Buoyed by its success in stalling Parliament over the 2G spectrum scam and the recent victory in Bihar, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday said the United Progressive Alliance government is unlikely to complete its full term and maintained that there was a need to expand the National Democratic Alliance to take on the Congress in the next elections.
After quitting the United Progressive Alliance coalition on the Sri Lankan Tamils issue, the Dravida Munetra Kazhagam on Monday demanded that India should boycott the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting scheduled to be held in Colombo in November.
Having kept it alive for four years with outside support, the Left on Tuesday branded the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government as 'no different' from its predecessor National Democratic Alliance government, on the economic and foreign policy fronts.The Marxist leader said Left parties, at their joint meeting in New Delhi on May 23, will further review the performance of the UPA government and take appropriate position.
Govt ready to discuss issues of public importance: Azad
Former Jharkhand Chief Minister and Member of Parliament Babulal Marandi has extended support to the Third Front.In a letter to Telugu Desam Party chief Chandrababu Naidu, the prominent Jharkhand leader said he supported the Front, which was a non-United Progressive Alliance and non-National Democratic Alliance option. He said that he could not attend the Front's meeting in New Delhi due to prior poll-related commitments.
With the Bharatiya Janata Party losing Biju Janata Dal as an ally in Orissa, the Congress on Monday gloated over the plight of its principal challenger alleging National Democratic Alliance was "virtually non-existent" and there was "no serious challenge" to the United Progressive Alliance in the Lok Sabha polls.
The BJP today said if voted to power, it would pursue a "muscular and far-sighted foreign policy" to secure India's interests, which the party alleged had been "substantially compromised" by the United Progressive Alliance government.
The way things are going, India may have a no-limits free-for-all political contest rather than a three-horse race. Parties are approaching one another across the dividing lines of alliances, breaching conventional rules of the political game.
Accusing the United Progressive Alliance government at the Centre of dithering in taking strong steps against terrorists, Bharatiya Janata Party president Rajnath Singh on Saturday said the National Democratic Alliance would opt for surgical strikes to demolish their camps inside Pakistan, if it came to power.The NDA would take other countries into confidence on the need for such surgical strikes if it came to power after the Lok Sabha polls, he said.
The alliance will resume its boycott of Parliament indefinitely from Tuesday protesting against the United Progressive Alliance government's 'hostile and vindictive' attitude.
He wanted changes in certain criteria for the project.
Meeting for the first time after the spectacular win in Narendra Modi-led Gujarat and after wresting Himachal Pradesh away from the Congress, Singh praised the success of the party's ideological commitment and its ability in the field of development. "I fully believe the string of successes would further lead us to victory in the Lok Sabha elections," he said.
The decision on whether to remove the LJD from the UPA will be taken by chairperson Sonia Gandhi.
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday shot off a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, complaining against Home Minister P Chidambaram's comment on the issue of IPS officers, alleging that the United Progressive Alliance government was trying to destabilise his government.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday challenged the Centre to produce evidence against former defence minister George Fernandes against whom the CBI has filed an FIR in connection with Barak missile deal.
Saying the CPI-M has nuked the farmers in Nandigram and the UPA government, LK Advani says the NDA will raise the Nandigram issue in Parliament.
Speaker Namdhari allowed the three MLAs who switched sides to vote in the floor test.
Myanmar's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi arrived in New Delhi on Tuesday on a visit to India after a gap of nearly four decades as part of New Delhi's ongoing engagement with democratic and multi-party polity in that country.
After nearly a gap of 40 years, Myanmar's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi will travel to India on November 13 at the invitation of United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was elected to Rajya Sabha for the fifth consecutive term on Thursday as Congress won both the seats to the Upper House from Assam.
Ahead of the crucial third round of discussions, the opposition INDIA bloc on Wednesday exuded confidence that it would provide a formidable alternative to bring political change in the country and asserted that it has several prime ministerial faces against BJP's only one.
Advani cautioned the government against following appeasement policy towards minorities, saying it would mean appeasement of terrorism
Murmu's vote share is now likely to go past 61 per cent, while it was earlier estimated to be around 50 per cent at the time of her nomination.
The leaders were protesting the hike in petrol and diesel prices.
Rajya Sabha Secretary General Yogendra Narain is the returning officer for the vice presidential election.
A former chief minister of Punjab, Barnala has the ability to carry other parties with him, including Akali Dal from the National Democratic Alliance.
The 70-year-old leader attended a meeting of the floor leaders of NDA allies in both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha in the Parliament chamber of Opposition leader Lal Krishna Advani on Thursday.
Indian National Lol Dal leader Om Prakash Chautala will host the meeting.
A decision to this effect was taken by BJP president Rajnath Singh soon after the Left parties announced their withdrawal of support to the four-year-old government.
"I will be able to open my cards (on the presidential polls) only after consultations with party MPs, MLAs and other leaders," she said addressing her first press conference in Delhi after taking over the reins of UP for the fourth time.
United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi on Friday favoured an approach of welfare and development to defeat left-wing extremism and insurgency and bring back youth involved in it back to the democratic mainstream.
The message for the Congress is that inflation, rural employment and condition of farmers are the three most critical issues bothering the electorate.
Seventy-seven MLAs were present in the assembly during the voting.
The three major parties will use the next 15 days for housecleaning. But what price must they pay for keeping their allies happy? As things stand today the Congress and the BJP are hard put to summon even a simple majority in the Lok Sabha. When the new House reconvenes in summer could we see a situation where not two but even the three largest parties will be pressed to reach the magic number of 272?
Describing the NDA government's decision to recognise Tibet as a part of China as an 'error', former Defence Minister George Fernandes has said the Communist nation was the 'potential threat number one' to India and flayed the UPA dispensation for allowing it to be 'bullied'. The NDA leader said the Olympic torch should not be allowed to come to India and that he had asked his 'colleagues' and others to make 'whatever effort' to prevent the flame's run in India.
The United Progressive Alliance government has failed to address the agrarian crisis and the price rise of essential commodities and there is a need for a third alternative, Communist Party of India-Marxist general secretary Prakash Karat said on Saturday. Speaking at the party's 19th Congress in Coimbatore, Karat said this third alternative cannot be merely an electoral alliance.
Left parties have kick-started their pre-poll exercise with their top leaders deciding to woo 'secular' parties in both the United Progressive Alliance and the National Democratic Alliance to join forces and provide an alternative to the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.
It was the NDA government that had first mooted the idea of additional nuclear installations being subjected to International Atomic Energy Agency inspection in return for civilian nuclear co-operation. On the basis of this, it was logical for Talbott to assume that the NDA government would have accepted the present deal or even something less. He had read the minds of his interlocutors correctly