Congress on Friday night appeared to be in two minds on the issue of joining the government to be led by Mamata Banerjee in West Bengal.
On a day of dramatic developments, The Trinamool Congress on Wednesday night sought the removal of its senior-most nominee in the Union Cabinet, Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi, hours after he proposed a hike in railway passenger fares, plunging the UPA government in an unusual political crisis.
At a time when relations have soured with its ally over the presidential polls, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday accused Communist Party of India-Marxist of trying to drive a wedge between the Trinamool Congress and the Congress and said that her party would not fall into the trap.
Siddiqui, a Muslim cleric who launched the ISF last month, addressed a mega rally at the Brigade Parade Ground in Kolkata on Sunday, expressing gratitude to the Left for keeping 30 seats for his party to contest as part of the alliance.
The Bharatiya Janata Party has taken full advantage of the anger of the people against Congress and its policies and complete absence of a non-Congress, non-Bharatiya Janata Party alternative in the Lok Sabha polls, Left parties said on Friday.
Abhijit Mukherjee, son of President Pranab Mukherjee, was on Friday chosen by the Congress as its candidate for the by-election for Jangipur Lok Sabha seat vacated by his father.
A day after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's attack, the Congress on Sunday reached out to its ally saying there was need for "better communication" with Trinamool Congress and the two could rebuild trust by ironing out "disagreements" within closed doors.
Senior Congress leader Pranab Mukherjee called up Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee on Monday night and they are likely to hold final round of talks on Tuesday to resolve differences over seat sharing between the two parties for the Assembly polls in West Bengal.
The Congress on Wednesday cancelled its four marathon races listed this week and also decided not to hold any big rallies in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh amid rising cases of the novel coronavirus infection.
The much-awaited talks to finalise the seat-sharing issue between Congress and Trinamool Congress for the coming Assembly elections in West Bengal ended inconclusively in Kolkata on Tuesday night.
Triumphant over the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam in making it swallow threat to quit the United Progressive Alliance government, Congress president Sonia Gandhi has asked the party managers to strike a similar hard bargain with Union Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress for alliance in the upcoming West Bengal assembly elections.
Congress leaders say that part of their calculations and preparations for the Presidential poll have focused on getting the numbers without Mamata, reports Renu Mittal.
Angered by Congress joining hands with the Left in Siliguri, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Thursday accused its ally of 'breach of trust' in the mayoral elections there and claimed that 'money game' was involved in it.
Apparently toeing the central party leadership's move to keep Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee in good humour ahead of the Presidential poll, the West Bengal Congress, which had threatened to pull out of the state government, on Wednesday changed its track and said it wanted to work in harmony with the ally.
Mamata Banerjee, set to become West Bengal Chief Minister, on Monday invited ally Congress to be part of her government as she met Congress President Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi.
Expelled Communist Party of India-Marxist leader and former Lok Sabha Speaker said on Friday the trends indicated that the Trinamool Congress-Congress alliance was coming to power in West Bengal.
The development is a major boost for West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee, who has been trying to expand her party's footprint beyond her native state.
Trouble deepened for the ruling Left Front in West Bengal as it lost the Siliguri municipality to the Trinamool Congress-Congress combine after 27 years. The Opposition alliance bagged 29 seats of the 47-member board, while one seat went to an independent candidate. The Left Front won 17 seats.
For the Congress it has turned out to be a good Friday the 13th. The party has returned to power in Assam and Kerala. In West Bengal, it's back in power after almost four decades riding piggyback on its ally the Trinamool Congress.
Dissident Trinamool Congress MP Somen Mitra on Friday said he has decided to leave the party and go back to the Congress, while stating he would resign from his Lok Sabha membership first.
West Bengal Congress on Monday said the party should get one-third of the seats it will contest in alliance with Trinamool Congress in the state assembly polls due in May, replicating the formula adopted during the Lok Sabha polls in 2009.
The Congress also alleged that Facebook was acting as an ally of the ruling BJP and pushing its agenda.
"Very shortly we will come out with a concrete plan," Rao told reporters after meeting the Trinamool Congress president.
The party, going it alone on all 294 seats, earlier announced names of 83 candidates.
In changes ahead of crucial Assembly elections, the Congress on Wednesday made Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Priyaranjan Dasmunsi its state unit chief in the Left-ruled West Bengal and appointed two other union ministers as party heads in Madhya Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir.
Former chief minister of Goa and Congress veteran Luizinho Faleiro, resigned as an MLA and a primary member of the party on Monday claiming the state party unit is run by a 'coterie' of leaders even as he praised Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee saying the country needs a leader like her to take on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said it had not been a correct decision to align with Congress in the 2011 assembly elections and accused the Congress of holding out the threat of the Central Bureau of Investigation "whenever there is a protest against the UPA government".
The leaders attacked the BJP, accusing it of trying to create "Hindu-Muslim disturbances" to benefit politically and making false claims and promises.
If the Congress comes to power in the state, it will not allow his government to work, Modi claimed.
BJP working president J P Nadda reacted strongly to these remarks, saying they were in "bad taste and highly condemnable".
The party, however, did not say exactly when the Congress general secretary received the message.
Fears of the Congress not having a credible face, after the death of its three-time chief minister Sheila Dikshit last July, and ceding its vote bank to the Aam Aadmi Party came true with the Arvind Kejriwal-led party capturing the space once occupied by the grand old party.
As Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar frowned at the Centre, the Bharatiya Janata Party ion Monday took a dig at him, saying he was led up the "garden path" by the Congress on the issue of special status and hinted that this had led to its split with the BJP.
Chauhan, a former Madhya Pradesh chief minister, said political parties governed by dynasty, family and caste politics were defeated everywhere including Uttar Pradesh and Bihar in the general elections.
The ED on Wednesday said it has seized cash amounting to over Rs 10 crore, including about Rs 8 crore from a relative of Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi, during raids conducted in connection with an anti-money laundering investigation against illegal sand-mining operations in the poll-bound state.
Accusing the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party of having "reaped benefits" of communal polarisation in the Lok Sabha elections, the Congress on Wednesday said the government should now focus on good governance and deliver on promises.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, who spearheaded Congress' Lok Sabha election campaign in the state, attributed the party's rout to some policies of the central government.
The Congress Working Committee (CWC) member also reminded regional parties opposed to the BJP of the defeat in the 2019 general elections when Narendra Modi powered the National Democratic Alliance to a second straight term in office due to a fragmented opposition, warning the 'BJP is coming after them' in their respective states.
The Congress leader alleged that BJP-appointed governors have violated the Constitution and have in the process "gravely impaired" parliamentary democracy, its conventions and traditions.
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