The suspense over whether Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will contest the polls from Amethi and Raebareli respectively continued.
Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee has recently written to all opposition parties including the Congress, calling on everyone to come together and put up a united fight against saffron forces.
There was no immediate response from the Aam Aadmi Party over the matter.
Reacting to the charge by Banerjee, the Congress held her responsible for the growth of RSS in the state.
The change was made as the Congress's leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury would be busy in West Bengal assembly elections which is starting on March 27. Chowdhury is also the Congress' West Bengal unit president.
The Congress should take the lead in resolving differences of opinion within the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) and show 'large-heartedness' in seat sharing to emerge as a viable alternative to the Bharatiya Janata Party in upcoming elections, according to some opposition leaders.
After clearing the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam hurdle in Tamil Nadu, the Congress is in talks with Trinamool Congress which on Wednesday said it has offered its ally 58 seats in West Bengal as against the national party's demand for 98.
The results of the 10 assembly by-elections in West Bengal once again proved that the people wanted the Trinamool Congress-Congress alliance and the ruling Left Front was losing popularity, Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said in Kolkata on Wednesday.
Amid signs of increasing bonhomie between her and her Telangana and Tamil Nadu counterparts Rao and Stalin, Banerjee had approached the two on Sunday to set up meetings of opposition chief ministers.
The Congress and Left Front on Thursday finalised sharing of 193 seats of the total 294 in West Bengal assembly with the Left parties getting the lion's share of 101 seats.
The IMD has warned of heatwave to severe heatwave conditions in parts of West Bengal, Odisha, Bihar, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh during the next five days.
In a major organisational rejig ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, the Congress on Saturday appointed Avinash Pande the general secretary in-charge of Uttar Pradesh, replacing Priyanka Gandhi Vadra while Sachin Pilot was made the general secretary in-charge of Chhattisgarh.
He also said that the party "cannot be selective in fighting the communists" and it must do so in all its manifestations, irrespective of religion and colour.
Hours after West Bengal Finance Minister Amit Mitra met Pranab Mukherjee to seek a special financial package for the state, the Congress on Monday indicated that the crisis-ridden state could be helped but dismissed suggestions on any quid pro quo for the Presidential polls.
Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge, who is also the leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha, Jairam Ramesh and Randeep Surjewala may attend the meeting on behalf of the party.
Leaders of the opposition INDIA bloc are set to meet at the residence of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge in Delhi on December 6 to formulate a strategy for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Prasun Banerjee and Jawhar Sircar represented TMC in the meeting, which discussed the Opposition strategy on Rahul Gandhi's disqualification from the Parliament.
'The Congress don't have the zeal to fight the BJP. The party is so bogged down by infighting that it hardly has time or energy to build an opposition. The UPA does not exist'
Questioning the 'certificates' given to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee by her Gujarat counterpart Narendra Modi, the Congress on Tuesday wondered if there was a secret "nexus" between the Trinamool Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party.
The Bharat Nyay Yatra will be mostly covered by bus along with short stretches of walking.
The Congress will begin the Rahul Gandhi-led Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra from the violence-hit Manipur on Sunday, in what is being seen as the party's bid to set the narrative in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls and put the spotlight on issues such as unemployment, price rise and social justice.
Election will be held in 60 out of the total 294 seats in the first two phases of the eight-phased polls which is slated to stretch from March 27 to April 29. The date for the second phase of election is April 1.
Alleging that Prasada had placed "personal ambition" over everything else, Moily said the Uttar Pradesh leader's ideological commitment was suspect from the beginning and the party winning zero seats in West Bengal under his charge showed that he was incompetent.
Congress on Wednesday made known its unhappiness over its senior leader Kapil Sibal representing West Bengal government in the multi-crore rupees Saradha scam in the Supreme Court, two days after its state unit expressed objection to it.
Two days after quitting the Congress, former Goa chief minister Luizinho Faleiro joined the Trinamool Congress on Wednesday.
The Congress leader in Lok Sabha and other party members were stopped at Sriniketan More near the village in Birbhum district, and they sat on the road and staged a demonstration demanding that they be allowed to visit the village and meet the kin of the deceased.
Pawar said even during the Emergency years there was a feeling in political circles that nothing would change for the next 25 years, but people ushered in change the very next year in 1977.
Chowdhury is a five-time MP from West Bengal and has not lost the Lok Sabha election since 1999.
Kejriwal said that the ordinance must be defeated collectively in Parliament where it is likely to come up for voting as a law in the forthcoming session.
An Enforcement Directorate officer was arrested for demanding and accepting a bribe of Rs 20 lakh from a a government employee, the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC), said on Friday.
On the eve of the meeting hosted by it, the Congress clarified that it will oppose the ordinance on Delhi services in Parliament, a key condition put by the AAP to attend the talks.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee campaigning in tribal Paschim Medinipur district on Thursday for the coming state election asked "Marxist friends" not to vote for either the CPI-M or Congress, who are "cohorts of the communal BJP".
The Communist Party of India-Marxist said that it will field a candidate as those opposed to the TMC and BJP needed an alternative.
A fresh strain in the Trinamool Congress-Congress alliance came to the fore on Friday when Youth Congress workers took out a silent procession in Kolkata denouncing "attacks" on Congress by the alliance partner in West Bengal.
A Trinamool Congress minister on Saturday said ally Congress was free to quit the Mamata Banerjee ministry government in West Bengal.
Modi launched a scathing attack on the Congress alleging that the opposition party has become outdated and has always been against any kind of reservation.
West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee President Pradip Bhattacharjee is a busy man. Between answering calls from the Prime Minister's Office, he tells Rajat Roy about how the Congress is on an upward trajectory in West Bengal.
According to the sources, the meeting will be held at 10 am on Thursday in the chamber of Rajya Sabha LoP.
The Congress in West Bengal on Friday said it accepted the challenge thrown by ally Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee that it would go it alone in the state henceforth but said it would remain in the Mamata Banerjee-led government.
The Congress, which had held its sway in these two Muslim majority districts during the Left Front rule of 34 years and the following 10 years of the TMCs reign since 2011, has not been able to open its account in this election.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances