Eight-term member Sumitra Mahajan was on Friday unanimously elected Speaker of the 16th Lok Sabha, becoming the second woman presiding officer of the Lower House after her predecessor Meira Kumar.
The BJP's remarks came a day after the Congress leaders, led by Sonia Gandhi, met President Ram Nath Kovind and submitted a memorandum demanding resignation of Union Home Minister Amit Shah for "abdication of duty" during the communal violence in northeast Delhi. She had also reminded the Centre for its 'rajdharma' and protecting the people from all faiths in the country.
"People ask me that this yatra is to project myself in a new form but I tell them that it has nothing to do with me or my party BJP...It's only to generate self confidence among the people, who are feeling demoralised due to rising corruption", Advani said in Varanasi while addressing a rally.
The widespread support of people from all walks of life was evident on the second day of Bharatiya Janta Party leader L K Advani's Jan Chetna Yatra. After Chief Minister Nitish Kumar flagged off the yatra at Chhapra on Tuesday, Advani has covered a distance of about 80 km of his 7600-km long yatra. On Wednesday, the 84-year-old leader addressed the crowd at Gandhi Maidan in Patna, with the acumen characteristic of a veteran of six national yatras.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday refused to put on a saffron shawl and a saffron badge offered by Bharatiya Janata Party leaders at Sitab Diara and Chapra during the launch of L K Advani's rath yatra against corruption. At the public meeting in Sitab Diara, the birth place of Jayaprakash Narayan, Kumar refused to put on a saffron shawl given by BJP leaders. He was then given a white shawl by BJP leaders.
Senior leader L K Advani on Monday kept alive the suspense over his intentions of becoming the Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate in the next elections, saying a decision will be taken by the party when the time comes.
The name rath yatra may give you the impression that L K Advani is going to undertake an all-land march. Until you learn about the list of flights the Bharatiya Janata Party veteran would use as part of his nation-wide trip against corruption starting next week.
The government on Tuesday conceded the opposition demand for having 30 members in the Joint Parliamentary Committee to probe the 2G spectrum issue, giving up its earlier plan for a 21-member panel to accommodate smaller parties like All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, sources said.
The Bhartiya Janta Party released the details of the Jan Chetna Yatra in a press conference held in the capital on Wednesday.
The National Democratic Alliance on Monday said it will allow the Parliament to function if formation of Joint Parliamentary Committee to probe the 2G spectrum allocation scam is announced by the government on Tuesday, but would continue to raise irregularities in the Commonwealth Games-related projects and Adarsh Housing scam.
Singh, who was the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh when the 16th-century structure was razed on December 6 in 1992, was first taken in judicial custody by the court after he appeared before it in response to the summons in the demolition case.
The Bharatiya Janata Party accused the Congress of indulging in "communal polarisation" on the Babri Masjid issue after the Central Bureau of Investigation challenged in the Supreme Court the Allahabad High Court order that dropped conspiracy charge against senior leader L K Advani in the demolition case.
The CBI has moved the Supreme Court challenging an Allahabad High Court order that dropped charges of criminal conspiracy against top BJP leaders including L K Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi in the Babri Masjid demolition case.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani has apologised to Congress president Sonia Gandhi for a party-appointed task force report, which had alleged that she and her late husband Rajiv had accounts in Swiss banks.
The Delhi police on Saturday opposed the bail pleas of senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani's former aide Sudheendra Kulkarni and two former Members of Parliament of the party, arrested for their alleged roles in the 2008 cash-for-vote scam, questioning their claim of being whistle-blowers. "Every accused in the case terms himself as a whistle-blower as if they have saved the country," said the public prosecutor.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani on Saturday asked partymen to gear up for early polls, contenting that the United Progressive Alliance government is on a "suicidal path" and nothing could be said about its future.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani was not eyeing the prime ministerial post, party president Nitin Gadkari said on Thursday indicating that the former deputy prime minister has already made it clear that he is not in the race.
Narendra Modi will be skipping the two-day national executive of Bharatiya Janata Party to be held in New Delhi from Friday, indicating that all may not be well between the Gujarat chief minister and the party.
