Leaders from 26 opposition parties, in power individually or in alliance in Delhi and 10 states, are meeting in Bengaluru to discuss strategy to take on the Narendra Modi-led NDA in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
All political parties were asked at the dinner meeting on Monday night to suggest names for the alliance and the same would be discussed and consensus would be arrived at during the deliberations.
The INDIA bloc is also likely to announce a secretariat for smooth coordination between the constituents and it is likely to be set up in the national capital. Besides, the members will also discuss the issue of having a coordinator or a chairperson to head the alliance.
The opposition Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) was in the grip of a crisis on Saturday with the Janata Dal-United saying the alliance was collapsing amid indications that Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar will switch back to the National Democratic Alliance, prompting the Congress to allege that the Bharatiya Janata Party is doing its best to cause a 'mini implosion' in the coalition.
While some parties including the Trinamool Congress, the Aam Aadmi Party and the Samajwadi Party were keen on having early seat-sharing talks, the Congress delayed the deliberations pending the outcome of assembly polls.
'In Parliament, he was the one person who stood for democracy and secularism even when the principal Opposition party was not very forthright in taking on the BJP and RSS.'
Seeking a Central Bureau of Investigation under court supervision into chit fund scam in West Bengal, Left parties on Thursday accused the Mamata Banerjee government of opposing such a probe into the "unprecedented fraud" and failing to take any step to recover "hard-earned" savings of the people.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday mocked Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray for "handing over the remote control" of the party to the Congress as he took poll battle to Mumbai with less than a week left for voting in Maharashtra.
The Bharatiya Janata Party which had entered into an electoral adjustment with the Forward Bloc in Thiruvananthapuram has now gone one step forward with the party's Thrissur district president Gopalakrishnan coming out with the statement that Congress is the main enemy of the BJP in the state and that the party may go into electoral adjustments with the Communist Party of India-Marxist.
The total income of national and regional parties from unknown sources for 2020-21 stands at Rs 690.67 crore.
Extending its winning run in the south, the Congress on Sunday won 64 assembly seats to form government in the Bharat Rashtra Samiti-dominated Telangana, with the southern solace coming in the midst of a saffron sweep of the Hindi heartland where the Bharatiya Janata Party wrested two states from the grand old party and retained one.
'Whether somebody else can take up (Narendra Modi's position) the answer to it is yes but for that (to happen) some kind of crisis must come and in that crisis Modi must lose the (trust) vote.' 'Only then another candidate from the BJP can come and most likely it could be Nitin Gadkari because he enjoys the confidence (of the RSS as well as that of BJP MPs).'
Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav on Thursday said people of the country want change of power, but evaded a direct reply on whether his party would join an opposition alliance to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Describing the two-day nation-wide general strike as the biggest working class action since Independence, Left parties on Thursday warned the government that 'bigger actions' will follow if the demands raised by the workers are not immediately met.
Apparently referring to ally Trinamool Congress, United Progressive Alliance Presidential candidate Pranab Mukherjee on Saturday once again appealed to those who have not yet decided on supporting him to do so.
The memorandum said that the responsibility of overcoming the impact of the Maoist violence is not the responsibility of the state governments alone; it is a phenomenon that spans across several states. Therefore, the Union government also has a responsibility.
'The Bloc was supporting the Congress party-led government to keep the 'communal Bharatiya Janata Party' away from power and if it felt the UPA was not implementing the CMP the party would review its support'
Protesting the 'erroneous' stand, Prasenjit Bose, former convenor of the research unit of CPI-M, decided to send his resignation letter to the CPI-M leadership, and was later expelled from the party. We present the letter, where he elaborates his stand, which was first published in Pragati, on July 22.
Left parties were on Thursday divided on the Presidential election with the Communist Party of India-Marxist and Forward Bloc deciding to support United Progressive Alliance candidate Pranab Mukherjee while the Communist Party of India and Revolutionary Socialist Party opting to abstain from the voting.
Pakistan's main opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz has swept the country's last by-polls ahead of next year's general election, winning seven out of eight provincial and national assembly seats that went to the polls in Punjab province.
The Left parties on Monday announced a nationwide agitational programme to highlight issues relating to corruption and demand an effective Lokpal bill, with the Communist Party of India saying the Prime Minister and his office should be within the purview of the anti-corruption ombudsman.
The leaders of Communist Party of India, Communist Party of India (Marxist), Forward Bloc, Rashtriya Janata Dal and Samajwadi Party along with their supporters held a rally on Mahatma Gandhi Road before marching towards the state Secretariat.
A former Indian Police Services officer, who lodged an FIR against Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee and was considered very close to the Left Front government during Jyoti Basu's tenure, is among five former police officers contesting the West Bengal assembly polls on Trinamool Congress tickets.
After having decided to abstain from voting in the Presidential poll, the Communist Party of India on Wednesday extended support to United Progressive Alliance's nominee Hamid Ansari for his re-election as vice president.
Top Left leaders Prakash Karat (Communist Party of India-Marxist), A B Bardhan (Communist Party of India), Debabrata Biswas (Forward Bloc) and Abani Roy (Revolutionary Socialist Party), led the demonstration near Parliament House.
The MPs suspended on Tuesday include National Conference's Farooq Abdullah and Congress leaders Shashi Tharoor and Manish Tewari.
With the declaration of results for the Tripura Assembly polls on Thursday, the Bharatiya Janata Party returned to power in the state by winning 32 seats and its ally Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT) winning one.
The Left parties, consisting of the Communist Party of India-Marxist, CPI, All India Forward Bloc and the Revolutionary Socialist Party issued a press statement on Friday on the eve of United States President Barack Obama's upcoming visit to India.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge Saturday said the Lok Sabha poll mandate is a "decisive rejection" of the politics of divisiveness and hate, and stressed that the INDIA bloc must continue functioning cohesively both inside and outside Parliament.
Seeking to expedite the process, the front had also empowered all partners to initiate peace parleys on their own and talk to the Opposition.
Now, with the INDIA bloc putting up an impressive show in the Lok Sabha polls and managing to stop the BJP juggernaut, opposition leaders will be looking at the senior Pawar for guidance in navigating the political space against the saffron party post-elections.
Besides the UPA and its four supporting parties -- SP, BSP, RJD, JD(S) -- NDA members JD-U and Shiv Sena as also the CPI-M and Forward Bloc have declared their support for Mukherjee.
Before leaving to tender his resignation to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Mukherjee said, " I stand ready to embark on a new journey".
The youth -- their dreams of government jobs unfulfilled -- are voicing their frustration.
The Trinamool Congress on Friday secured absolute majority in the 294-member West Bengal assembly, winning 163 seats and leading in 23 others as results of 264 seats have been declared so far.
Let's look at the major winners and losers in Bengal polls
Banerjee, who was seated in front beside the driver, was injured after her head hit the windscreen, he said.
Buddha countermands Forward Bloc's rejection of German wholesaler's permit.
Political parties bracing for the crucial April-May Assembly polls in West Bengal have put up a number of new faces, marking a departure after many years in the composition of candidate lists. The ruling Left Front, facing its toughest battle since 1977 when it came to power, leads the pack by injecting fresh blood in almost half of the total 294 constituencies, throwing out some prominent, but tainted names.
The Centre's ban on the Communist Party of India-Maoist under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act on Monday would make the outfit more aggressive, according to Left Front partners.
