Modi said that the Rajya Sabha gives an opportunity to those away from electoral politics to contribute to the country and its development.
His comment came after the Shiv Sena attacked him for petitioning the president to save Mumbai blast convict Yakub Memon from the gallows.
Unfazed by protests from various quarters, including a ruling BJD MP, the state government gave its nod to the Odisha Cricket Association to host the ICC women's World Cup matches involving players from Pakistan at Cuttack.
A day after Bajrang Dal asserted it was opposed to participation of Pakistani women cricketers in the World Cup, BJP student wing, ABVP, on Saturday, threatened to dig up pitches ahead of the team's matches at Cuttack next month.
An analysis of the assets data from Association of Democratic Reforms shows that the average assets of a winner of the 2014 LS election was more than the average assets of a candidate: more the money you have, more the chances of winning.
A bill to allow merging of some villages and mandals of Telangana with Seemandhra in a bid to deal with resettlement and rehabilitation those displaced by the Polavaram power project was introduced in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday amid din.
The National Democratic Alliance, led by strong man Narendra Modi secured a whopping 352 of 542 seats, making it evident that his message of muscular nationalism, security and Hindu pride had worked wonders.
Senior Congress leaders Jagdish Tytler, Niranjan Patnaik and several others were on Saturday booked by the police in connection with a clash between party supporters and policemen during a rally that left over 260 people injured in Bhubaneswar.
Here are some of the big political leaders' who await their fate on Monday.
Consensus eluded an all-party meeting called on FDI issue on Monday even as Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party provided comfort to the government by not insisting on voting and Trinamool Congress springing a surprise by speaking in a similar tone.
A controversial bill which paves the way for the Polavaram project in Andhra Pradesh by merging some villages and mandals of Telangana with Seemandhra was approved in the Lok Sabha on Friday, amid stiff opposition from the Telangana Rashtra Samithi, the Biju Janata Dal and some other parties.
Modi reviewed the situation in West Bengal and Odisha with chief ministers Mamata Banerjee and Naveen Patnaik, two days after the cyclone, the worst in years, devastated their states.
Odisha Chief Minister and Biju Janata Dal supremo Naveen Patnaik on Thursday ruled out his party's support to the UPA government at the Centre which was facing "instability" following Trinamool Congress' decision to withdraw support.
Narendra Modi on Tuesday tore into Naveen Patnaik government over lack of development in Odisha and mocked the fledgling Third Front, of which Patnaik's Biju Janata Dal is a member, saying its only job is to "save" Congress.
Describing P A Sangma as a prominent tribal and minority leader, Odisha Chief Minister and Biju Janata Dal supremo Naveen Patnaik on Wednesday said he would accompany the Presidential aspirant during filing of his nomination in Delhi on Thursday. "Sangma is the BJD's candidate. We first announced his name for the top post in mid-May and later other political parties supported him," Patnaik told reporters shortly before leaving for Delhi.
Maintaining that former Lok Sabha Speaker P A Sangma is gradually "gathering strength" in the race for Presidential polls, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said there should be a consensus in favour of the tribal leader for the top post.
In a joint statement, SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and others alleged that the UPA government has "stuck cruel blows on the people one after another" by raising diesel price, limiting subsidised cooking gas, opening up of multi-brand retail and disinvestment of PSUs.
The Biju Janata Dal on Saturday resolved to abstain in the vice-presidential polls. It has 20 MPs in both houses.
Pujaris from the Sringeri Math Karnataka did the rituals for the 'bhoomi pujan' at the new Parliament building site.
Rejecting Rajya Sabha's five amendments and opposition's appeal not to make "haste", the Lok Sabha on Wednesday passed the legislation that aims at better targeting of subsidies through the Aadhaar unique identity number within hours of the Upper Housing returning it.
Under attack for allegedly shielding accused persons in Pipili gangrape case, Odisha's Agriculture Minister Pradip Maharathy on Thursday resigned on 'moral ground' and in the 'interest' of the ruling Biju Janata Dal ahead of next month's panchayat elections.
The Odisha government and the Maoist-nominated mediators on Monday resumed negotiation to free the abducted Italian as Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik made a fresh appeal to the Naxals to release him.
Congress candidate Gabriel Denwang Wangsu won the Kanubari Assembly seat in Arunachal Pradesh in a close contest defeating his lone rival Rongnai Maham of BJP by 885 votes in the October 15 by-poll.
Nationalist Congress Party leader and former Lok Sabha Speaker P A Sangma, who is being backed by the Biju Janata Dal and All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam for the President's post, on Tuesday sought to reach out to political parties, saying he hoped they will respond "to the call of conscience of the tribal people of the nation."
The fate of 961 candidates, including Union ministers Giriraj Singh, Subhash Bhamre, S S Ahluwalia and Babul Supriyo of the BJP and former Union ministers Salman Khurshid and Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury of the Congress, will be decided by about 12.79 core voters in the fourth phase.
Maoists have released abducted Biju Janata Dal Member of Legislative Assembly Jhina Hikaka on Thursday morning. The release comes after captivity of over a month. Media reports said that Hikaka was released at an undisclosed location into the custody of his wife, and Nihar Ranjan Patnaik, a lawyer.
Two crucial bills, forming part of NDA government's reforms agenda, got approval of Parliament within minutes today after a number of non-NDA parties backed the legislations in Rajya Sabha where the ruling coalition is short in numbers.
The Opposition concluded that NCP's Chavan would be able to get the support of all opposition parties and even a few of the National Democratic Alliance allies.
In Lok Sabha, the Opposition demanded action against cow vigilantes.
Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu announced in the House that the election will be held at 11 am on August 9.
The dinner was attended by a select few guests like Congress President Sonia Gandhi, Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj and her counterpart in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley, CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury, BJD leader Jay Panda and National Security Adviser Shivshanker Menon.
With the four-member central team set up by the Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) delaying submission of its report on Posco's proposed steel project by one week, BJD heavyweights were hopeful over the fate of the country's biggest FDI.
Actor-politician Shatrughan Sinha, who joined the Congress ahead of the Lok Sabha election, lost to Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad from Patna Sahib constituency in Bihar by 2.84 votes.
The former union home and finance minister also alleged that the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government would not have taken the bold decision had Jammu and Kashmir been a "Hindu-dominated" state.
'The uneducated think of their rights as a gift. This is deeply troubling.' 'If they were educated they could claim what is rightfully theirs.'
The incident regarding Chinese troops entering the border district of Chamoli in Uttarakhand is that of "transgression" and not "incursion", the government said on Thursdy.
The Opposition accused the government of bringing a populist budget.
Anti-incumbency is fast losing relevance as an election factor in India.
Declaring that its erstwhile coalition partner in Orissa, Biju Janata Dal, and the Congress are its prime enemies, the Bharatiya Janata Party has threatened to expose the 'misdeeds' of the Naveen Patnaik government. "Being part of the coalition, we know the misdeeds of the Naveen government and have enough material against it, which would be made known during electioneering in phases," BJP said. It dubbed BJD as 'a great betrayer'.
The bill defines electronic cigarettes ss electronic devices that heat a substance, which may contain nicotine and other chemicals, to create vapour for inhalation.
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