title: Money Heist

text: There have also been negative responses to the influence of the show. In numerous incidents, real heist men wore the show's red costumes and Dalì masks in their attacks or copied the fictional robbers' infiltration plans. The robbers' costumes were banned at the 2019 Limassol Carnival Festival as a security measure as a result. The series was used in an attack on YouTube, when hackers removed the most-played song in the platform's history, "Despacito", and left an image of the show instead. In unrelated reports, a journalist from Turkish TV channel AkitTV and an Ankaran politician have both warned against the show for supposedly encouraging terrorism and being "a dangerous symbol of rebellion".


title: Money Heist

text: Spanish newspaper "El Mundo" saw the public response as a reflection of the "climate of global disenchantment" where the robbers represent the "perfect antiheroes", and the "New Statesman" explained the show's resonance with international audiences as coming from the "social and economic tensions it depicts, and because of the utopian escape it offers." Viewer response was especially high in Mediterranean Europe and the Latin world, in particular Spain, Italy, France, Portugal, Brazil, Chile and Argentina, so Spanish as a common language did not appear to be a unifying reason for the show's success. Writer Javier Gómez Santander and actor Pedro Alonso (Berlin) rather argued that the Latin world used to feel at the periphery of global importance, but a new sentiment was coming that Spain could compete with the global players in terms of media production levels and give the rest of the world a voice.


title: Money Heist

text: Netflix partnered with "Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege" for an in-game event, where hostages on the Bank map, wore Money Heist outfits. Outfits for 2 in-game characters were purchasable and the music in the background during the heist, was Bella Ciao.


title: Money Heist

text: The series is one of two Spanish-language TV series to be featured in "TV Time"'s top 50 most followed TV shows ever, currently being the fifth most followed series on the platform.


title: Money Heist

text: The series' beginning on Antena 3 was received well by Spanish media. Nayín Costas of "El Confidencial" named the premiere a promising start that captivated viewers with "adrenaline, well-dosed touches of humor and a lot of tension," but considered it a challenge to maintain the dramatic tension for the remainder of the series. While considering the pilot's voice-over narration unnecessary and the sound editing and dialogs lacking, Natalia Marcos of "El País" enjoyed the show's ensemble cast and the ambition, saying "It is daring, brazen and entertaining, at least when it starts. Now we want more, which is not little." Reviewing the full first part, Marcos lauded the series for its outstanding direction, the musical selection and for trying to innovate Spanish television, but criticized the length and ebbing tension. At the end of the series' original run, Nayín Costas of "El Confidencial" commended the series for its "high quality closure" that may make the finale "one of the best episodes of the Spanish season", but regretted that it aimed to satisfy viewers with a predictable happy ending rather than risk to "do something different, original, ambitious", and that the show was unable to follow in the footsteps of Pina's "Locked Up".


title: Money Heist

text: After the show's move to Netflix for its international release, Adrian Hennigan of the Israeli "Haaretz" said the series was "more of a twisty thriller than soapy telenovela, driven by its ingenious plot, engaging characters, tense flash points, pulsating score and occasional moments of humor", but taunted the English title "Money Heist" as bland. In a scathing review, Pauline Bock of the British magazine "New Statesman" questioned the global hype of the series, saying that it was "full of plot holes, clichéd slow-motions, corny love stories and gratuitous sex scenes", before continuing to add that "the music is pompous, the voice-over irritating, and it's terribly edited". John Doyle of "The Globe and Mail" praised parts 1 and 2 for the heist genre subversions; he also said that the series could be "deliciously melodramatic at times" with "outrageous twists and much passion" like a telenovela. Jennifer Keishin Armstrong of the BBC saw the series' true appeal in the interpersonal dramas emerging through the heist between "the beautiful robbers, their beautiful hostages, and the beautiful authorities trying to negotiate with them." David Hugendick of "Die Zeit" found the series "sometimes a bit sentimental, a little cartoonesque," and the drama sometimes too telenovela-like, but "all with a good sense for timing and spectacle."


title: Money Heist

text: Review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes gave part 3 an approval rating of 100% based on 12 reviews, with an average rating of 7/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "An audacious plan told in a non-linear fashion keeps the third installment moving as "Money Heist" refocuses on the relations between its beloved characters." While lauding the technical achievements, Javier Zurro of "El Español" described the third part as "first-class entertainment" that was unable to transcend its roots and lacked novelty. He felt unaffected by the internal drama between the characters and specifically, disliked Tokyo's narration for its hollowness. Alex Jiménez of Spanish newspaper "ABC" found part 3 mostly succeeding in its attempts to reinvent the show and stay fresh. Euan Ferguson of "The Guardian" recommended watching part 3, as "it's still a glorious "Peaky Blinders", just with tapas and subtitles," while Pere Solà Gimferrer of "La Vanguardia" found that the number of plot holes in part 3 could only be endured with constant suspension of disbelief. Though entertained, Alfonso Rivadeneyra García of Peruvian newspaper "El Comercio" said the show does "what it does best: pretend to be the most intelligent boy in class when, in fact, it is only the cleverest."


title: Sarah Jessica Parker

text: Sarah Jessica Parker (born March 25, 1965) is an American actress and television producer. She is the recipient of numerous accolades, including six Golden Globe Awards and two Primetime Emmy Awards. "Time" magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2022.


title: Sarah Jessica Parker

text: She is known for her role as Carrie Bradshaw on the HBO television series "Sex and the City" (1998–2004), for which she won two Emmy Awards, four Golden Globe Awards for Best Actress in a Comedy Series and three Screen Actors Guild Awards. The character was widely popular during the airing of the series and was later recognized as one of the greatest female characters in American television. She later reprised the role in films "Sex and the City" (2008) and "Sex and the City 2" (2010), as well as the revival seasons of "And Just Like That..." (2021–present).


title: Sarah Jessica Parker

text: Parker made her Broadway debut at the age of 11 in the 1976 revival of "The Innocents", before going on to star in the title role of the Broadway musical "Annie" in 1979. She made her first major film appearances in the 1984 dramas "Footloose" and "Firstborn". Her other film roles include "L.A. Story" (1991), "Honeymoon in Vegas" (1992), "Hocus Pocus" (1993), "Ed Wood" (1994), "The First Wives Club" (1996), "The Family Stone" (2005), "Failure to Launch" (2006), "Did You Hear About the Morgans?" (2009), and "New Year's Eve" (2011).


title: Sarah Jessica Parker

text: In 2012, Parker returned to television for the first time since "Sex and the City", portraying Isabelle Wright in three episodes of the FOX series "Glee". She starred as Frances Dufresne in the HBO series "Divorce" (2016–2019), for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award. Since 2005, she has run her own production company, Pretty Matches, which has been creating content for HBO and other channels.


title: Sarah Jessica Parker

text: Sarah Jessica Parker was born in Nelsonville, Ohio, the daughter of Barbara Parker (née Keck), a nursery-school operator and teacher, and Stephen Parker, an entrepreneur and journalist. She was one of a total of eight children from her parents' marriage and her mother's second marriage; her full siblings include actors Timothy Britten Parker and Pippin Parker. Parker's parents divorced when she was years old, and her mother married Paul Forste, a truck driver and account executive. Stephen, a native of Brooklyn, is Jewish (from a family from Eastern Europe) and his family's original surname was "Bar-Kahn" ("son of Kohen"). Barbara is of German, and some English, descent. Parker has identified culturally with her father's faith, Judaism, although she has had no religious training. Parker's parents struggled to support their large family oftentimes the electricity could be shut off, or the family would have to forgo Christmases and birthdays for lack of money. Nonetheless, she has stated: "I wouldn't change any of it, for anything... for the most part, we had everything we needed. Not always, but for the most part." Parker's mother immersed her children in culture and extracurricular activities. She often took them to free public institutions like the ballet and the theater in Cincinnati, so that they lived "full, rich lives," emulating the New York artistic scene.


title: Sarah Jessica Parker

text: As a young girl, Parker trained in singing and ballet, and was soon cast in the Broadway revival of William Archibald's play "The Innocents". Her family moved to Cincinnati and then to Dobbs Ferry, New York, near New York City, so that she could get specialized training. There, her mother and stepfather helped Parker develop her career as a child actress. In 1977, the family moved to the newly opened planned community on Roosevelt Island, in the East River between Manhattan and Queens, and later to Manhattan. The family later moved to Englewood, New Jersey, where Parker attended Dwight Morrow High School.


title: Sarah Jessica Parker

text: Parker attended the School of American Ballet in New York City, the New York Professional Children's School, the School for Creative and Performing Arts in Cincinnati, and Hollywood High School in Los Angeles.


title: Sarah Jessica Parker

text: Parker and four siblings appeared in a production of "The Sound of Music" at the outdoor Municipal Theatre (Muny) in St. Louis, Missouri. She was selected for a role in the new 1977–81 Broadway musical "Annie": first in the small role of "July" and then succeeding Andrea McArdle and Shelley Bruce in the lead role of the Depression-era orphan, beginning March 1979. Parker held the role for a year. In 1982, Parker obtained the lead role of the CBS sitcom "Square Pegs", which lasted just one season. Her performance as a shy teen who showed hidden depths, nevertheless, was acclaimed by critics. In the three years that followed, Parker was cast in four films: the most significant being "Footloose" (1984) and "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" (1985), with Helen Hunt. In 1986, Parker appeared in "Flight of the Navigator", a Disney science fiction film.


title: Sarah Jessica Parker

text: In the romantic comedy "L.A. Story" (1991), Parker took on the role of a ditzy aspiring spokesmodel meeting a television meteorologist; both the film and her performance garnered positive reviews. She would star with Nicolas Cage, as the girlfriend of a commitment-phobe man, in the film "Honeymoon in Vegas" (1992), and play one in a villainous trio of witches in the Disney fantasy family comedy "Hocus Pocus" (1993), alongside Bette Midler and Kathy Najimy. "Honeymoon in Vegas" was a critical success, earning US$35m while "Hocus Pocus" rated average with reviewers and made US$39 million in the US, but became a cult film due to strong DVD sales and large television following. In 1993, she also starred as a police diver opposite Bruce Willis in the film "Striking Distance", and in 1994, she appeared opposite Johnny Depp in the critically acclaimed biographical drama "Ed Wood" as the titular character's girlfriend, Dolores Fuller. She headlined the romantic comedy "Miami Rhapsody" (1995), playing woman who has some misgivings about her fiancée and starred in the off-Broadway play "Sylvia", alongside future husband Matthew Broderick.


