Two-time Trinamool Congress Lok Sabha MP Mahua Moitra is learnt to have quietly tied the knot with Biju Janata Dal leader Pinaki Misra on May 3.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday sprang surprises with its first list of 71 candidates for the Bihar assembly polls, denying a ticket to Speaker Nand Kishore Yadav, a seven-term MLA, while fielding Deputy CM Samrat Choudhary in a direct election after over a decade.
We will defeat them in the Speaker's election itself. We are sure the Shiv Sena-Congress-NCP will form the government," Nawab Malik said.
A 39-member parliamentary panel has been constituted to examine the two bills proposing simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and state assemblies. The panel, chaired by BJP leader Bhratruhari Mahtab, will include prominent members from various political parties, including the BJP, Congress, SP, TMC, and DMK. The panel is expected to submit its report to the Lok Sabha by the first day of the last week of the next session. The government has decided to increase the committee's strength to include more political parties, highlighting the significance of this proposal to reform the election process in India.
Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra criticizes the government's proposed bill to replace MGNREGA, arguing it weakens the guaranteed 100 days of employment for the poor and centralizes control over the scheme.
A meeting of the newly elected Congress Members of Legislative Assembly in Maharashtra on Saturday authorised party president Sonia Gandhi to nominate their new leader, who will be the next chief minister. A one-line resolution, authorising Sonia Gandhi to name the new leader, was passed at the first meeting of the Congress Legislature Party, convened in Mumbai to elect the leader, two days after the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party combine stormed back to power.
Ramesh Jena, the Congress member of Legislative Assembly in Orissa, was arrested on Tuesday in connection with a recent shootout incident at an apartment in Bhubaneswar, the police said.
Maharashtra BJP MLA Gopichand Padalkar's alleged derogatory remarks about NCP (SP) leader Jayant Patil and his parents sparked discontent among members of the opposition party, leading to protests and Sharad Pawar expressing his disapproval to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.
The Congress had on Saturday shifted its 14 MLAs to Jaipur fearing horse-trading by the ruling BJP ahead of the Rajya Sabha polls.
Owaisi was appointed as pro-tem Speaker though there were other senior members in the House, state BJP president G Kishan Reddy alleged.
Parasram Bishnoi, his wife Kusum and sacked minister Mahipal Maderna's close associate Goverdhan were on Saturday grilled by the Central Bureau of Investigation in Bhanwari Devi disappearance case.
An ECI statement issued from New Delhi put the voter turnout at 68.76 per cent. The female turnout (74.03 per cent) was significantly higher, compared with males (64.1 per cent).
Bihar recorded its highest-ever voter turnout of 67.14 per cent in the second and final phase of the assembly elections. The election is seen as a referendum on Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. Kishanganj recorded the highest polling percentage at 76.26.
The Maharashtra legislative assembly passed the 'Maharashtra Special Public Security Bill' aimed at preventing unlawful activities of Left Wing Extremist organizations, focusing on urban Naxalism and passive militancy.
'Knowing that a no-confidence motion would succeed, the BJP central leadership forced N Biren Singh to resign.' 'If he had lost on the floor of the House, it would have been a major setback for the BJP.'
'The move to appoint a person with a profile, markedly lower than the leader Nitin Nabin will replace, has the potential to put the brakes on the careers of several others in the party and government in the positions they currently hold,' points out Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
In the coming assembly election, negotiations over seat-sharing will be as important as actual outreach to voters.
The Congress, which has 37 MLAs, had fixed a quota of 30 first preference votes for its candidate Satav, and seven remaining votes were to go to its ally Sena (UBT)'s nominee Narvekar, party sources said. Eventually, Satav got 25 and Narvekar 22 first preference votes, which meant at least seven Congress MLAs cross-voted.
The last time when more than 200 MLAs were part of the state government was in 1972, but at that time all the 222 legislators belonged to Congress. Also, the strength of the House was 270 at that time, a former state legislature official said on Monday citing data.
Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal will attend the meetings of the committee as a special invitee, while legal affairs secretary Niten Chandra will be secretary to the panel.
The electoral exercise, the first since the Lok Sabha elections, will decide the fate of many veterans and some debutantes including Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu's wife Kamlesh Thakur.
Voting for the bypolls in Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Tamil Nadu were held on Wednesday.
Since Independence, Lok Sabha Speakers have been chosen by consensus.
Kavitha, daughter of party founder and former Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR), also announced quitting as Member of the Legislative Council and indicated there was 'pressure' on her father to act against her.
In a jolt to the opposition Congress ahead of the assembly polls in Gujarat, senior MLA Mohansinh Rathva on Tuesday resigned as a party member and legislator and joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The National Democratic Alliance was set to sweep the Bihar assembly polls, surging ahead in over 200 of 243 seats on Friday with the Bharatiya Janata Party emerging as single largest party with about 90 per cent strike rate, reaffirming the popularity and campaign clout of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was the face of the ruling alliance through the poll battle in the highly sensitive political state.
A family feud within the politically influential Matua community has erupted between Union minister Shantanu Thakur and his brother, BJP MLA Subrata Thakur, creating ripples in West Bengal's political landscape and posing a challenge for the BJP ahead of upcoming elections.
Aam Aadmi Party's Gopal Italia on Monday won from Gujarat's Visavadar assembly constituency and his party also retained Punjab's Ludhiana West seat while the Congress-led United Democratic Front wrested Nilambur from the ruling Left Democratic Front in Kerala, according to results of assembly bypolls in four states.
The decision was taken to foil the attempts made by Chief Minister Mayawati to further split the party.
Orissa Congress Member of Legislative Assembly Shibaji Majhi, who his party has alleged was kidnapped at the behest of the ruling Biju Janata Dal, did not turn up to cast his vote in the Rajya Sabha elections till Thursday afternoon.
"I was not happy in Congress. The Congress state leadership has failed completely," Madkaikar said.
With the Speaker of the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly rejecting the resignations of all members of legislative assembly from the Telangana region, the Congress MLAs are locked up in a meeting to decide on the next course of action.
They were suspended for misbehaviour and shouting slogans in the House.
The newly-elected members couldn't take oath even one month after the results of the assembly polls were announced, due to political up and downs in the state.
Kejriwal claimed that the BJP has ruined Gujarat in its 30-year rule. The Congress has failed as an opposition because it helps the BJP retain power, he said.
Two bills that lay down the mechanism to hold simultaneous elections were introduced in the Lok Sabha after a fiery debate on Tuesday, with the opposition terming the move 'dictatorial' and Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal asserting that the legislation would not tamper with the powers enjoyed by states.
The political crisis and uncertainty for the Congress government in Andhra Pradesh further deepened on Monday, with 26 members of legislative assembly (of the party) deciding to submit their resignations in support of beleaguered YSR Congress president and member of Parliament YS Jaganmohan Reddy. Mohammed Siddique reportS.
Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Kavinder Gupta was elected unanimously as Speaker of the 12th Assembly of Jammu and Kashmir.
The BJP, the AAP and the Congress had fielded six, five and three women candidates, but only Reena Kashyap of the BJP won the election.
Y S Vijaya Lakshmi, widow of late Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, was on Thursday unanimously elected as the leader of YSR Congress Legislature Party.
