Congress News

The final post-mortem report of Sunanda Pushkar, wife of Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, says that she died because of the presence of “poison” in her body. This is in contrast to earlier reports which said that the death was due to the overdose of Alprax (an antidepressant drug). The report also questions the police investigation so far.

Speaking up in support of Shashi Tharoor, Congress general secretary Digvijaya Singh Thursday tweeted, "I see nothing wrong in Shashi Tharoor accepting to be Brand Ambassador for Swachhta Abhiyan. It is Congress Party programme adopted by Modi." Congress party, however, distanced itself from his remarks with spokesman Anand Sharma saying that "Digvijaya speaks for himself".

PM Narendra Modi's Oct-3 radio broadcast did not violate the model code of conduct, said the Election Commission on Friday. EC heard the audio of the speech and examined its script before reaching the conclusion, it said. Congress had accused PM Modi of misusing state machinery by addressing on AIR ahead of the Oct-15 assembly elections in Haryana and Maharashtra.

Seeking a complete majority for BJP in the 15 Oct Maharashtra Assembly elections, PM Narendra Modi said Friday that there was no chance of congress’ revival. Addressing a poll rally in Marathwada region in Maharashtra, he said, "There is no way that congress can be revived. Now, nobody can save Congress. It is dying due to its sins."

Former Union Minister and Congress leader Shashi Tharoor said Saturday that he has always been cooperating with the police and is awaiting their report on the death of his wife Sunanda Pushkar. His remark came days after Sunanda’s post-mortem report said that she died of poisoning. Shashi maintained that he has nothing to hide in this case.

Referring to PM Narendra Modi’s alleged comments about the state of affairs in Maharashtra, Congress leader P Chidambaram Saturday said, “It is unfortunate and disappointing that outsiders are coming and calling people of Maharashtra useless”. He added that, “Modi seems to be forgetting that he is India’s PM. He is thinking that he is the PM of Gujarat.”

The BJP has alleged that the Congress government in Karnataka had ordered illegal tapping of phones of Union Railways Minister Sadananda Gowda, during the time period of September 5 to 11. BJP is demanding a high-level probe into the matter. However, Congress has denied the allegations saying that it is only BJP's imagination.

The Congress has approached the Election Commision after some Marathi channels on Sunday night re-telecasted PM Narendra Modi's Madison Square Garden speech. Calling it a violation of the code of conduct, the Congress said that since Modi spoke as the PM, the speech cannot be used as a campaign tool. The Congress also called it a case of paid news.

The Congress high command Monday removed Shashi Tharoor from the post of party spokesperson. The Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee had wanted action against Tharoor for accepting PM Narendra Modi's invite to participate in 'Swachh Bharat' campaign. The matter was taken up by the three-member disciplinary action committee of AICC, comprising leaders Motilal Vora, A K Antony and Sushilkumar Shinde.

In a personal attack on PM Narendra Modi, Akhil Bhartiya Congress Mahasamiti member Deshbandhu Kaushik called him a womanizer, a thief and a criminal. Slamming Modi, Kaushik said, “He is a thief, a criminal. All that he knows is to fill his coffers…” Deshbandhu also said that Modi first got married and then left his wife to join the RSS.

Batting for Shashi Tharoor, who was recently eased out as Congress spokesperson for praising PM Narendra Modi, Congress General Secretary Digvijaya Singh said Tharoor still enjoys a high-level of confidence among the partymen. Calling Tharoor an eminent personality, Singh said, "He is one of the most well-known writers of this country, a very well-known diplomat who has served in UN."

Despite his apology, Maharashtra Congress leaders have urged the Congress high command to sack former Maharashtra CM Prithviraj Chavan for his controversial remarks against his predecessors and ally-turned-rivals. "We feel Sonia Gandhi should immediately sack him in the larger interest of the party," a former Congress minister said Friday. A decision on Chavan is likely after the poll results.

Reacting sharply to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's remarks that the Opposition will be embarrassed once names of people holding illicit foreign accounts are made public, the Congress Wednesday dared him to "name the traitor". It also accused Jaitley of "bluffing" people."A traitor is a traitor... What is stopping Jaitley ji from naming the traitors?" Youth Congress President Rajeev Satav tweeted.

Congress leader Digvijay Singh, Friday, attacked PM Narendra Modi over his remarks on 'one rank one pension'. Digvijay alleged that PM was taking inappropriate credit for the decision of ‘One Rank One Pension for Defence Personnel’, which was taken by UPA govt 2 years back. PM Thursday said that the issue of armed forces was an emotional subject for him.

Emphasizing that Congress has been seriously demoralized, former finance minister P Chidambaram Friday said, "I would urge the Congress President or the Congress vice-president to speak more." Admitting that the BJP government has been better at communicating, Chidambaram said, "At the level of articulation and propaganda, I think this government has scored quite heavily".

Condemning the attack on former PM Jawahar Lal Nehru in an article of RSS mouthpiece Kesari, Congress leader Abhishek Manu Sanghvi Friday called it "disgusting and reprehensible". Further, he said, "It is time that people understand the true face of the RSS and the BJP. It is even more unfortunate that backers of such people are in power".

Following a complaint by Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee, Kerala Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala has ordered the police chief to take action against RSS mouthpiece "Kesari", which carried the article “Those who stabbed Gandhi from behind". Written by B Gopalakrishnan, the article implies Jawaharlal Nehru, rather than Mahatma Gandhi, should have been targeted for the partition of the country.

PM Narendra Modi has praised senior congress leader Shashi Tharoor for his cleanliness drive. Tharoor, Saturday, launched a cleanliness drive on Kovalam beach (Kerala), personally collecting garbage in bags. PM Modi tweeted that Tharoor’s active participation in the cleanliness drive is encouraging. Notably, Tharoor was sacked as the Congress spokesperson for tagging along with Modi's Swachh Bharat campaign.

Barring the ruling National Conference (NC) party, congress and opposition parties, Saturday, welcomed the Election Commission (EC)'s move to hold assembly elections in J&K on time. NC felt the time was not "appropriate" for holding the polls in J&K because of recent floods which devastated the state. Notably, the state will go to the five-phase polls from Nov-25 to Dec-20.