title: Sarah Jessica Parker

text: In 1996, she appeared in another Tim Burton-directed movie, "Mars Attacks!", in which she made part of a large ensemble cast consisting of Jack Nicholson, Glenn Close, Pierce Brosnan, among others, portraying a chat-show host whose head is transposed with that of her chihuahua by the invading aliens. The romantic comedy "The First Wives Club" saw Parker take on the role of a dim-witted but manipulative fiancée, and also reunite with "Hocus Pocus" collaborator Bette Midler. The film was a critical darling and a major commercial success, grossing US$105million at the North American box office, and it developed a cult following among middle-aged women. Her other 1996 release was "The Substance of Fire", in which she reprised her 1991 stage role. In 1997, Parker appeared as a washed-up former child actress in the little seen comedy "'Til There Was You".


title: Sarah Jessica Parker

text: The script for the HBO dramedy series "Sex and the City" was sent to Parker. Set in New York City and based on Candace Bushnell's 1997 book of the same name, the show follows the lives of a group of four women—three in their mid-thirties and one in her forties—who, despite their different natures and ever-changing sex lives, remain inseparable and confide in each other. Its creator Darren Star wanted her for the project, and despite some doubts about being cast in a long-term television series, Parker agreed to star. Her role was that of Carrie Bradshaw, the narrator and main protagonist, with each episode structured around her train of thought while writing her weekly column "Sex and the City" for the fictitious paper, the "New York Star". Response towards her performance was positive during the show's run and in the years immediately thereafter. Her character was widely popular during the airing of the series and was later recognized as one of the greatest female characters in American television. In 2009, "The Guardian" named Bradshaw as an icon of the decade, saying "Carrie Bradshaw did as much to shift the culture around certain women's issues as real-life female groundbreakers." Parker received two Emmy Awards, three Screen Actors Guild Awards, and four Golden Globe Awards for her performance.


title: Sarah Jessica Parker

text: In late 2005, Parker reunited with "First Wives Club" co-star Diane Keaton for her first film in years, the seasonal family dramedy "The Family Stone", in which she played an uptight, contemporary New York City career woman. James Berardinelli, in his review, wrote: "The talented cast helps. Sarah Jessica Parker, finding that there is life after "Sex in the City", has no difficulty with [her role]'s arc. Of all the characters in the movie, she undergoes the biggest transformation, and Parker aces it". Budgeted at US$18 million, it was a commercial success, grossing over US$92 million worldwide. For her role, she received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress Comedy. Her next film was the romantic comedy "Failure to Launch", starring with Matthew McConaughey as an interventionist hired to get a 35-year-old man out of the home of his parents. It was released on March 10, 2006, and opened atop in the North American box office, grossing over US$24 million on its opening weekend, despite negative reviews. Her work as a producer continued with her next starring vehicle, the independent drama "Spinning into Butter" (2007), based on the Rebecca Gilman play. The film "Smart People" (2008) premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and saw Parker portray a sympathetic doctor, opposite Dennis Quaid and Elliot Page.


title: Sarah Jessica Parker

text: Following the end of "Sex and the City", rumors of a film version circulated, until preparations for a production were resumed in 2007, and the film was released on May 30, 2008. A sequel "Sex and the City 2", was released in 2010. Despite lukewarm critical responses, both films were commercially successful. In the interim, Parker teamed up with Hugh Grant for the romantic comedy "Did You Hear About the Morgans?" (2009), playing a recently separated New York power couple on the verge of divorce until they witness the murder of a man. While the film was a moderate commercial success, Parker received a Razzie Award nomination for Worst Actress, and Roger Ebert, panning the film, noted: "I grant you Hugh Grant and Sarah Jessica Parker evoke charm in the right screenplay. This is the wrong screenplay". In 2011, Parker starred in "I Don't Know How She Does It", described by critics as "[a] limp comedy with a hopelessly outdated viewpoint on gender, featuring Sarah Jessica Parker in rote Carrie-mode", and also made part of a large ensemble cast in Garry Marshall's romantic comedy "New Year's Eve" (2011), which made US$142 million worldwide. For "Sex and the City 2" and her 2011 roles, she garnered nominations for the Razzie Award for Worst Actress.


title: Sarah Jessica Parker

text: Parker guest-starred on season 4 of FOX musical comedy series "Glee" as Isabelle Wright, a Vogue executive who takes Kurt Hummel under her wing after he graduates and moves to New York. "Vulture", on one of its recaps of "Glee", remarked: "[C]haracters who are big-eyed but a little broken inside and desperately in love with New York are what Sarah Jessica Parker does best. I don't think her stint on "Glee" will revolutionize the show or her career or anything, but she's absolutely an asset, and I'm glad she's onboard". In 2013, Parker provided her voice for one of the characters of the animated film "Escape from Planet Earth", and played Gloria Steinem in deleted scenes of the biographical drama "Lovelace". In 2015, she starred in the independent romantic comedy "All Roads Lead to Rome", as an American journalist revisiting Italy with her rebellious daughter.


title: Sarah Jessica Parker

text: Beginning in late-2016, Parker executive produced and starred in the HBO dramedy series "Divorce", as Frances Dufresne, a married woman who has an affair which precipitates her divorce. Drawn to the "complexity and promise" of the story she was also intrigued by the doubtful likability of her character, remarking: "I like that Frances is very real to me. She's both honorable and messy. She's both exacting and untethered, but I think she's a very real person." The series ran for three seasons and earned acclaim from critics; "The A.V. Club" noted: "Parker's gift, even on "Sex and the City", has always been a well-timed comeback or a reaction shot. [Her character] is not a reboot of Carrie Bradshaw, but she doesn't exactly force the actor to stray from her comfort zone, either. That's not necessarily a bad thing: It's a pleasure to see her back, shaking her head at just the right moment". For her role, she earned a Golden Globe nomination.


title: Sarah Jessica Parker

text: In 2018, Parker headlined and produced the independent drama "Here and Now", playing a New York City singer who gets a life-changing medical diagnosis.


title: Sarah Jessica Parker

text: In February 2020, Parker and her husband, Broderick, starred in a revival of Neil Simon's "Plaza Suite" at Boston's Colonial Theatre for two weeks. Previews at the Hudson Theatre had been set for March 2020 and its official debut was scheduled for April 2020, but this was later postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. After several delays, the previews are now expected to begin on February 28, 2022, with its official debut set for March 28, 2022.


title: Sarah Jessica Parker

text: "And Just Like That...", the "Sex and the City" reboot, was confirmed by HBO Max in January 2021. The first series premiered on December 9, 2021.


title: Sarah Jessica Parker

text: In 2000, Parker hosted the MTV Movie Awards, appearing in fourteen different outfits during the show. She has also become the face of many of the world's biggest fashion brands through her work in a variety of advertising campaigns. In August 2003, Parker signed a lucrative deal with Garnier to appear in TV and print advertising promoting their Nutrisse hair products.


title: Sarah Jessica Parker

text: In early 2004, shortly after the last season of "Sex and the City" wrapped up, Parker signed a $38 million contract with the Gap. It was the first multi-season contract in the clothing company's history, in which Parker was to appear in their upcoming fall ads, and continue until the Spring of 2005. The endorsement sparked many levels of criticism from the public; the glamorous, urban-chic fashionista that her character Carrie Bradshaw has branded her with, was ironic considering the Gap maintains an image that does not promote high-end fashion. Wendy Liebmann, president of WSL strategic retail, suggested that the Gap "felt the need for an iconic but contemporary face to represent [themselves]. They were perhaps feeling a little insecure, a little in need of some high luster around the brand". However, the ad campaigns were a success, and Parker had given the Gap a new, fresh face that appeared in many commercials, online and print ads, and other promotions.


title: Sarah Jessica Parker

text: In March 2005, Parker's contract with the Gap ended, and was replaced with then 17-year-old British soul singer Joss Stone. A rising star at the time, Stone's replacing of Parker was a puzzling move to the public. The company then stated that "While Gap will always seek partnerships with celebrities, musicians and rising stars, we don't have any future plans to sign a single person to a multi-season deal like the unique and special relationship we enjoyed with Sarah Jessica".


title: Sarah Jessica Parker

text: Parker released her own perfume in 2005, called Lovely. In March 2007, Parker announced the launch of her own fashion line, "Bitten", in partnership with discount clothing chain Steve & Barry's. The line, featuring clothing items and accessories under $20, launched on June 7, 2007, exclusively at Steve and Barry's. In July 2007, following the success of Lovely, Parker released her second fragrance, Covet. In 2007, Parker was a guest on "Project Runway" for the second challenge. In 2008, Covet Pure Bloom was released as continuous series of Covet. In February 2009, as part of the Lovely collection, Parker launched a series of three new fragrances called Dawn, Endless, and Twilight.


title: Sarah Jessica Parker

text: On February 28, 2014, Parker started the SJP Collection, a footwear line, at Nordstrom. She Instagrammed herself overstepping the chain residents on 66 Perry Street put up to prevent overcrowding and unwanted visits to the now-famous address to promote the line, angering neighbors. In June 2015, she was named the new spokesmodel for Jordache Jeans. In April 2018, Parker partnered with Gilt to launch her ready-to-wear bridal collection for modern nontraditional brides.


title: Sarah Jessica Parker

text: Parker runs her own production company, Pretty Matches, which has been creating content for HBO and other channels since 2009. She founded the company in 2005 with Alison Benson, following an introduction to Benson, from her agent Kevin Huvane. Through Pretty Matches, Parker has produced the series "Divorce" (2016–2019) and the film "Here and Now" (2018). Together, Benson and Parker have dedicated towards increasing female representation in media and production work through the company's projects.


