In a new political alignment in poll-bound West Bengal, state Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Tuesday announced the inclusion of newly formed Indian Secular Front (ISF) of Furfura Sharif cleric Abbas Siddiqui in the Left Front-Congress alliance.
In 2017, a retired R&AW officer conveyed that Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath was keen to get monarchy restored in Nepal and suggested that I support these efforts.
The DMK has allocated 10 seats to Congress, 10 seats to other alliance partners and kept 20 seats for itself.
Leader of Opposition in Bihar Legislative Assembly Tejashwi Yadav on Monday said the caste-based census will help in preparing welfare schemes for people from different sections of society.
'If the Congress is to challenge the NDA government, Rahul Gandhi will have to shed his indifference to Parliament, become more visible and vocal and, essentially, lead from the front,' says Rediff.com contributor Anita Katyal.
Rajya Sabha witnessed unruly scenes on Sunday as Opposition members stormed the well and reached the deputy chairman's seat to protest against the farm bills debated and passed by the Upper House through voice vote.
On one hand, South Indian states have been complaining about denial of a proportionate portion of the sharable funds from the Centre, based on population. On the other hand, they stand to lose Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha seats that again are based on population, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
Banerjee feels that as long as Sonia Gandhi is the leader of the Congress Parliamentary Party, she should be the undisputed leader of a united front of opposition parties, reports R Rajagopalan.
With prices rising, lawmakers of the world's largest democracy are seeking a better pay package.
Among the parties that boycotted the proceedings of the House included the Congress, which was the among the first to walkout, followed by members of the CPI-M, CPI, TMC, NCP, SP, Shiv Sena, RJD, DMK, TRS and AAP.
Political parties slammed the government in the Lok Sabha on Thursday over the sliding rupee, which has breached the Rs 68 to a US dollar mark, and demanded that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh make a statement on the issue.
Introducing UCC is a challenging task for any government. The complexities are real and difficult to negotiate as it deals with sensitive religious and cultural sentiments. How can it strike an easy balance between individual rights and community interests?, asks Ramesh Menon.
In a fresh bid to end the Parliament deadlock, Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar will on Friday meet leaders of the Left Front and other non-Bharatiya Janata Party opposition parties. Communist Party of India - Marxist General Secretary Prakash Karat, CPI-M politburo member Sitaram Yechury and Janata Dal - United chief Sharad Yadav are among those who will attend the meeting.On Thursday, the Speaker met BJP leaders but failed to bridge the differences as they insisted on a JPC.
The 89-year-old leader was expelled by the CPI-M after he refused to step down from his position as Speaker holding that the post is above any party politics.
The Communist Party of India-Marxist has accused the Congress of reversing its own stand of bringing the Prime Minister under Lokpal purview, saying a parliamentary panel headed by senior party leader Pranab Mukherjee had made such a recommendation in 2001.
Asserting that efficiency of Indian Parliament depends to a large extent on the duration and proper conduct of parliamentary proceedings, Communist Party of India-Marxist on Sunday demanded constitutional amendment making 100 sittings a year mandatory.
In a move which could once again put the Congress in the firing line and give them a great deal of negative publicity, the party's core group in its meeting held on Friday evening has given the green signal to bring a fresh bill in the monsoon session of Parliament to keep political parties out of the ambit of the Right to Information Act.
While it has not publicly announced the constituencies where it would field candidates, CPI-M sources said the states where the party would contest at least one parliamentary seat were Punjab, Gujarat, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh.
The proceedings of the House were adjourned till 2 pm as slogan-shouting TMC and other opposition MPs trooped into the well of the House, some holding placards, to demand a discussion on the issue of Israeli-made, military-grade Pegasus spyware being used to snoop on opposition leaders, government critics and journalists.
'Amit Shah was, briefly, a stockbroker before devoting himself to politics. By instinct or training, he knows the value of keeping blue chips in one's portfolio.'
Lok Sabha Speaker on Wednesday referred the issue of some Trinamool Congress members allegedly accepting bribe, as shown in a purported sting operation, to the Ethics Committee, asking the L K Advani-headed panel to examine and investigate the charges.
Passed by a voice vote, the Himachal Pradesh Freedom of Religion (Amendment) Bill, 2022, also bans "mass conversion" - described as two or more people converting at the same time - through force or allurement .
Consensus building is likely to be the biggest casualty.
The winter session of Parliament is set to be stormy with Opposition parties closing ranks to target the government on issues including 'intolerance' even as the ruling dispensation expressed its readiness to discuss all issues.
The Congress and Left Front on Thursday finalised sharing of 193 seats of the total 294 in West Bengal assembly with the Left parties getting the lion's share of 101 seats.
The government has readied a big legislative agenda for the Monsoon Session of Parliament beginning Monday even as the Opposition is raring to corner the ruling dispensation over a host of issues, including handling of the second wave of COVID-19, rise in fuel prices and farmers' stir.
Given the politics behind it all, one possibility is for binding the governor to act according to the decisions of the state government and clarifying his position vis a vis bills and resolutions passed by the state assembly -- or, re-enacted if returned, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
The government is bracing up for a tough week in Parliament from Monday, with opposition parties giving a number of notices in both Houses seeking a debate on 'intolerance' in society and action against some ministers for their alleged provocative remarks.
Seeking truce with agitating Opposition members over controversial remarks made by Minister Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said the matter should be put to rest after her apology, but it failed to satisfy them.
Stalin said one cannot and should not decide the mood of the entire country based on the results of one state elections.
It was a changed scenario in the new Lok Sabha with the churning brought out by the elections throwing in contrasts.
The Communist Party of India-Marxist on Friday raised in the Lok Sabha the issue of Minister of State for Tourism Sultan Ahmed staying in a five-star hotel for six months and questioned who would foot the bill of Rs 37 lakh.
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.
'Oommen Chandy always had time for his people and valued their voices.' 'There was no rest for him as long as the betterment of his fellow citizens was at stake.' Ambassador Venu Rajamony, who knew the former Kerala chief minister for half a century, salutes a beloved leader who worked tirelessly for the welfare of its people.
'The decline of the Congress party and its inability to play the lead role in Opposition politics has created a space for the TMC to expand.'
The video, which has been compiled using clips from RSTV, comprises statements made by the opposition MPs in the Upper House, with the words "farmer" and "Pegasus" in the opening lines.
In the eye of storm over his refusal to quit, Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee on Friday said he will retire at the end of his term and was not keen on rejoining CPI(M) which expelled him recently.
All eyes will be on the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, Biju Janata Dal and the Sena itself to see which way they vote.
The ruling All India Anna DMK bagged 37 out of the 39 seats in the state, with the Bharatiya Janata Party winning one seat and its alliance partner the Pattali Makkal Katchi winning one.
