More talks are needed on Maharashtra: Pawar after meeting Sonia Gandhi

Keeping his cards close to his chest, Pawar said he only discussed the political situation in Maharashtra with Sonia Gandhi

After a meeting with Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar on Monday queered the pitch for the Shiv Sena in formation of a new government in Maharashtra, saying this issue was not discussed and remained non-committal in forging an alliance with its political rival.

As the deadlock over the government formation entered the 26th day with no signs of an early resolution, Prime Minister Narendra Modi set tongues wagging when he praised the NCP, the Congress’ prepoll ally, in the Rajya Sabha (RS) for strictly “adhering to parliamentary norms”. Maharashtra is currently under President’s rule.

Addressing the RS on the occasion of its 250th session, Modi said, “Today I want to appreciate two parties, NCP and Biju Janata Dal (BJD). These parties have strictly adhered to parliamentary norms.” The BJD headed by Naveen Patnaik is the ruling party in Odisha. Modi said the members of the two parties never rush to the Well of the House to raise their issues and yet highlight their points effectively.

Keeping his cards close to his chest, Pawar said he only discussed the political situation in Maharashtra with Sonia Gandhi and that the NCP and the Congress will hold talks with their other allies before taking a decision on government formation. Pawar, whose meeting with Gandhi at her residence in Delhi was being billed as a major step towards a possible tie-up with the Shiv Sena, said if the NCP and the Congress have to…

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Sonia, top Cong leaders consider Maharashtra options; Pawar meets NCP MLAs

Meanwhile, NCP chief Sharad Pawar said his party will take a decision pertaining to government formation in Maharashtra only after holding discussions with Congress.

A meeting of the Congress working committee is underway on Monday morning to decide on whether to support the Shiv Sena in forming the government in Maharashtra, sources said.

Top Congress leaders are discussing the issue at a crucial meeting of the working committee chaired by party chief Sonia Gandhi, according to the sources. The CWC is the highest decision-making body of the Congress. Hectic deliberations have started since Sunday over the Congress’ participation in government formation in Maharashtra after the Shiv Sena was invited by the governor to form the government.

Senior Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut on Monday said if the BJP was not willing to fulfil its promise of sharing the chief minister’s post in Maharashtra, there was no point in continuing the alliance. Reaching out to the opposition parties, Raut said the Congress and the NCP should bury their internal differences to come up with a ‘common minimum programme’ in the interest of Maharashtra.

Sena leader Arvind Sawant, the lone party minister in the Narendra Modi cabinet, on Monday announced his decision to quit the NDA government at the Centre. Meanwhile, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar said his party will take a decision pertaining to government formation in Maharashtra only after holding discussions with Congress.

Rajiv did not use his 1984 mandate to create an atmosphere of fear: Sonia

She also lauded her son Rahul Gandhi’s act of quitting as the party chief after the Congress’ loss in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls

Politics News: In a critique of the Narendra Modi government, but without naming it, Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Thursday said that her husband Rajiv Gandhi did not use the strength of the massive mandate he had won in 1984 to create an atmosphere of fear, to intimidate and threaten or to crush dissent and different points of views.

She also lauded her son Rahul Gandhi’s act of quitting as the party chief after the party’s loss in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. She said Rajiv Gandhi believed if India had to occupy a special status on the world stage, it itself will need to be an inclusive society, which cannot be achieved with arrogance and sloganeering, but with action and conduct.

Addressing an event of her party to kick off the 75th birth anniversary celebrations of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi at the national capital’s KD Jadhav Stadium, Sonia Gandhi said electoral ups and down are inevitable and the challenges that the Congress confronts today are formidable.

“But we must continue our ideological struggle against the forces of divisiveness, the forces that are out to change the very nature of our society, the very Idea of India that is enshrined in our Constitution,” she said. The Congress has come for criticism, including from within the party, for its stand on Article 370 of the Constitution…

SP-BSP honeymoon over as Mayawati hints at dumping ‘mahagathbandhan’

BSP likely to fight coming UP bypolls on 11 seats independently

In the wake of confronting a virtual defeat in the 2019 Lok Sabha surveys because of the decision Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Uttar Pradesh, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) president Mayawati on Monday alluded to dumping the ‘mahagathbandhan’ (terrific collusion) including BSP and the Samajwadi Party.

The collusion was declared on January 12, 2019, in the keep running up to the general decisions and was touted as an imposing challenger to counter the romping race hardware of BJP in UP, which chooses 80 Lok Sabha individuals, and is critical to government arrangement at the Center. In the scenery of BSP’s terrible execution in UP, Mayawati today gathered a gathering of senior gathering functionaries in Delhi to talk about the components behind the defeat. Mayawati, at the gathering, saw that the terrific union had neglected to convey for the BSP, since the union accomplices had neglected to guarantee an exchange of their separate vote banks, even as she admonished party pioneers to electrify units for challenging the forthcoming races autonomously without falling back upon any coalition.

