Even his critics say Thaawar Chand Gehlot is a man of delivery. 'If a task is assigned, he wins it over with political sagacity,' they say.
Congress veteran Kapil Sibal had on Wednesday filed his nomination as an SP-backed Independent candidate for the Rajya Sabha polls.
Continuing its boycott of Home Minister P Chidambaram, the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party and the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam on Wednesday created ruckus in Rajya Sabha whenever the minister rose to answer queries put to him during the Question Hour
The issue of Ram Setu rocked Rajya Sabha on Tuesday with the Bharatiya Janata Party asking the government to withdraw its affidavit given in court on plans to dismantle it, leading to acrimonious exchanges and consequent adjournment of the house.
'Deeply shocked and terribly heartbroken to learn that we have lost Ajit Dada in a tragic accident.'
The leaders would meet again later in the day to clear the remaining eight names.
A lot is riding on the Rajya sabha polls that are scheduled for Saturday. Major parties are whisking away candidates of other parties, while protecting their own, MLAs are being sent to 'camps' in the final countdown to the polls for 57 seats. Here is a state-by-state look:
The real surprise in these results came from Asaduddin Owaisi's AIMIM. Of the 29 Muslim candidates who got elected to the 227-strong BMC, the Congress and the AIMIM between them bagged 22.
In apparent signs of thaw after years of bickering stemming out of internal feud in the AIADMK in the past, party chief Edappadi K Palaniswami welcomed Dhinakaran back in to the National Democratic Alliance. The AMMK founder reciprocated with a "heartfelt thanks," yet admitting there was "sibling rivalry" with AIADMK, the party he was once associated with.
Former Union minister and senior Nationalist Congress Party leader Praful Patel on Thursday filed his nomination for the Rajya Sabha election in Maharashtra slated for June 19.
Political parties termed the scuffle in Rajya Sabha following the tabling of the Liberhan Commission report on the Babri Masjid demolition on Tuesday as "unacceptable" and "very painful".
The Delhi services bill was passed in the Rajya Sabha on Monday with 131 MPs voting in its favour and helping the government complete the parliamentary procedure for the proposed legislation that saw the opposition parties join ranks.
As soon as the House resumed at noon, Joshi said, "In protest against the action of their party's former president (Rahul Gandhi) and in your honour and in honour of the Constitution, we would participate in the Question Hour while remaining standing in silence. We request for your permission".
Elections for 19 Rajya Sabha seats spread across eight states will be held on Friday with the contest in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan promising to be a close affair between the BJP and the Congress.
Union Minister Suresh Gopi expressed his desire to step down from his ministerial post and recommended BJP's newly elected Rajya Sabha member C Sadanandan Master as his replacement in the central cabinet.
The deadline for withdrawal of nominations ended on Friday afternoon.
Several leaders of the BJP and its allies are of the view that the NDA this time is unlikely to follow the instincts that made it pick Dhankhar and will be more conventional in its search for his successor.
The Trinamool Congress MP said he is unable to bear various incidents that are happening in West Bengal.
Mathura has a prominent mosque -- the Shahi Idgah -- located next to a temple, believed to be the site of the birthplace of Lord Krishna. The mosque has been at the centre of a legal battle for years with Hindu groups claiming that the Idgah was built on land where Lord Krishna was born.
The proposed resale of the privatised Centaur Hotel in Juhu, Mumbai, rocked the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday as the determined opposition BJP members trooped into the well leading to a brief adjournment of the House.
Former Rajya Sabha MP Sabir Ali, who was expelled from the JD-U 11 years ago for praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi, was on Saturday named the party's candidate from Amour assembly seat in Bihar.
A weak presence in the Rajya Sabha has forced the NDA to try and rope in 'weak links' in the Opposition ranks to pass key legislation in the Upper House.
The talks about the reunification had already started when Ajit Pawar was alive. In fact, the two parties even contested the civic polls in Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad together.
There are two such seats in Tamil Nadu and one each in West Bengal, Assam, Maharashtra, Puducherry and Madhya Pradesh.
The election was held to fill the vacancy caused by the death of BJP leader Pramod Mahajan.
With leaders of various opposition parties taking out a protest march in support of their demand for revoking the suspension of the 12 MPs, the Bharatiya Janata Party leader Pralhad Joshi took a swipe at them, saying the voters of the country have given them "marching orders" twice -- a reference to their back-to-back defeats in two Lok Sabha elections -- and will reduce their presence further.
Continuing dynasty politics, Rashtriya Janata Dal Chief Lalu Prasad on Friday nominated his daughter Misa Bharti to Rajya Sabha, reports MI I Khan.
Sources said that Shiv Sena MPs Sanjay Raut and Anil Desai will now sit in the opposition benches during the Winter Session of Parliament, beginning Monday.
This is the first time that the saffron party has become the number one formation in the Upper House after the Narendra Modi government came to power in May 2014.
The passing of bills without Parliament, including the treasury benches, having any real understanding of what they contained through any rigorous process has accelerated through the Modi era, points out Aakar Patel.
The Learjet 45 (LJ45), a mid-size business jet aircraft produced by the Learjet Division of Bombardier Aerospace, went off the runway while attempting to land at Baramati airport and burst into flames.
A defeat in UP will, therefore, dent the Modi government's efforts to win more seats in the Rajya Sabha.
All eleven Rajya Sabha candidates in the fray in Uttar Pradesh, including businessman Anil Ambani, actress Jaya Bachchan and hotelier Lalit Suri, were declared elected unopposed in the biennial elections on Saturday.
The 61-year-old had submitted a fresh resignation letter as per the prescribed format, tendering a hand-written one-line letter.
The slogan-shouting AAP members stormed into the Well of the House just as the Rajya Sabha took up a discussion on a motion thanking the President for his address to the joint sitting of Parliament.
Home Minister Amit Shah criticized the opposition in Rajya Sabha, linking the division of the 'Vande Mataram' song to the partition of India. He accused Congress and Jawaharlal Nehru of dividing the song for appeasement politics.
Government floor managers are busy talking to Opposition members to resolve the stand-off over Minister Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti's remarks, in the Rajya Sabha.
Condemning opposition MPs for attacking Harivansh, Joshi said the Congress and other opposition parties are frustrated with the rise of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and have lost their balance.
Union minister Smriti Irani will also contest the Rajya Sabha polls from Gujarat from where she is already an MP and her term ends on August 18.
Embarrassment apart, it is a reminder to the Narendra Modi government that it is in acute minority in the Upper House
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