Cracks appeared in the DMK-led alliance in Tamil Nadu as the state Congress and MDMK chief Vaiko traded charges in Chennai. State Congress president KS Alagiri described Vaiko as a political opportunist, two days after the MDMK leader faulted the Congress for never holding a plebiscite in Kashmir. The Congress attack Senior Congress leader EVKS Elangovan said Vaiko owed his Rajya Sabha seat to the support of Congress MLAs, yet had turned on the party less than 15 days after becoming an MP. He said Vaiko was ungrateful and shouldRead More

Bhubaneswar Kalita, the Congress chief whip in the Rajya Sabha, was due to switch to the Bharatiya Janata Party in New Delhi on Friday evening, days after he quit in protest against his party’s position on scrapping Article 370. Why he resigned Kalita gave up his Rajya Sabha membership on Monday, objecting to the Congress stand against ending Article 370 and splitting Jammu and Kashmir. Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu told the House he had accepted the resignation. In a letter, Kalita said the party had asked him toRead More

Congress leader Abhishek Singhvi said in New Delhi on Friday that the party could not afford any more delay in choosing a new president, a day before a key meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC). Singhvi’s call Writing on Twitter, Singhvi said a president who could build consensus had to be selected on Saturday. “Slightest delay is not an option,” he wrote. He added a light-hearted comparison with the cardinals of the Vatican, who are kept in a room until they agree on a choice, and said such aRead More

Divisions inside the Congress over the Centre’s decision to scrap Article 370, which gave Jammu and Kashmir special status, spread to Madhya Pradesh, where several party leaders in Bhopal and elsewhere spoke in favour of the move. Leaders who backed the move State Finance Minister Tarun Bhanot, a loyalist of Chief Minister Kamal Nath, said national questions should be approached above party politics. He argued that conditions 75 years ago were different, that earlier leaders had done what they thought right to keep Kashmir with India, and that a decisionRead More

The BJP on Friday put two Union Ministers in charge of its campaigns for the Delhi and Haryana assembly elections: Prakash Javadekar for Delhi and Narendra Singh Tomar for Haryana, as it prepared for a round of state polls. Who will lead where According to a party statement issued in New Delhi, senior leaders OP Mathur and Bhupinder Yadav were given charge of Jharkhand and Maharashtra respectively. Delhi: Prakash Javadekar, assisted by two Union Ministers, Nityanand Rai and Hardeep Singh Puri. Haryana: Narendra Singh Tomar. Jharkhand: OP Mathur. Maharashtra: BhupinderRead More