Bhandari, a three-term Congress legislator who was also a minister in the state in the past, joined the BJP in the presence of its senior leaders, including Union Minister Piyush Goyal and the party's national general secretary Dushyant Kumar Gautam.
The widely expected development underlines the party's preference for continuity as it gears up for the all-important Lok Sabha polls next year, expected in April-May.
The BJP state unit hailed Vasan and said his advice will be used in the coming days to guide the alliance.
The party finds Uttar Pradesh members of Parliament unaware of govt schemes.
Interacting with the Indian diaspora in Kuala Lumpur, Banerjee said, "We have been in talks with them (Pakistan) for decades, despite changes in various paradigms and governments. But one thing remains constant, the conflict with Pakistan."
In a post on X, the prime minister also urged the people to make contributions to the Armed Forces Flag Day fund.
The stage is set for a direct contest between NDA nominee C P Radhakrishnan and joint opposition candidate B Sudershan Reddy for the September 9 vice-presidential election. Nominations have been scrutinized and accepted.
However, the saffron party's hold of the landmark may be tenuous as polls to around 52 more seats will be held soon, and it is expected to suffer reverses in states like Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Jharkhand.
Bharatiya Janata Party Members of Parliament will submit on Friday declarations to the presiding officers of their respective Houses of Parliament, stating that they do not have any illegal money stashed in any foreign bank or tax haven abroad. BJP leader L K Advani had declared that all party MPs will submit declarations that they do not have any illegal funds in Swiss banks or tax havens. The issue was discussed at the BJP parliamentary party meeting on Thursday.
'In times of adversity, families unite, but the reverse is happening in the Lalu family.'
Malhotra, the deputy leader of BJP parliamentary party in Lok Sabha, conveyed his decision to Speaker Somnath Chatterjee through a one-line letter, party sources said.
He served as the Union health minister in Modi's first term from November 9, 2014 to May 30, 2019.
"In the coming session of parliament, BJP will be raising issues of general public concern such as the communal violence in Assam and "rapid corruption" unfolding as far as UPA government is concerned in relation to coal bloc allocation scam, spectrum allocation scam etc.," party spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad told media persons after the meeting.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday accused the Central Bureau of Investigation of playing a "partisan" role in pursuing the Ayodhya case against party leader L K Advani and decided to raise the issue in Parliament.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday said it will hold peaceful protests across the country against the crackdown on Baba Ramdev's agitation and meet President Pratibha Patil to demand convening of a special session of Parliament to discuss the issue.
Veteran politician Satyapal Malik, who served as governor of multiple states and later became a vocal critic of the government, has died at the age of 79.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday said it will strongly raise in Parliament the allegation of payment of bribes in the VVIP chopper deal and ask for a reply from the government on whether the contract stood scrapped and who were the ultimate beneficiaries.
He asked BJP MPs/MLAs to take up various programmes, including spending 72 hours to reach out to people, when his government completes three years on May 26.
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has accused Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi of raising questions on sensitive defence matters in Parliament after his marriage to a British citizen. Sarma alleged that Gogoi's wife, Elizabeth Colburn, has links with the Pakistani establishment, including working for an organisation allegedly a front for the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). Gogoi has rejected the allegations as "baseless" and said the BJP is trying to divert attention from its own failures.
Realising that the numbers are stacked in favour of the government, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday appeared reluctant to support the no-confidence motion that the Trinamool Congress has threatened to move against the ruling United Progressive Alliance, but is gearing up to corner it on the issue of Foreign Direct Investment in retail by seeking a vote on it.
Shiv Sena chief Eknath Shinde on Tuesday stepped down as Maharashtra chief minister, even as the suspense over who will succeed him as the new CM continued, three days after state assembly election results were announced.
Accusing the party of not taking up seriously enough the issue of corruption, three Bharatiya Janata Party leaders including Yashwant Sinha on Wednesday offered to quit as Members of Parliament.
Hours after the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party put out its first list of 67 candidates for the Haryana Assembly polls, sitting MLA Lakshman Dass Napa quit the party while former minister Karan Dev Kamboj stepped down as state unit's OBC Morcha chief after being denied tickets.
The National Democratic Alliance's vice presidential candidate C P Radhakrishnan was felicitated at a meeting of the ruling bloc's MPs in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other Union ministers. He is expected to file his nomination soon.
Noting that elections will be held in four states, she urged party leaders to sustain the momentum and goodwill that had been generated for the party in the Lok Sabha elections.
The Assam government on Tuesday distributed the report of the Tewary Commission, which had probed into the 1983 Nellie massacre during which over 2,000 people were killed, and large-scale violence that year, in the Assembly on first day of Winter Session.
The bill to amend the law governing Waqf boards proposes far-reaching changes in the Wakf Act, 1995, including ensuring the representation of Muslim women and non-Muslims in such bodies.
A profile of C.P. Radhakrishnan, the Maharashtra Governor and former MP, who is being considered as a potential Vice President candidate. His political journey, association with RSS and Jan Sangh, and his influence in Tamil Nadu politics are highlighted.
'Are elections still fair in India, or are we all witness to a macabre style of 'selection' of lawmakers? The jury will be out on this for a long time because there is no definitive evidence on either contention, at least as yet,' notes Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, author, Narendra Modi: The Man, The Times.
Setting a tough condition before the government, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday said it will not allow the passage of any bill in Parliament till Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal and Law Minister Ashwani Kumar resign or are sacked. The opposition party also made it clear that it will not allow the passage of either the National Food Security Bill or the Land Acquisition Bill.
'Non-BJP state governments and their leaders, navigating today's political landscape, know well they have no clue what awaits around the corner.' 'The chances of charges pressed and oneself getting parked in custody play out on an uneven playing field,' points out Shyam G Menon.
With the Lok Sabha speaker's all-party meeting failing to break the logjam on Foreign Direct Investment in retail issue, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has invited the top brass of main Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party for a dinner on Thursday to ensure smooth functioning of Parliament in the winter session.
'Every Haryana assembly seat has its own unique problems to earn victory for a political party and you as a politician need to know what are those issues and tackle it.'
The Bharatiya Janata Party's first list of 20 candidates for Lok Sabha elections in Karnataka has caused dissidence among leaders in the state with few claiming that they would switch over to Congress.
In a veiled attack on Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley, Bharatiya Janata Party Member of Parliament Maneka Gandhi on Tuesday asked the party why it was shying away from demanding the resignations of Union ministers Sharad Pawar and Praful Patel, for their alleged involvement in the IPL scam. Maneka said Patel and his daughter had flouted so many rules, but still the party had not demanded the minister's resignation.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday tabled a notice for an adjournment motion on black money issue in Lok Sabha and demanded suspension of Question Hour in Rajya Sabha while deciding to continue its boycott of Home Minister P Chidambaram in Parliament.
Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday decided to move a privilege motion against Home Minister P Chidambaram, accusing him of showing "disrespect" to Parliament by making a statement outside on the recent controversy over allegedly helping a local hotelier.
The BJP will also seek to raise the issue of the ongoing demolition drive in the national capital.
Senior BJP leader and Home Minister Rajnath Singh will travel to Mumbai on Monday to decide on who will lead the BJP government in Maharashtra.
Responding to a query, Mathur said there is no "formula" for electing the chief minister.
