The Congress on Monday deferred the election to the post of party president till the COVID-19 situation improves and decided to set up a group to assess losses in the recent assembly polls, with party chief Sonia Gandhi saying it has to put its house in order by facing reality and drawing lessons from the 'serious setbacks'.
A meeting of opposition leaders from many anti-Bharatiya Janata Party parties, most of them regional forces, hosted by the veteran leader and Nationalist Congress Party president Sharad Pawar on Tuesday is being seen by political pundits as a beginning of an exercise by them to join forces to put up a more cohesive challenge to the saffron party.
"One cannot treat women with disrespect. Kamalnath ji is from my party. But I don't like personally that type of language that Kamalnath ji has used. I do not appreciate it. It is unfortunate", Gandhi, on a three day visit to Kerala, told reporters.
"Party is taking note on what is being said by whom. They have not come out against Narendra Modi, they have just made a comment on our strategy about Bihar. The section of media has highlighted it as a headline," Union urban development minister said.
Even as the BJP makes inroads into previously unfamiliar territories in eastern India, the party will have to be wary of losing out elsewhere, says Amulya Ganguli.
'Kerala society is more advanced than any other society in India and everybody is more aware of the laws and how to proceed against the accused. So, you cannot blame Kerala based on the crime records,' says state home minister Ramesh Chennithala.
Not only the BJP but key bureaucrats are also known to have hinted to the top leadership of the need to expand the Cabinet.
The BJP continuing to look at the Dravidian polity through the religious prism has not worked in Tamil Nadu whereas it has yielded political and electoral results across much of the rest of the country, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
'Why would the Communists do this? I have three possible answers: One, they are specifically opposed to the Global Education Meet that the ambassador organised. Two, they are beginning to realise their days are numbered in Kerala. Three, the standard modus operandi of leftists is anarchism because they are not constrained by any codes of ethics. Roughly, the bad, the good, and the ugly,' says Rajeev Srinivasan.
With Maharashtra and Haryana assembly elections, results for 51 assembly and two Lok Sabha bypolls spread across 18 states were declared on Thursday. Here are state-wise results of the bypolls.
CPM politburo member Hannan Mollah said the party is facing one of the toughest situations following its defeat in Tripura, which has "forced us to rethink in a new way".
© 2026 Rediff.com - Investor Information - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances