With Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee falling in line to back UPA candidate Pranab Mukherjee in the July 19 Presidential election, Congress president Sonia Gandhi has sent out an invite to her to join the lunch she is hosting at Hotel Ashoka in New Delhi on Wednesday at 1230 hours for MPs of all parties supporting his candidature.
Tamil Nadu Jayalalitha will introduce former Lok Sabha speaker and Presidential candidate PA Sangma to Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam legislators in Chennai on July 18.
All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam Members of Parliament rushed to New Delhi on Thursday to meet Election Commission officials and seek permission and exemption to cast their votes in Chennai for the forthcoming Presidential poll. Taking a cue from
Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, S Jaipal Reddy is likely to be the Leader of Lok Sabha and the decision to this effect is likely to be taken on Friday in the core committee meeting. Informal consultations between the prime minister and Sonia Gandhi has already taken place, say highly placed AICC sources.
Andhra Pradesh Governor ESL Narasimhan on Monday had an hour-long meeting with Union Minister of Health Gulam Nabi Azad and discussed with him the hot subject of auction of medical seats in private medical colleges for a cost of Rs 70 to 80 lakhs.
The monsoon session of Parliament has been further delayed, indicating that the session may be convened on August 7 instead of earlier planned July 30.
On a day when a full-page email interview with the prime minister appeared in the Hindustan Times, the National Advisory Council, chaired by Sonia Gandhi, on Friday slammed the United Progressive Alliance government for not implementing a score of its recommendations, including food security to all, made in the past two years.
Taking a cue from the Mantralaya fire in Mumbai, the administration has taken several steps to secure the 92-year old Parliament House building from such an untoward incident.
Union Minister for Water Resources Pawan Kumar Bansal claimed on Thursday that the Bhakra dam's water level is safe and there is nothing to worry. The minister was reacting to the allegations of some experts that the situation of Bhakra dam is precarious and that it could have been avoided.
With the Presidential nomination of legal luminary K Parasaran -- a decision by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh -- the Rajya Sabha has now four Iyengar Vaishnavites, beginning from Jairam Ramesh, Dr V Maitreyan and Communist Party of India-Marxist MP T K Rangarajan.
The schedule to conduct the elections for the vice president's post is held up as the Election Commissioner H S Brahma is on a foreign jaunt. Moreover, the United Progressive Alliance-II is yet to appoint the third Election Commissioner.
Satyavrat Chaturvedi, chairman of the select committee on Lokpal, did not inform many of the Opposition parties about the meeting to be held on Monday
Nomination papers of Pranab Mukhejee, for the Presidential poll on July 19, are being readied, according to sources. Senior Union ministers and Members of Parliament have been summoned to Parliament House on Wednesday to affix their signatures on Mukherjee's papers.
Former President APJ Abdul Kalam's letter, which he sent to Foreign Minister S M Krishna in last July, has now come into public domain, slamming Nobel Laureate economist Amartya Sen for forcing him out of his brainchild project of the Nalanda University in Bihar as its first visitor.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee's security is being beefed up after the ruling party announced his name as their candidate for the Presidential polls. There will now be a heavy security at his house and the traffic flow will not be restricted for one month.
The Congress silence comes at a high cost, notes a Rediff Correspondent.
Was a Mumbai tycoon behind Wednesday's political drama? A Rediff Correspondent discusses the conspiracy theories making the rounds.
Andhra Pradesh may go for a brief spell of President's rule with the Kiran Kumar Reddy government facing internal crisis with 25 to 30 MLAs planning to join YSR Congress headed by Jaganmohan Reddy.
The Dravida Munettra Kazhagam is hopeful of getting the railway portfolio in the next reshuffle, say our sources in Delhi. Buzz is that the DMK had specifically asked for railways even in 2004, which did not happen.
United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi wants Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam M Karunanidhi to be present when the Congress nominee for the Presidential Polls presents his/her nomination papers on June 16 to Returning Officer V K Aghnihotri in Parliament House, say sources in New Delhi.