Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front leader Yasin Malik sharing a dais with Lashkar-e-Tayiba chief and Mumbai attacks mastermind Hafiz Saeed in Pakistan Monday created a flutter in this country and led to a demand for cancelling his Indian passport.
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.
Congress leaders A R Antulay, Vasantdada Patil, Shivajirao Nilangekar-Patil, Shankarrao Chavan, Sushilkumar Shinde and Prithviraj Chavan are among the leaders who were not members of any of the state legislature Houses when they occupied the top post.
The Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government is ready to make all the amendments suggested by the Bharatiya Janata Party on the Telangana bill barring one.
According to the WikiLeaks cables published by the Hindu, just five days before the United Progressive Alliance government faced a trust vote in 2008 over the Indo-US nuclear deal, a political aide to Congress politician Satish Sharma showed a United States embassy official 'two chests containing cash'. This, he described as part of a large stash of Rs 50 to Rs 60 crore the Congress party had put together to buy out votes from members of Parliament
Official said a CBI inquiry has been recommended against Aman Biradari for violation of various provisions of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act.
CPI-M says it is ready to forge a front with Congress in Parliament on issues like land bill and secularism but ruled out being part of a national front.
The much-awaited second State Reorganisation Commission might not see the light of day during the United Progressive Alliance regime. A significant section of the Congress leadership is not keen on setting up the panel to avoid fuelling the agitation for carving out a separate state of Telangana from Andhra Pradesh.
'Most leaders, from Lalu Yadav and Mamata to M K Stalin, respect and trust Sonia. She should continue unless she expressly declines.'
The list of the 314 MPs, however, does not include Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, who is also a BJP MP, they said. The majority mark is 268.
The government on Monday firmly rejected the Opposition's contention that the CAG had indicted the Prime Minister's Office on the Commonwealth Games issue and insisted that constitutional processes must be followed before blaming anyone.
A seven-member coalition government of the Meghalaya Progressive Alliance ministry led by chief minister Dr Donkupar Roy was administered the oath of office and secrecy by Governor S S Sidhu at the Raj Bhawan in Shillong on Wednesday evening after the Congress-led minority Meghalaya United Alliance ministry led by D D Lapang had quit office earlier in the day to avoid the trial of strength in the House.
Exit polls by News 18-Ipsos, India Today-Axis and News 24-Chanakya had projected 336, 339-368 and 336-364 seats respectively for the NDA.
The Telugu Desam Party (TDP), a key partner of the United National Progressive Alliance (UNPA), on Friday dismissed as "speculative" media reports suggesting that Samajwadi Party may come out in support of the Indo-US nuclear deal and bail out the Congress-led UPA government.
Reacting sharply to the political and economic resolutions passed in the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee convention at Kanpur, she said the Centre has not taken any decision regarding the Rs 80,000 crore package demanded for removal of economic backwardness of the Purvanchal and Bundelkhand areas of the state. "It shows how Congress was serious regarding the problems of the state," she said.
If the Congress came to power in MP, those responsible for the deaths of the six farmers would face strict action within 10 days.
'If the Maha Vikas Aghadi thinks that they have won 30 (Lok Sabha) seats and that would translate to winning 180 assembly seats they would be living in a fool's paradise.'
Amid reports of its closeness with the Third Front, the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party on Tuesday said that it was with the United Progressive Alliance but dismissed suggestions that Congress was the only national party in the country.
"Congress is the biggest party in the UPA. There is no question of NCP, Dravida Munnettra Kazhagam or Rashtriya Janata Dal or any other party coming close to their numbers and if tomorrow Congress decides to nominate Mrs Gandhi or Rahul Gandhi, it's not a question for NCP to decide," NCP General Secretary Praful Patel said.
All 40-odd rooms at the resort have been booked for the guests from Jharkhand for the next two days, Congress sources said.
The Nationalist Congress Party on Wednesday did not rule out Sharad Pawar as prime minister after the coming Lok Sabha elections, as it sought to put pressure on Congress for convening an early meeting of the United Progressive Alliance to chalk out a common strategy and to finalise seat sharing with allies.
