Hooda, Bhan and Phogat, the Congress has fielded Mewa Singh from Ladwa to take on Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini.
The Congress on Friday hit out at the Election Commission after it rejected allegations over irregularities in the Haryana assembly polls, saying if the poll panel's goal is to 'strip itself of the last vestiges of neutrality', then it is doing a 'remarkable job' at creating that impression.
Disclosing an individual's income-tax returns is tantamount to violating the person's fundamental right to privacy as recognised by the Constitution.
What some of our leaders were up to this week.
The Congress' top leadership will deliberate on the Lok Sabha election results and chalk out its future strategy at a crucial meeting of the party's working committee on Saturday.
The meeting also includes some of Sonia Gandhi's close associates and is the first effort by the Congress leadership for a reproachment with those who raised questions over the leadership.
Sonia asked CWC members "to begin deliberations towards the process of transition to relieve her from the duty of party chief"
In her inaugural address at the party's 'Chintan Shivir' in Udaipur, she urged delegates to deliberate with an open mind and send out a clear message of strong organisation and unity.
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.
Describing the meeting as 'positive', Banerjee said she discussed the political situation in the country as well as opposition unity with the Gandhis.
Earlier in the day, rich tributes were paid to Yechury at the Communist Party of India (Marxist) headquarters at the AKG Bhavan here, where his mortal remains were brought from his residence in the morning.
Azad said it was a good meeting with the Congress president with the discussion centred on how to prepare and fight unitedly the forthcoming assembly polls to take on rival parties.
Initially, she was summoned by the agency on Monday but it was deferred by a day.
The meeting assumes significance as the party high command has been trying to resolve the internal rift in the Punjab unit of the Congress and there is talk of its revamp, with just months to go for the assembly polls.
Former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh will head all the three committees.
Gandhi also highlighted the issues facing farmers and said the Congress stands with farmers' demand.
The senior Paswan sought an appointment and waited for more than three months but Rahul Gandhi did not relent, said Chirag Paswan, who at that time too was keen to leave the UPA and join the National Democratic Alliance.
It was soon after that call that Rahul Gandhi and Tejashwi Yadav spoke to each other.
In a veiled attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party, Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday said divisive ideologies anchored in hate and prejudice were making every effort to weaken the strong foundation of India.
Sources said Sonia Gandhi referred to Azad and others twice during her brief address and the issues raised by them.
Small gestures from Indira gave Sonia the confidence that she could be a daughter-in-law in the distinguished family.
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.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is arriving in New Delhi on Thursday for a four-day visit during which she is likely to meet senior leaders and attend a Niti Aayog meeting on August 7, sources said.
Celebrations had already begun at BJP headquarters before the full announcement of results.
The Congress steering committee on Friday approved several amendments to the party constitution, one of which is to give permanent membership to former prime ministers and former party presidents in the all-powerful working committee.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge Saturday said the Lok Sabha poll mandate is a "decisive rejection" of the politics of divisiveness and hate, and stressed that the INDIA bloc must continue functioning cohesively both inside and outside Parliament.
The sources said some leaders may be attached to her to decrease her workload. With the CWC meeting held in the backdrop of the letter of 20 party leaders to Sonia Gandhi which raised some heckles, several leaders expressed their views in the meeting lasted for over seven hours.
The acrimony started when Dhankhar aksed Pramod Tiwari of the Congress not to state unverified facts. To this, Ramesh said it would be authenticated.
An overwhelming number of new appointees across the party's organisational structure -- from the highest decision-making body CWC (Congress Working Committee) to the special committee formed to assist interim party chief Sonia Gandhi -- are known as Rahul Gandhi's confidantes.
The meeting comes amid continued attack by former Punjab minister Navjot Singh Sidhu on the chief minister.
The meeting of Congress's highest decision-making body is expected to be at a very 'high voltage' as Sonia's resignation will not be accepted by the CWC members.
Rahul Gandhi may also contest from Amethi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra from Rae Bareli, a seat which was previously held by Sonia Gandhi.
This will be the first time that the Congress, since its ouster from power in 2014, will get the post of Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha. It failed to get the position in the past 10 years as its tally was below the requisite 10 per cent of total seats in the House, both in 2014 and 2019.