title: Sarah Jessica Parker

text: In October 2016, Parker announced an imprint with Crown Publishing Group, SJP for Hogarth, and in 2017, her partnership with American Library Association (ALA) to create Book Club Central, a new online platform that will provide reading resources, including recommendations, expert-curated book lists, and other content for book clubs and readers.


title: Sarah Jessica Parker

text: In 2019, Parker entered into a collaboration partnership with New Zealand Winery Invivo & Co to produce a range of wines. Together each year they produce a vintage, award-winning Invivo X, Sarah Jessica Parker Sauvignon Blanc, from Marlborough New Zealand; and the Invivo X, Sarah Jessica Parker Rosé from Provence.


title: Sarah Jessica Parker

text: Parker was in a relationship with actor Robert Downey Jr. from 1984 until 1991. They met on the set of "Firstborn". Downey had a drug problem, which affected their relationship. Parker has said, "I believed I was the person holding him together." She later briefly dated John F. Kennedy Jr.


title: Sarah Jessica Parker

text: Parker married actor Matthew Broderick on May 19, 1997, in Manhattan's Lower East Side, in an Episcopal ceremony officiated by Broderick's sister, Janet Broderick Kraft. The couple had been introduced by one of Parker's brothers at the Naked Angels theater company, where Parker and Broderick both performed. The couple married in a civil ceremony in a historic synagogue on the Lower East Side in Manhattan. Their son James was born October 28, 2002. Parker and Broderick's twin daughters, Marion and Tabitha, were born June 22, 2009, via surrogacy. Their respective middle names, Elwell and Hodge, are from Parker's mother's family, which Parker discovered while researching her ancestry for the first episode of "Who Do You Think You Are?", which originally aired March 5, 2010. In the appearance she also discovered she had ancestors involved in the California Gold Rush of 1849–1850 and in the Salem witch trials of 1692.


title: Sarah Jessica Parker

text: Since 2009, Parker has lived in Greenwich Village with her husband and children. In 2017, it was reported that the couple was combining two townhouses they had purchased for $35 million on West 11th Street in 2016, with renovations continuing into 2019. The family also spends considerable time at their second home near Kilcar, a village in County Donegal, Ireland, where Broderick spent summers as a child.


title: Sarah Jessica Parker

text: She received ten Emmy Award nominations, all for "Sex and the City", winning Outstanding Comedy Series (as producer) in 2001 and Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series in 2004. She also received nine Golden Globe nominations, with four wins (all for "Sex and the City") in 2000, 2001, 2002 & 2004. While Carrie Bradshaw remains Parker's most famous role, some of her critically acclaimed and commercially successful films are:


title: Indian National Congress

text: The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British Empire in Asia and Africa. From the late 19th century, and especially after 1920, under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi, the Congress became the principal leader of the Indian independence movement. The Congress led India to independence from the United Kingdom, and significantly influenced other anti-colonial nationalist movements in the British Empire.


title: Indian National Congress

text: Congress is one of the two major political parties in India, along with its main rival the Bharatiya Janata Party. It is a "big tent" party whose platform is generally considered to lie in the centre of Indian politics. After Indian independence in 1947, Congress emerged as a catch-all and religion-neutral party, dominating Indian politics for the next 20 years. The party's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, led the Congress to support socialist policies by creating the Planning Commission, introducing Five-Year Plans, implementing a mixed economy, and establishing a secular state. After Nehru's death and the short tenure of Lal Bahadur Shastri, Indira Gandhi became the leader of the party.


title: Indian National Congress

text: In 1969, the party suffered a major split, with a faction led by Indira Gandhi leaving to form the Congress (R), with the remainder becoming the Congress (O). The Congress (R) became the dominant faction, winning the 1971 general election with a huge margin. However, another split occurred in 1979, leading to the creation of the Congress (I), which was recognized as the Congress by the Electoral Commission in 1981. Under Rajiv Gandhi's leadership, the party won a massive victory in the 1984 general elections, nevertheless losing the election held in 1989 to the National Front. The Congress then returned to power under P. V. Narasimha Rao, who moved the party towards an economically liberal agenda, a sharp break from previous leaders. However, it lost the 1996 general election and was replaced in government by the National Front (then the BJP). After a record eight years out of office, the Congress-led coalition known as the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) under Manmohan Singh formed a government post-winning 2004 general elections. Subsequently, the UPA again formed the government after winning the 2009 general elections, and Singh became the first Prime Minister since Nehru in 1962 to be re-elected after completing a full five-year term. However, in the 2014 general election, the Congress suffered a heavy defeat, winning only 48 seats of the 543-member Lok Sabha (the lower house of the Parliament of India). In the 2019 general election, the party again suffered a heavy defeat, winning only 52 seats in the Lok Sabha.


title: Indian National Congress

text: In the 17 general elections since independence, it has won an outright majority on seven occasions and has led the ruling coalition a further three times, heading the central government for more than 54 years. There have been six Prime Ministers from the Congress party, the first being Nehru (1947–1964), and the most recent Manmohan Singh (2004–2014).


title: Indian National Congress

text: On social issues, it advocates secular policies that encourage equal opportunity, right to health, civil liberty, and support mixed economy, and a strong welfare state. Being a centrist party, its policies predominantly reflected balanced positions including secularism, egalitarianism, and social stratification. The INC supports contemporary economic reforms such as liberalisation, privatisation and globalization. A total of 61 people have served as the president of the INC since its formation. Sonia Gandhi is the longest-serving president of the party, having held office for over twenty years from 1998 to 2017 and again from 2019 till 2022. The district party is the smallest functional unit of Congress. There is also a Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC), present at the state level in every state. Together, the delegates from the districts and PCCs form the All India Congress Committee (AICC). The party is also organized into several committees and sections, such as the Congress Working Committee (CWC).


title: Indian National Congress

text: The Indian National Congress conducted its first session in Bombay from 28 to 31 December 1885 at the initiative of retired Civil Service officer Allan Octavian Hume. In 1883, Hume had outlined his idea for a body representing Indian interests in an open letter to graduates of the University of Calcutta. It aimed to obtain a greater share in government for educated Indians and to create a platform for civic and political dialogue between them and the British Raj. Hume took the initiative, and in March 1885 a notice convening the first meeting of the Indian National Union to be held in Poona the following December was issued. However due to a cholera outbreak there, it was moved to Bombay.


title: Indian National Congress

text: Hume organized the first meeting in Bombay with the approval of the Viceroy Lord Dufferin. Umesh Chandra Banerjee was the first president of Congress; the first session was attended by 72 delegates, representing each province of India. Notable representatives included Scottish ICS officer William Wedderburn, Dadabhai Naoroji, Pherozeshah Mehta of the Bombay Presidency Association, Ganesh Vasudeo Joshi of the Poona Sarvajanik Sabha, social reformer and newspaper editor Gopal Ganesh Agarkar, Justice K. T. Telang, N. G. Chandavarkar, Dinshaw Wacha, Behramji Malabari, journalist, and activist Gooty Kesava Pillai, and P. Rangaiah Naidu of the Madras Mahajana Sabha. This small elite group, unrepresentative of the Indian masses at the time, functioned more as a stage for elite Indian ambitions than a political party for the first decade of its existence.


title: Indian National Congress

text: At the beginning of the 20th century, Congress' demands became more radical in the face of constant opposition from the British government, and the party decided to advocate in favour of the independence movement because it would allow a new political system in which Congress could be a major party. By 1905, a division opened between the moderates led by Gokhale, who downplayed public agitation, and the new extremists who advocated agitation, and regarded the pursuit of social reform as a distraction from nationalism. Bal Gangadhar Tilak, who tried to mobilise Hindu Indians by appealing to an explicitly Hindu political identity displayed in the annual public Ganapati festivals he inaugurated in western India, was prominent among the extremists.


title: Indian National Congress

text: Congress included several prominent political figures. Dadabhai Naoroji, a member of the sister Indian National Association, was elected president of the party in 1886 and was the first Indian Member of Parliament in the British House of Commons (1892–1895). Congress also included Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Bipin Chandra Pal, Lala Lajpat Rai, Gopal Krishna Gokhale, and Mohammed Ali Jinnah. Jinnah was a member of the moderate group in the Congress, favouring Hindu–Muslim unity in achieving self-government. Later he became the leader of the Muslim League and instrumental in the creation of Pakistan. Congress was transformed into a mass movement by Surendranath Banerjee during the partition of Bengal in 1905, and the resultant Swadeshi movement.


title: Indian National Congress

text: Mahatma Gandhi returned from South Africa in 1915. His efforts in South Africa were well known not only among the educated but also among the masses. During 1917 and 1918, Mahatma Gandhi was involved in three struggles– known as Champaran Satyagraha, Ahmedabad Mill Strike and Kheda Satyagraha. After the First World War, the party became associated with Gandhi, who remained its unofficial spiritual leader and icon. He formed an alliance with the Khilafat Movement in 1920 to fight for preservation of the Ottoman Caliphate, and rights for Indians using civil disobedience or as the tool for agitation. In 1923, after the deaths of policemen at Chauri Chaura, Gandhi suspended the agitation.


title: Indian National Congress

text: With the help of the moderate group led by Gokhale, in 1924 Gandhi became president of Congress. The rise of Gandhi's popularity and his "satyagraha" art of revolution led to support from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Rajendra Prasad, Khan Mohammad Abbas Khan, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, Chakravarti Rajgopalachari, Anugrah Narayan Sinha, Jayaprakash Narayan, Jivatram Kripalani, and Maulana Abul Kalam Azad. As a result of prevailing nationalism, Gandhi's popularity, and the party's attempts at eradicating caste differences, untouchability, poverty, and religious and ethnic divisions, Congress became a forceful and dominant group. Although its members were predominantly Hindu, it had members from other religions, economic classes, and ethnic and linguistic groups.


title: Indian National Congress

text: At the Congress 1929 Lahore session under the presidency of Jawaharlal Nehru, (complete independence) was declared as the party's goal, declaring 26 January 1930 as (Independence Day). The same year, Srinivas Iyenger was expelled from the party for demanding full independence, not just home rule as demanded by Gandhi.


