A host of top Congress leaders wished him on his birthday, with former prime minister Manmohan Singh among the first to send his best wishes through a letter in the morning.
The senior Congress leader asserted that those calling for reform should have had a discussion with others as well.
There's a quiet before the storm within the ruling party. Illustration: Uttam Ghosh/Rediff.com.
The Jawahar Bhavan Trust has been reshuffled.
Former Union ministers Arjun Singh, M L Fotedar and Mohsina Kidwai have retired as trustees.
Ahmed Patel, Sonia Gandhi's political secretary, has relinquished the post of secretary to the trust; he remains a trustee.
Shankersinh Vaghela claimed Patel's victory in the Rajya Sabha polls came through a 'well thought-out conspiracy'.
In her message on the occasion of the 73rd Independence Day, she appealed to all to reinvigorate the principles of compassion, coexistence and inclusive development as the indelible features of polity, society and economy.
The issue of constituting a mechanism for the wide ranging consultations promised by the Centre on Telangana is expected to come up on Friday at a meeting of the Congress core group headed by party president Sonia Gandhi.
The leaders of the two parties have held five rounds of talks since Wednesday to finalise the portfolio sharing arrangement between the partners.
On a day Ashok Lavasa's decision to recuse from model code of conduct complaints became public, the EC said the 'full commission' would meet on May 21 to discuss the issue of dissent and 'related matters'.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi has held consultations with senior party leaders ahead of Opposition's plans to raise the controversy surrounding Union Minister Shashi Tharoor's alleged murky deals in the Indian Premier League in Parliament on Friday.
The government formation exercise for Maharashtra gathered momentum on Thursday with the top Congress leaders meeting their alliance partners, the Nationalist Congress Party, in New Delhi to settle on a power sharing agreement in the state.
Modi, who was accompanied by Delhi Bharatiya Janata Party president Manoj Tiwari, said Dikhsit made a noteworthy contribution to the development of the national capital.
Addressing AAP's first rally in the state, Kejriwal said BJP and Congress were like "husband and wife" and alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress leader Ahmed Patel work "in unison".
The nation on Saturday remembered former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on her 31st death anniversary with President Pranab Mukherjee, Vice President Hamid Ansari and other leaders paying tributes at her memorial in New Delhi.
She met with Defence Minister A K Antony, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, her political secretary Ahmed Patel and others on Wednesday evening to take stock of the situation.
Andhra Pradesh ministers hailing from Telangana, who have sent in their resignation letters to party chief Sonia Gandhi, will meet her in Delhi on Monday and seek a clear time-frame for the creation of a separate state. They have also sought an appointment from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, according to one of the 13 ministers. "We will meet Gandhi's political secretary Ahmed Patel, Defence Minister A K Antony and other senior All India Congress Committee leaders," he said.
In a bid to find a way out on the Telangana issue, the Centre and the Congress on Tuesday began hectic consultations with MPs from Andhra Pradesh, a day after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said a decision would be taken soon to "bring everything in order".
Party chief Rahul Gandhi formed a nine-member Core Group Committee, a 19-member Manifesto Committee and a committee comprising 19 top party leaders who will look after the publicity during the elections.
'NCP wants the Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress to come together and provide a stable government.'
It will be the year of preparation for the electoral test in Uttar Pradesh, due in 2022. But before that, the West Bengal Assembly election will set the mood for the rest of 2021.
Hours after the Union Cabinet decided to impose President's rule in Jharkhand, the Sibu Soren-led Jharkhand Mukti Morcha on Monday said all options are still open, indicating that the exercise to form a government is still on. "None of the United Progressive Alliance constituents -- the JMM, the Congress and the Rashtriya Janata Dal -- want President's rule in the state," JMM general secretary and minister for parliamentary affairs Suman Mahato said.
"Since home minister has called a meeting of the chief ministers on internal security on Januray 6, I hope to take over before that so that I could represent J&K as the chief minister. But we have few formalities. The governor's rule has to be revoked before that," Omar Abdullah said.
Congress boss breaks with tradition to send two chadars to the Ajmer dargah.
After following Congress president Rahul Gandhi and the party's official Twitter handle, he began following senior leaders P Chidambaram, Kapil Sibal, Ahmed Patel, Ashok Gehlot, Ajay Maken, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Sachin Pilot and CP Joshi from this month.
Pranab Mukherjee Gulam Nabi Azad and Ahmed Patel will liaise on behalf of Congress President Sonia Gandhi, while Gujarat Chief Miniser Narendra Modi, Jaswant Singh, S Gurumurthy and Cho Ramaswamy are the pointsmen for Bharatiya Janata Party prime ministerial candidate L K Advani.
Could Jairam Ramesh's frank comments work to the BJP's advantage?
Worried by the growing dissent within the party over Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh's joint statement after meeting his Pakistani counterpart Gilani in Sharm-el-Sheikh, Congress president Mrs Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday directed the party spokespersons not to say even a single word on the subject.
The Parliamentary committee examining the cash-for-vote scam has no plans as of now to call Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh and Congress leader Ahmed Patel for questioning.
Discussions on other issues are in progress, Pawar said after the meeting, held at the Nehru Centre in Worli.
In its report, the committee is understood to have suggested that the money trail could be probed by an investigating agency like CBI or the Income Tax Department. The 600-page report carries evidence given by witnesses and verbatim transcriptions of sittings as also the 'dissent' notes by BJP's V K Malhotra, Mohd Salim (CPI-M) and Ramgopal Yadav (SP).
Modi was stated to have been held up at the place for nearly 15 minutes because of Mohsin's "actions". The officer allegedly checked PM's chopper in violation of norms.
In a statement, the agency said the bail was granted to Yousuf Chopan, who had been arrested by the NIA in a terror conspiracy case, and not the February 2019 attack case.
Thackeray and Pawar held parleys at a suburban hotel ahead of the 7.30 pm deadline set by Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari for the Sena to stake claim for government formation.
The move comes after at least six Congress MLAs in Gujarat resigned from the party to join the BJP.
Even before a clear picture of the alliances emerges for the April-May Lok Sabha elections, the political scene is hotting up with the parties going through poll pangs and problem of poaching that may accelerate in the days to come.
Gandhi expressed deep pain and distress at the passing away of Jaitley.
The assembly election results are likely to put a lid on the impending battle the old guard and young Turks, strengthen the hands of the veterans, and force the younger leaders to negotiate a truce. Archis Mohan reports.
The Congress's new treasurer Ahmed Patel has been meeting industrialists and businessmen. He met one of the biggest industrialists of the country last week, but the assurance of any significant donation was half-hearted from the other end. Business houses aren't exactly queuing up to offer donations, reports Archis Mohan.
Voting in the first phase began with reports of multiple faulty electronic voting machines at various booths, prompting Congress leaders to request quick action from the poll body.
The party high command has set up a high profile three-member panel of Union Ministers Pranab Mukherjee and A K Antony, and political adviser to Congress president Ahmed Patel to review the performance of Deshmukh, who has been at the receiving end from his detractors.Speculation is rife for the past some months that Congress chief Sonia Gandhi is keen to replace him."The Congress periodically conducts in-house exercises, " Tiwari said.
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