As indicated by sources, she underlined that SP president Akhilesh Yadav couldn’t encourage the triumph of his significant other Dimple Yadav from the gathering’s turf of Kannauj, where she was vanquished by BJP chosen one Subrat Pathak by an edge of more than 12,000 votes, in spite of the Congress not handling its applicant in her help.

She also noted that Akhilesh had failed to prevent the division of Yadav votes. She alleged that Akhilesh’s estranged uncle Shivpal Singh Yadav, who had floated Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party Lohia (PSPL), had managed to transfer Yadav votes to the BJP and thus hurt the grand alliance in the state. Under the alliance, BSP and SP had fought 38 and 37 seats, respectively, in UP, while leaving 2 and 3 seats for Congress (Rae Bareli and Amethi) and ally Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), respectively..

134-yr-old Congress, party of India’s independence, is now on life support

While historically Congress secured more than 25% of the vote share, it now hovers at less than 20%. That could signal the party is headed for a death spiral

Narendra Modi not just astonished the world with an avalanche triumph a week ago, he additionally put the 134-year-old Indian National Congress in a coma.

A few competitors from the storied party, home to a significant number of India’s establishing fathers when it won autonomy from Britain in 1947, essentially surrendered in front of the May 23 race. One registered himself with an emergency clinic to abstain from crusading after the gathering wouldn’t give him enough cash to run a surveying corner, agreeing two individuals from his battle who asked not to be recognized as they’re weren’t approved to address media.

He wound up losing, alongside many others as the gathering figured out how to win just 52 of 543 seats – almost as awful as its most noticeably terrible ever execution in 2014. It neglected to win a solitary seat in about portion of India’s 29 states.

“The Congress I accept is near eradication, and given its ongoing record it presumably has the right amazing,” Ramachandra Guha, history specialist and journalist. “Yet, we should not overlook that while it lived and flourished, the Congress supported the components of a plural majority rules system that hosts outlasted the gathering.”

The central issue presently is how to manage Rahul Gandhi, the hesitant beneficiary in a line that incorporates India’s first head administrator Jawaharlal Nehru and its second longest-serving pioneer after him, Indira Gandhi. Congress Party pioneers rejected Rahul Gandhi’s acquiescence after the destruction, and requested that him modify the gathering. However, there are questions among the general population about whether the Gandhi family should keep on driving the gathering…

PM-KISAN: Modi govt has so far transferred Rs 5,215 cr to 26 mn farmers

In the budget, the NDA government allocated a sum of Rs 20,000 crore, to transfer Rs 2,000 each to farmers in the first installment by March-end

Economy News| The central government has so far transferred Rs 5,215 crore to over 26 million small and marginal farmers under the PM-Kisan scheme announced in the last month’s interim budget.

Ahead of the general election, the Centre announced the Rs 75,000-crore Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-Kisan) scheme under which Rs 6,000 per year would be disbursed in three instalments to around 12 crore farmers who hold cultivable land up to 2 hectares. In the budget, the NDA government allocated a sum of Rs 20,000 crore, to transfer Rs 2,000 each to farmers in the first installment by March-end, for the ongoing fiscal under the scheme.

The scheme was formally launched at national level by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on February 24 at Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh by transferring the first instalment to 1.01 crore farmers, totalling Rs 2,021 crore. “Under PM Kisan Samman Nidhi: Benefit of over Rs 5,215 crore transferred directly into the bank accounts of more than 26 million small and marginal farmers within 37 days of announcement of the scheme!,” the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said in a tweet on Sunday.

“Would be first scheme where such an amount has been transferred to so many beneficiaries in such a short span of time,” the PMO further said. Last week, the Union Agriculture Ministry had said that Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradeshand Gujarat have taken a lead in taking benefit under the PM-Kisan scheme….

Lok Sabha polls: Sonia Gandhi to contest from Raebareli, Rahul from Amethi

The first list, finalised at a meeting of the party’s central election committee chaired by Rahul Gandhi, names 11 candidates from Uttar Pradesh and four from Gujarat

The Congress Thursday released its first list of 15 candidates for the Lok Sabha elections, fielding UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi from Raebareli and party president Rahul Gandhi from Amethi.

The first list, finalised at a meeting of the party’s central election committee chaired by Rahul Gandhi, names 11 candidates from Uttar Pradesh and four from Gujarat. Former Union ministers Salman Khurshid, Jitin Prasad and R P N Singh have been fielded from their traditional seats of Farrukhabad, Dhaurahra and Kushi Nagar respectively.

Former UP Congress chief Nirmal Khatri will contest from Faizabad, while Bharatsinh Solanki, the party’s ex-chief of the Gujarat unit, has been fielded from the state’s Anand constituency.

