With Rahul showing a significant lead over Prime Minister Narendra Damodardas Modi in opinion polls across southern India but lagging in the north, the Congress believes his contesting from the south will help galvanise cadres.
The party is using the two year occasion to launch its election campaign in the state, which was key to them reaching simple majority in the Lok Sabha in 2014.
He is part of an unenviable list of MPs who have been expelled from Rajya Sabha.
UP and Bihar contributed 105 seats to the BJP's tally in 2014. It has now lost 8 Lok Sabha by-polls in the last four years, including three successive losses in UP and two seats in Rajasthan.
For the 2019 polls, the BJP chief deployed over 7,000 leaders to oversee the work of polling committees on the over 400 seats the BJP contested. These committees were asked to focus on 120 seats the party had lost in 2014, but believed it could win in 2019.
ArthaKranti wants the government to abolish income tax and 56 other taxes and replace it by a banking transaction tax.
Expecting fireworks in both Houses during the Winter Session of Parliament starting from Wednesday -- with the opposition planning to target the government on several issues, including demonetisation -- the Bharatiya Janata Party Parliamentary Party Executive will go into a huddle on Monday to chalk out strategy to counter the opposition which is divided over how to take on the government on the issue.
The BJP leadership believes these parties are flexing their muscles in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls for better seat-sharing deals.
While Karat is opposed to any understanding with the Congress, Yechury is of the view that the situation warrants putting together a national alternative to the BJP, reports Archis Mohan.
It has the potential to burnish his image as a strong leader, bring down inflation and could turn out to be common man-friendly.
The party finds Uttar Pradesh members of Parliament unaware of govt schemes.
Budget forces last minute change in finance minister's plans.
The party also expects opposition parties to help its agenda by raising the issue of making the video footage of surgical strikes public.
'You have to do good work and also do good politics.' 'I think that part was missing, communication was an issue, but we have bridged that gap.'
The system has gone through three rounds of testing for its load-bearing capacity.
'We need to further catalyse economic growth and the government needs to increase revenue,' says G K Agarwal, BJP's national spokesperson on economic affairs.
Archis Mohan decodes Bharatiya Janata Party's pre-presidential poll manoeuvres.
Jyoti Punwani examines the relevance of the Sairat, the hit Marathi film everyone is talking about, in today's times.
'The EC is a sacred institution.' 'In the last few years, more than once, we have found the EC bending over backwards to accommodate the government.'
A senior politician Naidu respected once tried to convince the firebrand student leader to quit the Jana Sangh.
'With the top court's judgment declaring the Right to Privacy a Fundamental Right, the powers under the provision need to be looked afresh.' 'To utilise such sweeping powers in the right manner will also be a challenge.'
With his strong views on Bharatiya economics, his appointment to the RBI board may well presage interesting times, says Archis Mohan.
The Congress's revival plan says it needs to bring back into its fold Hindus repelled by the Sangh Parivar, take its message to youth and women and sections upset at curbs on their personal freedoms.
Series of controversies related to Dalit issues have come at a time when the BJP has launched a massive campaign to win back Uttar Pradesh.
BJP president Amit Shah's influence in the Narendra Modi cabinet revamp was evident from the inclusion of Jagat Prakash Nadda, Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore.
The recommendation, if implemented, is likely to face opposition from the government's key support base among Hindu traders and businesspersons.
The party is looking at Amit Shah's visit to Tamil Nadu and the PM's to Sri Lanka to boost its expansions efforts in the state for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, reports Archis Mohan.
Marathi film Sairat will stay with you for a really long time, raves Divya Nair.
The Trinamool Congress and Nationalist Congress Party, have indicated that their party chiefs have better credentials for the post than the newly-elected Congress head, reports Archis Mohan
The Bill seeks to create a welfare fund for farmers at a time when Prime Minister Narendra Modi has led from the front a campaign to woo farmers and downtrodden sections of the society.
Beyond welfare politics, the BJP has assiduously worked to appropriate regional icons.
Senior leaders within the Congress now say the party could accommodate the government's argument that the GST rate cannot be stipulated within the Constitution.
Caste assertions, including from the upper castes, could have the Sangh Parivar stumble yet again in its efforts to construct a Hindu rashtra.
'...getting drenched in the rains, doing farm work, labour and sweating it out so that they can get their evening meals.' 'I want to tell them that this Ram Nath Kovind of Paraunkh village is going to Rashtrapati Bhavan as their representative.'
'Urjit Patel was not quite the picture of courage, but even he turned, he had to turn.' 'Perhaps there is something that is far more sinister than what we are aware of, which is the reason for his resigation.'
With the family patriarch ageing, his successor H D Kumaraswamy not keeping well, and palpable anger against his other son H D Revanna in the family pocket borough of Holenarsipura, the clan is seemingly in decline.
New Delhi has reached out to neighbours like seldom before while singling Islamabad for criticism at international forums.
Yogendra Yadav, expelled co-founder of the Aam Aadmi Party, on the party's performance in the last one year.
While the Congress has found success in scoring over the BJP on Twitter and Facebook, it has failed to match the Sangh Parivar's finesse at utilizing WhatsApp as its primary medium to send its message across to the Karnataka electorate, reports Archis Mohan.
A convincing win for either of JD-S's two chief rivals, the Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party, in the Karnataka assembly polls, could inevitably lead to a life-threatening split in the JD-S, with several of its leaders joining either of the two national parties.
