The Marxists are heading for their worst debacle in many elections. How will May 16, 2014 affect India's Communists? T V R Shenoy surveys the landscape.
Maintaining that contrary opinions should not be ignored, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday said former Lok Sabha Speaker and expelled Communist Party of India - Marxist leader Somnath Chatterjee had "risen above his party and his ideology to do what he believes is right".
The special session is set to commence on a stormy note on account of Speaker Vijay Kumar Sinha's stout refusal to resign despite the new ruling dispensation's motion of no-confidence against him.
Following that, Sudhakaran, at another event in Alappuzha on Thursday, claimed that what he had said earlier was not completely true and he had added something extra to it from his "imagination".
About 82 per cent of the total income from unknown sources declared by national political parties in 2022-23 came from electoral bonds, according to a poll rights body.
The preferred format would be for the top BJP leadership in the government to reach out to the alliance leaders on a case-to-case basis.
Top leaders of Communist Party of India-Marxist, CPI, Revolutionary Socialist Party and Forward Bloc are expected to meet in the third week of this month to devise a common stand the four parties should have vis-a-vis the Congress in view of the elections. At the meeting, the four parties will also discuss ways to resolve their inter-party wranglings and strengthen their unity further.
A female student of primary school was killed in Kaliganj in West Bengal's Nadia district on Monday after bombs were allegedly hurled from a Trinamool Congress victory celebration rally taken out even before the results of the assembly bypoll were officially announced.
West Bengal Governor C V Ananda Bose on Friday filed a defamation case against Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at the Calcutta high court, a day after she said that women complained to her saying that they were afraid to visit the Raj Bhavan because of the activities there, a source said.
Top leaders of the Opposition's Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) held talks in an informal setting in Mumbai on Thursday evening to chart out a concrete roadmap and evolve a structure for cooperation among the alliance partners to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
The Communist Party of India-Marxist met in Vijayawada last week to confront the many challenges facing the party, especially in its strongholds, Bengal and Kerala. What did the meeting achieve? Can the CPI-M emerge from the crisis it finds itself in?
"We, the undersigned parties, wish to register our anguish and serious concern over the manner in which the Government is hurriedly passing legislations without any scrutiny by Parliamentary Standing or Select Committees. This is a fundamental departure from the established practice and healthy traditions of enacting legislations," the letter said.
Several opposition leaders on Monday wrote to the Rajya Sabha chairman claiming that Leader of Opposition in the House Mallikarjun Kharge was not accorded a seat commensurate with his position during the swearing-in ceremony of President Droupadi Murmu.
Both LDF and UDF are finding it hard to set their houses in order.
A special court in Chhattisgarh's Bilaspur district granted bail to three persons, including two nuns from Kerala, arrested on charges of human trafficking and forced religious conversion.
A senior Delhi Police officer, however, said no student was detained.
The Communist Party of India-Marxist on Friday said the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) is "not a communal party" and praised the key partner of the opposition United Democratic Front for not agreeing with the Congress on the issue of the alleged move by Governor Arif Mohammed Khan, who according to the ruling front, was trying to "saffronise" the universities in Kerala.
At the customary meeting ahead of the session beginning Monday, the opposition raised various issues, including voter roll revision in Bihar, the Pahalgam terror attack and Trump's 'ceasefire' claims.
Announcing candidates for the remaining four seats in Kerala, the Bharatiya Janata Party has fielded its state chief K Surendran in the high-profile Wayanad constituency against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.
West Bengal Chief Minister Buddadeb Bhattacharya on Sunday said the Communist Party of India-Marxist would guard against the creation of a Nandigram-like similar situation anywhere in the state.
The leaders will also raise the issue of alleged "use of religious symbols" by the Bharatiya Janata Party in their campaign, they said.
The CBI has till December 13 to submit a report to the court.
Defying a Communist Party of India directive to quit his post before the trust vote, Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee on Monday chaired an all-party meeting in New Delhi ahead of the special session of the Lok Sabha to decide on the confidence motion.The Speaker had called the meeting of the floor leaders of parties to discuss issues related to the trust vote being sought by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in the wake of the Left withdrawing support to the UPA.
Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi held a virtual meeting on Friday evening with leaders of 19 Opposition parties, including the chief ministers of some Opposition-ruled states, amid efforts to boost Opposition unity and evolve a common strategy against the National Democratic Alliance government.
The leaders of the INDIA requested the EC to instruct its officials that they should follow the guidelines.
Opposition parties in India have criticized the imposition of President's rule in strife-torn Manipur, accusing the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of failing to address the ethnic violence and using the measure to cover up internal conflicts within the party. They demanded a clear roadmap for restoring peace and questioned the government's lack of transparency and inaction on the issue. The violence, which erupted in May 2023, has left over 250 people dead.
The Kerala police on Thursday launched an investigation into an alleged social media campaign against Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan's Facebook post requesting help for the people affected by the landslides in Wayanad district. The campaign was aimed at motivating people to reject the CM's appeal for disaster relief, it said.
The accused has been arrested on the basis of an FIR lodged by the woman at Haridevpur Police Station, they said.
Modi on Sunday suggested that if the Congress came to power, it would redistribute the wealth of people to Muslims and cited former PM Manmohan Singh's remark that the minority community had the first claim on the country's resources.
On July 2 or July 6, the Dalai Lama will reveal his mind on his successor. This makes Beijing extremely nervous as the Communist regime fully realises the importance of controlling the next Dalai Lama, points out Claude Arpi.
With four seats each won by junior allies Hindustani Awam Morcha-Secular and Vikassheel Insaan Party, the NDA bagged 125 seats in its kitty, three more than the number required for a simple majority.
The Congress 'Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra', led by Rahul Gandhi, is scheduled to enter West Bengal from Assam on Thursday, amid political ripples within the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) in the state.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh told an all-party meeting that at least 100 terrorists were killed in the Indian strikes on terror sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir under 'Operation Sindoor'. Leaders from various parties showed maturity and extended all support to the government and armed forces.
'In India there is so much exploitation because of capitalism,' says CPI-M Politburo member Brinda Karat.
The government may have to move 18 amendments to the Constitution to implement the concept of simultaneous elections as recommended by a high-level committee chaired by former president Ram Nath Kovind.
Opposition parties will hold the next meeting of their 26-member INDIA coalition in Mumbai on August 25 and 26, sources said on Thursday.
'According to JP, Indira Gandhi was not much of a danger to democracy. He said, it was Sanjay Gandhi and his gang.'
Security forces on Saturday extended the ongoing search operation to new areas after the body of the fourth policeman and two slain terrorists were recovered from the scene of a gunfight in a remote forested area in Kathua district of Jammu and Kashmir, officials said.
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Sunday said that the 'unelected nominees of New Delhi locked up the elected representatives' of the people of Jammu and Kashmir after prominent leaders from ruling and opposition parties were not allowed to leave their houses to prevent them from visiting the graveyard of 1931 martyrs in Srinagar.
The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the Centre and the Gujarat government to submit by October 16 the original records related to the remission of sentence of 11 convicts in the Bilkis Bano gangrape case and murder of seven of her family members during the 2002 Gujarat riots.
