Samajwadi Party MP Rewati Raman Singh on Monday appeared before Delhi Police for questioning in connection with the 2008 cash-for-vote scam, the fourth person to be quizzed in the past 10 days after the Supreme Court came down heavily on investigators for carrying out a shoddy probe.
The MPs criticised the Shiromani Akali Dal leadership for being in the Bharatiya Janata Party-led NDA even after these bills were proposed by the government.
Sixty-eight Rajya Sabha members, including nine Union ministers, are completing their tenure this year, triggering a race of sorts among leaders across political parties to eye a six-year term in the Upper House of Parliament.
The Congress on Tuesday suffered a major upset in Himachal Pradesh at the hands of the Bharatiya Janata Party in the Rajya Sabha elections which were marred by cross-voting in all the three states though it won three seats in Karnataka while the saffron party pocketed an extra seat in Uttar Pradesh.
According to the schedule announced by the EC, the notifications would be issued on November three. The last date for filing nominations would be on November 10 and scrutiny would be on the following day. Last date of withdrawal of candidature would be on November 14. Counting of votes would take place on November 21 at the end of the polling.
Former Law minister Shanti Bhushan, co-chairman of the joint committee to draft the Lok Pal bill, and his son Prashant Bhushan, also a member of the committee, are likely to be in a new controversy, just a day before the first Lok Pal joint draft committee meeting.
The booing and beating Maharashtra Navnirman Sena Legislators in Mumbai has brought rich dividends for Samajwadi Party's Maharashtra chief Abu Azmi , who has been turned into the party's hero.
Under pressure from his critics within the party to give up his Rajya Sabha seat, Amar Singh on Saturday asked Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav to first "return the kidneys" he had sacrificed in the service of the party.
It is now on record that the Congress has a history of paying money -- call it 'donations' for 'cooperation' if you like -- to MPs from the Opposition benches, says T V R Shenoy.
In an apparent reference to Salim Shervani and rebel SP Member of Parliament Shafiq-ur-Rehman Barq, SP general secretary Amar Singh said, "They have suddenly realised the virtue of opposing Kalyan Singh after being denied nomination for Lok Sabha elections."
Senior leaders of the Samajwadi Party, which had on January 8 given a five-day ultimatum to the United Progressive Alliance government to act against Pakistan, on Wednesday met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi. Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and general secretary Amar Singh said they discussed ways to work together and keep the communal Bharatiya Janata Party from coming to power after the coming general election.
Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh, who backed Mamata Banerjee in the Singur agitation, on Friday warned the railway minister against acquiring land in eastern Uttar Pradesh for the corridor project, saying there would be a 'bloodbath' against the move.
Left's role in formation of next government seen crucial.
Cutting across party lines, it was an unusual gathering of 15 Members of Parliament. Amar Singh, Jaya Bhaduri [Samajwadi Party], Ravishanker Prasad, Manvendra Singh [Bhartiya Janata Party], and many Congress MPs took part in a discussion on initiatives to tackle malnutrition at a conference organised by GAIN ( Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition ) in New Delhi on Wednesday.
The petitioner had a Congress background and in the recorded conversation, deregatory references were said to have been made against apex court judges.
The presidents were escorted by the President's Bodyguard -- "Rashtrapati Ke Angrakshak".
The Samajwadi Party on Tuesday said it would give a fresh letter of support for the government to President Pratibha Patil on Wednesday.
A Delhi court on Monday directed the police to "investigate from all angles" and trace the source of money in the 2008 cash-for-vote scam in which Amar Singh, L K Advani's former aide Sudheendra Kulkarni and two other BJP leaders have been chargesheeted.
Delhi Police on Wednesday made the second arrest in the 2008 'cash-for-votes' scam by taking into custody Suhail Hindustani, who had allegedly acted as a liaison between Amar Singh and Bharatiya Janata Party members of Parliament sought to be bribed.
