The coming weeks will be a tightrope walk for Gehlot who has 100 loyalists MLAs waiting to be rewarded on one side and the dissidents who wanted to be rehabilitated on the other, observes Prakash Bhandari.
The chief whip, who moved the top court two days after the assembly speaker C P Joshi filed the appeal against the July 24 Rajasthan high court order, was very critical of the judicial intervention into the disqualification proceedings and said that the order 'was ex facie unconstitutional' and amounted to an intrusion into the domain of speaker's power under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution.
The Congress legislator, who is a COVID-19 patient, was the last one to cast his ballot wearing a PPE suit. He came to the assembly complex in an ambulance, the official said.
"K C Venugopal is a buffoon, I feel sorry for him, I feel sorry for my leader Sri Rahul Gandhi ji," Baig told reporters.
Lapang, facing revolt by at least 14 legislators, is expected to tender his resignation to Governor R S Mooshahary later on Monday after he returns from New Delhi along with 23 legislators.
Protesting against the attack on a Congress Legislature Party team in West Bengal, party activists clashed with the police in Kolkata and other towns across the state, leaving one person dead and several injured. Five Congress workers were injured in fresh violence in Mangolkot where a CLP team, led by Manas Bhunia, was attacked on Wednesday allegedly by supporters of the ruling Left Front. During the clash, Zia-Ur-Rahman Mullick, 40, died of a heart attack.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister K Rosaiah, who took over the stewardship of the state amid a campaign by supporters by late Y S Rajasekhara Reddy to give his son the top post, said on Saturday that a meeting of Congress Legislature Party would be held before year-end.
Maharashtra Revenue Minister Narayan Rane has been suspended from the Congress for raising a banner of revolt against the Congress leadership after he was not given the state chief ministership.
'These are lies that Priyanka Gandhi rung up Sachin Pilot.'
A blame game has begun within the Congress, even as legislators of the newly formed Meghalaya Progressive Alliance (MPA) decided to stake their claims to form the government in Meghalaya. The Congress, which emerged as the single largest party, has fallen short by just six seats to cross the majority threshold in the 60-member Assembly.
Senior party leaders R K Dhawan and V Narainswamy are members of the committee, which has All India Congress Committee general secretary Ashok Gehlot as convenor.
Congress chief had accepted the resignation of Punjab PCC chief Shamsher Singh Dullo, but had asked him to continue on the post till the appointment of the next PCC president.
Surjewala said the party's 10-day agitation was formalised at a meeting in which Rahul Gandhi participated in, but neither he nor Sonia Gandhi would be participating in the state and district level programmes.
Khandu, a Monpa Buddhist of Tawang, is likely to take oath as the new chief minister later Monday evening.
Senior Congress leader D D Lapang was on Monday sworn in as Meghalaya chief minister by Governor S S Sidhu, who rejected the demand of the newly-formed Nationalist Congress Party-led Meghalaya Progressive Alliance saying the decision was aimed at preventing horse-trading. Stung by the Governor's decision, the MPA led by former Lok Sabha Speaker Purno A Sangma decided to move the Supreme Court on Tuesday against installation of the Congress government.
Narayanasamy had served as the minister of state in the Prime Minister's Office in the second United Progressive Alliance government, after being minister of state, Parliamentary Affairs, in the first UPA government.
He will meet Governor R L Bhatia on Tuesday morning and will be sworn in later in the day, CLP sources said.
The Janata Dal [Secular] is expected to make a last ditch effort to persuade the Congress to accept its demand that it should lead the coalition government with Siddaramaiah as the chief minister.
The CLP will meet at 11 am at Vidhan Bhavan, party spokesman Anant Gadgil said.
He said had the alliance with Goa Forward gone through, the Congress would have got majority in the state and that it was unfair to now make him a "villain".
The speaker told Kumaraswamy that "this (SIT) should not lead to a witch-hunt. The probe should be only to establish the truth."
The state has been in turmoil since the UDF ministry was downsized.
Ruling out any "operation" by the ruling alliance to poach the BJP MLAs, the chief minister said there was no necessity for it and that he was "relaxed."
The governor has asked Deshmukh to be the caretaker chief minister till his successor in sworn in.
The team, comprising Vayalar Ravi, Pranab Mukherjee and Ghulam Nabi Azad, is right now meeting party legislators at Sahyadri Guesthouse at Malabar Hills.
Kumaraswamy predicted that the political instability would continue in the state.
The by-elections are being held to fill the vacancies caused by the disqualification of 17 rebel Congress and Janata Dal-Secular MLAs, whose rebellion led to the collapse of the H D Kumaraswamy-led coalition government in July and paved the way for the BJP to come to power.
Rahul is looking to bring new leadership in the state units that can bring in the young generation back into the party fold and revive its sagging image and morale. Renu Mittal reports
In the past the Congress had cold-shouldered overtures from the Samajwadi Party chief, leading to bad blood between the two parties.
Sonia Gandhi on Sunday hosted her first Iftar in three years, which saw the Congress president sharing a table with leaders of RJD and its new-found ally Janata Dal-United.
According to data shared with the Lok Sabha, 19 road projects awarded after May 2014 were facing delays
Janata Dal-United leader Nitish Kumar will take oath as chief minister of Bihar on February 22, ending weeks of political uncertainty in the state.
Rane did not rule out the possibility of joining the BJP, saying 'all options are open'.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday termed Food Security Bill a "historic legislation" and asked party leaders to publicise its importance to masses as they gear up for elections scheduled early next year.
Assam Health and Education Minister Dr Himanta Sarma on Sunday met Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi and offered to resign from the Cabinet even as he said that the dissidence in the Congress Legislature Party had come to an end.
A majority of Congress leaders said the party will face desertions if Rahul Gandhi does not remain the leader.
Dissident Congress leader Kalikho Pul was on Friday night sworn in as chief minister of Arunachal Pradesh after more than two months of political crisis, shortly after the Supreme Court paved the way for government-formation and President's rule was lifted from the state.
Unless the merger is reversed, the Congress is set to lose its Opposition Party status in the state assembly.
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