title: Indian National Congress

text: After the passage of the Government of India Act 1935, provincial elections were held in India in the winter of 1936–37 in eleven provinces: Madras, Central Provinces, Bihar, Orissa, United Provinces, Bombay Presidency, Assam, NWFP, Bengal, Punjab, and Sindh. The final results of the elections were declared in February 1937. The Indian National Congress gained power in eight of them – the three exceptions being Bengal, Punjab, and Sindh. The All-India Muslim League failed to form a Government in any Province. Congress Ministers Resigned in October and November 1939 in Protest against Viceroy Lord Linlithgow's declaration that India was a belligerent in the Second World War without consulting the Indian people.


title: Indian National Congress

text: In 1939, Subhas Chandra Bose, the elected President of India in both 1938 and 1939, resigned from Congress over the selection of the working committee. Congress was an umbrella organisation, sheltering radical socialists, traditionalists, and Hindu and Muslim conservatives. Mahatma Gandhi expelled all the socialist groupings, including the Congress Socialist Party, the Krishak Praja Party, and the Swaraj Party, along with Subhas Chandra Bose, in 1939.


title: Indian National Congress

text: In 1946, the British tried the Indian soldiers who had fought alongside the Japanese during World War II in the INA trials. In response, Congress helped form the INA Defence Committee, which assembled a legal team to defend the case of the soldiers of the Azad Hind government. The team included several famous lawyers, including Bhulabhai Desai, Asaf Ali, and Jawaharlal Nehru. The same year, Congress members initially supported the sailors who led the Royal Indian Navy mutiny, but they withdrew support at a critical juncture and the mutiny failed.


title: Indian National Congress

text: After Indian independence in 1947, the Indian National Congress became the dominant political party in the country. In 1952, in the first general election held after Independence, the party swept to power in the national parliament and most state legislatures. It held power nationally until 1977 when it was defeated by the Janata coalition. It returned to power in 1980 and ruled until 1989 when it was once again defeated. The party formed the government in 1991 at the head of a coalition, as well as in 2004 and 2009 when it led the United Progressive Alliance. During this period the Congress remained centre-left in its social policies while steadily shifting from a socialist to a neoliberal economic outlook. The Party's rivals at state level have been national parties including the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPIM), and various regional parties, such as the Telugu Desam Party, Trinamool Congress and Aam Aadmi Party.


title: Indian National Congress

text: A post-partition successor to the party survived as the Pakistan National Congress, a party which represented the rights of religious minorities in the state. The party's support was strongest in the Bengali-speaking province of East Pakistan. After the Bangladeshi War of Independence, it became known as the Bangladeshi National Congress, but was dissolved in 1975 by the government.


title: Indian National Congress

text: From 1951 until his death in 1964, Jawaharlal Nehru was the paramount leader of the party. Congress gained power in landslide victories in the general elections of 1951–52, 1957, and 1962. During his tenure, Nehru implemented policies based on import substitution industrialisation, and advocated a mixed economy where the government-controlled public sector co-existed with the private sector. He believed the establishment of basic and heavy industries was fundamental to the development and modernisation of the Indian economy. The Nehru government directed investment primarily into key public sector industries—steel, iron, coal, and power—promoting their development with subsidies and protectionist policies. Nehru embraced secularism, socialistic economic practices based on state-driven industrialisation, and a non-aligned and non-confrontational foreign policy that became typical of the modern Congress Party. The policy of non-alignment during the Cold War meant Nehru received financial and technical support from both the Eastern and Western Blocs to build India's industrial base from nothing.


title: Indian National Congress

text: During his period in office, there were four known assassination attempts on Nehru. The first attempt on his life was during partition in 1947 while he was visiting the North-West Frontier Province in a car. The second was by a knife-wielding rickshaw-puller in Maharashtra in 1955. A third attempt happened in Bombay in 1956. The fourth was a failed bombing attempt on railway tracks in Maharashtra in 1961. Despite threats to his life, Nehru despised having excess security personnel around him and did not like his movements to disrupt traffic. K. Kamaraj became the president of the All India Congress Committee in 1963 during the last year of Nehru's life. Prior to that, he had been the chief minister of Madras state for nine years. Kamaraj had also been a member of "the syndicate", a group of right wing leaders within Congress. In 1963 the Congress lost popularity following the defeat in the Indo-Chinese war of 1962. To revitalise the party, Kamaraj proposed the Kamaraj Plan to Nehru that encouraged six Congress chief ministers (including himself) and six senior cabinet ministers to resign to take up party work.


title: Indian National Congress

text: In 1964, Nehru died because of an aortic dissection, raising questions about the party's future. Following the death of Nehru, Gulzarilal Nanda was appointed as the interim Prime Minister on 27 May 1964, pending the election of a new parliamentary leader of the Congress party who would then become Prime Minister. During the leadership contest to succeed Nehru, the preference was between Morarji Desai and Lal Bahadur Shashtri. Eventually, Shashtri was selected as the next parliamentary leader thus the Prime Minister. Kamaraj was widely credited as the "kingmaker" in for ensuring the victory of Lal Bahadur Shastri over Morarji Desai.


title: Indian National Congress

text: As prime minister, Shastri retained most of members of Nehru's Council of Ministers; T. T. Krishnamachari was retained as Finance Minister of India, as was Defence Minister Yashwantrao Chavan. Shastri appointed Swaran Singh to succeed him as External Affairs Minister. Shastri appointed Indira Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru's daughter and former party president, Minister of Information and Broadcasting. Gulzarilal Nanda continued as the Minister of Home Affairs. As Prime Minister, Shastri continued Nehru's policy of non-alignment, but built closer relations with the Soviet Union. In the aftermath of the Sino-Indian War of 1962, and the formation of military ties between China and Pakistan, Shastri's government expanded the defence budget of India's armed forces. He also promoted the White Revolution—a national campaign to increase the production and supply of milk by creating the National Dairy Development Board. The Madras anti-Hindi agitation of 1965 occurred during Shastri's tenure.


title: Indian National Congress

text: Shastri became a national hero following victory in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965. His slogan, "Jai Jawan Jai Kisan" ("Hail the soldier, Hail the farmer"), became very popular during the war. On 11 January 1966, a day after signing the Tashkent Declaration, Shastri died in Tashkent, reportedly of a heart attack; but the circumstances of his death remain mysterious. After Shastri's death, Congress elected Indira Gandhi as leader over Morarji Desai. Once again, K. Kamaraj was instrumental in achieving this result. The differences among the top leadership of the Congress regarding the future of the party during resulted in the formation of several breakaway parties such as Orissa Jana Congress, Bangla Congress, Utkal Congress, and, Bharatiya Kranti Dal.


title: Indian National Congress

text: In 1967, following a poor performance in the 1967 Indian general election, Indira Gandhi started moving toward the political left. In mid-1969, she was involved in a dispute with senior party leaders on several issues. Notably — Her support for the independent candidate, V. V. Giri, rather than the official Congress party candidate, Neelam Sanjiva Reddy, for the vacant post of the president of India and Gandhi's abrupt nationalisation of the 14 biggest banks in India. Later in the year, the Congress party president, S. Nijalingappa, expelled her from the party for indiscipline. Mrs. Gandhi as a counter-move launched her own faction of the INC. It was also known as Congress (R). The original party then came to be known as Indian National Congress (O). Its principal leaders were Kamraj, Morarji Desai, Nijalingappa and S. K. Patil who stood for a more right-wing agenda. The split occurred when a united opposition under the banner of Samyukt Vidhayak Dal, won control over several states in the Hindi Belt. Indira Gandhi, on the other side, wanted to use a populist agenda in order to mobilise popular support for the party. Her faction, called Congress (R), was supported by most of the Congress MPs while the original party had the support of only 65 MPs. In the All India Congress Committee, 446 of its 705 members walked over to Indira's side. This created a belief among Indians that Indira's Congress was the Real Congress (INC-R). The "Old Congress" retained the party symbol of a pair of bullocks carrying a yoke while Indira's breakaway faction was given a new symbol of a cow with a suckling calf by the Election Commission as the party election symbol.


title: Indian National Congress

text: In the mid-term parliamentary elections held in 1971, the Gandhi-led Congress (R) won a landslide victory on a platform of progressive policies such as the elimination of poverty (). The policies of the Congress (R) under Gandhi before the 1971 elections included proposals to abolish the Privy Purse to former rulers of the Princely states, and the 1969 nationalisation of India's 14 largest banks. The 1969 attempt by Indira Gandhi government to abolish privy purse and the official recognition of the titles did not meet with success. The constitutional Amendment bill to this effect was passed in Lok Sabha, but it failed to get the required two-thirds majority in the Rajya Sabha. However, in 1971, with the passage of the Twenty-sixth Amendment to the Constitution of India, the privy purses were abolished.


title: Indian National Congress

text: Due to Sino-Indian War 1962, India faced a huge budgetary deficit resulting in its treasury being almost empty, high inflation, and dwindling forex reserves. The brief War of 1962 exposed weaknesses in the economy and shifted the focus towards the defence industry and the Indian Army. The government found itself short of resources to fund the Third Plan (1961–1966). Subhadra Joshi a senior party member, proposed a non-official resolution asking for the nationalisation of private banks stating that nationalisation would help in mobilising resources for development. In July 1969, Indira Gandhi through the ordinance nationalised fourteen major private banks. After being re-elected in 1971 on a campaign that endorsed nationalisation, Indira Gandhi went on to nationalise the coal, steel, copper, refining, cotton textiles and insurance industries. The main reason was to protect employment and the interest of the organised labour.


