Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Thursday challenged Congress president Sonia Gandhi to provide details of the 'additional' financial assistance provided by the Centre to the state.Kumar was reacting to remarks made by Gandhi earlier, when she had claimed that Bihar had received the maximum amount of financial assistance from the Centre for development and welfare programmes during the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance's tenure.
Former speaker of Lok Sabha P A Sangma, who is in the fray for the Presidential poll, on Wednesday resigned from the Nationalist Congress Party.NCP chief Sharad Pawar had urged Sangma to withdraw from the contest, after the ruling United Progressive Alliance unanimously nominated senior Congress leader Pranab Mukherjee as it its candidate for the President's post.
It also demanded increasing the number of liquefied petroleum gas cylinders per family to 12, instead of nine as decided by the government on Thursday.
Major parties have lined up a long list of star campaigners to woo voters in Assam where assembly polls are scheduled for April 4 and 11. The ruling Congress, bidding for return to power for the third consecutive term, has a long list of prominent persons, including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi, to campaign for the party.
According to a senior Cabinet minister and senior leader of the Congress, the Bharatiya Janta Party is indulging in 'unethical behaviour and undemocratic aggressive methods' to oppose the United Progressive Alliance government in its second tenure.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday lashed out at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh over his televised address to the nation following violent protests demanding justice for the 23-year-old gang-rape victim in Delhi, saying the latter's speech was disappointing. BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said Dr Singh failed to give any promises or reassure the country about the steps being taken by the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government at the Centre.
Terming the austerity drive launched by the Congress-led government as "hypocrisy", Janata Dal (United) National President Sharad Yadav on Saturday said if the Congress was serious about the issue, it should bring a bill to this effect in the Parliament.
The BJP leader was referred to as 'Smt Sushma Gandhi' in an NDA press release.
Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday attacked critics of the Food Security Bill which was passed by Parliament last week, saying money spent on providing meals to the poor cannot be called "wastage" of financial resources.
The United Progressive Alliance government won the vote on Foreign Direct Investment in multi-brand retail not by "floor management but by fund management", alleged Bharatiya Janata Party national spokesperson Muktar Abbas Naqvi on Saturday.
"The Mumbai terror attack seems to have hit the UPA government like a thunderbolt and enlightened its vision. The government that used to rubbish any nationalist suggestion to ensure national security by dealing firmly with the terrorists and their domestic harbingers has suddenly woken up and started speaking a new language," said an editorial in RSS mouthpiece Organiser.
Dodging immense political heat that Congress is facing from the opposition and the civil society members, United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi is reportedly on a visit to her hometown Italy.
A source in the Congress party has said that the name of the next presidential candidate from the UPA would surface by May 25. Renu Mittal reports
Kasab's execution is part of the government's effort to demonstrate how it will deal with issues of national security strongly, political journalist Rasheed Kidwai tells Priyanka.
Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi on Saturday lashed out at Congress president Sonia Gandhi and vice president Rahul Gandhi over the claims made in a book by the Prime Minister's former aide, saying the mother and son would have to pay the "price" for running the United Progressive Alliance government from behind the scene.
In a major embarrassment to the Bharatiya Janata Party's Karnataka unit, Pranab Mukherjee, United Progressive Alliance's candidate who was on Sunday elected President of India, got more votes than expected in the BJP-ruled state.
If the Congress came to power in MP, those responsible for the deaths of the six farmers would face strict action within 10 days.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had been "defanged" by the Congress party in his second term with Sonia Gandhi deciding on key appointments to the Cabinet and to the PMO as he seemed to "surrender" to her and to the United Progressive Alliance constituents.
Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav's talk of early Lok Sabha polls to his party cadres shocked Congress leaders engaged in backroom talks for the last two weeks to rope in his party to join the United Progressive Alliance government at the Centre for giving it a stability to carry on till 2014.
Political needs of the Congress largely drove the reshuffle of ministers
The war of conflicting ideas has broken out within the Congress party. Though there is no official confirmation available, reliable sources in the United Progressive Alliance government say that Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh disagree on certain issues, which had come to the fore over the sacking of Home Minister Shivraj Patl.
