The former IAS officer said the main reason for not contesting the polls was to focus more on the mass contact programme.
After his public outburst against ordinance, Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and is understood to have explained his reasons for opposing the move that will protect convicted lawmakers from immediate disqualification.
As the DMK decided to withdraw support, the government on Tuesday moved to bring a resolution on the Sri Lankan Tamil issue in Parliament in an attempt to placate the key ally which has set it as one of the conditions for reconsideration of its decision.
The consortium of 17 banks, led by SBI, has an outstanding of over Rs 7,000 crore (Rs 70 billion) from the carrier but has shares of listed entities like United Spirits as collaterals which should realise Rs 500 crore (Rs 5 billion).
The Congress top brass, including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and party chief Sonia Gandhi, met on Saturday evening amid strong demands for swift action against the perpetrators of the horrific gangrape and assault on the 23-year-old paramedic student.
India's pistol shooters competing in the ISSF World Cup in Fort Benning, USA, will be without the services of coach Sayed Wajid Ali, as he has been denied a visa to travel for the May 4-13 tournament. The National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) said the US embassy is yet to give a reason for denying the government core-group coach visa.
The United Progressive Alliance on Sunday decided not to oblige the opposition by asking for the resignation of Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal, whose nephew was arrested in a bribery case, as also Law Minister Ashwani Kumar, who is in the eye of a storm over the coal-gate controversy.
The Congress appears to be veering round to taking a call on the contentious Telangana statehood issue with party leader in charge of Andhra Pradesh saying consultation process is over and time for a decision has come.
FIPB panel to meet today, discuss telecom investments.
Divisions persisted within the Bharatiya Janata Party over the continuance of Nitin Gadkari as its president even as its Core Group yet again stood behind him insisting that there was 'no legal or moral wrongdoing' by him in the running of his company.
After distancing itself from the controversy over Nitin Gadkari's business dealings, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh on Sunday said it was upto Bharatiya Janata Party to decide on his second term as party president.
Hockey India's selection committee has pruned down the list of the core group men's probables to 33 players after the three-day selection trials, which concluded at the SAI Centre in Patiala, on Sunday.
In a bid to rejuvenate his movement, Anna Hazare on Friday decided to expand his core team by inviting prominent citizens like former Army chief Gen V K Singh besides considering formation of anti-corruption centres at district level.
The Prime Minister's Office on Friday rubbished the claim by Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi that Rs 1,880 crore were spent on overseas visits of United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi, saying it was "untrue and misleading".
With the United Progressive Alliance declaring Hamid Ansari as its candidate for the post of vice president, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday decided to go for a contest, but maintained that it will finalise its nominee after consulting National Democratic Alliance allies.
With less than a month to go for the sixth edition of the Indian Premier League, the nine franchises announced their registered squads for the cash-rich event, starting on April 3 in Kolkata.
India's newly-appointed men's hockey chief coach Graham Reid took charge of the national camp in Bengaluru and asked his players to put the team first in his maiden address to them.
Vaibhavi Parmar list the front-runners in the race to succeed Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi if he opts for a larger national role in the BJP.
Hockey India pruned down the list of core group probables of the senior women's team to 33 players after a two-day selection trials at the Aish Bagh stadium in Bhopal.
'One of his favourite slogans was, "Show, don't tell".' 'His entire life is a metaphor for that belief.' Kiran Khalap, MD and co-founder, chlorophyll, salutes a mentor and legend.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday discussed the candidature of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, A P J Abdul Kalam and Somnath Chatterjee, floated by the Trinamool Congress and the Samajwadi Party.
Asserting that all options are open for government formation in Jammu and Kashmir, Bharatiya Janata Party state president Jugal Kishore on Monday said his party would not form an alliance in haste as they want a stable government which would last for 6 years.
'While they were respectful of the PM, it was clear that as ministers, they owed their positions as much, if not more, to Mrs Gandhi.' 'When attacks were mounted on the PM, there was very little coordinated effort by the Congress, UPA ministers or other politicians to speak up in his favour and strongly defend him.' B K Chaturvedi, Cabinet Secretary during the early years of UPA1, reveals how the Manmohan Singh-Sonia Gandhi equation worked. A riveting excerpt from Chaturvedi's memoir, Challenges Of Governance: An Insider's View
Buckling under B S Yeddyurappa's pressure, Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday decided to replace Sadananda Gowda with Jagdish Shettar as the chief minister of Karnataka marking the third change in the state in four years. The decision was taken at the BJP core group meeting in New Delhi on Saturday, sources said.
The Congress core group met at the prime minister's residence late on Wednesday night and weighed options to deal with the demand made by Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee to sack Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi.
Harbhajan believes India will be under more pressure to perform against Pakistan in this World Cup.
The Bharatiya Janata Party has paved the way for the appointment of Jagadish Shettar as the next chief minister of Karnataka. BJP leader L K Advani who had reservations about the appointment of Shettar appears to have given in to the demands made by former Karnataka CM B S Yeddyurappa and his camp.
With A P J Abdul Kalam deciding not to join the Presidential race, the Bharatiya Janata Party core group met in New Delhi on Monday night to discuss its strategy including support to P A Sangma and reluctance of allies like the Janata Dal-United to go for a contest against United Progressive Alliance nominee Pranab Mukherjee.
With the government making a fresh bid to end the stalemate over Lokpal Bill, Congress top brass including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi held deliberations ahead of the all-party meeting on Friday.
As the protest against Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant in the Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu continued to gather momentum with over 20,000 people staging a relay fast on Wednesday, the state government invited representatives of the core group spearheading the stir for talks.
Fresh controversy dogged Team Anna on Saturday as Anna Hazare's former blogger made public a blog, which was kept under wraps to blunt the Gandhian's claim that he had not spoken to him about re-organising his core team.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday decided to oppose certain provisions in the Lokpal Bill introduced in the Lok Sabha and move for amendments in it.
Protesters on Thursday formally ended their 12-day fast against the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Project, a day after the Tamil Nadu government promised to pass a resolution at the Cabinet for halting the project.
Team Anna member Swami Agnivesh is deeply hurt by the campaign launched against him by fellow members Arvind Kejriwal and Kiran Bedi, who have publicly run him down.
Activist Medha Patkar, who is part of Anna Hazare's core group, said in spite of talking about the broad issue, the Congress general secretary should have deliberated on the immediate issues raised by the Gandhian, whose fast for a strong Lokpal continued for the 11th day.
The guidelines for strategic disinvestment were issued on Monday itself when Finance Minister Arun Jaitley presented the Union Budget for 2016-17.
If things go as proposed, Bangaloreans will be able to pay their utility bills and avail several citizen services with the help of their cell phones.
Bishop refused to compare the Indian unit to the fearsome West Indians of the past.
BJP leader Arun Jaitley said, "the BJP core group would be meeting later today to decide what it will do on the road (on the Lokpal issue). We will expose the government on the road and make the public aware in the wake of Thursday's developments. We will take up this Bill in the next session and expose the government there also."
The Congress Core Committee met in New Delhi on Friday to deliberate on the delicate Telangana issue on which party leader Ghulam Nabi Azad submitted a report amid indications that a decision on it will take some more time. Amid mounting pressure from pro-Telangana groups whose agitation for a separate state continued for the 18th day on Friday, Congress' top brass, including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and party chief Sonia Gandhi, met in Delhi.
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