The timing of the next Lok Sabha elections would be decided by the Congress and the BJP, and not the Samajwadi Party and the BSP. This became clear a day after the DMK quit the UPA and the Centre.

Division among political parties on bringing a resolution on the Sri Lankan Tamil issue in Parliament is clearly perceptible at least on Tuesday .This is at a time when the crisis managers of the gove

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Monday virtually disapproved the strategy of “offering” Parliament and Assembly seats to new entrants from other parties.

The pre-poll alliances in five states — West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Bihar — will be crucial and will decide who rules Delhi.

The Congress is watching developments in the BJP-led NDA, which has been shrinking and is thus unable to emerge as an alternate to the UPA for various reasons.

The Congress will be fighting the next Lok Sabha elections in alliance with the NCP, DMK, RLD, IUML and the Jammu and Kashmir National Conference in five states. However, it has yet to decide who could be its pre-poll allies in Bihar, West Bengal and Jharkhand.

The issue of alliances, early resolution of Telangana, growing role of regional parties and strategy to be adopted to check political opponents figured in the day-long meeting Congress vice-president

The BRP-Bahujan Mahas-angh leader Prakash Ambedkar is ready to go with the Congress in Maharashtra in the coming Lok Sabha elections.

The Congress’ strategy on alliances could become clear about six months before the Lok Sabha elections at a time when the BJP and other political parties are predicting early polls. While the saffron party has not been able to expand the NDA, a third alternative, popularly known as the third front, has yet to emerge.

Projection of caste leaders to check caste-based parties, check chief ministers emerging more powerful than the party and asking Union ministers to sit in the AICC headquarters here at least once a month. These were some of the suggestions made before Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi at a meeting of the AICC secretaries held here on Monday.