West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, however, was conspicuous by her absence at the event, which was attended by tens of thousands of people as the Congress sought to promote opposition unity.
Mamata's 'there is no United Progressive Alliance (UPA)' remark after a meeting in Mumbai with Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar, an ally of Congress in Maharashtra, evoked a strong response from the party, currently being led by interim president Sonia Gandhi.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday urged the Election Commission to declare Trinamool Congress as a 'terrorist party', upping the ante against the ruling party after political clashes in Birbhum violence left three people dead.
Twelve Trinamool Congress leaders including Mukul Roy and Madan Mitra have been booked by the Central Bureau of Investigation for alleged criminal conspiracy and corruption in the Narada sting case wherein they were purportedly filmed while taking money.
A group of MPs from the opposition alliance INDIA will visit Manipur on July 29 and 30 to assess the situation in the northeastern state which has been engulfed in ethnic violence since May 3.
A bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justice P S Narasimha allowed Banerjee to avail available remedies under the law but refused to interfere with the May 18 order of the Calcutta high court.
'For the time being, the party to put on hold induction of TMC leaders and focus on strengthening its grassroot level organisation.'
In Phase 6, indications are that the BJP, which is defending 40 seats, will lose in double digits and gain in single digits. Not good, if you are the ruling party scrambling to earn a working majority, with just one phase left to go, argues Prem Panicker.
Meanwhile, the Delhi government has ordered magisterial enquiries into the demolition and also the death of a six month-old child.
Ramesh, however, said it was too early to talk about all this right now as the Congress' first priority was the upcoming elections in Karnataka and the string of state polls this year.
In a new political alignment in poll-bound West Bengal, state Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Tuesday announced the inclusion of newly formed Indian Secular Front (ISF) of Furfura Sharif cleric Abbas Siddiqui in the Left Front-Congress alliance.
There will be total of 51 seats going to polls spread across 7 states in the fifth phase.
Janardan Choudhary, a key advisor to Adani Green Energy Limited (AGEL), was named as one of the seven non-institutional members by the Union Environment Ministry when it reconstituted the Expert Appraisal Committee for hydroelectricity and river valley projects in September.
The Trinamool Congress on Monday ruled out expelling Dinesh Trivedi who had to resign after earning the wrath of party chief Mamata Banerjee for raising passenger fares in rail budget.
Referring to infiltrators as "termites", who are eating into the resources of this country, the BJP boss said his party will throw them out from Bengal after coming to power at the Centre for a second term
Some have been cherry-picked to assert the BJP's supremacy over its allies or, significantly, its leaders who charted an independent course in the recent past.
Mukherjee, a two-time Lok Sabha MP from his father's pocket borough of Jangipur, said he joined the Mamata Banerjee-led party because she has taken a strong stand on this issue.
Gandhi, who is usually flanked by senior party colleagues, was also greeted by both President Droupadi Murmu and Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar.
In a bid to break the logjam in Parliament over demonetisation, the government on Wednesday reached out to the opposition with Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar holding talks with Congress and TMC leaders.
"We are ready to work with any anti-BJP party. This has been our stance whenever the need arose for a big movement against divisive forces from Kashmir to Kanyakumari," CPI-M politburo member Biman Bose told reporters to a question on whether the CPI-M will be with the TMC to prevent the BJP from coming to power in the 2024 Lok Sabha election.
Trinamool Congress member Kalyan Banerjee was on Tuesday under fire from Bharatiya Janata Party and Left in Lok Sabha for his alleged objectionable remarks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, leading to uproar and threat of censure motion being moved against him if he did not apologise.
In a memorandum submitted to the EC, the INDIA party leaders submitted a list of recent instances of central agencies targeting Opposition parties and alleged an absence of a level playing field for the opposition.
The final phase saw voting in all 13 seats of Punjab and an equal number of seats in Uttar Pradesh, nine in West Bengal, eight seats each in Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, four in Himachal Pradesh, three in Jharkhand and the lone seat Chandigarh.
The Supreme Court on Monday refused to entertain a PIL seeking a court-monitored CBI or SIT probe into the violence in West Bengal's Sandeshkhali village, saying the incidents cannot be compared to the savagery in Manipur.
Bypolls in three assembly constituencies in as many states passed off peacefully on Monday with around over 70 per cent voter turnout, though some technical glitches in electronic voting machine were reported in Tamil Nadu and the ruling Trinamool Congress in West Bengal alleged that the Central Reserve Police Force was "influencing" voters.
The All India Matua Mahasangha has asked its members to apply for Indian citizenship only after the formation of a new government at the Centre.
Trinamool Congress (TMC) member Mahua Moitra on Tuesday approached the Delhi high court seeking to restrain Bharatiya Janata Party MP Nishikant Dubey, an advocate and several social media platforms and media houses from posting, circulating or publishing any alleged fake and defamatory content against her.
Banerjee, who is staging a two-day sit-in to protest alleged discrimination by the Centre against the state, had on Wednesday in a change of stance urged all political parties in the country to unitedly fight the Bharatiya Janata Party in next year's Lok Sabha election.
Tharoor later apologised for offending 'some people' and said the 'whole selfie thing' was done at the women MPs' initiative in 'great good humour and it was they who asked me to tweet it in the same spirit'.
In a dig at Rahul Gandhi, Dubey said that the former Congress president was expected to initiate the debate but did not do so last minute as "probably he got up late".
An Independent Rajya Sabha MP on Monday lodged a police complaint against Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, alleging that the Bharatiya Janata Party leader has made a "hate speech" against the 'Miya' community on the previous day.
By comparing I.N.D.IA. with banned terror outfits, Modi has exhibited the kind of nervousness never ever associated with him even at the height of the Gujarat riots, and certainly since his prime ministerial days, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
The alliance adopted a resolution to this effect and said its theme for the elections will be "Judega Bharat, Jeetega India, (India will unite, India will win)".
In case the EC doesn't hold elections within six months, the duration in which Banerjee has to become an MLA, the Trinamool Congress is ready with Plan B.
The meeting started under the presidency of Mallikarjun Kharge but former presidents Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi were yet to arrive and are unlikely to attend the steering committee meeting.
Dubey demanded the removal of Tharoor, alleging that he was using his position in a discriminatory manner.
The alliance -- Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) -- has resolved to save the character of the republic 'being severely assaulted in a systematic manner by the Bharatiya Janata Party' and safeguard the idea of India as enshrined in the Constitution.
Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra wrote to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Thursday alleging that she was subjected to the "proverbial vastraharan" by the chairperson of the ethics committee during a hearing on the cash-for-query allegations against her.
With the Biju Janata Dal backing the National Democratic Alliance's presidential candidate Droupadi Murmu, the vote share of the ruling dispensation has now crossed 50 percent, virtually paving the way for her election as the first tribal President and the youngest too.
The Upper House, which has seen continuous protests by the Opposition since the Monsoon session started on July 19 to press for discussions on Peagasus and farm laws, was adjourned thrice before the Chair finally adjourned it for the day.