Rahul should apologise, withdraw allegations on Rafale deal, says BJP

Rahul Gandhi also renewed the demand for a joint parliamentary committee to probe the Rafale deal

Politics News: Congress chief Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday cited a purported “dissent note” by some officials who negotiated the Rafale deal to assert that it demolished Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s claim of better pricing and faster delivery of the jets, and dismissed the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) report on the multi-billion pact as a “cover-up” that was “not worth the paper” it was written on.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) responded by demanding an apology from Rahul Gandhi, as the CAG had said in its report that the National Democratic Alliance deal was 2.86 per cent cheaper than the United Progressive Alliance one.

At a press conference, the Congress chief said even though he did not agree with the CAG’s submission, it still called the bluff of Modi, then Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who had told Parliament that the new deal was 9-20 per cent lower.

“The fact of the matter is that the new deal that… Modi signed gets India the aircraft later than the original deal,” Rahul Gandhi said. Hitting back, senior BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said, said in view of the Supreme Court order and the CAG report, Rahul Gandhi should withdraw his allegations and tender an apology. “The BJP demands that Rahul apologise as the SC order and the CAG report on Rafale jet deal have exposed his lies,” he added.

Elections results 2018: Only 62 women among 678 MLAs, zero in Mizoram

Only in one state, Chhattisgarh, has there been an increase in the proportion of female MLAs

Elections Result 2018: There are just 62 women among the 678 members of legislative assembly (MLAs) elected in the 2018 state elections, according to an IndiaSpend analysis of data compiled by the NGO Association for Democratic Reforms and the Election Commission of India.

Together, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh (MP), Chhattisgarh, Telangana and Mizoram are home to 93 million women. Among the MLAs these states have voted in, only 9% are women, down from 11% from the previous 2013-14 assembly elections, when female candidates had won 77 of 678 seats.

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Only in one state, Chhattisgarh, has there been an increase in the proportion of female MLAs, even though more female candidates contested elections across all five states than the last time. Mizoram will continue to have zero female representation in its state assembly. Women comprise 49% of the state’s population of 1 million-plus population.

Mizoram will continue to have zero female representation in its state assembly. Women comprise 49% of the state’s population of 1 million-plus population.

Tributes pour in for ‘Iron Lady’ Indira Gandhi on 34th death anniversary

Congress President Rahul Gandhi also took to the micro-blogging site to remember his grandmother

BS | Top political leaders on Wednesday paid homage to India’s third prime minister Indira Gandhi to commemorate her 34th death anniversary.

“Tributes to our former Prime Minister, Mrs. Indira Gandhi on her death anniversary,” tweeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Congress President Rahul Gandhi also took to the micro-blogging site to remember his grandmother “with a deep sense of happiness.”

“Remembering Dadi today with a deep sense of happiness. She taught me so much and gave me unending love. She gave so much of herself to her people. I am very proud of her,” his tweet read.|Latest News

The Congress President, along with his mother and United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Chairperson Sonia Gandhi and former prime minister Manmohan Singh, also paid floral tributes to the ‘Iron Lady’ at her memorial Shakti Sthal.

Indira Gandhi, who was hailed as one of the tallest world leaders, was assassinated by her own Sikh bodyguards at her residence located in Akbar Road on October 31, 1984. This came after Operation Bluestar was executed at Amritsar’s Golden Temple, wherein Gandhi ordered the Indian Army to confront Sikh separatists who had taken shelter at the holy shrine.

Born on November 19, 1917, to India’s first prime minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Kamala Nehru, she served as prime minister for three terms lasting almost 16 years.

Gandhi, who is the second longest serving Prime Minister, was well known for path-breaking economic and social reforms, including nationalisation of banks, copper, refining, cotton textiles and even insurance industries. She also abolished privy purses of the erstwhile princely states.

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BJP on Manish Tewari's Modi tweet: Congress has lost its mental balance

Tewari is the second Cong leader after Digvijaya Singh to come under fire for using foul language against Modi

 

Congress leader Manish Tewari on Sunday triggered a row with a twitter post using abusive language against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, evoking sharp reactions from the BJP and the twitterati with both demanding an apology from Sonia Gandhi.

Tewari is the second Congress leader after party general secretary Digvijaya Singh to come under fire for using foul language against Modi. Singh had recently retweeted a post which contained expletives against the prime minister.

In his post, Tewari used abusive words and wrote in Hindi, using the Roman script, about how Modi "befooled" people and that "Even Mahatma cannot teach MODI Deshbhakti (patriotism)".

He was responding to a remark made by a person on the micro-blogging website that patriotism is in the DNA of Modi and even Mahatma Gandhi cannot teach him that. It was made in response to a short video clip put out by Tewari about a gaffe purportedly committed by Modi abroad when he had started walking even as the national anthem was being played.

Reacting sharply, Union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said a desperate Congress and its leaders have "lost their mental balance" after being rejected by people. He said they are using foul language against the prime minister as they have run out of logic to counter him....READ MORE