Page 14 - Indian National Congress

Latest LIVE: Two-day 'Chintan Shivir' of state home ministers in Haryana

From national and international political developments to rising air pollution and farm fires, catch all the latest developments from across the globe here

Mallikarjun Kharge's election will galvanise Congress, says DK Shivakumar

As veteran Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge took over as the party chief, Karnataka Congress president DK Shivakumar on Thursday said Kharge's election will galvanise the Congress

Senior Congress leader Satheesan Pacheni passes away at a private hospital

Senior Congress leader and former general secretary of the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee, Satheesan Pacheni died at a private hospital in the district on Thursday, party sources said. He was 54. Pacheni was battling for his life for the past one week after he had suffered a cerebral hemorrhage on October 16. Though he unsuccessfully contested elections five times to the state Assembly and once to the Lok Sabha, the aggressive fight he had showcased against CPI(M) stalwart and former Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan in Malampuzha in 2001 made him popular in mainstream politics. He managed to shrink the winning margin of Achuthanandan in the Left bastion to just 4703 votes during the election. The Congress leader again tried his luck against the Left leader in 2006 Assembly polls but could not succeed. Beginning his political career as a volunteer of the Kerala Students' Union (KSU), the student outfit of the Congress, Satheesan Pacheni later became its general secretary and t

Kharge vows to bolster UPA as he takes over as Congress President

Refers to his own humble beginnings and struggles in maiden speech, dwells on Babasaheb Ambedkar's role in bringing India together

Mallikarjun Kharge sets up 47-member Steering Committee in place of CWC

New Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge set up a 47-member Steering Committee, which includes his predecessors Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh

Latest LIVE: Congress prez Kharge constitutes 47-member Steering Committee

From INC getting a non-Gandhi president after 24 years and Rishi Sunak's appointment as UK PM to coronavirus cases and air pollution, catch all the latest developments from across the globe here

Kharge chairs Congress Central Election Committee meeting for Gujarat polls

Mallikarjun Kharge, who on Wednesday took over as Congress president, chaired a meeting of the party's Central Election Committee (CEC) to finalise candidates for the Gujarat assembly polls

After 3-day break, Bharat Jodo Yatra set to resume in Telangana on Thursday

After a three-day break, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Yatra will resume in Telangana on Thursday

'Only Rahul can challenge Modi..,' says Gehlot as Kharge takes charge

Rajasthan CM Gehlot said that efforts continued till last minute to make Rahul Gandhi as president of INC since he is the only one who can challenge Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP government

Congress President-elect Kharge pays homage to Mahatma Gandhi at Rajghat

Newly elected Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, ahead of taking charge of the post on Wednesday visited Rajghat in the national capital to pay homage to Mahatama Gandhi

What did Congress achieve with Bharat Jodo Yatra, asks Karnataka minister

A day after the Congress completed the Karnataka leg of its Bharat Jodo Yatra, Karnataka Health Minister K Sudhakar on Monday wondered whether it served any purpose. In a series of tweets, Sudhakar, who quit the Congress in 2019 a year after being elected an MLA on the party's ticket to join the BJP, said the foot march is a self-realisation in admitting the blunder of dividing society on the basis of caste and religion. "With #BharatJodoYatra coming to an end in #Karnataka, the big question remains is whether it really served any purpose other than @INCIndia's classic divide and rule politics?" the minister wondered. "While the whole world is praising the new India under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his efforts in putting the nation in the forefront, the Congress is simply busy walking on the path of illusion called #BharatJodoYatra!" Sudhakar said. The minister quipped that only a researcher can provide some insight into what Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and

RGF's FCRA licence cancelled to divert attention from economic crisis: Cong

After Centre cancelled FCRA of RGF, Cong MP Jairam Ramesh called it a move to divert public attention from the crisis caused by spiralling prices, unemployment, falling rupee

Gandhi family, its NGOs not above law: BJP on cancellation of FCRA licences

The BJP on Sunday welcomed the cancellation of the FCRA licences of two NGOs headed by former Congress president Sonia Gandhi, and said the Gandhi family and organisations linked to them can't be above law. BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra claimed that the home ministry's decision to cancel the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act licences of the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation (RGF) and the Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust (RGCT) for alleged violation of laws has "exposed" their corruption. He also hit out at the RGF for receiving donations from controversial Islamic preacher Zakir Naik, the Chinese embassy and the Chinese government besides several people accused of corruption charges, including Yes Bank founder Rana Kapoor, when the Congress-led UPA was in power. The Modi government has acted in accordance with the law and the Constitution, he said, adding that no one had the courage to act against the likes of Naik, who is facing probe on terror charges and fled India when the UPA was in ...

