Mumbai: The Congress party is debating holding a General Election in November, six months ahead of schedule, senior party leaders said, reflecting an internal discussion over whether to pull the plug on the shaky ruling coalition or have it serve a full term. Officially, the Congress party says the government - which has been battered by a series of corruption scandals and now governs as a minority after two allies withdrew from the ruling coalition - will limp on until elections are due in May 2014.
But there is no consensus in the upper echelons of Congress on when to call elections, according to interviews with more than a dozen party leaders. There is a split between those who say the sluggish economy needs more time to recover and those who worry that waiting until 2014 could be a tactical mistake.
If the Congress party gets the timing wrong, it could cost it a third straight term in power and put a question mark over the future of India's recently launched economic reform drive. "The government has a commitment to the people," said one senior Congress party official when asked why the coalition should continue if it was struggling to pass legislation. "A lame duck is fine if it can paddle through water."
Other party leaders say things may get worse by next year and Congress should capitalise on a win in local elections in the southern state of Karnataka earlier this month that has brought much-needed
11:45 AM, May 19, 2013
Ahmedabad: After a U-turn by the Gujarat government on the death penalty for former minister Maya Kodnani and nine others, convicted in 2002 Naroda Patiya riot case, the SIT has decided to seek Supreme Court's guidance on the issue. "Very soon, we are going to file an application before the special bench of the Supreme Court apprising it about the recent Gujarat Government's decision to withdraw the sanction for filing...
06:42 PM, May 18, 2013
Bhubaneswar: With investors across Odisha demanding action against the chit fund companies which duped them of crores of rupees, opposition BJP and Congress on Friday respectively demanded judicial probe and CBI investigation into the matter. "As one chief of an accused chit fund company has said that some ministers and MLAs are hand-in-glove with him to cheat people, the government must reveal their names and announce a judicial probe into...
11:01 PM, May 17, 2013
New Delhi: BJP on Friday made clear its reservation over the Food Security Bill being keenly pushed by the government, saying it is a "half-hearted attempt", and hit back at Rahul Gandhi for saying opposition was stalling it. Till now BJP had said it was disrupting Parliament in the second phase of the Budget session due to more pressing matter of resignation of two Union ministers - PK Bansal and...
10:11 PM, May 17, 2013
New Delhi: With the 2G spectrum issue getting caught in logjam in the JPC, the BJP on Friday sought to bring the matter to the forefront of Parliament's Public Accounts Committee saying the matter is pending and should be disposed of. The demand to settle the pending issue came at the first meeting of the newly-constituted PAC. BJP member Prakash Javadekar raised the issue of PAC's draft report on 2G...
09:35 PM, May 17, 2013
Jammu: The BJP on Friday accused the ruling Congress of "misusing" CBI against its rival parties and said that the case filed against Leader of Opposition in Rajasthan Assembly Gulab Chand Kataria in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter case was "politically motivated". "If people will leave the public life considering the CBI charge sheet is true, then nobody apart from Congress will survive. Neither DMK nor SP (Samajwadi Party) or BSP...
07:52 PM, May 17, 2013
As Varun Gandhi staked claim to his father's legacy in Sultanpur, Uttar Pradesh, the Samajwadi Party has hit out at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader saying Varun, Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi are from the same family and there is an internal fixing among them. ...
03:15 PM, May 17, 2013
Sultanpur: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Varun Gandhi is staking claim to his father's legacy. Addressing a rally in Sultanpur, a Congress bastion, on Thursday, the BJP General Secretary made an emotional appeal to voters. This came even as the UP government is facing flak for allegedly letting him off in the 2009 hate speech cases. Varun Gandhi's first public meeting came in Sultanpur, the same district that elected his...
08:47 AM, May 17, 2013
Jaipur: Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Thursday dismissed BJP's allegations that CBI has chargesheeted Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly Gulab Chand Kataria in Sohrabuddin encounter case at the behest of Congress. "Congress has no role in the case and law will take its own course," Gehlot told reporters here. On Kataria's announcement on Thursday that he would resign as MLA if arrested in the case, Gehlot said,...
