Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and former party chief Rahul Gandhi, who were present at the meeting, asked party leaders to remain united and connected with the people, sources said.
Among the keenly watched contests are those involving former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav (Kannauj, UP) and Union ministers Giriraj Singh (Begusarai, Bihar), Nityanand Rai (Ujiarpur, Bihar) and Raosaheb Danve (Jalna, Maharashtra).
Besides the national capital, polling for the sixth round of the marathon seven-phase elections will be held Saturday in 14 seats in Uttar Pradesh, all 10 seats of Haryana, eight seats each in Bihar and West Bengal, six seats in Odisha, four seats in Jharkhand and one seat in Jammu and Kashmir.
Voting for the second phase of Lok Sabha polls will be held on Friday for 88 seats in 13 states with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi seeking a second-straight term from Wayanad in Kerala.
The Congress may stand a better chance in the assembly polls if it followed the 'Himachal model', suggests N Sathiya Moorthy.
The 17th Lok Sabha, which was dissolved on June 5, did not have a deputy speaker for its full term, and it was the second consecutive term of the lower house without an LoP.
In a day of frantic developments, Digvijaya Singh entered the fray for the Congress president's election as Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot opted out of the race and the suspense over his continuation at the helm in the state deepened with the party saying it would be decided in a day or two.
The Union Cabinet on Thursday recommended revocation of President's rule in Jharkhand, two days after the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha staked claim to form the next government in the state along with Congress.
The tax department has deployed about 40 large and small machines to count currency notes and brought in more department and bank staffers to finish the counting process, which began on December 6 following raids against Boudh Distillery Pvt Ltd and others, they said.
The Bharatiya Janata Party and Congress on Sunday were set to share the honours in the Lok Sabha and assembly bye-elections in 13 states.
The Congress said it would look into the proposal for government formation in Jharkhand if the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha and other secular parties came up with the issue, following the Bharatiya Janata Party's withdrawal of support to the Shibu Soren government.
The voting will be held on November 30, December 7, 12, 16 and 20.
A delegation of opposition party leaders on Friday met the top brass of Election Commission to raise its concerns over poll code violations by the ruling party leaders, and also flagged concerns over delay in release of voter turnout figures for the first two phases of the polls.
This election will be remembered for being the first election where the Election Commission failed to take action on gross violations involving the ruling party that repeatedly used religion, communal slurs, lies and undocumented allegations, observes Ramesh Menon.
The last two I-T teams left the premises, one each in Odisha and Jharkhand, carrying with them a number of seized "incriminating documents" and data cloned from electronic gadgets in the early morning hours.
"The IAF played a vital role in five of the seven phases of the general elections, flying over 1,000 hours in over 1,750 sorties," it said.
Glimpses from the Great Election Carnival on Sunday, April 21, 2024
The share of candidates who were successful among the BJP was 56.5% in 2019. It was 5% for the Congress.
Of the total 81 seats, elections to 50 seats concluded in the first three phases held between November 30 and December 12. The fifth and final phase of polling to 16 seats will be held on December 20 and votes will be counted on December 23.
Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday pulled up senior Congress leaders in Jharkhand for factional politics which was harming the party interests in the state.
The BJP's top leadership will drop its MPs found to be facing anti-incumbency, according to its internal surveys -- a pivotal tactic to ensure the party achieves its target of winning 370 seats.
Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren on Thursday said he will attend the inauguration of the Ram temple at Ayodhya in January if he is invited to the programme.
Exigencies of electoral politics and individual ambitions often stoke family feuds and sibling rivalries.
He said a petition has been filed before the Supreme Court, seeking an independent probe by a special investigation team into the alleged nexus between political parties and companies for corruption through electoral bonds.
Now, every state election -- first up, Maharashtra, Haryana and Jharkhand later this year, then Delhi in January and Bihar in September next year -- will be seen by his followers for evidence of his recovery, and by rivals of sharpening decline, points out Shekhar Gupta.
With Atishi at the helm it will not be easy for the BJP to continue using the LG's office and the bureaucracy as political instruments to hinder governance and thereby provoke the electorate's ire against the AAP, expects Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
'Union Budgets are often used as political instruments and that was the intention of this government too.' 'But while the exercise has settled two fronts, it has left open several others and this has the potential to aggravate with time,' predicts Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
According to the Aam Aadmi Party, it has received permission from the authorities concerned to hold the rally of more than 20,000 people.
The Opposition objected to the Governor's decision to invite the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha-Congress alliance to form the government.
Jharkhand Governor Syed Ahmed on Wednesday recommended to the Centre revocation of President's rule, a day after Jharkhand Mukti Morcha staked claim to form a new government in the state.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi Wednesday held consultations with senior party leaders, including A K Antony, as talks for an alliance with Jharkhand Mukti Morcha for the next Lok Sabha polls and formation of a coalition government in Jharkhand reached the final stage.
From steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal to billionaire Sunil Bharti Mittal's Airtel, Anil Agarwal's Vedanta, ITC, Mahindra and Mahindra, and a lesser-known Future Gaming and Hotel Services were among the prominent buyers of the now-scrapped electoral bonds for making political donations.
Two political parties having two members in the Jharkhand assembly merged with the Trinamool Congress in Ranchi on Monday.
Those joining Prime Minister Narendra Modi's council of ministers for the first time include three former chief ministers -- Shivraj Singh Chouhan (Madhya Pradesh), Manohar Lal Khattar (Haryana) and H D Kumaraswamy (Karnataka).
Asserting that her government has zero tolerance to incidents of rape, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday said an amendment to existing laws will be passed in the state assembly next week to ensure capital punishment to convicted rapists.
"I am fighting a big battle to save my country from the corrupt. That is why they are behind bars today and not getting bail even from the Supreme Court," Modi said.
Jharkhand Governor Sibte Razi has in a letter to the Union Home Minister P Chidambaram recommended that the Centre move to impose President's Rule in the state.
Jharkhand Chief Minister Madhu Koda resigned from his post on Saturday. He handed over his resignation letter to Governor Syed Sibte Razi.Koda took the decision after consultations with senior leaders including United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi and his mentor Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad Yadav. Jharkhand Mukti Morcha had on August 17 withdrawn support to the Jharkhand government, reducing the Koda government to a minority.
Akhilesh Yadav's stock rose dramatically on Tuesday with his Samajwadi Party cutting the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party down to size in Uttar Pradesh.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal mounted a blazing campaign in the hot summer after he was released from the Tihar jail on interim bail on May 10, drawing huge crowds at rallies and roadshows, but it proved insufficient to propel his Aam Aadmi Party past the Bharartiya Janata Party challenge in the national capital.
