Former Union Minister Rasheed Masood was on Monday made special invitee to the Congress Working Committee with immediate effect. The announcement was made by party General Secretary Janardan Dwivedi.
'There are more young people in Assam who are unemployed than possibly anywhere else.'
The current battle within the party is seen as setting the stage for August 10 when Sonia completes one year of interim presidentship, and questions are being raised about a leadership vacuum. For the first time, responsible quarters are suggesting that as Sonia cannot function as interim president indefinitely and Rahul seems to want power but not the responsibility, one way out is collective leadership, reports Aditi Phadnis.
Even as the Congress Working Committee met on Monday morning to salute its seniormost member Pranab Mukherjee (who became a CWC member in 1978) and put on record its appreciation of his services both in the party and the government, the union finance minister spent his day tying up loose ends and saying his goodbyes.
A special meeting of the Congress Working Committee, the party's top decision making body, has been convened on Monday when it is expected to pass a resolution acknowledging Mukherjee's four decades of service to the party.
A combative Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Monday made a scathing attack on the opposition and civil society for levelling "baseless" allegations against the prime minister and the party, saying it was part of a conspiracy and told partymen to fight back.
This will be the first meeting of the CWC after the party's debacle in assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Goa, which could lead to a churning in the party
Senior leaders Sushil Kumar Shinde and Mallikarju Kharge could be elected as next party chief.
Patel, 71, who was critical for a few days, was admitted to the Medanta hospital in Gurugram on November 15 after he developed complications. His son Faisal said he died at 3.30 am.
He said the states needed to also do their bit on reduction of petrol price.
Attlee said Great Britain had concluded that the Indian element of the army was no longer reliable and that Netaji's Indian National Army had demonstrated that. That had shaken the foundation on which Britain's Indian empire rested, argues Lieutenant General Ashok Joshi (retd).
Congress President Sonia Gandhi will not be attending the swearing-in of Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee as West Bengal Chief Minister in Kolkata on Friday.
With the Lok Sabha elections schedule set to be announced soon, party vice-president Rahul Gandhi will be holding consultations with senior party leaders on Friday at an informal meeting of the Congress Working Committee. Renu Mittal reports
In yet another indication of the growing discomfort in sections of Congress with the handling of the Anna Hazare crisis, a senior party leader on Monday said that the government underestimated the Gandhian's movement against corruption and asked it to enter into dialogue with him.
'... while leaving the dirty work he orders to his subordinates.'
Tharoor also said that he certainly thinks Rahul Gandhi has the "mettle, capability and aptitude to once again lead the party", but if he does not wish to do so then the party must "take action" to elect a new chief.
Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee has now set Thursday evening as the deadline for the Congress to reach a seat sharing agreement for the forthcoming West Bengal state assembly polls. Congress leader Pranab Mukherjee met Mamata late on Tuesday to resolve last-minute differences. Ahmed Patel, Gandhi's political secretary, called Mamata and asked her to wait till March 21, when the Congress president returns from London. But she has turned down the request.
'It is mind-boggling that a party can be in rigor mortis even after numerous electoral defeats,' observes Ramesh Menon.
When Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee came to the All India Congress Committee headquarters on Tuesday evening to meet the Congress Working Committee members and party office bearers and hear their suggestions on what should be incorporated in the coming budget for the aam admi, he was bombarded with suggestions.
Patole wrote that he was resigning as the chairman of the Kisan Congress and 'dismissing' the unit.
His statement comes two days after the Congress Working Committee deplored the manner in which the government stripped J&K of its special status by scrapping provisions of Article 370, and bifurcated the state.
Taken by surprise, the Congress on Saturday said it has sought more time to resolve its differences with ally Trinamool Congress, which had made a unilateral decision to announce a list of candidates for the West Bengal assembly polls. "This is a new situation, new development. The party central leadership will discuss the issue in detail and then take a decision," said Congress Working Committee member-in charge for West Bengal Shakeel Ahmad.
There was veiled criticism of the Manmohan Singh government by members of the Congress Working Committee for allowing Anna Hazare and his team to hijack a democratically elected government, and for the use of pressure and the threat of fasts to ensure that the government acted as per their diktat.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi has convened a special meeting of the Congress Working Committee on Friday at 4 pm to discuss the Lokpal bill which has been consistently in the news for the last couple of months. Sources say the ongoing Telangana agitation is also expected to be discussed.
The letter was not a challenge to leadership but a parchment of action to strengthen the party, Congress MP Vivek Tankha asserted, while former union minister Mukul Wasnik said those who saw the letter as an "offence" will also soon realise that the issues raised are worth consideration.
The much-awaited reshuffle of the Congress hierarchy, which took place today, saw the exit of veteran Arjun Singh and six others from the Congress Working Committee (CWC) and two general secretaries Mohsina Kidwai and V Narayanasamy, who was recently made Minister of State in PMO.
A master manipulator of power politics, Arjun Singh was a one-time Congress bigwig who was known to set his eyes on the highest political throne but saw his political fortunes dwindle in the last decade and a half.
Venkat Swamy, who served in the cabinets of Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and PV Narasimha Rao and was also the member of Congress Working Committee, lashed out at Sonia, holding her responsible for the sliding fortunes of Congress part as well mounting corruption.
Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh on Saturday paid his last respects to former chief minister of Kerala and Congress Working Committee member K Karunakaran at the Thrissur townhall.
Union Tourism Minister K Chiranjeevi on Thursday night resigned from his post in protest against the Union Cabinet's approval of the formation of separate Telangana, his aide said.
The Congress Working Committee and the All India Congress Committee secretariat were on Friday reconstituted by Sonia Gandhi, who dropped veterans like Arjun Singh and Mohsina Kidwai and G Venkatswami, who attacked her recently, and inducted new faces in the hierarchy.
Two days after the Congress Working Committee (CWC) witnessed Pawar-bashing at the hands of senior Congress leaders, the party once again attacked the Union Agriculture Minister, saying that prices were responsibility of the Agriculture and Food Ministry and "it is natural for the party to articulate the concerns of millions of people".
The Congress Working Committee meeting witnessed Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar being targetted by senior Congress leaders on the issue of spiraling price rise. The three leaders who attacked Sharad Pawar but did not name him were former maharashtra chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, All India Congress Committee general secretaries R K Dhawan and Satyavrat Chaturvedi.
'I think there must be some sort of a nexus between the rioters and a section of police officials which resulted in gruesome killings and arson'
The Congress is likely to hold its plenary session in Mumbai or in some other part of Maharashtra in December, indicate highly placed congress sources.
The Congress president also hit out at BJP leader Kapil Mishra for making a statement that allegedly incited violence in the city. The CWC has passed a resolution on the situation in the city, she said, adding that the CWC believes that the situation is grave and an urgent action is required.
The concern of the Congress leadership over the situation could be gauged from the fact that Chidambaram was specially called to the meeting despite not being a CWC member.
'For people like me, we already have leaders, we have a leader in Mrs Sonia Gandhi, we have a leader in Rahul Gandhi'
Ambassador Venu Rajamony, who served as press secretary to President Pranab Mukherjee during his tenure, salutes the statesman and political legend, who passed into the ages on Monday.
Giving a clear indication that some senior leaders would be dropped from the party's highest decision making body -- the Congress Working Committee -- Congress president Sonia Gandhi said that some leaders would have to face disappointment, reports Renu Mittal
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