title: Indian National Congress

text: On 12 June 1975, the High Court of Allahabad declared Indira Gandhi's election to the Lok Sabha, the lower house of India's parliament, void on the grounds of electoral malpractice. However, Gandhi rejected calls to resign and announced plans to appeal to the Supreme Court. In response to increasing disorder and lawlessness, Gandhi's ministry recommended that President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed declare a State of Emergency, based on the provisions of Article 352 of the Constitution. During the nineteen-month emergency, widespread oppression and abuse of power by Gandhi's unelected younger son and political heir Sanjay Gandhi and his close associates occurred. Implemented on 25 June 1975, the Emergency officially ended on 23 March 1977. All political prisoners were released and fresh elections for the Lok Sabha were called. In parliamentary elections held in March, the Janata alliance of anti-Indira opposition parties won a landslide victory over Congress, winning 295 seats in the Lok Sabha against Congress' 153. Gandhi lost her seat to her Janata opponent Raj Narain. On 2 January 1978, she and her followers seceded and formed a new opposition party, popularly called Congress (I)—the "I" signifying Indira. During the next year, her new party attracted enough members of the legislature to become the official opposition. In November 1978, Gandhi regained a parliamentary seat. In January 1980, following a landslide victory for Congress (I), she was again elected prime minister. The national election commission declared Congress (I) to be the real Indian National Congress for the 1984 general election. However, the designation I was dropped only in 1996.


title: Indian National Congress

text: Gandhi's premiership witnessed increasing turmoil in Punjab, with demands for Sikh autonomy by Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and his militant followers. In 1983, Bhindranwale with his armed followers headquartered themselves in the Golden Temple in Amritsar and started accumulating weapons. In June 1984, after several futile negotiations, Gandhi ordered the Indian Army to enter the Golden Temple to establish control over the complex and remove Bhindranwale and his armed followers. This event is known as Operation Blue Star. On 31 October 1984, two of Gandhi's bodyguards, Satwant Singh and Beant Singh, shot her with their service weapons in the garden of the prime minister's residence in response to her authorisation of Operation Blue Star. Gandhi was due to be interviewed by British actor Peter Ustinov, who was filming a documentary for Irish television. Her assassination prompted the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, during which 3,000–17,000 people were killed.


title: Indian National Congress

text: In 1984, Indira Gandhi's son Rajiv Gandhi became nominal head of Congress, and went on to become prime minister upon her assassination. In December, he led Congress to a landslide victory, where it secured 401 seats in the legislature. His administration took measures to reform the government bureaucracy and liberalise the country's economy. Rajiv Gandhi's attempts to discourage separatist movements in Punjab and Kashmir backfired. After his government became embroiled in several financial scandals, his leadership became increasingly ineffectual. Gandhi was regarded as a non-abrasive person who consulted other party members and refrained from hasty decisions. The Bofors scandal damaged his reputation as an honest politician, but he was posthumously cleared of bribery allegations in 2004. On 21 May 1991, Gandhi was killed by a bomb concealed in a basket of flowers carried by a woman associated with the Tamil Tigers. He was campaigning in Tamil Nadu for upcoming parliamentary elections. In 1998, an Indian court convicted 26 people in the conspiracy to assassinate Gandhi. The conspirators, who consisted of Tamil militants from Sri Lanka and their Indian allies, had sought revenge against Gandhi because the Indian troops he sent to Sri Lanka in 1987 to help enforce a peace accord there had fought with Tamil Militant guerrillas.


title: Indian National Congress

text: Rajiv Gandhi was succeeded as party leader by P. V. Narasimha Rao, who was elected prime minister in June 1991. His rise to the prime ministership was politically significant because he was the first holder of the office from South India. After the election, he formed minority government. Rao himself not contested elections in 1991, but after he was sworn in a prime minister, he won in a by-election from Nandyal in Andhra Pradesh. His administration oversaw major economic change and experienced several home incidents that affected India's national security. Rao, who held the Industries portfolio, was personally responsible for the dismantling of the Licence Raj, which came under the purview of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. He is often called the "father of Indian economic reforms".


title: Indian National Congress

text: Future prime ministers Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh continued the economic reform policies begun by Rao's government. Rao accelerated the dismantling of the Licence Raj, reversing the socialist policies of previous governments. He employed Manmohan Singh as his finance minister to begin a historic economic change. With Rao's mandate, Singh launched India's globalisation reforms that involved implementing International Monetary Fund (IMF) policies to prevent India's impending economic collapse. Rao was also referred to as "Chanakya" for his ability to push tough economic and political legislation through the parliament while he headed a minority government.


title: Indian National Congress

text: By 1996, the party's image was suffering from allegations of corruption, and in elections that year, Congress was reduced to 140 seats, its lowest number in the Lok Sabha to that point. Rao later resigned as prime minister and, in September, as party president. He was succeeded as president by Sitaram Kesri, the party's first non-Brahmin leader. During the tenure of both Rao and Kesri, the two leaders conducted internal elections to the Congress working committees and their own posts as party presidents.


title: Indian National Congress

text: The 1998 general elections saw Congress win 141 seats in the Lok Sabha, its lowest tally until then. To boost its popularity and improve its performance in the forthcoming election, Congress leaders urged Sonia Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi's widow, to assume leadership of the party. She had previously declined offers to become actively involved in party affairs and had stayed away from politics. After her election as party leader, a section of the party that objected to the choice because of her Italian ethnicity broke away and formed the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), led by Sharad Pawar.


title: Indian National Congress

text: Sonia Gandhi struggled to revive the party in her early years as its president; she was under continuous scrutiny for her foreign birth and lack of political acumen. In the snap elections called by the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government in 1999, Congress' tally further plummeted to just 114 seats. Although the leadership structure was unaltered as the party campaigned strongly in the assembly elections that followed, Gandhi began to make such strategic changes as abandoning the party's 1998 Pachmarhi resolution of "ekla chalo" (go it alone) policy, and formed alliances with other like-minded parties. In the intervening years, the party was successful at various legislative assembly elections; at one point, Congress ruled 15 states. For the 2004 general election, Congress forged alliances with regional parties including the NCP and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam. The party's campaign emphasised social inclusion and the welfare of the common massesan ideology that Gandhi herself endorsed for Congress during her presidencywith slogans such as ("Congress hand in hand with the common man"), contrasting with the NDA's "India Shining" campaign. The Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) won 222 seats in the new parliament, defeating the NDA by a substantial margin. With the subsequent support of the communist front, Congress won a majority and formed a new government. Despite massive support from within the party, Gandhi declined the post of prime minister, choosing to appoint Manmohan Singh instead. She remained as party president and headed the National Advisory Council (NAC).


title: Indian National Congress

text: During its first term in office, the UPA government passed several social reform bills. These included an employment guarantee bill, the Right to Information Act, and a right to education act. The NAC, as well as the Left Front that supported the government from the outside, were widely seen as being the driving force behind such legislation. The Left Front withdrew its support of the government over disagreements about the U.S.–India Civil Nuclear Agreement. Despite the effective loss of 62 seats in parliament, the government survived the trust vote that followed. In the Lok Sabha elections held soon after, Congress won 207 seats, the highest tally of any party since 1991. The UPA as a whole won 262, enabling it to form a government for the second time. The social welfare policies of the first UPA government, and the perceived divisiveness of the BJP, are broadly credited with the victory.


title: Indian National Congress

text: By the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the party had lost much of its popular support, mainly because of several years of poor economic conditions in the country, and growing discontent over a series of corruption allegations involving government officials, including the 2G spectrum case and the Indian coal allocation scam. Congress won only 44 seats in the Lok Sabha, compared to the 336 of the BJP and its allies The UPA suffered heavy defeat, which was its worst-ever performance in a national election with its vote share dipping below 20 per cent for the first time. Narendra Modi succeeded Singh as Prime Minister as the head of the National Democratic Alliance. Sonia Gandhi retired as party president in December 2017, having served for a record nineteen years. She was succeeded by her son Rahul Gandhi, who was elected unopposed in the 2017 INC presidential election.


title: Indian National Congress

text: Rahul Gandhi resigned from his post after the 2019 Indian general election, due to the party's dismal performance. Following Gandhi's resignation, party leaders began deliberations for a suitable candidate to replace him. The Congress Working Committee met on 10 August to make a final decision on the matter and passed a resolution asking Sonia Gandhi to take over as interim president until a consensus candidate could be picked. Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury is the Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha. Gaurav Gogoi is deputy leader in Lok Sabha, Ravneet Singh Bittu is whip. Based on an analysis of the candidates' poll affidavits, a report by the National Election Watch (NEW) and the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) says that, the Congress has highest political defection since 2014. According to the report, a total of 222 electoral candidates have left the Congress to join other parties during polls held between 2014 and 2021, whereas 177 MPs and MLAs quit the party. Defection resulted loss of its established governments in Arunachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Goa, Karnataka, Puducherry (UT), and Manipur.


title: Indian National Congress

text: On 23 August 2022, Congress announced the "Bharat Jodo Yatra" or “unite India march,” which begun on 7 September 2022 from Kanyakumari and culminate in Kashmir after about 5 months and after covering over 3,500 kilometers in different states of India. The main purpose of Bharat Jodo Yatra is to fight the politics of "hate, fear and bigotry", to fight against the neglect of the people's aspirations by the BJP-led central government, and to fight against political centralization, inflation and injustice.


title: Indian National Congress

text: Bharat Jodo Yatra witnessed a huge turnout in Kerala, especially in Thiruvananthapuram, the capital of Kerala.


title: Indian National Congress

text: Bharat Jodo Yatra also witnessed a huge turnout in Madhya Pradesh, especially in Indore, after Maharashtra and Kerala.


title: Indian National Congress

text: On 28 August 2022, the Congress Working Committee (CWC) decided to hold 2022 INC Presidential Election. The election will be held on 17 October 2022 and the counting will take place on 19 October 2022, if required. A formal notification for the election was issued on 22 September 2022. The main two contenders are Shashi Tharoor and Mallikarjun Kharge.


title: Indian National Congress

text: Mallikarjun Kharge won this election. He secured 7,897 out of the 9,385 votes polled. His rival, Shashi Tharoor, however sprung a surprise by securing 1,072 votes.


