"Indian National Congress welcomes S Navjot Singh Sidhu into the Congress family and we thank Congress vice president for his visionary approach in bringing together like-minded people on common platform under the Congress umbrella," Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said in a statement.
Putting up a spirited performance in the assembly by-polls despite its Lok Sabha debacle, the ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam in Tamil Nadu has won nine of the 22 segments where elections were held in two phases in April and May.
It remains to be seen whether the ban of its parent organisation will weaken the SDPI or will it be able to further consolidate its voter base.
Despite the hype over the possible candidature of All India Congress Committee General Secretary Digvijaya Singh for the Varanasi Lok Sabha seat, the Congress has narrowed down its choice to local legislator Ajay Rai and former party MP Rajesh Mishra, with the former emerging as a front runner.
'People are blowing up their entire retirement fund; they are selling their land and house to spend on one day for a marriage.'
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin on Thursday warned the Bharatiya Janata Party not to 'provoke' the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, saying it will not be able to 'bear the consequences' and that his party also knows 'all types of politics', escalating his attack on the saffron party after the arrest of his cabinet colleague V Senthil Balaji.
A day before Rajasthan goes to polls, the ambivalence of Jats, the traditional support base of Congress, is giving the party jitters while the Bharatiya Janata Party is hoping to corner a significant chunk of their votes to stage a comeback to power.
By changing the nation's name from India to Bharat, would this landmass overnight lose the emotional and cultural linkage that had been built over generations, centuries and millennia, asks N Sathiya Moorthy.
Over the last two days, Dalit organisations and the opposition Telugu Desam Party put in sustained pressure calling for the police to arrest the ruling party legislator.
The move came even as deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav, while speaking in the state assembly earlier in the day, sought to go by the version of the Tamil Nadu DGP who has rubbished reports of attacks on Hindi-speaking people in that state.
The counting was scheduled to start at 5 pm Friday, but it could not be taken up as the Bharatiya Janata Party approached the Election Commission alleging violation of rules by three MLAs of the state's ruling alliance of Maha Vikas Aghadi.
The legislators will be staying at a luxury resort there and likely to visit the Somnath temple, sources said.
Khan while reacting to party's state president DK Shivakumar's attempt to consolidate the Vokkaliga community, had recently said that nobody can become the chief minister with support from just one community.
Congress put up five demands at the all-party meeting convened by Prime Minister Narendra Modi with leaders of Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday including early statehood, conducting polls to restore democracy and rehabilitation of Kashmiri Pandits.
Jitu Patwari, was briefly detained along with a few Congress supporters as he sought to enter the resort in the Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled Karnataka.
Both houses of Parliament were adjourned for the day on Friday after an uproar over the violence in Manipur.
In the past, the House has passed a number of resolutions urging the Central government to transfer Chandigarh to Punjab, Mann said.
Party chief Chaudhary Ajit Singh and Jayant Chaudhary will decide on the number of seats the party will contest and the matter may be discussed during a meeting in the next few days
The speaker rejected the adjournment motion moved by the TDP and sought to take up regular business, which the Opposition did not allow.
A day after Bhartiya Janata Party's veteran leader Jaswant Singh accused Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje of betraying him as it was he who had support her candidature for the chief minister's post, Raje hits back saying that party members should accept the party's decision.
The party's research centre, overseen by chief Sonia Gandhi, provides members with solid facts that can be used to target the Centre.
Any miscalculation and miscommunication are fraught with the risk of a major catastrophe, warns Rup Narayan Das.