Sonia Gandhi pitches for collective leadership ahead of Karnataka Assembly bypolls
New Delhi, Oct 17: Ahead of the Assembly bypolls in Karnataka, Congress president Sonia Gandhi has asked the state unit to work under collective leadership and take dominant communities of the state into confidence, senior party leader S R Patil said on Thursday.
Patil, who met Gandhi at her residence here along with M C Venugopal, said he also discussed about the flood situation in details and about the forthcoming bypolls in 15 assembly constituencies in the state.
"The party chief advised us to work with collective leadership and take all major castes and communities into confidence," Patil told the media after the meeting.
She was referring to major communities, especially vokkaliga, lingayat and brahmin, he said.
Gandhi also advised the state leaders to shun personal ego and build a strong party in the state, he said.
She said the party should win in the coming by-elections in December, he added.
Patil thanked her for giving him the opportunity for the second time as the Leader of Opposition in Legislative Council of Karnataka.
The party had on October 9 appointed former Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah as the Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Legislative Assembly in the state while Patil was appointed as the LoP in the Legislative Council.
Siddaramaiah had on Wednesday met Gandhi in the national capital.
Patil attacked the BJP government in the state for the "delay" in providing flood relief and took a dig at state BJP president Naveen Kumar Kateel.
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Uttarakhand Assembly passes censure motion against opposition over women's reservation bill
Dehradun (PTI): The Uttarakhand Assembly passed a censure motion against the Congress and other opposition parties on Tuesday for allegedly blocking the passage of the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, 2026, in Parliament.
The motion, which expressed the House's formal disapproval of the opposition's conduct, triggered a massive uproar by Congress members, leading to the adjournment of the House sine die.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Subodh Uniyal moved the censure motion, citing the "uncooperative attitude" of opposition parties toward the bill seeking 33 per cent reservation for women in legislative bodies.
Addressing a special daylong session convened specifically to discuss "Nari Samman -- Rights in Democracy", Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said the bill's passage would have benefitted every political party.
Dhami noted that after delimitation, the number of Assembly seats in the hill state would have gone up to 105, with 35 reserved for women. He added that the number of Lok Sabha seats from Uttarakhand would have risen from five to seven or eight.
"The opposition fears that if women from ordinary households enter politics, the shops of dynastic politics run by certain parties will shut down," the chief minister claimed.
He compared the opposition's conduct in Parliament to the assembly in Mahabharat where Draupadi was insulted. Dhami further likened the opposition's behaviour to the "arrogance of Ravan".
The chief minister highlighted his government's initiatives, asserting that Uttarakhand was the first state to implement a Uniform Civil Code (UCC) to protect women's rights. He said the UCC freed Muslim women from practices like "halala", "iddat", polygamy and child marriage.
Leader of Opposition Yashpal Arya questioned the technical feasibility of the bill, calling the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) claims of providing reservation by 2029 "misleading".
He argued that the bill is linked to census and delimitation processes. The Congress leader said the 2026 census would conclude by 2027 and the final data publication would take two more years.
"The delimitation process will take another six years. The actual implementation of this bill is not possible before 2034," Arya said, describing the move as a strategy to protect the BJP's "political ground".
The session also saw high drama outside the Assembly gates, where Congress MLA Virendra Jati staged a protest, demanding the payment of "outstanding" dues to farmers by sugar mills.
Jati arrived at the Assembly's main gate with a tractor-trolley loaded with sugarcane and dumped it on the road. The move brought the traffic to a halt, prompting traffic and security personnel to intervene and clear the area.
Women Congress workers also staged a demonstration against the "anti-people policies" of the state government.
