Rahul Gandhi has again pressed PM Modi to join a face-to-face public debate, saying Modi would not remain prime minister afterwards. He made the remark during an Instagram Q&A on Friday.
Gandhi says he was not allowed to speak on farm laws, SIR and China, and that his mic was switched off. He wants a short exchange with no long speeches, and would accept Gautam Adani or Mohan Bhagwat as the judge.
The BJP has dismissed the challenge and accuses Gandhi of avoiding debates in Parliament, which Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman says is already available for discussion.
In her memoir, Sonia Gandhi says neither she nor Rahul Gandhi got any money from the National Herald revival. She accuses the BJP and RSS of acting as both prosecutor and judge against opposition leaders.
Rahul Gandhi has faced at least 30 cases across eight states, and a 2023 defamation conviction over a rally remark cost him his Parliament seat.
The revival was structured as a non-profit, yet a criminal conspiracy case was brought in 2015 and the Enforcement Directorate later launched its own prosecution. The matter is still in court more than twelve years on.
Union minister Kiren Rijiju has responded to Rahul Gandhi's dare for a public debate with PM Modi, saying the Centre's next goal is to finish off the 'dimagi Naxals'.
Rijiju recalled Manmohan Singh once calling Left-wing extremism the top internal security danger facing India, and told Gandhi to credit Modi for going after the armed Maoists.
JD(U) working president Sanjay Kumar Jha called the challenge absurd and accused Gandhi of dodging House debates. Gandhi, speaking to CRPF personnel in Bastar, said the PM should set the time for the debate.
Telangana BJP chief Ramchander Rao has accused Rahul Gandhi and the Congress of time and again failing to show regard for soldiers and paramilitary forces. Gandhi had just renewed his call for PM Modi to take part in a public debate.
Rao said the Congress never condemned the killing of CRPF personnel in Bastar, and that Gandhi has stayed quiet on Naxal violence and terror attacks.
He urged Gandhi to join a debate in Parliament rather than flee abroad. The exchange follows Modi's warning that the Naxal menace persists.
Rahul Gandhi has written to IDBI Bank employees, backing their opposition to the government's plan to sell the bank.
He said public banks are tools for nation-building, asked why a profitable lender is being sold, and warned that SC, ST and OBC reservations would pass into private hands with the bank.
Some experts see Congress's economic politics taking a leftward tilt under him, while party leaders argue the BJP's rightward swing is what makes it look that way. One expert notes the party has yet to set out a clear economic policy.
Rahul Gandhi may visit Manipur by late November, though the dates are not final. He will meet people forced from their homes by the clashes and talk with state Congress leaders about the 2027 polls.
Violence between Meitei and Kuki groups has continued since May 2023, killing nearly 370 people and displacing around 66,000. His last trip, in July 2024, included relief camps in three districts.
Manipur is set to vote in 2027 alongside Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Goa and Uttarakhand.
Congress MP Manickam Tagore says Amit Shah should first get PM Narendra Modi to debate Rahul Gandhi in public. The contest, he argues, should be between the head of government and the Leader of the Opposition.
Tagore's reply came a day after Shah, at a rally in Haryana, asked Gandhi to press Modi for a special Parliament session. Tagore called that a cover for a delimitation bill and said Gandhi wants a neutral venue, claiming his mic is repeatedly cut off in the House.
Tagore also pointed to a whole session lost after Shah declined to address alleged pellet-gun use against students.
Rahul Gandhi hosted a Diwali get-together for Congress general secretaries, in-charges and senior leaders on Friday, as the party pushes the government over alleged vote theft.
He went table to table, greeting more than 100 leaders ahead of Diwali.
Rahul Gandhi alleges that petrol sold in Karnataka has more ethanol than the 20% ceiling permits. Lab tests on samples from seven districts found 11 of 14 above that level, he claims.
Indian Oil and Hindustan Petroleum samples showed 31.2% and 30.5% ethanol, he said. Oil firms' own labs, he added, did not report ethanol content, and pumps do not tell buyers the actual blend.
He warned the blend could cut mileage and damage some vehicles, and asked PM Narendra Modi how much ethanol is in petrol nationwide and when action will follow.
Congress leader Sonia Gandhi says the Modi government has badly weakened India's democracy and institutions over 12 years, and repairing them will take time even after it leaves.
In an interview, she said opposition parties are competing on an uneven field and alleged that a number of elections were won unfairly.
Her memoir, Belonging: A Journey of Love, comes out on November 10. A BJP MLA from Maharashtra said the book is less a life story and more a push to promote her son Rahul Gandhi's failed political launches.
Home Minister Amit Shah has set the BJP a target of winning over 65 of Uttarakhand's 70 Assembly seats in the 2027 polls. At a Dehradun rally marking the state's 26th Foundation Day, he said the party would form the government again.
Shah accused Rahul Gandhi of being upset over encroachment action on 29 acres in Haldwani. He also said the Congress had neglected border-area roads amid concerns over China.
Shah credited Atal Bihari Vajpayee with creating Uttarakhand on November 9, 2000, and claimed tourism in the state had grown 380 per cent.
Congress leader Sachin Pilot has attacked the Election Commission of India, accusing it of failing in its duties. He called the actions of commissioner Gyanesh Kumar unlawful and unconstitutional.
Pilot also backed Rahul Gandhi's claims, asking why one person out of about 1.4 billion citizens has been given protection for life.
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court sought replies from the Centre and the ECI on a petition challenging a 2023 provision that bars civil and criminal cases against election commissioners over official acts, even where bad faith is alleged.
