With Communist Party of India-Marxist-led Left Front government in West Bengal not readily implementing the ban imposed on Communist Party of India-Maoist, Congress on Wednesday accused the Marxist party of "double speak" and warned if state governments implement Central laws "selectively", it would lead to "constitutional chaos."
Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee has now set Thursday evening as the deadline for the Congress to reach a seat sharing agreement for the forthcoming West Bengal state assembly polls. Congress leader Pranab Mukherjee met Mamata late on Tuesday to resolve last-minute differences. Ahmed Patel, Gandhi's political secretary, called Mamata and asked her to wait till March 21, when the Congress president returns from London. But she has turned down the request.
Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee's seat offer is unacceptable to the Congress. With Banerjee playing hard to get, the Congress may consider going alone in West Bengal. Renu Mittal reports.
The Congress on Thursday said that the West Bengal government was opposing a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into the chit fund scam for fear that it would reveal information which would prove "dangerous" for it.
Most of the leaders who attended the meeting agreed that Kishor joining the Congress would be beneficial for the party, they added.
Taken by surprise, the Congress on Saturday said it has sought more time to resolve its differences with ally Trinamool Congress, which had made a unilateral decision to announce a list of candidates for the West Bengal assembly polls. "This is a new situation, new development. The party central leadership will discuss the issue in detail and then take a decision," said Congress Working Committee member-in charge for West Bengal Shakeel Ahmad.
Former Congress president Sonia Gandhi, BJP chief J P Nadda and new party entrant Ashok Chavan and Union ministers Ashwini Vaishnaw and L Murugan were among the 41 candidates elected unopposed to Rajya Sabha on Tuesday while Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh will witness polling on February 27.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday said she had suggested to the Congress that an advisory council comprising prominent personalities from civil society be set up to give a direction to the opposition, but rued that the plan did not materialise.
It was a mixed bag for Congress in assembly by-polls in six states winning three of the eight seats at stake on thursday with the sweetener being the defeat of its deserter and Trinamool Minister in West Bengal.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday said he was confident that the Congress and Trinamool Congress would contest next year's assembly elections in West Bengal jointly even though the two parties are going to fight separately in coming civic polls.
The desertion by more than two-thirds of the Congress legislative party makes TMC, a newbie in Meghalaya, the principal opposition in the Northeastern state.
It comes a day after party chief Sonia Gandhi proposed, at a meeting of the Congress Working Committee, the formation of a group to assess the party's losses in Kerala, Assam, West Bengal and Puducherry.
The Congress on Wednesday decided to take on Trinamool Congress ally Socialist Unity Centre of India in two seats at South 24 Parganas for refusing to withdraw nominees against it in 29 other constituencies for the West Bengal assembly elections.
Congress leader Jairam Ramesh took a veiled dig at Azad who was conferred with the award.
Apparently under pressure from Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee, Congress on Thursday asked its candidate Abdul Mannan to withdraw from the Rajya Sabha elections in West Bengal.
He said his supporters were apprehensive that joining TMC would invite the "outside party" to Goa which will split votes.
Sources said that Congress leaders, including Kamal Nath, Digvijaya Singh, Mukul Wasnik, KC Venugopal, Jairam Ramesh, AK Antony, Ambika Soni and Randeep Surjewala, are also taking part in the meeting at Sonia Gandhi's 10 Janpath residence.
Congress Saturday ruled out an electoral alliance with Trinamool Congress in the coming West Bengal assembly polls unless it severed ties with the National Democratic Alliance.
Rahul Gandhi would be pursued to return as Congress president as there is none in the party other than him who has a pan-India appeal, veteran leader M Mallikarjun Kharge has said.
In the first major test of popularity, the Trinamool Congress on Tuesday won the elections to three civic bodies and was leading in another while the Congress and Left Front major Communist Party of India-Marxist bagged one each in West Bengal.
A delegation of Congress leaders met EC officials and raised several issues, including the use of pictures and large cut-outs of the prime minister in government buildings and colleges and demanded that those be removed to maintain a level-playing field in the upcoming parliamentary election.
Prashant Kishor expressed the view that the recent 'chintan shivir' could not achieve "anything meaningful".
'It is very unfortunate that the AAP seems to be looking at the issue through the prism of rivalry with Congress in Delhi and Punjab'
Union minister Smriti Irani will also contest the Rajya Sabha polls from Gujarat from where she is already an MP and her term ends on August 18.
The Congress on Friday suspended two of its legislators for voting for the Trinamool Congress in the Rajya Sabha biennial election for five seats in West Bengal.
The Congress on Tuesday suffered a major upset in Himachal Pradesh at the hands of the Bharatiya Janata Party in the Rajya Sabha elections which were marred by cross-voting in all the three states though it won three seats in Karnataka while the saffron party pocketed an extra seat in Uttar Pradesh.
'I declined the generous offer of Congress to join the party as part of the EAG and take responsibility for the elections. In my humble opinion, more than me the party needs leadership and collective will to fix the deep rooted structural problems through transformational reforms,' Kishor said in a tweet.
A day after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's comment that there was no United Progressive Alliance anymore, Kishor, who has earlier been political advisor to various parties, also called for democratically electing the opposition leadership.
Party sources in Delhi said Rahul Gandhi is keen to visit there on Wednesday, days after his sister and All India Congress Committee general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was detained by the Uttar Pradesh Police while on her way to Lakhimpur Kheri, where eight people died and several injured Sunday in the bloodiest clash since the farmers' protest over the Centre's agri laws began last year.
As the lower house took up the motion moved by Gogoi, there were heated exchanges between the opposition and treasury benches after Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi wondered why Rahul Gandhi's name as lead speaker was withdrawn at the last minute.
The opposition party also said that it would like to remind the BJP that Hindu Mahasabha president Syama Prasad Mookerjee aligned with Jinnah's Muslim League to form the government in Bengal during the British rule.
The sources said that the party may opt for 'One Person One Post' formula and this would entail finding a replacement for Chowdhury, who is chief of Congress in West Bengal.
AAP chief spokesperson Priyanka Kakkar said its top leadership will take a call on attending the Mumbai meeting of the opposition bloc INDIA, following the statement by Lamba.
The Congress plans to ensure that even if its candidates fail to register a win in the Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal, the benefit should go to the Left Front and not to friend-turned-foe Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress. Renu Mittal reports.
Azad, who is a prominent member of the group of 23 leaders who had demanded organisational overhaul in the Congress, said that for the next two months the party is the top priority.
The Sena's remarks come in the wake of Mamata Banerjee's recent visit to Mumbai, in which she made a cryptic statement that 'there is no UPA now'.
Amethi's former Congress MP Rahul Gandhi has sent five trucks each of rice and wheat besides one truck of pulses, cooking oil, spices and other material for distribution among people, said party's district unit president Anil Singh.
A dominant force in the country's politics for decades, the grand old party's free fall continued as it lost Punjab to AAP and finished with just two seats out of 403 in the politically crucial state of Uttar Pradesh.
Yadav also pressed for the caste census which, he said, would be a major issue in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
Nationalist Congress Party president Sharad Pawar on Saturday said he is not completely opposed to a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the charges against the Adani group, but a Supreme Court committee will be more useful and effective.
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