Could Jairam Ramesh's frank comments work to the BJP's advantage?
Even as the grand old party seeks to promote opposition unity ahead of the hustings next year, Trinamool Congress supremo and West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, however, would be conspicuous by her absence at the event at Sree Kanteerava Stadium.
Some senior Congress leaders, including Kapil Sibal and Shashi Tharoor, met at their senior colleague Ghulam Nabi Azad's house in New Delhi on Monday evening after the Congress Working Committee debated their letter to the party's interim chief Sonia Gandhi seeking urgent organisational reforms.
'Yeh dil maange more' seems to be mantra for over two dozen former chief ministers of various states who are contesting upcoming Lok Sabha elections on different party tickets.
The Prime Minister's Office on Thursday forwarded to Oil and Petroleum Ministry a letter written by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in which he has demanded that the decision to hike gas price extracted from KG basin be kept in abeyance till completion of a probe into the issue.
Narendra Modi on Sunday dubbed the United Progressive Alliance government as "remote controlled" and "lame" as he raised the pitch for a strong and stable government at the Centre.
Seven political and administrative reasons were given to convince the Congress leadership while proposing the creation of Rayal-Telangana. Vicky Nanjappa reports
The Congress released its second list of 71 candidates on Tuesday night. It is an interesting list, considering the names which have been taken on and the ones which were dropped. Renu Mittal reports
The environment ministry is likely to allow generic modification of food crops.
Union government limits powers of Anti Corruption Bureau to corruption cases involving Delhi state govt officials
The coming assembly and Lok Sabha elections -- the choice of candidates, the campaign strategies and the negotiations with other Opposition parties --0 represent the real test for Mallikarjun Kharge.
Will the new Congress government implement the five 'guarantees' that helped it in part to wrest power from the Bharatiya Janata Party in toto or will they now add a "conditions apply" clause?
It said the Congress will infuse new blood in leadership roles without creating new fault lines and cementing its ideological moorings.
'Ram Sene or Bajrang Dal were supposed to be fringe elements, but with the BJP in power, they have become mainstream elements.' 'The government is either keeping quiet or indirectly supporting them.'
While 39 members of the all-important panel are general members, it has 32 permanent invitees, including some in-charges of state and 13 special invitees.
The appointees are expected to reflect Rahul Gandhi's vision of a new Congress with MP and Rahul's "bench mate" in the LS, KC Venugopal, expected to play an important role.
'Soniaji is like a mother to the party. We revere her even now'
'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 RBI governor, who made a presentation about the state of the economy as well about the world economy to the 31-member Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance, stayed clear of controversial questions like government invoking special powers.
The youngest in the CWC is 31-year-old Neeraj Kundan, who is an ex-officio member of the body as the president of the National Students Union of India, the students' wing of the party.
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs at its meeting this morning approved the project, official sources said.
Controversial chief of right wing outfit Sri Ram Sene, Pramod Muthalik, on Monday claimed that it was the Congress party's "conspiracy" that had stalled his entry into Bharatiya Janata Party, which cancelled his party membership within hours after opposition from within and severe flak from other parties.
Training his guns on BJP's prime ministerial candidate again over the Reliance gas issue, the Aam Aadmi Party on Friday asked Narendra Modi whether he will bring down the gas price if he comes to power.
The conference was seen by many as a show of strength by the Opposition with Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, his Jharkhand counterpart Hemant Soren and Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav joining in to raise their voice against oppression of backward classes.
Khurshid said the general feeling in the party is that the transition should happen.
BJP president Amit Shah, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, and Union Minister Nitin Gadkari were among those who addressed public meetings in different parts of the state on Sunday.
The letter was not a challenge to leadership but a parchment of action to strengthen the party, Congress MP Vivek Tankha asserted, while former union minister Mukul Wasnik said those who saw the letter as an "offence" will also soon realise that the issues raised are worth consideration.
Congress leaders told Rediff.com that if Sonia or Rahul Gandhi do not take up the leader of opposition's post in Lok Sabha, it would lead to factionalism and internal dissension, something that the party can ill-afford at this juncture. "Kamal Nath is undoubtedly a senior MP but his candidature is bound to be opposed by the MPs from southern states as they have won more seats," remarked a senior Congress functionary, adding that senior ministers like Veerappa Moily and Mallikarjun Kharge can be expected to push their candidature for this post. Anita Katyal reports.
Talk that Anil Kumble, the former Indian captain, will contest the forthcoming Lok Sabha election from Karnataka has been making the rounds. Rediff.com's Vicky Nanjappa finds out if Kumble will indeed spin a political googly.
Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh puts it succinctly: "Arun Jaitley was every non-BJP person's favourite BJP-ite."
The Reliance gas pricing issue is likely to find a place in the Aam Aadmi Party's manifesto as the new party has already indicated that it will be among the major issues to target the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress in the Lok Sabha election.
The ambit of the G-23 grouping increased this time as some more leaders -- Patiala MP Preneet Kaur, former Gujarat chief minister Shankar Singh Vaghela, former union minister Mani Shankar Aiyar and former Haryana speaker Kuldeep Sharma -- joined them.
'What criteria is GoI (government of India) using to judge how long the lockdown is to continue...'
Prime Minister Narendra Modi took stock of the situation, and assured all possible assistance to Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy. The prime minister also chaired a meeting of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) to assess the situation.
Former Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal was re-nominated by Congress from Chandigarh on Thursday brushing aside the "taint" argument as it released the second list of 71 candidates who include film star Nagma in Meerut and Youth Congress chief Rajeevv Satav from Hingoli.
The coming election to the Delhi assembly has so far been labelled a two-way contest between the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Aam Aadmi Party, but the Congress is not throwing in the towel yet.
Criticising various provisions in the proposed GST regime, Moily said it will be a "technological nightmare" and the anti-profiteering provisions in it are "far too draconian."
The opposition on Tuesday termed as an 'election jumla' the women's reservation bill brought by the government with many leaders raising questions over the proposed legislation, contending it doesn't account for reservation for OBC communities and that it will be effective at the earliest by the 2029 Lok Sabha polls.
Adityanath will be the 21st UP chief minister and the fourth from the BJP.
There is ambiguity as some top leaders are not comfortable about moving the motion.
