Indicating that the leadership feud in Uttarakhand Congress was far from over, Union Minister Harish Rawat on Wednesday held consultations with his supporters while making it clear he would not quit the party.
In a five-page letter to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, which was first read out on his television channel Sakshi TV on Monday morning, Jagan Reddy explained the reasons behind his decision. This is the text of his letter:
Fielding of candidates in Amethi and Rae Bareli was one of the issues of contention between Congress and Samajwadi Party during their talks to forge the pre-poll alliance.
The Congress high command has decided that Chavan who was 10, Janpath's handpicked choice for the post after 26/11 will have to go. But the only question, according to sources, before the Congress is when to show him the door.
After days of deliberations, a point of conclusion was reached late Saturday night and Congress leader and Tamil Nadu in-charge Dinesh Gundu Rao told reporters that the agreement was signed in "a spirit of cooperation" when the country was facing a 'threat' from the Bharatiya Janata Party.
The meeting assumes significance as the party high command has been trying to resolve the internal rift in the Punjab unit of the Congress and there is talk of its revamp, with just months to go for the assembly polls.
The Congress high command held long discussions with former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Ghulam Nabi Azad and state congress chief Saifuddin Soz, but no decision was taken during the meeting whether to support the National Conference to form new government headed by Omar Abdullah.
Addressing the media Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh Kiran Kumar took on the Congress High Command in New Delhi for dividing the state while adding that he did not care about his seat.
'Take a walk down the potholed streets of India's financial capital, remember how the monsoons flooded the city, get a whiff of the garbage piling up everywhere, and you will know just how badly the local government is run.'
Congress leaders are now in a "wait and watch" mode over the possible ripple effect of Punjab developments in faction-ridden Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, the only two states other than Punjab where the party is in power on its own.
The four ministers -- Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa, Sukhbinder Singh Sarkaria, Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa and Charanjit Singh Channi -- and around two dozen legislators met in Chandigarh at the residence of Bajwa on Tuesday.
A group of ministers from the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party met at Monseratte's residence on Wednesday night and drafted a memorandum to be submitted to Congress high command seeking a leadership change in the coastal state, sources said.
The SP leader's meeting comes in the backdrop of the Congress high command giving a cold shoulder to Rane's plea for removal of Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh.
Seeking to buy time, the Congress high command appears to be toying with the idea of having a deputy chief minister and Pradesh Congress Committee chief in Andhra Pradesh from Telangana region amid a growing clamour for a separate state
Party sources said United Progressive Allinace chairperson Sonia Gandhi is likely to reach Delhi on Wednesday from Himachal Pradesh and is expected to meet some leaders who are part of the decision-making process in Karnataka.
The G-23 group seems to have expanded with several senior Congressmen attending Wednesday's meeting.
The party on Wednesday removed former minister Sudhir Sharma, who was among the six rebel MLAs who were later disqualified for defying party whip on the state budget, from the post of All India Congress Committee secretary with immediate effect.
Amid signs of factionalism within the state unit, Kharge is likely to instruct the party leaders to work in a united manner for ensuring victory.
"I sometimes think of leaving it, but the chief minister's post doesn't leave me," Ashok Gehlot famously said earlier this year, in part as a signal to the Congress top brass not to pick someone else for the job if the party wins the assembly polls.
In the first signs of political trouble in Andhra Pradesh's ruling Congress party, the state minister for women and child welfare Konda Surekha tendered her resignation to the state governor ND Tiwari on Thursday evening.
Jakhar, the former president of Punjab Congress, said the party had never named its CM face adding that it was only an exception that the Congress high command had declared Captain Amarinder Singh as the chief ministerial candidate in the run-up to the 2017 state assembly polls.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan has pleaded ignorance about claims made by rebel state minister Narayan Rane regarding assurance of chief ministership by the Congress when he left Shiv Sena nine years ago.
They have threatened to quit if Mufti is allowed to continue.
By-elections to 12 assembly seats in Telangana region on July 27 and the obvious power game in the ruling Congress party in Andhra Pradesh have risen the political temperature in the state.
Priyanka Gandhi will strike a deal with Mayawati and not Akhilesh, says Nazarwala.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy on Tuesday held discussions with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde on the issue of Telangana.Reddy, who was called to the capital by the Congress high command on Monday, is understood to have briefed Dr Singh about the prevailing political and law and order situation in the state.
I don't disown my past association with Vijay Mallya but that does not mean I endorse his monetary misdemeanours, a feisty Divya Spandana tells Subhash K Jha.
The 54-year-old leader had taken over as the Congress's Delhi unit chief four years ago, after the party lost the 2015 assembly elections.
'Fixing accountability in the Congress must be addressed on a war footing.' 'It is impossible for Sonia Gandhi to know each and every party worker, so she has to rely on advisors.' 'If they guide or misguide, the blame should go to them.'
Former external affairs minister and veteran Congressmen S M Krishna met with party president Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi on Tuesday.
Donald Trump's exaggerated opinion of his dealmaking capacity can get him into trouble, observes R Sriram.
"Congress state in-charge Harish Rawat is my good friend but who gave him the right to take such a big decision about Punjab at his level? What is the meaning of Captain's leadership now after the Kharge committee's decision to contest elections under Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi?" Congress MLA Pargat Singh said.
Jammu and Kashmir Health Minister Sham Lal Sharma, who is in the eye of a storm over his 'azadi' remark, appears in for trouble with the Congress high command on Saturday issuing a showcause notice to him.
Andhra Pradesh's new chief minister has been in trouble from day one. With several serious challenges facing the state and the Opposition parties vying for power, the Congress will lose out if it does not play its cards right.
The 13 members include, sitting Congress MLA Danasari Anasuya (Seethakka) and former legislator Vem Narendar Reddy.
The new chief minister, if backed by the Congress high command, can give Maharashtra a chance to recover from being looted by rent-seeking politicians, says Mahesh Vijapurkar.
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.
Law Minister Salman Khurshid on Sunday came out with documents to rubbish charges of misappropriation of funds by a trust run by him and his wife and expressed willingness for any probe while making it clear that he has no intention to resign.
In a letter to Gandhi, Amarinder Singh is learnt to have mentioned that there could be an adverse impact on the party's prospects in the upcoming and crucial 2022 assembly polls by ignoring the old guard and other senior party leaders representing Hindu and Dalit communities, sources said.
But the ways of the Congress high command are never so simple. It behaves as a State by itself, reports Sheela Bhatt from New Delhi's Talkatora stadium after witnessing how the clamour was kept up to name Rahul Gandhi as the Congress PM candidate.
