With the cabinet expansion being deferred repeatedly, several aspirants, especially those from Congress, had openly expressed their displeasure over the delay, piling pressure on the party to fill its quota so as to avoid any trouble ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
Hundreds of students and teachers of Delhi University, Jawaharlal Nehru University and Jamia on Tuesday hit the streets with a call to "save" the varsities from the "onslaught" of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad and "curbing" of dissent.
The former state Congress chief was jailed on May 20 last year after being sentenced to one-year rigorous imprisonment by the Supreme Court over the death of the 65-year-old Gurnam Singh in a road rage case in 1988.
Rattled by a series of demonstrations outside the state party headquarters in Kolkata, West Bengal Bharatiya Janata Party president Sukanta Majumdar Friday issued a stern warning saying that disciplinary actions will be taken against dissenting party members.
Shah said after the SC refusal to interfere with the arrests of five activists in the Koregaon-Bhima violence case
Babun Banerjee expressed displeasure over the party re-nominating Prasun Banerjee from Howrah Lok Sabha seat in West Bengal.
The INDIA bloc is also likely to announce a secretariat for smooth coordination between the constituents and it is likely to be set up in the national capital. Besides, the members will also discuss the issue of having a coordinator or a chairperson to head the alliance.
Manoj Tiwari and RK Singh found fault with the party's strategy and supported the demand of veterans like L K Advani that accountability be fixed.
Tewari's consideration to contest comes amid the reports of several party top leaders being in the fray.
Buoyed by the recent victories in bypolls, Rahul was keen to revamp the state unit.
Sukanta Majumdar, the state BJP president, said, "Amit Shah has set a target of 35 seats. We will achieve that".
'Being authoritative is one thing -- Nehru was that -- but being authoritarian is quite another -- the current prime minister is clearly one.'
As the debate over the issue of leadership raged, another group of leaders put their weight behind the Gandhi family on Sunday, calling for Sonia Gandhi to stay or Rahul Gandhi to take charge again.
In a big political win for Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar on Wednesday held that the Shiv Sena faction led by him was the "real political party" when rival groups emerged in June 2022, and did not disqualify any MLA from the two camps, a verdict that adds another chapter in the Sena legacy war.
Congress Legislature Party leader and Congress-Janata Dal (Secular) coordination committee chief Siddaramaiah said no one would leave the Congress and there was no disgruntlement either.
'Praful Patel said his residential building was sealed, and the investigative agencies have shifted their office to his house, and that he was in a helpless condition.'
A court in Delhi on Saturday discharged 11 people, including student activists Imam and Asif Iqbal Tanha, who participated in anti-CAA protests, in the 2019 Jamia Nagar violence case.
The Trinamool Congress's candidate selection for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls is expected to prioritise the nominee's winnability, public image and sitting MPs' performance, while also reflecting the internal debate on whether experienced leaders should make way for the younger generation.
Hooda and Azad were reported to have discussed concrete proposals to strengthen the Congress and ensure collective leadership and decision making as demanded by the grouping which met on Wednesday and signed a joint statement.
While the whole world is using good words to describe India, its main opposition leader is claiming on foreign soil that the country has been destroyed and democracy is no longer there while the judiciary and the media are in a bad shape, BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra told reporters.
With Parliament rocked by constant disruptions, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday hit out at the Congress, accusing it of making a "mockery of democracy" and deciding to "destroy" the country as it cannot reconcile to the Lok Sabha poll defeat.
He also accused Gandhi of making "unfair and contemptuous comments" against the court through his aides, associates and Congress leaders.
Senior Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Praveen Sood took over as the new Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) director on Thursday and he will be in the post for two years, officials said.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday began a stock-taking exercise following the party's debacle in assembly polls in Haryana and Maharashtra even as a clamour for "course correction" grew within its ranks in the wake of the dip in electoral fortunes.
He, however, expressed confidence that a series of state-specific alliances, where like-minded parties would come together on an anti-BJP platform, was likely for the 2019 general election.
Secularism as a principle and practice in India is in "danger", but "forces of hatred" cannot alter the country's secular character, senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor said during an interview on his new book 'The Battle of Belonging'. In the book, Tharoor makes a stinging critique of the Hindutva doctrine, asserting that it is a political doctrine, not a religious one.
Even Subramanian Swamy, who says he is an ardent supporter of the prime minister, has been taking proxy pot shots at him.' 'At the ground level too, there is resentment from workers and local leaders who have perhaps not got whatever they may have wanted,' notes T C A Srinivasa-Raghavan.
The Congress, a responsible political party, has never cast unwarranted aspersions on the actions of Constitutional bodies, Surjewala said.
It's just not a date. It's just not about selecting a candidate. It's not about helping some candidate win. It's about expressing emotion, after ten years, that could reach out in India and beyond it, notes Sheela Bhatt.
Bharatiya Janata Party president Rajnath Singh at the end of the three-day long Chintan Baithak blamed the Third Front for playing spoil sport and dividing the vote bank of the opposition parties, thereby helping the Congress to win the elections.
'I don't know why they should feel scared. They have a big majority, they shouldn't feel scared.' 'They should let us speak and then they can always vote however they want to. I have no idea (what's scaring the government).' 'It actually baffles me why they should indulge in these kinds of tactics.'
To counter PM Narendra Modi's aggression, Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav will hold a joint road show on March 4 in PM's constituency, reports Amit Agnihotri.
All India Congress Committee general secretary Janardhan Dwivedi has created a flutter by saying that the "party leadership should not only speak, but also have the courage to listen".
She said it was a strange thing for her to know that for the time being he has been disqualified from even fighting another election for eight years.
Modi accused the Congress of criticising EVMs and the functioning of the Election Commission after they were reduced to 44 seats from 400 in Lok Sabha. "They did not question the EVMs after the recent Karnataka elections," he added.
Krishna preferred to campaign for the party in the upcoming polls, rather than contest from his constituency Maddur. His re-induction in the party had sent waves of dissent among other leaders, who thought that the party was trying to rope him in as a Chief Ministerial candidate.The party leadership also took a conscious decision to avoid candidates whose relatives rank high in the party hierarchy.
He has been appointed to the CBI director's post for a period of two years from the date of taking charge after Subodh Kumar Jaiswal completes his tenure on May 25, a government order said on Sunday.
'I wonder how people who come to power through democratic means turn out this way.' 'But people of India are strong, and those who think they can hoodwink people, are mistaken.' 'You can fool some people for some time, but not all people, all the time.'
A sessions court in Gujarat's Surat is likely to pronounce its order on Thursday on Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's plea for a stay on his conviction in a criminal defamation case over his Modi surname remark.