05:20 PM, May 16, 2013
New Delhi: In an embarrassment for Bharatiya Janata Party patriarch LK Advani, a party leader and close aide of Karnataka Janata Paksha chief BS Yeddyurappa, Lehar Singh Siroya, has written a tell-all open letter. He has alleged that Advani compromised on corruption in the past when it suited his own interest. The letter that severely criticises Advani has been sent to him and BJP President Rajnath Singh by Lahar Singh...
10:16 AM, May 16, 2013
Thrissur: JPC Chairman PC Chacko has said it will be "unconstitutional" to summon former Telecom Minister A Raja, prime accused in the 2G spectrum case, before the Joint Parliamentary Committee to take evidence, as it would be an "infringement" of Article 20 of the Constitution. "Article 20 (iii) of the Constitution clearly states no person accused of any offence shall be compelled to be a witness against himself," Chacko said....
01:26 AM, May 16, 2013
CNN-IBN on Tuesday broke the story showing how close relatives and aides of MP CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan had cornered prime plots in the heart of Bhopal against all norms. ...
11:26 PM, May 15, 2013
Jaipur: Senior BJP leader Gulab Chand Kataria, who has been chargesheeted in Sohrabuddin encounter case, on Wednesday said he would resign from the Rajasthan Assembly if arrested in the case. "A political game has been played to implicate me in this case. The real face of CBI and the Union government will be revealed after the investigations," Kataria, who was in Jaipur to attend a meeting of the state assembly,...
10:50 PM, May 15, 2013
New Delhi: Rajasthan BJP leader Gulab Chand Kataria may have been chargesheeted by the CBI in the Sohrabuddin fake encounter case. But, as the BJP alleged, is Gujarat CM Narendra Modi the real target of the CBI? The CBI's move to chargesheet Kataria brought out the entire BJP brass against the CBI on Wednesday, with BJP president Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley and even Kataria-baiter Vasundhara Raje putting up a strong...
08:13 PM, May 15, 2013
New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday lashed out at the Central Bureau of Investigation and questioned its investigations into the Sohrabuddin and Tulsi Prajapati fake encounter cases. The BJP defended Leader of the Opposition in Rajasthan Gulab Chand Kataria saying allegations against him were politically motivated. He also said that the Congress was misusing the CBI to target Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi. "Charges against Gulab Chand Kataria...
01:48 PM, May 15, 2013
New Delhi: Youth Congress workers on Wednesday protested outside the Bharatiya Janata Party headquarters in the national capital over the BJP's demand for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's resignation. The protesters stormed barricades, following which the police fired water cannons. The protesters said that the BJP must stop asking for the Prime Minister's resignation and let Parliament function. This came even as Parliament was adjourned sine die last week. However, there...
12:44 PM, May 15, 2013
Union Minister Beni Prasad Verma has once again attacked Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav. This time he has accused Mulayam of being hand in glove with the BJP during the attempt to bring down the Babri Masjid in the early 1990s. He says he has been forced to make the revelation after Mulayam publicly praised BJP leader LK Advani. Beni Prasad had recently apologised after a similar outburst against ...
11:13 AM, May 15, 2013
New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party has come out strongly in the defence of Rajasthan leader of Opposition Gulab Chand Kataria. Former Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje has described the allegations against Kataria as baseless. "Allegations against Kataria are baseless. The party stands behind Kataria and will contest the matter both in courts and politically," she said. The CBI had on Tuesday booked Kataria for murder in its supplementary chargesheet...
10:42 AM, May 15, 2013
Jaipur: There is a new twist in the Sohrabuddin fake encounter case. Former Rajasthan Home Minister Gulab Chand Kataria has been named in the chargesheet filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Kataria is the second high profile politician to be named in the case after former Gujarat home minister Amit Shah. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), of course, is crying foul. Kataria, presently leader of the Opposition in...
10:20 AM, May 15, 2013
New Delhi: The Congress has targetted Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan after CNN-IBN exposed how prime land in Bhopal was given to his relatives and party members. Digvijaya Singh claimed this is one of the many corruption charges against the Madhya Pradesh CM. "About 10 people in Chouhan's family were given membership and land. There is a provision that two members of a family cannot be given a...
09:40 AM, May 15, 2013