title: Indian National Congress

text: In the first parliamentary elections held in 1952, the INC won 364 seats, which was 76 per cent of the 479 contested seats. The vote share of the INC was 45 per cent of all votes cast. Till the 1971 general elections, the party's voting percentage remain intact at 40 per cent. However, the 1977 general elections resulted in a heavy defeat for the INC. Many notable INC party leader lost their seats, winning only 154 seats in the Lok Sabha. The INC again returned to power in the 1980 Indian general election securing a 42.7 per cent vote share of all votes, winning 353 seats. INC's vote share kept increasing till 1980 and then to a record high of 48.1 per cent by 1984/85. Rajiv Gandhi on assuming the post of Prime Minister in October 1984 recommended early elections. The general elections were to be held in January 1985; instead, they were held in December 1984. The Congress won an overwhelming majority, securing 415 seats out of 533, the largest ever majority in independent India's Lok Sabha elections history. This winning recorded a vote share of 49.1 per cent resulting in an overall increase to 48.1 per cent. The party got 32.14 per cent of voters in polls held in Punjab and Assam in 1985.


title: Indian National Congress

text: In November 1989, general elections were held to elect the members of the 9th Lok Sabha. The Congress did badly in the elections, though it still managed to be the largest single party in the Lok Sabha. Its vote share started decreasing to 39.5 per cent in the 1989 general elections. The 13th Lok Sabha term was to end in October 2004, but the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government decided on early polls. The Lok Sabha was dissolved in February itself and the country went to the polls in April–May 2004. The INC, led by Sonia Gandhi unexpectedly emerged as the single largest party. After the elections, Congress joined up with minor parties to form the United Progressive Alliance (UPA). The UPA with external support from the Bahujan Samaj Party, Samajwadi Party, Kerala Congress, and the Left Front managed a comfortable majority. Congress has lost nearly 20% of its vote share in general elections held between 1996 and 2009.


title: Indian National Congress

text: The Congress party emphasizes social equality, freedom, secularism, and equal opportunity. Its political position is generally considered to be in the centre. Historically, the party has represented farmers, labourers, and Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). The MGNREGA was initiated with the objective of "enhancing livelihood security in rural areas by providing at least 100 days of guaranteed wage employment in a financial year, to every household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work." Another aim of MGNREGA is to create durable assets (such as roads, canals, ponds, and wells).


title: Indian National Congress

text: The Congress has positioned itself as both pro-Hindu and protector of the minorities. The party supports Mahatma Gandhi's doctrine of collectively termed by its party members as secularism. Former — chief minister of Punjab and senior Congress member Amarinder Singh said, "India belongs to all religions, which is its strength, and the Congress would not allow anyone to destroy its cherished secular values.” On 9 November 1989, Rajiv Gandhi had allowed (foundation stone-laying ceremony) adjacent to the then disputed Ram Janmabhoomi site. Subsequently, his government faced heavy criticism over the passing of The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act 1986, which nullified the Supreme Court's judgment in the Shah Bano case. The 1984 violence made the Congress party lose a moral argument over secularism. The BJP questioned the Congress party's moral authority in questioning it about the 2002 Gujarat riots. The Congress has distanced itself from Hindutva ideology, though the party has softened its stance after defeat in the 2014 and 2019 general elections.


title: Indian National Congress

text: Under Narsimha Rao's premiership, the Panchayati Raj and Municipal Government got constitutional status. With the enactment of the 73rd and 74th amendments to the constitution, a new chapter, Part- IX added to the constitution. States have been given the flexibility to take into consideration their geographical, politico-administrative, and other consideration while adopting the Panchayati-raj system. In both panchayats and municipal bodies, in an attempt to ensure that there is inclusiveness in local self-government, reservations for SC/ST and women were implemented.


title: Indian National Congress

text: After independence, Congress advocated the idea of establishing Hindi as the sole national language of India. Nehru led the faction of the Congress party which promoted Hindi as the "lingua franca" of the Indian nation. However, the non-Hindi-speaking Indian states especially Tamil Nadu opposed it and wanted the continued use of the English language. Lal Bahadur Shastri's tenure witnessed several protests and riots including the Madras anti-Hindi agitation of 1965. Shashtri's appealed to agitators to withdraw the movement and assured them that the English would continue to be used as the official language as long as the non-Hindi speaking states wanted. Indira Gandhi assuaged the sentiments of the non-Hindi speaking states by getting the Official Languages Act amended in 1967 to provide that the use of English could continue until a resolution to end the use of the language was passed by the legislature of every state that had not adopted use Hindi as its official language, and by each house of the Indian Parliament. This was a guarantee of de facto use of both Hindi and English as official languages, thus establishing bilingualism in India. The step led to the end of the anti-Hindi protests and riots in states.


title: Indian National Congress

text: Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, which, among other things, criminalizes homosexuality, erstwhile Congress president Rahul Gandhi said, "Sexuality is a matter of personal freedom and should be left to individuals". Leading party figure and former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram stated that the "Navtej Singh Johar v. Union of India" judgment must be quickly reversed". On 18 December 2015, Shashi Tharoor leading member of the party introduced a private member's bill to replace Section 377 in the Indian Penal Code and decriminalize consensual same-sex relations. The bill was defeated in the first reading. In March 2016, Tharoor again reintroduce the private member's bill to decriminalize homosexuality but was voted down for the second time.


title: Indian National Congress

text: The history of the economic policy of Congress-led governments can be divided into two periods. The first period lasted from independence, in 1947, to 1991 and put great emphasis on the public sector. The second period began with economic liberalisation in 1991. At present, Congress endorses a mixed economy in which the private sector and the state both direct the economy, which has characteristics of both market and planned economies. The Congress advocates import substitution industrialisation—the replacement of imports with the domestic product, and believes the Indian economy should be liberalised to increase the pace of development.


title: Indian National Congress

text: At the beginning of the first period, the Congress prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru implemented policies based on import substitution industrialisation and advocated a mixed economy where the government-controlled public sector would co-exist with the private sector. He believed that the establishment of basic and heavy industry was fundamental to the development and modernisation of the Indian economy. The government, therefore, directed investment primarily into key public-sector industries—steel, iron, coal, and power—promoting their development with subsidies and protectionist policies. This period was called the Licence Raj, or Permit Raj, which was the elaborate system of licences, regulations, and accompanying red tape that were required to set up and run businesses in India between 1947 and 1990. The Licence Raj was a result of Nehru and his successors' desire to have a planned economy where all aspects of the economy were controlled by the state, and licences were given to a select few. Up to 80 government agencies had to be satisfied before private companies could produce something; and, if the licence were granted, the government would regulate production. The licence raj system continued under Indira Gandhi. In addition, many key sectors such as banking, steel coal, and oil were nationalized. Under Rajiv Gandhi, the trade regime were liberalised with reduction in duties on several import items and incentives to promote exports. Tax rates were reduced and curbs on company assests loosened.


title: Indian National Congress

text: In 1991, the new Congress government, led by P. V. Narasimha Rao, initiated reforms to avert the impending 1991 economic crisis. The reforms progressed furthest in opening up areas to foreign investment, reforming capital markets, deregulating domestic business, and reforming the trade regime. The goals of Rao's government were to reduce the fiscal deficit, privatise the public sector, and increase investment in infrastructure. Trade reforms and changes in the regulation of foreign direct investment were introduced in order to open India to foreign trade while stabilising external loans. Rao chose Manmohan Singh for the job. Singh, an acclaimed economist and former chairman of the Reserve Bank, played a central role in implementing these reforms.


title: Indian National Congress

text: In 2004, Singh became prime minister of the Congress-led UPA government. Singh remained prime minister after the UPA won the 2009 general elections. The UPA government introduced policies aimed at reforming the banking and financial sectors, as well as public sector companies. It also introduced policies aimed at relieving farmers of their debt. In 2005, Singh government introduced the value-added tax, replacing the sales tax. India was able to resist the worst effects of the global economic crisis of 2008. Singh's government continued the Golden Quadrilateral, the Indian highway modernisation program that was initiated by Vajpayee's government. Then Finance Minister of India Pranab Mukherjee implemented many tax reforms, notably scrapping the Fringe Benefits Tax and the Commodities Transaction Tax. He implemented the Goods and Services Tax (GST) during his tenure. His reforms were well received by major corporate executives and economists. The introduction of retrospective taxation, however, has been criticised by some economists. Mukherjee expanded funding for several social sector schemes including the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM). He also supported budget increases for improving literacy and health care. He expanded infrastructure programmes such as the National Highway Development Programme. Electricity coverage was also expanded during his tenure. Mukherjee also reaffirmed his commitment to the principle of fiscal prudence as some economists expressed concern about the rising fiscal deficits during his tenure, the highest since 1991. Mukherjee declared the expansion in government spending was only temporary.


title: Indian National Congress

text: Since its independence, India was in pursuing of nuclear capabilities, as Nehru felt that nuclear energy could take the country forward and help achieve its developmental goals. Consequently, Nehru began to seek assistance from the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States. In 1958 the government of India with the help of Homi J. Bhabha adopted a three-phase power production plan and the Nuclear Research Institute was established in 1954. Indira Gandhi witnessed continuous nuclear testing by China from 1964 onwards, which she considered an existential threat to India. India conducted its first nuclear test in the Pokhran desert in Rajasthan on 18 May 1974, under the name Operation Smiling Buddha. India asserted that the test was for "peaceful purposes", However, the test was criticized by other countries and the United States and Canada suspended all nuclear support to India. Despite intense international criticism, the nuclear test was domestically popular and caused an immediate revival of Indira Gandhi's popularity, which had flagged considerably from its heights after the 1971 war.


title: Indian National Congress

text: The transition to statehood for parts of Northeast India was successfully overseen under Indira Gandhi's premiership. In 1972, her administration granted statehood to Meghalaya, Manipur and Tripura, while the North-East Frontier Agency was declared a union territory and renamed Arunachal Pradesh. This was followed by the annexation of Sikkim in 1975.


