Congress leader Rahul Gandhi told party's Lok Sabha MPs to ignore comments of "middle- and low-rung" leaders of INDIA bloc parties and asserted that the Congress as the largest party in the opposition grouping is capable of addressing issues, sources said. The advice by Gandhi comes amid various leaders of the INDIA bloc weighing in on the leadership issue and TMC leaders aggressively pitching for West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to head the opposition alliance.
CPI-M general secretary Sitaram Yechury and CPI general secretary D Raja said the top leadership will not attend the meeting called by the TMC chief.
The gherao of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her Finance Minister Amit Mitra in Delhi on Tuesday by Communist Party of India-Marxist supporters was condemned unequivocally by political parties including the rival Marxist party, which said it was "undesirable".
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday assured her counterpart from Delhi Arvind Kejriwal, that her party would support him in his fight against the central ordinance to control appointments and transfer of bureaucrats.
'Mamata Banerjee was an anti-body that the people of West Bengal needed to throw the CPI-M out. Though the disease is no more, we are suffering the anti-body. It is a punishment for the people of this state.' BJP leader Tathagatha Roy lashes out at the West Bengal chief minister.
The prime minister telephoned Banerjee to take stock of the flood situation in West Bengal, and assured the chief minister of all central assistance to mitigate it, the bureaucrat said.
While the leadership of the biggest Opposition party, the Congress, has not reacted, even non-Congress and (now) anti-BJP parties like the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) have voiced no view on Banerjee's appeal, reports Aditi Phadnis.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday said she had suggested to the Congress that an advisory council comprising prominent personalities from civil society be set up to give a direction to the opposition, but rued that the plan did not materialise.
The notion that the BJP gained its increased tally by wiping out the Left parties and the Congress is completely misleading. Equally misleading is the belief that the TMC held its ground in all its existing seats. A little more than a fifth of the seats Mamata Banerjee's party had won in 2016 was lost to the BJP this time.
'The Congress don't have the zeal to fight the BJP. The party is so bogged down by infighting that it hardly has time or energy to build an opposition. The UPA does not exist'
Claiming that Shah is getting "frustrated" by "poor turnout" at his rallies, Banerjee also alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party is plotting conspiracies to kill her as her security director Vivek Sahay was removed by the Election Commission after she sustained injuries last week in Purba Medinipur's Nandigram.
The Samajwadi Party announced on Saturday that it would walk out of the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi after Shiv Sena-Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray chief Uddhav Thackeray's close aide hailed the demolition of Babri mosque and a related newspaper advertisement.
'The way opposition parties such as the Nationalist Congress Party, Shiv Sena, the Samajwadi Party, Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Jharkhand Mukti Morch have supported her, if she wins, she will be the biggest opposition face for 2024'
With Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Mamata Banerjee's landslide victory in West Bengal, the Union railways ministry is set to have a new minister soon and a revamped board.
Senior Congress leader Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi's wife Deepa had on Sunday said that though the Trinamool was part of the United Progressive Alliance government, yet it issued statements against Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and government policies. Also, she charged that Mamata put no photos of either Dr Singh or Congress chief Sonia Gandhi when she inaugurated projects in West Bengal.
Questions are being raised on the future of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) as differences among its constituents come to the fore and several parties call for serious introspection by the Congress after a string of debilitating electoral losses.
The juggernaut of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance, which triumphed in three of the four east and north-eastern states that went for assembly bypolls on Saturday, was halted yet again in West Bengal where Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress registered a six-on-six clean sweep.
AJP Abdul Kalam thanks Mamata Banerjee for proposing his name for the President's post.
Trinamool Congress leader and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday said the unity of opposition parties will take shape on its own, sidestepping questions of her taking on the leadership role.
This is for the second time in the last three months that Sinha has come out with praising words for Rahul Gandhi and his 'Bharat Jodo Yatra'.
The sources said the Congress ministers will attend cabinet meetings only when the party high command gives the 'green signal'.
If the Congress doesn't agree to these explicit riders, no support, says Trinamool.
'Mamata has used minorities only as her vote bank.' 'In her entire election campaign Mamata did not utter a single sentence against the RSS.'
Banerjee, however, didn't clarify whether any other minister of her cabinet would attend the meeting on her behalf or not.
The party's prime mover in West Bengal and the state Pradesh Congress president was stunned by Trinamool Congress's star candidate and cricketer-turned-politician Yusuf Pathan who comprehensively defeated Chowdhury by a margin of over 85,000 votes.
A fresh political row has erupted in West Bengal over Bharatiya Janata Party national vice-president Dilip Ghosh's alleged unsavoury remarks about West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, with the Trinamool Congress seeking his arrest and unconditional apology.
Unfazed by the accusations by a section of the Congress leadership in Bengal of dictating terms in the alliance, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee has endorsed Pranab Mukherjee's statement that the tie-up for assembly elections was a political necessity.
TC insiders said at the moment she was not willing to join hands with any faction of state Congress and was more interested in strengthening her party organisation.
Jaya said she is in Bengal to campaign for the Trinamool Congress as per instructions of her party president Akhilesh Yadav, who has extended support to Mamata Banerjee in the polls.
Although she felt "betrayed" by the Congress leadership many a time, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee describes the late Rajiv Gandhi as "the leader of our hearts" and Pranab Mukherjee as her brother.
On its own or with allies the Congress has a strong presence in states that account for a total of 253 LS seats, or 20 short of the magic figure of 272 required to form a government at the Centre. So what is Mamata Banerjee talking about, asks N Sathiya Moorthy.
Delhi is set to get its third woman chief minister, after Congress' Sheila Dikshit and Bharatiya Janata Party's Sushma Swaraj, as Aam Aadmi Party leader Atishi has been chosen to succeed Arvind Kejriwal.
'The CM seems to have forgotten that she is dealing with the Gorkhas, people known for their valour and loyalty to India.' 'It is shameful that Mamata Banerjee and her administration treated them like insurgents, choosing to use live bullets instead of other ways and means to control crowds.'
Trinamool Congress's (TMC) Rajya Sabha MP and former Goa chief minister Luizinho Faleiro has tendered his resignation from the Upper House of Parliament, party sources said on Tuesday.
A member of the 1983 cricket World Cup-winning squad, Azad was suspended from the Bharatiya Janata Party for openly targeting the then Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley over alleged irregularities and corruption in the Delhi and District Cricket Association in December 2015. He joined the Congress in 2018.
Banerjee, Adhikari alleged, was playing with the sentiments of the people of Nandigram. "That will not work this time and her party will be democratically dumped into the Bay of Bengal."
The ruling TMC in West Bengal was rocked by a fresh bout of desertions on Friday with Banerjee quitting the party and several other leaders rallying behind him.
'The consecration of Ram Lalla in Ayodhya has demoralised them.' 'And, now it is reflecting in their individual reactions as they are losing hope to take on the BJP in 2024.'
Reacting to TMC's jibe, West Bengal Congress president Adhir Chowdhury said "agents of BJP" should not advise the party how to fight against the saffron camp.