Kharge can't revive Congress, but the party's vote share may rise in 2024

After 10 years in power and with all-round economic distress, it would be a miracle if the BJP didn't lose around 3 percentage points from its 2019 share of 37.36 per cent

Shivraj Patil's remarks another attempt by Congress to insult Hindutva: BJP

The BJP on Friday stepped up its attack against the Congress over its leader and former home minister Shivraj Patil's claim that Bhagavad Gita also spoke of jihad, saying that this is one more attempt by the opposition party to smear Hindutva. BJP national spokesperson Prem Shukla alleged that the Congress has long been involved in the conspiracy to "insult Hindu, Hindutva and Hindustan" and Patil's remarks are yet another chapter towards this. Congress leaders in the past have drawn a parallel between Hindutva with terror organisations like Boko Haram and Taliban, he alleged. Former Union ministers Sushilkumar Shinde and P Chidambaram had spoken about "saffron terror", he said. Gita is the philosophy of humanity, Shukla asserted. Patil on Thursday claimed that the concept of jihad was not just in Islam but also in Bhagavad Gita, a Hindu scripture, and Christianity. Attacking the Congress, the BJP also accused it of playing vote bank politics. Speaking at the launch of Congress

Mistry slams Tharoor over allegations of 'irregularities' in Cong prez poll

Congress central election authority chairman Madhusudan Mistry on Thursday accused Shashi Tharoor's team of having two faces -- one for the party's poll body and another for the media -- as he rejected allegations of irregularities during the just-concluded AICC presidential poll, according to sources. In his response to Team Tharoor's letter in which "extremely serious irregularities" were flagged in the conduct of the election in Uttar Pradesh, Mistry said the poll body satisfied the candidate on every complaint but despite that he raised all those points in the media before bringing them to "our notice". "I am sorry to say that you had one face before me which communicated that you're satisfied with all our answers and action and different face in the media which made all these allegations against us," Mistry said in his letter to Tharoor's chief election agent Salman Soz, according to sources. The campaign team of Tharoor, who lost the party's presidential polls to Mallikarjun .

A missed opportunity: Congress votes for status quo

Mallikarjun Kharge's election as party president points to the continuation of Gandhi family hegemony with all its opacity and confusions ever since Rahul Gandhi stepped down as president in 2019

Rahul sees room for Congress to grow due to 'distress' among people in AP

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi saw a lot of room for his party to grow in Andhra Pradesh as he said the three major political parties in the state were "being run like corporations". Gandhi refused to delve into the past and maintained he was only interested in the future as he saw the Bharat Jodo Yatra as a very good starting point to rebuild the Congress in AP. "The three political parties in AP are more like corporations/businesses than political parties. They are being run on a system based on a corporate identity, he told the media here. Gandhi observed that there was a huge distress in AP that gave the Congress a lot of room to grow in the state. "I am seeing it as I am walking, among the farmers, labourers and the poor people. So, that is going to be our focus," he pointed out. His yatra drew "tremendous response" in the state, the Lok Sabha member said, adding his party leaders were also "quite surprised at the enthusiasm and response that we have had". Post the bifurcation

Lot of work required to bring country's economy back to life: Rahul Gandhi

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday said a lot of work was required to bring the country's economy crippled by the Narendra Modi regime at the Centre back to life irrespective of whether the rupee was strong or weak. Responding to questions at an interaction with media during his ongoing Bharat Jodo Yatra in Adoni, he said BJP's policies had completely destroyed the strength of India's economy and it was not just a question of the dollar price. "Idea of strong or weak rupee, whether it is good or bad... it is actually more nuanced than that. It doesn't actually work like that. But it is the question of how you look and think about the Indian economy," Gandhi remarked. A strong rupee has advantages and disadvantages. Both have to be taken into account, he said. The Wayanad MP noted that job creation in the Indian economy has always happened on the back of small and medium businesses and a strong agriculture sector. "Demonetisation and GST destroyed both these systems. Lakhs

Shashi Tharoor: Lost Cong prez poll but not before making himself heard

He lost the election but Shashi Tharoor managed to score many a political point during his campaign for Congress president, a contest he lost to veteran party colleague Mallikarjun Kharge who was favoured to win. The author, wordsmith, former UN diplomat and social media pioneer with 8.3 million followers on Twitter demonstrated during the last few weeks that he is quite the opposite of a quockerwodger', a politically loaded term for a wooden puppet he introduced into our lexicon, and is instead independent minded, making moves on his own terms. Tharoor's loss is reminiscent of his electoral run in the 2006 UN secretary general poll in which he was defeated by South Korea's Ban Ki-moon but not before creating a strong buzz. It was in that contest perhaps that he first displayed his stomach for an electoral fight against daunting odds. That the often outspoken Tharoor managed 1,072 votes against perceived Gandhi favourite Kharge's 7,897 in the presidential election, only the sixth i