The increased numbers of the Opposition bloc would mean that their MPs are likely to head several more panels than the four that they did by the end of the term of the 17th Lok Sabha.
The Assam assembly will discontinue with the two-hour break provided on Fridays to facilitate Muslim legislators to offer 'namaaz', Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said. The rule will be implemented from the next session, an assembly official said.
'Rahul Gandhi is going to turn 54 and in India political leaders peak when they are around 60.' 'This 'bhai-behen ki jodi' has done a wonderful job for the Congress.' 'Priyanka Gandhi was a very effective campaigner.'
The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) is keen to join hands with the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance in Maharashtra with an aim to defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that is currently ruling the state along with two other parties, former MP Imtiaz Jaleel has said.
The opposition leaders are expected to meet at Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge's office in the Parliament complex around 10 am, sources said.
Shiv Sena-Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray chief Uddhav Thackeray on Friday said he will back any candidate announced by the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party-Sharadchandra Pawar as Maha Vikas Aghadi's chief ministerial face.
Ahead of the crucial meeting of Trinamool Congress parliamentary party, prominent leader Saugata Roy indicated that party could pull out its ministers from the Union council of minister if its roll back demands on FDI in retail, cap on LPG subsidy and diesel price hike were not met with.
Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Wednesday said the question of who could be an alternative to Prime Minister Narendra Modi is "irrelevant" as in a parliamentary system people are not electing an individual but a party or a coalition of parties.
The poll aspirants who feel threatened are seeking to garner sympathy from their voters by meeting influential leaders like Jarange in the Marathwada region
Ajit Pawar also said he was "not interested" in contesting elections anymore.
If the BJP has to work as a junior partner of Vijay's TVK, then either the party will have to change the state leader, or the latter should change himself. Incidentally, ever since Vijay started talking politics and elections, the pro-BJP/Hindutva social media had stopped dragging his name into any non-existing issue.' In particular, they have stopped referring to him by his Christian name, 'Joseph Vijay', observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Leaders of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) have decided to raise the NEET issue in both houses of Parliament on Friday and members will give notices in this regard, sources have said.
ASJ Chander Jit Singh underscored he would first consider the issue of jurisdiction and whether or not to transfer the case to a special court meant to try lawmakers, considering Rashid was now an MP.
The TDP and the LJP also supported the Bill being sent to a parliamentary committee for further examination.
Ray, however, claimed on Friday that his remarks were "misinterpreted".
Amid a tussle between the Union government and Twitter over the new IT rules, officials of the microblogging site on Friday deposed before a parliamentary panel chaired by Congress's Shashi Tharoor over preventing misuse of social media.
AICC president Sonia Gandhi is likely to outline the strategy of the party for Lok Sabha elections when she addresses Congress Parliamentary Party on Wednesday.
But as voters gear up for crucial assembly and parliamentary polls on May 13, all eyes are on the high-stakes battle in Pulivendula, an assembly constituency that has been a Reddy family stronghold for over four decades.
'Just because the NDA has a majority and the BJP is the single largest party does not mean that this Modi government enjoys a majority in the Lok Sabha.' 'It is always possible that some members (of the NDA and even the BJP) may defect, some members may not want him to be the prime minister and they might vote differently (against Modi) in the confidence vote.'
Those responsible for protecting MPs have failed in their constitutional duties, said Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge.
Tharoor also said the Congress must decentralise authority and truly empower the grassroots office-bearers of the party.
The Congress president during his year at the helm of the party has repaired the citadel for far more challenging years ahead, and played a crucial role in shaping the Opposition alliance.
Dressed in colourful attire, members of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday got their group photograph clicked in the old Parliament building, hours before legislative proceedings shift to the new Parliament House.
The Congress had convened a meeting of its Lok Sabha members to evolve the party's strategy in the lower house of Parliament on Wednesday.
Hours after Congress leader Manish Tewari on Thursday said the government might get the Digital Data Protection Bill classified as a money bill, Union IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw refuted the charge and termed it a "normal bill".
Ramesh was asked by the poll panel to submit factual details by Sunday evening of the allegations that he made in a social media post recently.
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.
An MP from Baharampur since 1999 and the reigning Pradesh Congress president of West Bengal, this was perhaps Chowdhury's toughest electoral challenge which came in the form Pathan, the non-resident TMC candidate.
'If, as happened in Baramulla during the 2024 Lok Sabha election, the youth in the Valley get triggered enough to jump into the wider fray, the end result would be difficult to predict, especially as the state's post-August 5, 2019 political format remains substantially fragmented and foggy,' points out Mohammad Sayeed Malik, the veteran commentator on Kashmir affairs.
Congress deputy leader in Lok Sabha Gaurav Gogoi also alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party's nationalism is "fake" and "they are not patriots".
The former chief minister said if there was any danger of his losing from Budgam, then his party colleagues would not have allowed him to contest from Budgam.
A two-day special session of the West Bengal assembly was convened by the government on September 2 to table and pass a Bill which would provide for capital punishment to convicted rapists, Parliamentary Affairs minister Sovandeb Chattopadhyay said. The Bill would be tabled for discussion and passage on Tuesday, the second day of the special session, Speaker Biman Banerjee said.
There are concerns within the Congress with respect to the articulation of the party's demand for the caste census, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently accusing the grand old party of attempting to divide Hindus through its push for the Other Backward Classes.
Khera told reporters in Hyderabad that the views of the newly-elected MLAs have been elicited and the central leadership is seized of the matter.
Sharmila said it was her father's dream to see Rahul Gandhi as prime minister and she would be happy to contribute to it.
The plenary session in Chhattisgarh's Nava Raipur will start from February 24 and is expected to be attended by around 15,000 delegates.
Clash of the two richest titans, a celebrity and a 'royal', is on the cards in Himachal Pradesh's Mandi Lok Sabha constituency, known for electing erstwhile 'royals' maximum number of times.
"What the RTI Act did was to make available to citizens any information that could be provided, that the government was obliged to provide to a Member of Parliament (MP). In theory, that channel remains open to us," says prominent economist and RTI activist Reetika Khera about how Indian citizens could still have access to information that they want
Meanwhile, Kamra has refused to retract his controversial tweets against the Supreme Court or apologise for them, saying he believes they "speak for themselves".
The June 23 meeting of opposition parties, called by Bihar Chief Minister and Janata Dal-United leader Nitish Kumar, will see anti-BJP players chalk out a strategy for the Lok Sabha polls.
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