The Union Cabinet is likely to be reshuffled on Sunday. Speculation has been rife about a possible reshuffle in the wake of the exit of Trinamool Congress ministers and Dravida Munnettra Kazhagam representatives A Raja and Dayanidhi Maran in the last two years.
The loss of a few states for Congress in the assembly elections does not warrant mid-term polls to the Lok Sabha, Union Minister Farooq Abdullah said in Coimbatore on Friday.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Nitin Gadkari on Tuesday demanded that the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government publish a 'White Paper' on rising prices of essential commodities that crippled lives of the middle class and the poor in the country.
While Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry extended an all-out support to the government, Confederation of Indian Industry recommended 'a calibrated approach for introducing FDI in the retail sector in terms of the percentage and minimum capitalisation requirements'.
Opposition members created an uproar in both Houses of Parliament on Monday over issues like allowing 51 per cent Foreign Direct Investment in multi-brand retail, demand for Telangana state and threat to people of Kerala due to Mullaperiyar dam.
Cautioning the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government against making any 'hasty' announcements in the name of reforms, key ally Dravida Munnettra Kazhagam on Friday said decisions should be based on "consultations". "My opinion is that hasty decisions and announcements in the name of economic reforms should be avoided. They should be taken after deep consultations and keeping in mind the future prospects of the country," DMK president M Karunanidhi said.
With her latest masterstroke, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee has made Congress lose its credibility in the eye of the aam admi, says Sheela Bhatt
Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Thursday described as 'immoral and unethical' the decision by the 'minority' government at the Centre to hike FDI in insurance and pension sectors, and called on all United Progressive Alliance partners to quit the government in protest.
After Congress, the United Progressive Alliance on Thursday endorsed government's recent tough economic decisions and discussed the need "to do more reforms".
The Congress on Tuesday said it cannot accept the Haryana assembly polls verdict as there were 'serious issues' about the integrity of the counting process and functioning of the EVMs in some districts, and asserted that it would take up the matter with the Election Commission.
The CPI-M today indicated that it was trying to lure some United Progressive Alliance constituents for its "secular alternative" and ruled out supporting the Congress in the post-Lok Sabha poll scenario.
The WikiLeaks' latest expose on the cash-for-vote row during the United Progressive Alliance-1 government's trust vote in July 2008 only re-established that Congress would "stoop to any low" to stay in power, Telugu Desam Party alleged on Friday.
Remaining firm on her party's decision to pull out of the United Progressive Alliance government at the Centre, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Thursday said that the party's Union ministers will submit their resignations on Friday and also give the letter of withdrawal of support to the President, if given time.
Stating that there will be no turning back on the decision to exit the United Progressive Alliance government, Trinamool Congress leader Saugata Roy on Wednesday clarified that the decision to resign on Friday was taken only because the ministers had to personally submit their resignations and not because there may be some scope for a negotiation.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan talks to rediff.com's Anita Katyal about the current political situation, Narendra Modi's projection by the Bharatiya Janata Party and the future plans of the Congress and the UPA
The appointment of Nagpur MP Vilas Muttemwar, a former Union minister, in July as the party's general secretary to monitor central programmes appears to have failed in delivering any results so far.
The Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government at the Centre has accepted the recommendations made by the Inter-Ministerial Group on coal to de-allocate four coal blocks
The DMK on Monday put on hold the resignations of its six ministers from the UPA Government in a dramatic new turn, with the party and Congress engaged in hectic negotiations to sort out their seat-sharing problems in Tamil Nadu. Senior Congress leader Pranab Mukherjee telephoned DMK chief M Karunanidhi twice, and urged him not to pull out his ministers from the cabinet during the Budget Session, and sought a day's time to resolve problems.
Terming the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government as 'anti-Dalit', the Bahujan Samaj Party on Friday demanded that a special session of Parliament should be called in August to clear the Bill for reservation in promotions for Scheduled Caste/ Scheduled Tribe employees.
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