Pant, a 1991-batch Indian Administrative Service officer of Rajasthan cadre, is currently secretary in the ministry of ports, shipping and waterways.
Senior party leaders stressed that no one except the Gandhi family can hold the party together, the party will disintegrate and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra should be given command after 2024.
Sources said the leadership of the government going forward, if Gehlot is elected as party chief, is likely to be on the meeting agenda.
In Karnataka, the BJP lost the elections because of multiple poles of power, a problem the central leadership could not sort out in time. Could the same happen to the Congress in Rajasthan? asks Aditi Phadnis.
The group is also reported to be seeking the ouster of some Rahul Gandhi loyalists from key AICC positions and top on their target are AICC general secretary Organisation K C Venugopal, chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala and general secretary Ajay Maken.
A police complaint was lodged on Sunday against Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, spiritual leader Jaggi Vasudev and others for allegedly violating wildlife protection laws during their jeep safari after dusk in the Kaziranga Nation Park the previous day.
Gandhi also hailed as 'an important idea' the party's decisions to give more representation to the youth and empower them, and added that there should be a 'healthy mix of youngsters and seniors'.
'Congress leaders don't believe in themselves and in the potential of the party.' 'Unless they have faith in themselves, only then will the public have faith in them.'
Hectic preparations were underway at the Congress headquarters for the ceremony where party president Sonia Gandhi will hand over the baton to her successor, Mallikarjun Kharge, the first non-Gandhi to head the outfit in 24 years.
Sharma will have to report before the investigating officer at 11 am.
Facing flak from Bharatiya Janata Party and Sangh Parivar over his controversial Hindu terror remarks, Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde Wednesday said he fully endorses Congress party's stand that there was no colour to terrorism.
The Bhartiya Janata Party and the Rashtriya Swyamsevak Sangh have taken strong exception to the statement made by Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shide at the Chintan Shivir in Jaipur.
In a statement that is expected to erupt a huge political row, Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said on Sunday, "The RSS and BJP are running terrorist training camps to spread Hindu terrorism."
Talking to some 80-plus Congressmen in a closed-door meeting at Jaipur on the sidelines of the party's Chintan Shivir, Dr Singh reportedly said that India should not be sentimental in diplomacy and use wisdom.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday charged Congress is running away from doing an honest introspection about its "failures" at the ruling party's conclave in Jaipur and instead engaging in "self-certification" about its actions despite not meeting even "doable" targets set by it.
Gearing up for the 2014 general elections, Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Friday told partymen that unity should be their watchword as the party had floundered many an opportunity for want of discipline.
Talking to reporters in Bhopal, Kharge said he believes in collective leadership and if elected president, will consult party leaders Sonia Gandhi as well as Rahul Gandhi on organisational matters.
With the rout in the year-end assembly elections, Congress has been left looking at the bottom of the barrel ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, with Narendra Modi breathing down its neck.
The Congress could have regained some lost ground had it returned to welfare and a pro-poor platform. Instead, it has moved in the opposite direction. Rahul Gandhi's upper middle class-based political mobilisation strategy is likely to fail badly, says Praful Bidwai.
The Congress party seems to have already deviated from the stance it took at recent Chintan Shivir in Jaipur and gone back to old ways of functioning. Renu Mittal reports
Can Rahul Gandhi and Narendra Modi win allies for their parties if made the prime ministerial candidates for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections? Saroj Nagi analyses
Rahul Gandhi hit an emotional stride as he spoke about his grandmother Indira Gandhi's assassination, how he saw his father Rajiv Gandhi cry for the first time, and how his mother Sonia Gandhi had come to his room on Saturday night and wept.
The Congress will be wary of wheeling out Rahul Gandhi, when in all likelihood the Bharatiya Janata Party would field Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as one of its principal campaigners in the next general elections. Modi's image as a doer, a forceful orator, a great catalyst for the faster industrialisation of Gujarat beats the blankness of Rahul's CV, says Virendra Kapoor
What most people don't know is that the emotional flourishes and notes, the memories about Rahul's father Rajiv Gandhi and grandmother Indira Gandhi, the point about his mother Sonia coming into his room late on Saturday night and weeping, in the speech were added by his sister Priyanka Gandhi.
A strong demand for ending the culture of nomination at all levels for democratic functioning of the party and its revival was made at the Congress brainstorming conclave in Jaipur on Saturday.
Congress think tank members and senior functionaries like Ahmad Patel, Janardhan Dwivedi, Motilal Vohra, Digvijay Singh, Raj Babbar and Avtar Singh Badana along with other members of the party made the demand for projecting Rahul as PM at the strategy meet attended by significantly over 150 members of the Youth Congress and NSUI delegates.
The Congress' backfiring brainstorming sessions Sonia Gandhi's retirement date Ajit Jogi robotic legs and new ambitions All this and more in this week's Dilli Gupshup.
To highlight alleged misgovernance by the present regime, its first nationwide campaign ahead of the 2024 parliamentary elections.
Senior leader P Chidambaram whose Rajya Sabha tenure is ending from Maharashtra is under consideration from Tamil Nadu as the Congress is all set to get the support of alliance partner the DMK. The G-23 leaders, including Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma and Vivek Tankha, are also said to be in contention.
Speaking to the media, Gehlot, who is in Kerala to take part in the Bharat Jodo Yatra, said, "I said earlier that I will request him (Rahul Gandhi) to accept this post when all the Congress Committees are passing resolutions in this regard. He made it clear that no one from the Gandhi family will become the next chief. He said he has decided this due to some reasons, a non-Gandhi family member will become the party chief."
Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday assumed charge as Congress vice president with an assertion that he wanted to do positive politics, as it will take the country forward. Rahul, who was elevated to the post at the party's Jaipur 'Chintan Shivir' last weekend, said the political environment and the type of discussions on it are "extremely acrimonious".
A melodramatic event marked Kalyan Singh's formal return to the BJP as he merged his Rashtriya Kranti Party with the BJP, Sharat Pradhan reports
On such a historic day in the 127-year-old Congress party's history, Rahul Gandhi presented himself as a dreamy-eyed idealist who is trying to be a visionary instead of an Indian leader keen to be a man of steel to take on the hard realities of India. Sheela Bhatt assesses Rahul Gandhi's emotional first speech as Congress vice-president.
A day after Rahul Gandhi's anointment as party's vice president, Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Sunday targeted youth, women and middle class in the party's quest for widening its base ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.
The Congress Working Committee anointed Rahul Gandhi as party vice-president at the party's Chintan Shivir in Jaipur on Saturday. He is now the official number two in the Congress, paving the way for his projection as the party's prime ministerial candidate in the run up to the 2014 general elections.
"Wait for the news till evening" -- that was all that those taking part in the Congress Chintan Shivir were willing to say when scores of media persons quizzed them on speculations on Rahul Gandhi's elevation to play a larger role in the run up to the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
Congress workers want Rahul Gandhi to play a "pre-dominant" role in the party but the young leader should not be pressurised, Digvijay Singh said on Friday.
The brainstorming session (chintan shivir) of the Congress will be held in Jaipur from January 18 to 20 to discuss political and economic situations and seek new ideas ahead of the next Lok Sabha elections.
After a free and frank exchange of views at his first three-day formal interaction with AICC office bearers, Rahul Gandhi will be holding similar exercises with state level leaders soon.
Rahul Gandhi is very, very different from all the Gandhis before him, says Aditi Phadnis
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