West Bengal's appointment of Manoj Agarwal, the former Chief Electoral Officer, as the new Chief Secretary has ignited a political firestorm, raising concerns about the fairness and impartiality of the state's electoral processes.
The Liberhan Commission report on the demolition of Babri Masjid on Wednesday generated heat in the Rajya Sabha with the Congress and the Samajwadi Party squarely blaming the Bharatiya Janata Party for the demolition of the historic structure, while the main opposition debunked the report.
The stage would be set for the elections with the issue of notification on Friday.
Scinida quit the Congress on Tuesday. He is an influential leader of Madhya Pradesh where 22 Congress MLAs, most of whom loyal to him, have resigned from the assembly in a bid to topple the Kamal Nath-led government.
In an embarrassment to the National Democratic Alliance, its key constituent Janata Dal-United on Tuesday strongly objected to certain remarks made by members of the Bharatiya Janata Party and Shiv Sena in the Rajya Sabha on the recent Mumbai violence to protest against the Assam riots.
Karnataka Legislative Assembly Secretary M K Vishalakshi, who is the returning officer for the Rajya Sabha polls, declared the 'unanimous election' of Gowda and Kharge from the Janta Dal-Secular and the Congress respectively, and BJP's Iranna Kadadi and Ashok Gasti, with no extra candidate in the fray.
Speaking to the reporters on Wednesday, Minister J P Dalal said that they have called all the MLAs to make the new MLAs understand on the polling procedure.
Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann met with President Droupadi Murmu to request the termination of Rajya Sabha MPs from Punjab who defected to the BJP. Mann also advocated for a constitutional provision allowing voters to remove elected officials who fail to perform.
Members of Parliament belonging to the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam on Monday exposed the chinks in the United Progressive Alliance's armour by getting question hour suspended in the Rajya Sabha with their demand to bring the Coalgate scam into focus
Sources stated that the move comes even as Trinamool Congress has attempted to stir a controversy over Dasgupta's candidature. BJP has fielded Swapan Dasgupta from Tarakeswar Assembly constituency in Hoogly district.
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 probe is on. The VCD is not clear and on the basis of it, it is difficult to make a case,' he said.
After 47 years in electoral politics, Union minister Sharad Pawar on Monday became a member of the Rajya Sabha for the first time.
Amendments moved by the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Left to the President's address against the National Counterterrorism Center was defeated in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday.
The Bharatiya Janata Party and ruling Congress members clashed on Wednesday in the Rajya Sabha over the issue of attack on Christians in Orissa, leading to abrupt adjournment of the House.
Union ministers Prakash Javedkar and Nirmla Sitharaman and senior Janata Dal-United leader Sharad Yadav and Nationalist Congress Party's Praful Patel on Monday took oath as members of Rajya Sabha.
As vice president and ex-officio chairman of the Rajya Sabha, Jagdeep Dhankar is inheriting a troubled legacy. Although the government faces no real numerical challenges in the Upper House, political and legal challenges are there aplenty.
The members, whose terms are ending, include union ministers Ravi Shankar Prasad, Dharmendra Pradhan, J P Nadda, Thaawarchand Gehlot and Ramdas Athawale.
The BJP must respect Bengal's pluralistic ethos and with this historic mandate give the state the constructive change it truly deserves, expects Kolkata native Payal Singh Mohanka.
Singh asked Shah not to act with 'political motives' while being a home minister.
The announcement came on a day that marks the third anniversary of the Naveen Patnaik-led government's fifth tenure in the state.
The transfer of powers to the Centre has been necessitated after the ownership of the SBI was transfered from the RBI to the government.
Senior leader P Chidambaram whose Rajya Sabha tenure is ending from Maharashtra is under consideration from Tamil Nadu as the Congress is all set to get the support of alliance partner the DMK. The G-23 leaders, including Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma and Vivek Tankha, are also said to be in contention.
It is not in the Lok Sabha, where the BJP has a clear majority, but the Rajya Sabha that the Opposition has ganged up to checkmate Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ambitious plans.
Bahujan Samaj Party and Samajparty Party, which support the United Progressive Alliance from outside, on Wednesday created repeated obstructions in Rajya Sabha, prompting an angry Bharatiya Janata Party to allege that the government has decided not to run the House because of its 'number game'.
The BJP has launched accusations against Arvind Kejriwal, alleging lavish spending and corruption related to his new bungalow in Delhi's Lodhi Estate, sparking a political row.
Lok Janshakti Party supremo Ram Vilas Paswan and Bharatiya Janata Party leader Rajeev Pratap Rudy on Thursday won their respective Rajya Sabha seats from Bihar.It has been reported that the BJP and its partner Janata Dal -United are optimistic about winning three seats, while the Rashtriya Janata Dal and LJP appear confident of winning both the seats they are contesting.The RJD-LJP alliance has the support of 68 MLAs, against the requirement of 76.
Samrat Choudhary's appointment as Bihar's Chief Minister marks a significant milestone for the BJP, ushering in a new era of leadership in the state's political landscape.
Acrimonious scenes were on Monday witnessed in the Rajya Sabha as members from the Bharatiya Janata Party, Lok Janshakti Party and Nationalist Congress Party clashed over the issue of reported low Muslim representation in admissions to private schools in Delhi. The sharp exchanges during Zero Hour also led to a heated argument between Ram Vilas Paswan, who raised the issue and BJP members, who alleged that Paswan was casting aspersions on P J Kurien (in the Chair).
Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray said his party's MPs will chant 'Vande Mataram' loudly in Parliament, daring the BJP to throw them out.
Tamil Nadu's AIADMK, leading the NDA in the state, has released its first list of 23 candidates for the upcoming Assembly elections, renominating key leaders and fielding experienced legislators from their traditional strongholds.
'Shivraj Chauhan is coming with a secret slip in which the next chief minister's name is mentioned, it will be known on Tuesday.'
The overall productivity of the House for the first three weeks of the monsoon session has been 22.60 per cent," sources said
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley was on Monday named as the Leader of the House in Rajya Sabha, while Congress veteran Ghulam Nabi Azad was declared the Leader of the Opposition.
The elections for the deputy chairman of the Rajya Sabha election is expected some time next week. The vacancy arose because the term of K Rehman Khan has ended. The Bharatiya Janata Party will take the contest seriously; much like it did for the Presidential and vice-presidential polls and may ask the Telugu Desam Party or the Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam to contest.
Bringing the prime minister in the line of fire, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday accused him and his ministers for the "choreographed disturbance" in the Rajya Sabha on the Lokpal issue and insisted that since the government wanted a weak ombudsman and lacked numbers, it ran away from a vote.
Congress member E M Sudarsana Natchiappan said by marching to the Divisional Commissioner's office in Jhansi to know why people were being deprived of their right to employment under the NREGS, Rahul Gandhi had proved himself to be 'Yuvraj of people and the Yuvraj of my party'.
For several months, there has been speculation among political circles in Amaravati that Priti Adani was most likely to be given one of the four Rajya Sabha seats on behalf of the ruling YSRC.
Rajya Sabha failed to transact any business for the seventh consecutive day as Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday stepped up attack on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and demanded Law Minister Ashwani Kumar's sacking in the wake of Supreme Court observations on the coal issue.
But Congress' Kiran Chaudhary and BJP's Shakuntala Hegde lost in a close contest in the biennial elections.
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