title: Indian National Congress

text: Manmohan Singh's administration initiated a massive reconstruction effort in Kashmir to stabilize the region and strengthened anti-terrorism laws with amendments to the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). After a period of initial success, insurgent infiltration and terrorism in Kashmir have increased since 2009. However, the Singh administration was successful in reducing terrorism in Northeast India. Under the background of the Punjab insurgency, the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA) was passed. The aim of the law is mainly directed toward eliminating the infiltrators from Pakistan. The law gave wide powers to law enforcement agencies for dealing with national terrorist and socially disruptive activities. The police were not obliged to produce a detainee before a judicial magistrate within 24 hours. The law was widely criticized by human rights organizations. After the November 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, the UPA government created the National Investigation Agency (NIA), in response to the need for a central agency to combat terrorism. The Unique Identification Authority of India was established in February 2009 to implement the proposed Multipurpose National Identity Card, to increase national security.


title: Indian National Congress

text: The Congress government under Nehru oversaw the establishment of many institutions of higher learning, including the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, the Indian Institutes of Technology, the Indian Institutes of Management and the National Institutes of Technology. The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) was established in 1961 as a literary, scientific, and charitable Society under the Societies Registration Act. Jawahar Lal Nehru outlined a commitment in his five-year plans to guarantee free and compulsory primary education to all of India's children. Rajiv Gandhi's premiership pioneered public information infrastructure and innovation in India. His government allowed the import of fully assembled motherboards, which led to the price of computers being reduced. The concept of having Navodaya Vidyalaya in every district of India was born as a part of the National Policy on Education (NPE).


title: Indian National Congress

text: In 2005, The Congress-led government started the National Rural Health Mission, which employed about 500,000 community health workers. It was praised by economist Jeffrey Sachs. In 2006, it implemented a proposal to reserve 27 per cent of seats in the All India Institute of Medical Studies (AIIMS), the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), and other central higher education institutions, for Other Backward Classes, which led to the 2006 Indian anti-reservation protests. The Singh government also continued the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan program, which includes the introduction and improvement of mid-day school meals and the opening of new schools throughout India, especially in rural areas, to fight illiteracy. During Manmohan Singh's prime ministership, eight Institutes of Technology were opened in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Orissa, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Himachal Pradesh.


title: Indian National Congress

text: Throughout much of the Cold War period, Congress supported a foreign policy of non-alignment that called for India to form ties with both the Western and Eastern Blocs, but to avoid formal alliances with either. US support for Pakistan led the party to endorse a friendship treaty with the Soviet Union in 1971. Congress has continued the foreign policy started by P. V. Narasimha Rao. This includes the peace process with Pakistan, and the exchange of high-level visits by leaders from both countries. The UPA government has tried to end the border dispute with the People's Republic of China through negotiations.


title: Indian National Congress

text: Relations with Afghanistan have also been a concern for Congress. During Afghan President Hamid Karzai's visit to New Delhi in August 2008, Manmohan Singh increased the aid package to Afghanistan for the development of schools, health clinics, infrastructure, and defence. India is now one of the single largest aid donors to Afghanistan. To nourish political, security, cultural and economical connections with central Asian countries, it launched Connect Central Asia policy in 2012. This policy is aimed at strengthening and expanding India's relations with Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. Look East policy was initiated in 1992 by Narasimha Rao to cultivate extensive economic and strategic relations with the nations of Southeast Asia to bolster its standing as a regional power and a counterweight to the strategic influence of the People's Republic of China. Subsequently, in 1992 Rao decided to bring into open India's relations with Israel, which had been kept covertly active for a few years during his tenure as a Foreign Minister, and permitted Israel to open an embassy in New Delhi. Rao decided to maintain a distance from the Dalai Lama in order to avoid aggravating Beijing's suspicions and concerns, and made successful overtures to Tehran.


title: Indian National Congress

text: Even though the Congress foreign policy doctrine stands for maintaining friendly relations with all the countries of the world, it has always exhibited a special bias towards the Afro-Asian nations. It played active role in forming Group of 77 (1964, Group of 15 (1990), Indian Ocean Rim Association, and SAARC. Indira Gandhi firmly tied Indian anti-imperialist interests in Africa to those of the Soviet Union. She openly and enthusiastically supported liberation struggles in Africa. In April 2006, New Delhi hosted an India–Africa summit attended by the leaders of 15 African states.


title: Indian National Congress

text: The party opposes arms race and advocates disarmament, both conventional and nuclear. When in power between 2004 and 2014, Congress worked on India's relationship with the United States. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visited the US in July 2005 to negotiate an India–United States Civil Nuclear Agreement. US president George W. Bush visited India in March 2006; during this visit, a nuclear agreement that would give India access to nuclear fuel and technology in exchange for the IAEA inspection of its civil nuclear reactors was proposed. Over two years of negotiations, followed by approval from the IAEA, the Nuclear Suppliers Group and the United States Congress, the agreement was signed on 10 October 2008. However, it has not signed Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) due to their discriminatory and hegemonistic nature.


title: Indian National Congress

text: Congress' policy has been to cultivate friendly relations with Japan as well as European Union countries including the United Kingdom, France, and Germany. Diplomatic relations with Iran have continued, and negotiations over the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline have taken place. Congress' policy has also been to improve relations with other developing countries, particularly Brazil and South Africa.


title: Indian National Congress

text: At present, the president and the All India Congress Committee (AICC) are elected by delegates from state and district parties at an annual national conference; in every Indian state and union territory—or "pradesh"—there is a Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC), which is the state-level unit of the party responsible for directing political campaigns at local and state levels, and assisting the campaigns for parliamentary constituencies. Each PCC has a working committee of twenty members, most of whom are appointed by the party president, the leader of the state party, who is chosen by the national president. Those elected as members of the states' legislative assemblies form the Congress Legislature Parties in the various state assemblies; their chairperson is usually the party's nominee for Chief Ministership. The party is also organised into various committees, and sections; it publishes a daily newspaper, the "National Herald". Despite being a party with a structure, Congress under Indira Gandhi did not hold any organisational elections after 1972. Nonetheless, in 2004, when the Congress was voted back into power, Manmohan Singh became the first Prime Minister not to be the president of the party since establishment of the practice of the president holding both positions.


title: Indian National Congress

text: The AICC is composed of delegates sent from the PCCs. The delegates elect Congress committees, including the Congress Working Committee, consisting of senior party leaders and office-bearers. The AICC takes all-important executive and political decisions. Since Indira Gandhi formed Congress (I) in 1978, the President of the Indian National Congress has effectively been the party's national leader, head of the organisation, head of the Working Committee and all chief Congress committees, chief spokesman, and Congress' choice for Prime Minister of India. Constitutionally, the president is elected by the PCCs and members of the AICC; however, this procedure has often been bypassed by the Working Committee, which has elected its candidate.


title: Indian National Congress

text: The Congress Parliamentary Party (CPP) consists of elected MPs in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. There is also a Congress Legislative Party (CLP) leader in each state. The CLP consists of all Congress Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) in each state. In cases of states where the Congress is single-handedly ruling the government, the CLP leader in the chief minister. Other directly affiliated groups include:


title: Indian National Congress

text: , the election symbol of Congress, as approved by the Election Commission of India, is an image of a right hand with its palm facing front and its fingers pressed together; this is usually shown in the center of a tricolor flag. The hand symbol was first used by Indira Gandhi when she split from the Congress (R) faction following the 1977 elections and created the New Congress (I). The hand is symbolic of strength, energy, and unity.


title: Indian National Congress

text: The party under the stewardship of Nehru had the symbol ‘Pair of bullocks carrying a yoke’ which struck a chord with masses who were predominantly farmers. In 1969, due to internal conflicts within the Congress party, Indira Gandhi decided to break out and form a party of her own, with the majority of the Congress party members in support of her in the new party which was named Congress(R). The symbol of Indira's Congress (R) or Congress (Requisitionists) during the 1971–1977 period was a cow with a suckling calf. After losing the support of 76 out of the party's 153 members in the Lok Sabha, Indira's new political outfit the Congress (I) or Congress (Indira) evolved and she opted for the hand (open palm) symbol.


title: Indian National Congress

text: Dynasticism is fairly common in many political parties in India, including the Congress party. Six members of the Nehru–Gandhi family have been presidents of the party. The party started being controlled by Indira Gandhi's family during the emergency with her younger son, Sanjay taking on a prominent role. This was characterized by servility and sycophancy towards the family which later led to a hereditary succession of Rajiv Gandhi as successor after Indira Gandhi's assassination, as well as the party's selection of Sonia Gandhi as Rajiv's successor after his assassination, which she turned down. Since the formation of Congress (I) by Indira Gandhi in 1978, the party president has been from her family except for the period between 1991 and 1998. In the last three elections to the Lok Sabha combined, 37 per cent of Congress party MPs had family members precede them in politics. However, in recent times there have been calls from within the party to restructure the organization. A group of senior leaders wrote a letter to the party president to reform the Congress allowing others to take charge. There was also visible discontent post the loss in 2019 elections after which a group of 23 senior leaders wrote to the Congress President to restructure the party.


title: Indian National Congress

text: From the first general election in 1952 when Jawaharlal Nehru led it to a landslide victory, the Congress won in the majority of the following state elections and paved the way for a Nehruvian era of single-party dominance. The party during the post-independence era has governed most of the States and union territories of India.


title: Indian National Congress

text: As of December 2022, the INC is in power in the states of Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh, where the party has the majority. In Maharashtra, it shared power as a junior ally with alliance partners Nationalist Congress Party, Shiv Sena and other smaller regional parties under the multi-party Maha Vikas Aghadi coalition from 2019 until June 2022. In Jharkhand, it shares power as a junior ally with Jharkhand Mukti Morcha. In Tamil Nadu its a junior ally of the DMK, CPI, CPI(M), VCK under the coalition Secular Progressive Alliance or SPA . The Congress has previously been the sole party in power in Delhi, Andhra Pradesh, Meghalaya, Haryana, Uttarakhand and in the Union Territory of Puducherry. The Congress has never been a part of the government in Telangana, however, the Congress has been in the power in Andhra Pradesh before the state was bifurcated. Congress has enjoyed overwhelming electoral majority for over decades in Arunachal Pradesh, Delhi, Kerala, Maharashtra and Punjab. It has a regional political alliance in Tamil Nadu named the Secular Progressive Alliance, and in Kerala, it is the United Democratic Front.