Special Judge Sangita Dhingra Sehgal turned down the interim bail application of Kulkarni, 54, saying it was devoid of merits and fixed hearing on his plea for regular bail on October one. Till then he will be in judicial custody in Tihar Jail.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani on Wednesday night said he feels "awkward" attending functions where he feels his long-time associate and former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee should have been present.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday attacked the United Progressive Alliance government for allegedly breaching the federal set-up by targeting opposition-ruled states and warned of legal recourse if this was not stopped.
Opposition leaders believe this entire plan has been put in place to ensure that Mamata Banerjee is kept out of office in West Bengal.
Against the backdrop of Bharatiya Janata Party veteran L K Advani indicating that he would not be the prime ministerial candidate in 2014 Lok Sabha elections, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh on Wednesday said it does not issue any "diktat" to the party leaders on such issues and it was up to the party to take a call.
Indicating that he may not be in the race for becoming the party's Prime Ministerial candidate in the next elections, senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani on Wednesday said that the Sangh Parivar, his party and fellow workers had given him "much more" than what the top post holds.
Arguing for the bail to former Samajwadi Party leader, the senior advocate named Patel, changing his earlier statement that the money could have come from BJP since L K Advani had said that his party had conducted a sting operation.
"Even when Vajpayee is ill in hospital, I was the first one to visit him, since the Congress believes he has contributed to the country," he said.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani on Friday supported his colleague Sushma Swaraj's stand against the appointment of Chief Vigilance Commissioner P J Thomas, saying he could not have been chosen for the post as he had cases pending against him. "This controversy started even when I was the Leader of the Opposition," he said.
Unhappy over the treatment meted out to party colleagues Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley at Jammu airport, senior Bharatiya Janata Partty leader L K Advani on Monday talked to Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh to lodge a protest over the developments which had "never happened" earlier.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani Thursday made a surprise announcement of undertaking a yatra across the country against the menace of corruption, a move seen as an attempt by him to get a grip over the party.
L K Advani, chairman of Bhartiya Janata Party parliamentary party, led a delegation, of 33 members of Parliament including 23 from Karnataka, called on President Pratibha Patil on Monday and requested her to recall Karnataka governor H R Bhardwaj.
The cash-for-vote scam rocked both Houses of Parliament Thursday with Bharatiya Janata Party objecting to the arrest of two of its "whistleblower" former MPs and demanding suspension of Question Hour to discuss the issue.
Onkar Singh, a valuable member of the Rediff.com team over the years, breathed his last on January 13. Syed Firdaus Ashraf, who knew him intimately, remembers the ultimate newsman.
A high-level meeting, attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Saturday discussed ways to make the Somnath temple complex in Gujarat more attractive for tourists and create the related infrastructure for the purpose.
Members of the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha on Saturday debated and discussed the issue of the Jan Lokpal bill, for which activist Anna Hazare has been on a hunger strike since the last 12 days.
If Advani's ideological leadership galvanised the party's cadres and core support, Vajpayee's soaring oratory, common touch, easy charm and convivial manners won over the masses and brought new allies on board.
A large number of political leaders, diplomats and other bigwigs attended the wedding reception hosted by Lok Sabha MP Shashi Tharoor and his new wife Sunanda Pushkar in New Delhi.
Former Bihar Chief Minister and Rashtriya Janata Dal president Lalu Prasad Yadav on Sunday said Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani will never become the prime minister of the country.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani on Sunday launched a broadside against the government on corruption, raking up issues like the "bribing" of MPs during the 2008 trust vote and Wikileaks expose.
Top Bharatiya Janata Party leaders, including L K Advani, spoke to Shiv Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray after which the party, upset over arch-rival Maharashta Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray's visit to BJP office, said it will attend the NDA rally in Delhi on Wednesday.
Senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh launched a sharp attack on the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the Bharatiya Janata Party, likening their "hatred" towards Muslims to that of the Nazis towards the Jews and claiming that the "roots of terrorism" in India lie in BJP leader L K Advani's 1990 Rath Yatra.
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