'It is best for Sonia to retreat to the background and let Rahul gradually come to the fore to stand by Manmohan Singh.'
That's a deficit the NDA will have to make up with the help of 'friendly' alliance partners, the very groupings the PM has said are 'family-run'.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi Wednesday took the Congress to the cleaners over making the 2024 general elections about the protection of the Constitution, saying Indians voted on the plank only once when they threw out the Indira Gandhi government in 1977 after the Emergency.
The hope for a better image for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh-led government has diminished drastically with realism setting in that 19 members of its principal ally Trinamool Congress will stall every such move which can be dubbed by Mamata Bannerji as 'anti-poor' or 'anti-farmers', says Sheela Bhatt.
According to top sources in the government, Maran's return cannot be ruled out.
On the rise in petrol prices, Union Minister Alphons Kannanthanam queried, "Who buys petrol... somebody with car, somebody with a bike. Certainly, they are not starving... somebody who can afford to pay has to pay."
This is the second time in a month that Minister of State in PMO Narayanasamy has met the DMK patriarch, whose party is the largest ally of Congress with 18 Lok Sabha members after the exit of Mamata Banerjee-led TMC.
It said AMU is not and cannot be a university of any particular religion or religious denomination as any university which has been declared an institution of national importance cannot be a minority institution.
The Bihar assembly election and the agreement on Nuclear liability bill between Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party had a magical political impact on an Iftar event organised by Member of Parliament and BJP leader Syed Shahnawaz Hussein in New Delhi on Wednesday evening.
Jharkhand was headed for a hung assembly on Wednesday as the Congress and its ally Jharkhand Vikas Morcha gained an edge by leading in 24 seats in the 81-member House. As the counting of votes progressed, Shibu Soren-led JMM emerged as the likely kingmaker, leading in 15 seats. The Bharatiya Janata Party - Janata Dal-United combine gave the Congress tough competition by leading in 23 seats.The Congress is contesting the elections with Babulal Marandi-led JVM.
Responding to Congress's criticism over the extension of 'Z' category security to him, Bharatiya Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy said it was during former prime minister P V Narasimha Rao's tenure that he was provided this protection, which was later curtailed by the United Progressive Alliance government.
The Samajwadi Party is keen to have a "crucial role" for party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav in 2014 but ruled out formation of any 'Third Force' before the next Lok Sabha elections.
A convincing win for either of JD-S's two chief rivals, the Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party, in the Karnataka assembly polls, could inevitably lead to a life-threatening split in the JD-S, with several of its leaders joining either of the two national parties.
Stepping up their attack on Rahul Gandhi for his 'democracy under brutal attack' remark in the United Kingdom, Bharatiya Janata Party leaders, including Union ministers, on Thursday demanded an apology from the Congress leader insisting that he was 'not above Parliament'.
At least 30 MLAs of the ruling United Progressive Alliance coalition in Jharkhand camping in a resort near the Chhattisgarh capital since August 30 flew back to Ranchi in a chartered aircraft on Sunday afternoon to attend the special session of the assembly scheduled for Monday, sources said.
With the Central Bureau of Investigation holding as "fake" the 2004 encounter of Ishrat Jahan in Gujarat, the Congress on Wednesday launched a scathing attack on Narendra Modi saying "truth speaks for itself from the rooftop" and claimed that the chief minister's role in such encounters will also be exposed.
Taking potshots at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his remarks that the United Progressive Alliance government left everything empty, Congress on Monday claimed "bad days have begun for the countrymen", citing a socio-economic survey of Gujarat.
Former Karnataka chief minister S M Krishna, noted industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla and famous playback singer Suman Kalyanpur were given Padma awards by President Droupadi Murmu at a ceremony at the Rashtrapati Bhavan on Wednesday.
Sonia, who was addressing a convention of Congress functionaries and peoples' representatives in Maharashtra, said, "Here (in Maharashtra) regionalism is being encouraged. We have to fight the forces of regionalism, which are dividing society for their vested interests." The Congress president also asked party workers to work together and strengthen the party.
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