It was after a gap of two decades that saw such an occasion where MPs of the upper house enthralled their fellow colleagues at a dinner hosted by Chairman and Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu for 72 retiring members.
From the 'group of 23' leaders, who had written letter to Gandhi seeking Congress' overhaul, Azad and Sharma continue to be regular members of the CWC,
The Madhya Pradesh chief minister skirted the issue of whether senior Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia can be nominated for the Rajya Sabha seat from the state.
Shivakumar, 57, was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on September 3 in a money laundering case.
Congress leaders are a jubilant lot after the results.
Amid a series of deliberations over a strategy for upcoming general and assembly elections by poll strategist Prashant Kishor, a group of senior leaders of the Congress has given its recommendations to party president Sonia Gandhi and left it to her to take a call on them and initiate organisational changes.
Ahead of Sunday's reshuffle of the Union Council of Ministers, three Cabinet ministers and a minister of state resigned on Saturday, saying they want to work for the party.
Backing Salman Khurshid, two senior Union ministers Monday said there was no question of the law minister being isolated within the government following allegations of misappropriation of funds by an NGO headed by him.
Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni on Friday accused news channels of helping civil society activist Arvind Kejriwal to malign the image of people by airing his "unsubstantiated allegations of wrong-doings".
Top Congress leaders are learnt to be discussing the current political situation.
Dubbing Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's recent comment on women as "childish", Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni on Thursday said he is not "sensitive" towards women.
Renu Mittal gives us glimpses from the opening ceremony of Congress' Chintan Shivir in Jaipur which saw party general secretary Rahul Gandhi taking part in group deliberations`
Chief ministers of Tripura and Uttarakhand on Sunday joined the anti- National Counterterrorism Center chorus taking to 12 the number of opposing states even as their Gujarat counterpart Narendra Modi accused United Progressive Alliance of "attacking" the country's federal structure.
Congress observers for Rajasthan on Tuesday recommended disciplinary action against three key loyalists of Ashok Gehlot but did not seek any action against the chief minister, as the party scampered to resolve the crisis that has cast a shadow on the election of the party president.
With the victory over FDI in multi-brand retail in Parliament, the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance is now gearing up for the party's all important 'Chintan Shivir' (brainstorming camp) next month.
Home Minister P Chidambaram was on Friday appointed the head of the Empowered Group of Ministers on spectrum auction that was reconstituted after Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar declined the job.
The stage is set now for a major revamp of the Union Council of Ministers on Sunday with the likely induction of at least ten new faces and promotion of some ministers of state, besides a rejig in the Cabinet, in which Anand Sharma may get the external affairs portfolio.
Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh is all set to carry a major reshuffle in his Cabinet that is scheduled to take place around 11:30 am on Sunday. The reshuffle is likely to see the inclusion of several young faces
Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni on Saturday said Law Minister Salman Khurshid will respond to the allegations against him on returning from his foreign visit and questioned whether it was fair to demand resignations by creating pressure through dharnas.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi held consultations with party leaders as the 72-hour deadline set by Trinamool Congress for rollback of diesel price hike, LPG subsidy cap and FDI in retail ended on Monday amid indications a worst case situation could be a pull out of union ministers by the key ally.
Maintaining that the United Progressive Alliance government is not in favour of "censorship but self-regulation" by the media, Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni on Monday said certain ground rules for respect of national symbols have to be followed by every Indian citizen.
Union minister Ambika Soni on Friday defended her cabinet colleague P Chidambaram in the last year's midnight crackdown at Ramlila Maidan, saying that the Supreme Court had only held Delhi police and yoga guru Ramdev's organisation responsible for the incident.
Slamming the Karnataka government for failing to stop attacks by Hindu outfits on young boys and girls in the state in name of moral policing, the Centre on Monday demanded firm action against the "hoodlums" for such acts.
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.
Advocating self regulation in the broadcast sector, Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni on Thursday defended Press Council chairman Justice Katju for initiating a debate on whether to have a regulatory body and for raising the issue in public.
The Information and Broadcasting Ministry today said it could not put in place a regulatory framework for mobile TV service as the available spectrum for the service was far below requirement.
"I cannot agree with any statement which says that there is lack of governance. I cannot agree with that perception at all," Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni told reporters.
India's food processing minister Subodh Kant Sahay on Thursday met Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee in New Delhi ahead of the general\nbudget on July 6.
A US daily's trenchant criticism of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has come under attack from Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni, who plans to take up the issue with the External Affairs Ministry so that "strong action" can be taken in the matter.
Taking serious note of mushrooming media schools in the country, government is mulling framing guidelines to protect the interest of students who have to eke out exorbitant fees for these unrecognised courses.
Government on Saturday hailed the verdict of Delhi court dismissing a plea to make Home Minister P Chidambaram an accused in the 2G case, saying it vindicates its stand and also of the Congress party.
Besides, Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry secretary general Amit Mitra, L Suresh, vice president of Film Federation of India, UTV Group chief financial officer Rajeev Waghle, chief financial officer of Reliance Big Films Subhashish Sarkar and Zee Tele films chief executive officer Puneet Goenka, among others, were also part of the delegation.
As the government faces heat over corruption and black money, it is planning to bring a law to prevent the misuse of benami transactions, a key source of illicit funds.
The government on Tuesday said it was open to the idea of holding an all-party meeting on the issue of regulating contents on cable television but maintained that a 'fatwa' or a direction will not help serve the purpose.
Information and Broadcasting minister Ambika Soni spoke to rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt briefly on the current logjam in Parliament over the government's decision allowing 51 per cent foreign direct investment in multi-brand retail trade.
Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni said the Union Cabinet has accepted the proposal of the Ministry of Railways for payment of PLB equivalent to 78 days' wages for 2010-11 for all eligible non-gazetted Railway employees.
Some Congress leaders consider Kishor as an "overrated" person and argue that in 2017 assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, he led to the decline of the party.
Government has approved Rs. 7,029 crore compensation to states for the losses they suffered due to reduction in central sales tax rate.
With the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections just around the corner, senior Congress leader from the state P L Punia has pitted himself against Union minister Ambika Soni over the yet unreleased Bollywood film 'Arakshan' directed by Prakash Jha.
Union Home Minister P Chidambaram on Wednesday questioned reports of rating agencies on the Indian economy.
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