The breakaway faction is led by former Union minister Dilip Ray.
"I know the concerns of security. I don't need the permission of SPG or SP to meet people," Gandhi told media persons shortly after the matter was raised in the Lok Sabha by Biju Janata Dal member Braj Kishore Tripathi. Tripathi said the Orissa government had been put in a 'difficult situation' as Gandhi, who has Z-Plus security, had left the NALCO Guest House in Naxal-infested Koraput for some 'undisclosed destination' for four hours at night on March 7 without informing.
Shashi Tharoor has also been retained as the chairman of the panel on Information Technology.
The four rebels are -- Prasanna Patsani, Prabhat Samantray, Kumudini Patnaik, wife of former state Finance Minister Ramakrushna Patnaik, and Jagannath Mallick.
But will this move of BJD supremo and chief minister Naveen Patnaik help him to return to power for the third consecutive term? Or will his decision to sever 11 year old ties with BJP, which saw him at the head of a coalition government for last nine years, prove to be costly? This is the question that every voter in the state is asking.
Senior BJP leader and Patnagarh MLA KV Singh Deo and debutant from Nimapara assembly segment Pravati Parida took oath as deputy chief ministers.
Leader of the delegation B J Panda of the Biju Janata Dal said, "We still have the last mile left before the closure of the civilian nuclear deal."
Chief ministers of three Congress-ruled states -- Karnataka's Siddaramaiah, Himachal Pradesh's Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu and Telangana's Revanth Reddy -- have announced they will not attend the NITI Aayog meeting over alleged bias against their states in the Union Budget.
'Kalinga Nagar was a shock to everybody'\n
\n'How we acquit ourselves in the next couple of years will decide the fate of all these projects coming up,' says BJD MP Jay Panda.
Samal also claimed that the Odisha BJP was confident of winning both the polls.
Sources said Modi also called up various leaders, including Mulayam Singh Yadav and Akhilesh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik, Dravida Munnetra Kazagham's M K Stalin and Shiromani Akali Dal leader Parkash Singh Badal.
Centre's disinvestment policy Saturday came in for sharp criticism from some States with BJP ally Biju Janata Dal in Orissa going so far as to seek a separate National Democratic Alliance meeting on it.
Kumar had also made it clear that he was in the process of uniting the non-BJP leaders.
Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu also made a fervent appeal to the leaders of various parties at an all-party meeting to ensure smooth and effective functioning of the House during the Budget Session.
Four-time Odisha MP Pinaki Misra's wedding to firebrand TMC MP Mahua Moitra in a quiet, intimate ceremony that chose privacy and tradition over fanfare, was a reflection of his personal style.
The overall productivity of the House for the first three weeks of the monsoon session has been 22.60 per cent," sources said
'We are very conscious this is a blot on the image of Orissa as a peaceful state,' says Jay Panda, MP.
With numbers on its side -- the ruling NDA has about half the votes of the electoral college -- and the possible support of fence-sitters like the BJD, the AIADMK and the YSRCP, the NDA candidate will likely sail through the contest.
The founder of KIIT, Achyuta Samanta, and other top officials of the private engineering college were questioned by a government committee about the alleged suicide of a Nepalese girl in her hostel and the assault on students of her country. The incident sparked outrage in the Odisha Assembly, with opposition members demanding a judicial inquiry. Samanta was questioned for two hours, along with the institute's Vice-Chancellor, Registrar, Dean, and two suspended women officials. The committee is investigating the circumstances surrounding the student's suicide, the alleged high-handedness of the institute's administration, and the decision to suspend specific students and shut down the institute for them. The Odisha government has assured Nepalese students that it will cover their travel expenses, arrange remedial classes, and reschedule their mid-semester examinations if necessary.
Raut's demand comes amid speculation over the possibility of Naveen Patnaik's Biju Janata Dal getting the post.
Patnaik has continued his grip over Odisha with his party, the BJD, winning 112 assembly seats in the 147-member House.
iyush Goel, Dharmendra Pradhan, Pralhad Joshi, Ashwini Vaishnaw and Biseswar Tudu are the 5 Union minsters.
Clearing the air before the end of the monsoon session on Tuesday, the CM said, "Shradha is a physiotherapist sent by my sister late Gita Mehta to take care of my physical fitness."
Move the pointer on the sentiment meter (depending on who you think will get more votes) towards the political parties to see how the outcome is likely to change.
A sitting MLA and Bharatiya Janata Party candidate allegedly broke an electronic voting machine (EVM) and attacked a polling officer inside a booth during voting in Odisha which recorded a voter turnout of over 60.97 per cent in six Lok Sabha seats and 42 assembly segments, officials said.
The RSS wants BJP to field a 'swayamsevak', while the Opposition has mulled fielding former West Bengal governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi.
The government on Monday said that matters regarding Chinese intrusion can't be discussed in Parliament as it concerns the security of the country.
Talks on pre-poll alliance were being held between the ruling Biju Janata Dal and the opposition BJP for the past few days.
Patnaik, who met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi earlier in the day to discuss developmental issues related to his state, also ruled out joining any third front, a plan floated by some regional parties earlier.
Mr Pradhan's understanding of realpolitik and organisational dynamics makes him the ultimate party man, notes Aditi Phadnis.
Naveen Patnaik is known as an "absentee landlord" who needs bureaucrats like Pandian to run his government.
Opposition members in Rajya Sabha on Thursday accused the government of imposing Hindi by bringing new bills with titles only in that language, a charge the treasury bench contested while alleging they were stuck with a colonial mindset.
Despite failing to secure a simple majority in Parliament, we will continue to see him on TV, newspapers, magazines, bill boards, vaccination certificates, railway stations, bus shelters, airports, sea ports, on the highway and on rural roads, sighs A Ganesh Nadar.
On Tuesday, November 29, 2022, the final day of campaigning before Thursday's first phase of the Gujarat assembly election, the Bharatiya Janata Party fielded an array of leaders to canvass votes for the party that has ruled the state since 1995.
Apart from the 18 members of the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA), including the Bharatiya Janata Party, seven non-National Democratic Alliance parties will attend the ceremony, going by their stated position on the issue which has snowballed into another political flashpoint between the ruling and opposition camps.
A suitable non-Congress candidate from a regional party could help influence even some of the NDA allies like the Shiv Sena and the Janata Dal-United to vote for a consensus Opposition candidate, reports Archis Mohan.
The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, Trinamool Congress and Biju Janata Dal appear to be unwilling to have seats in Lok Sabha along with Congress which has the largest number of seats in the non-governmental side.
There is a proposal from the BJP camp that they would resort to a proportion-based increase in the number of Lok Sabha seats for individual states, based on what they now have. On the face of it, this sounds like a fine argument that those demanding a 'freeze' now cannot oppose without reasons and justification, avers N Sathiya Moorthy.
'It is not just about numbers. Sometimes coalitions and alliances have symbolic value.'