Suhail Hindustani, alleged to have acted as a liaison between Amar Singh and Bharatiya Janata Party members of Parliament who were bribed during the 2008 trust vote, on Wednesday appeared before the Delhi police for questioning and alleged that the former Samajwadi Party leader was behind the operation to buy lawmakers.
In a damage control move, while party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav on Tuesday roped in a large number of Maulanas to give himself a clean chit, his second-in-command Amar Singh flew down to the well-known Islamic seminary, DarulUloom Deoband in Saharanpur district to woo the clerics there.
'If the US withdraws, where do we stand with all the starved costly reactors? We will be left with only the hazardous waste to deal with. The way the terms of the deal are structured, it is clear that we have only the legal right to test which cannot be implemented due to tremendous consequences,' says nuclear scientist A N Prasad, a known critic of the nuclear deal.
In a major blow to the Samajwadi Party, Ranjana Bajpai, chief of the SP's women's wing, joined hands with the party's avowed rival Bahujan Samaj Party on Saturday.The move comes in the wake of SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav's decision to withdraw her ticket as the party nominee for the Sitapur Lok Sabha seat.Attributing her decision to the 'neglect of Brahmins in the Samajwadi Party', Bajpai pointedly accused SP general secretary Amar Singh of having "hijacked the party."
The Samajwadi Party on Sunday declared candidates for 10 more Parliamentary seats in Uttar Pradesh taking the number to 74 it will contest effectively leaving only six to the Congress but at the same time wanted the alliance to remain claiming there was "no dispute" as well.
The Congress and the Samajwadi party continued their search for an agreement on sharing of seats from Uttar Pradesh in the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls at a meeting between their top leaders on Sunday, but the gap between Congress demand for 25 seats and SP's offer of 15 remained unbridged.
The Samajwadi Party on Tuesday attacked the Central Bureau of Investigation over the probe into the disproportionate assets case against party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and demanded an examination of the status report filed by the investigating agency in the Supreme Court.
The decision to field the party chief from two constituencies taken by the SP Parliamentary Board
Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt may now play a role in politics with the Samajwadi Party on Thursday deciding to field him as its candidate from Lucknow in the Lok Sabha polls. Bhojpuri sensation Manoj Tiwari would be the SP's candidates from Gorakhpur
Virtually signalling the end of their ties, the Samajwadi Party on Wednesday lashed out at the Congress for contesting the Firozabad Lok Sabha bypoll against Mulayam Singh Yadav's daughter-in-law Dimple.
Whether he succeeds in becoming chief minister again or not, Akhilesh is finally out of the shadow cast by his family, but without losing a sense of balance.
Amazon Prime Video has announced 69 assorted Web series and movies, and the slate sure looks interesting.
More trouble is lurking for former Samajwadi Party leader, Amar Singh. After his alleged former secretary, Sanjeev Saxena, was arrested by the Delhi police, police are training their guns on several 'whistle-blowers' in the case.
Samajwadi Party chief Malayam Singh Yadav visited the Islamic seminary Datul Uloom Nadwatul Ulema along with his close aide Amar Singh and met its Rector Maulana Rabe Hasan Nadvi, who also is the chairman of All India Muslim Personal Law Board. The former chief minister is understood to have discussed the alleged targeting of Muslims on terror issue, while the Bahujan Samaj Party organised a Muslim convention to reiterate its association with the community.
As Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh threatened withdrawal of support to the UPA government over the Jamia Nagar encounter, party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav on Tuesday said the support was extended in the national interest and there was no question of its withdrawal.
The Samajwadi Party on Friday expelled six MPs for defying the party whip during Tuesday's trust vote.
That will be the last pound of flesh Mulayam Singh and Amar Singh wish to extract for the support they are giving the dying Congress party. Fortuitously, the Congress too wants a similar outcome.
'He did some great work and people remember him from so many things, but he should have got some stronger parts.'
During the meeting, held at the residence of Pranab Mukherjee, the government's pointsman for the deal, Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh was understood to have been briefed about the deal and the steps India would have to take in the coming weeks to push it through.