title: Indian National Congress

text: The Congress has governed a majority of the period of independence India (for 55 years), whereby Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Manmohan Singh are the country's longest-serving prime ministers. The first general election the Congress contested after the Indian independence was in 1951–52 general elections, in which it won 364 of the 489 seats and 45 per cent of the total votes. The Indian National Congress became the largest party in the Lok Sabha for next five consecutive general elections.


title: Indian National Congress

text: Gulzarilal Nanda took office in 1966 following the death of Lal Bahadur Shastri for 13 days as the acting Prime Minister of India. His earlier 13-day stint as the second Prime Minister of India followed the death of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in 1964. Indira Gandhi, also the first and so far the only woman Prime Minister of India, served the second-longest term as a prime minister. Rajiv Gandhi served from 1984 to 1989. He took office on the day of the assassination of Indira Gandhi in 1984 after the Sikh riots and at age 40 was the youngest PM of India. Known for economic reforms that were brought under his tenure, PV Narasimha Rao served as the 10th prime minister of India. He was also the first PM to come from southern India. The Congress party and its allies achieved a majority in the Lok Sabha in 2004 and 2009 general elections. Manmohan Singh served two complete terms as the Prime Minister and headed United Progressive Alliance (UPA) governments two times. Though party suffered a heavy defeat in general elections held in 2014 and 2019. As of June 2021, there are 34 members of the party in Rajya Sabha (upper house of the parliament).


title: Harry Kane

text: Harry Edward Kane (born 28 July 1993) is an English professional footballer who plays as a striker for club Tottenham Hotspur and captains the England national team. A prolific goalscorer with strong link play, Kane is regarded as one of the best strikers in the world and is Tottenham's second-highest all-time top goalscorer, tied for England's highest all-time top goalscorer, and the third-highest Premier League all-time top goalscorer.


title: Harry Kane

text: Born and raised in the London borough of Waltham Forest, Kane began his career at Tottenham Hotspur, where, after fast progression through the team's youth academy, he was promoted to the senior team in 2009, at age 16. He was loaned out to clubs across the English football pyramid, including Leyton Orient, Millwall, Leicester City, and Norwich City. Kane's involvement at Tottenham increased after Mauricio Pochettino became head coach in 2014. In his first full season at the club, Kane scored 31 goals across all competitions, was the Premier League's second-highest goalscorer, and was named PFA Young Player of the Year.


title: Harry Kane

text: In the 2015–16 and 2016–17 seasons, Kane finished as the league's top goalscorer. In the latter campaign, he helped Tottenham finish as the competition's runners-up and was named PFA Fans' Player of the Year. Kane registered his best campaign statistically to date in the 2017–18 season, with 41 goals scored in 48 games across all competitions, and in the following season, he finished as a runner-up in the UEFA Champions League. He ended the 2020–21 season as the top goalscorer and top assist provider in the league.


title: Harry Kane

text: Kane has scored 53 goals in 80 appearances for England. He appeared and scored at every youth level and at 21 years of age made a goalscoring debut with the senior team in March 2015. Kane featured and scored during England's successful UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying campaign, and represented the country at the tournament. He was named England captain just before the 2018 FIFA World Cup, where he finished as competition top goalscorer, winning the Golden Boot, leading England to fourth place, their highest finish since 1990. He also led England to the runner-up position at UEFA Euro 2020, marking their first appearance in a final at the tournament and their first major final since 1966.


title: Harry Kane

text: Harry Edward Kane was born on 28 July 1993 in Walthamstow, London to Kim (née Hogg) and Patrick Kane and has one older brother, Charlie. He has Irish ancestry through his father, who is from Galway. The family moved to Chingford where Kane attended Larkswood Primary Academy until 2004, followed by Chingford Foundation School (also attended by David Beckham). He played football from a young age, joining a local club, Ridgeway Rovers, when he was six in 1999. Kane talked about footballing in the family:


title: Harry Kane

text: Kane also said: "Most of my family were Spurs fans and I grew up 15 minutes from the ground, so I was always going to be a Spurs fan". He named former Spurs striker Teddy Sheringham his childhood idol, and saw him as a "great finisher" and a role model in his ability to get in the box and score goals. Other childhood sporting influences he cited include David Beckham and Jermain Defoe. Kane has also spoken of his admiration for the former Brazil forward Ronaldo, adding that he loved to watch footage of him on YouTube: "He was one of the first ones I looked at and thought, 'Wow. He's a goalscorer, I want to be a goalscorer.'"


title: Harry Kane

text: Kane first played for a local club, Ridgeway Rovers, and joined the Arsenal youth academy when he was eight years old. He was released after one season for being "a bit chubby" and not "very athletic", according to Liam Brady who was then in charge of Arsenal's academy. Manager Arsène Wenger stated in November 2015 that he was disappointed that Arsenal chose to release Kane. He also had a trial at Tottenham Hotspur but was not initially successful, and he returned to his old club Ridgeway Rovers. In 2004, at the age of eleven, he joined Watford academy for a four to six-week trial, and was then given another chance at Tottenham after he impressed playing for Watford against Tottenham. He first played at Tottenham as a midfielder – initially in a holding position, then as an attacking midfielder.


title: Harry Kane

text: In his early days at Tottenham, Kane did not stand out as a player as he was neither big nor was he particularly quick, but those who worked with him noted his constant desire to improve various aspects of his game. A couple of years after joining, he had a large growth spurt that made him taller and physically stronger. In the 2008–09 season, he played in the under-16s side that competed in the Copa Chivas tournament in Mexico, and the Bellinzona tournament in Switzerland, scoring three goals. In July 2009, on his 16th birthday, he signed a scholarship contract with Tottenham.


title: Harry Kane

text: In the 2009–10 season, Kane played 22 times for Tottenham's under-18s, scoring 18 goals. Kane appeared on the first-team bench twice during the 2009–10 season. Both matches were in home domestic cup victories: one the League Cup fixture against Everton on 27 October 2009 and the other in the FA Cup fourth-round replay against Bolton Wanderers on 24 February 2010.


title: Harry Kane

text: He signed his first professional contract with the club in July 2010. On 7 January 2011, Kane moved to Leyton Orient on loan until the end of the 2010–11 season. Manager Russell Slade was "happy" at his arrival and said, "I'm sure he will have an impact with us over the coming months". He made his first-team debut for Orient on 15 January, coming on as a substitute for Scott McGleish in the 73rd minute of a 1–1 draw away to Rochdale. A week later, Kane scored his first first-team goal against Sheffield Wednesday; making his first-ever start, "unmarked" Kane scored from a Dean Cox free kick in the 57th minute as Orient eventually won 4–0. Slade said that he was "delighted" that Kane scored a goal on his first league start. On 12 February, he scored twice in a 4–1 win over Bristol Rovers, after coming on as a substitute for McGleish in the 70th minute. He ended the season scoring five goals in 18 matches.


title: Harry Kane

text: On 25 August 2011, Kane made his first appearance for Tottenham, starting in the second leg of their UEFA Europa League qualification round against Hearts, with Tottenham making changes after winning the first leg 5–0. His debut was a goalless match, although he won a penalty after being fouled by goalkeeper Jamie MacDonald, who then saved the penalty which Kane took himself. He went on to make six appearances in the Europa League that season, scoring his first Tottenham goal in the 4–0 win away to Shamrock Rovers on 15 December 2011.


title: Harry Kane

text: On 29 December 2011, Kane and Tottenham teammate Ryan Mason agreed to join Championship club Millwall on loan from 1 January 2012 until the end of the season. After making his debut against Bristol City, manager Kenny Jackett said that he had "very good debut" but was "unlucky not to score". He also said that Kane would "be a good addition" for the club in the second half of the season. He went on to score seven goals in the final 14 matches of the season. Kane scored nine goals in 27 matches which resulted in him being named Millwall's Young Player of the Year for 2011–12. His run of goals scored towards the end of the season has been credited with helping to raise Millwall in the table away from the threat of relegation that season.


title: Harry Kane

text: Kane spent pre-season 2012–13 season with Tottenham, scoring a hat-trick in a 6–0 away win against Southend United on 10 August 2012. On 18 August, he made his Premier League debut, against Newcastle United. Coming as an 86th-minute substitute for Sandro, Tottenham lost 2–1.


title: Harry Kane

text: On 31 August 2012, Kane joined Premier League team Norwich City on a season-long loan, making his debut as a substitute against West Ham United. Kane suffered an injury, breaking a metatarsal bone, in the League Cup tie against Doncaster Rovers in only his second appearance. The 19-year-old underwent his rehabilitation at Tottenham but returned to action for Norwich on 29 December 2012, coming off the bench at half time as Norwich lost 3–4 to Manchester City. However, with Tottenham having been unable to add to their attacking options during the January transfer window, they opted to recall Kane on 1 February 2013, four months before he was due to return.


title: Harry Kane

text: Twenty days after he was recalled to Tottenham, Kane joined Leicester City for the remainder of the season to aid in the club's push for automatic promotion from the Championship. He marked his home debut with a goal against Blackburn Rovers, in a 3–0 win on 26 February 2013. He made 13 appearances for the East Midlands club, eight from the bench, and they reached the play-off semi-final before being eliminated by Watford.


title: Harry Kane

text: Kane scored his first Tottenham goal of the 2013–14 season at White Hart Lane in a League Cup tie against Hull City, scoring the equaliser in extra time, the match finished 2–2. Tottenham won 8–7 on penalties, with Kane taking and converting the fifth of the nine sets of spot-kicks.


title: Harry Kane

text: On 7 April 2014, Kane was given his first Premier League start for Tottenham, in a 5–1 win against Sunderland, and scored his first Premier League goal in the 59th minute. He also scored in the following match, helping Tottenham to recover from a 3–0 deficit against West Bromwich Albion before eventually drawing 3–3. He scored for the third match in a row on 19 April, this time helping Tottenham to a 3–1 London derby win at home over Fulham.