Amit Shah has taken up Rahul Gandhi's call to debate the SIR voter roll revision, but says the discussion belongs in Parliament. The government will convene a special session if Congress formally asks for one.
Shah told Gandhi to write to PM Modi if he really wants a debate. He noted that Congress lost the 2014, 2019 and 2024 Lok Sabha polls, all without an SIR exercise.
Shah also questioned Congress's demand that Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar resign, likening the party to a losing kabaddi team blaming the referee.
Rahul Gandhi launched Congress's Punjab poll campaign in Sangrur, calling Sidhu Moosewala's murder a sign of gangsterism turning into a mindset.
He attacked both the AAP government and the BJP-led Centre over gangs, drugs, unemployment and falling youth trust in institutions. He also said a Congress government would be run from Punjab, not Delhi.
Three 10-day cycle yatras through Majha, Malwa and Doaba start November 12, focusing on law and order and the killings of anti-drug activists. Rahul Gandhi may also meet families hit by drug abuse on another visit, though dates are still open.
Telangana BJP spokesperson NV Subhash has backed Union minister Kiren Rijiju's suggestions for Rahul Gandhi. He wants Gandhi to stay in India longer, understand farmers' problems, and raise issues in Parliament more productively.
Subhash also criticised Gandhi's foreign trips, saying he treats national issues too lightly after holidays. He added that Gandhi should respect elders, including those in his own party.
Rijiju posted the suggestions on X on Thursday, shortly after Gandhi renewed his challenge to Modi for a debate.
Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Aradhana Mishra says voter deletions and Amit Shah's visit to the state are meant to unseat Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
She pointed to a gap between the voter figure the chief minister cited at a working committee meeting, about 16.7 crore, and the roughly 13.4 crore voters left after the SIR process. That, she said, is a drop of about 3.31 crore votes.
Mishra also called the BJP's yatras in the state and across India undemocratic. She said Congress, under Rahul Gandhi, would succeed in restoring democracy.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah has accused Rahul Gandhi of disrupting Parliament and making boycotts a habit for the Congress. He made the charge at a rally in Karnal, Haryana, after leading a BJP march there on Thursday.
Shah again offered a special Parliament session to debate the revision of electoral rolls known as SIR, and accused the INDIA bloc of shielding infiltrators. He also asked Gandhi to disclose his foreign visits, since he is the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha.
BJP leaders have stepped up criticism of Rahul Gandhi, accusing him of fuelling disorder by casting doubt on how India holds its elections. At a Bhopal press conference, Madhya Pradesh BJP chief Hemant Khandelwal and national spokesperson Prem Shukla linked his rise to Congress's falling MLA numbers.
Shukla said Congress had 1,182 MLAs in 2008, when Gandhi became general secretary, but only 654 by 2024, when he became Leader of Opposition. He also said Gandhi has not shown proof of even one real instance of voters being wrongly removed.
BJP president J.P. Nadda has accused the Congress and Samajwadi Party of trying to weaken trust in the Election Commission. He made the remarks at a rally in Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh.
He likened Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav to pupils who fault their teachers for weak marks, saying the two only question the poll body after they lose elections.
On the 13 crore names the opposition calls deleted, Nadda said they are absent, shifted, duplicated or dead voters, not a deliberate attempt to strip anyone of their vote.
Rahul Gandhi has chosen Sangrur to open the Congress's campaign for Punjab's 2027 assembly election. He will address an Insaaf Rally there on Wednesday as the party takes on AAP in the Malwa belt.
Malwa's 69 seats are widely seen as key to power in Punjab. AAP won 66 of them in 2022, while Congress took Gidderbaha and Abohar and the SAD took Dakha.
Sangrur has also been in the news over drug-related issues, including the alleged suicide of a man from Toor Banjara village in Dirba who had publicly questioned a minister over drugs in his village.
Rahul Gandhi, speaking at a rally in Sangrur, Punjab, linked the 2022 killing of singer Sidhu Moosewala to rising gangster violence in the state. He also criticised the AAP government's record on policing and drugs.
He recalled meeting Moosewala, who had joined Congress, and said the singer's security had been cut the day before he was killed in Mansa in May 2022. Police have pinned the murder on the Lawrence Bishnoi gang and named Canada-based Goldy Brar as a central planner.
Gandhi questioned AAP's pledge to wipe out drugs and accused Home Minister Amit Shah of backing jailed gangsters.
Rahul Gandhi launched Congress's campaign for the Punjab polls, due in early 2027, at a Sangrur rally on November 4. He attacked the ruling AAP over drugs, asking which part of the state it has cleared of them.
Gandhi said Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann would smell of liquor by 11 am when he sat in Lok Sabha. He called drinking a personal matter, but said a chief minister fighting drugs can't be intoxicated every evening.
He also said Amit Shah and Arvind Kejriwal are really steering Punjab, with Mann a figurehead, and urged voters to back Congress.
In Photos: Kharge, Sonia And Rahul Gandhi At INDIA Bloc’s Mock Impeachment Of CEC Gyanesh Kumar
Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge, Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra joined INDIA bloc leaders in symbolic public impeachment proceedings against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar in New Delhi
Keep Rahul Gandhi as your 'mock Prime Minister' for life: BJP's swipe at opposition
The BJP on Saturday accused the INDIA bloc of making a mockery of Parliament and democracy after opposition leaders held a symbolic public impeachment of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. BJP leaders Sambit Patra and Sudhanshu Trivedi also targeted Rahul Gandhi over his criticism of the Election Commission and Indian economy, citing World Bank poverty data.
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