The Congress has 40 MLAs while the BJP has 25 in the 68-member state assembly. The remaining three seats are held by independents.
Speaking at the Sardar Patel memorial lecture organised by Prasar Bharati, Union Minister Jairam Ramesh said India's left-wing extremism can be solved only if India's polity can rise above partisan political considerations and set aside old Centre versus state arguments to work concertedly to restore people's faith in the administration.
Will Foreign Minister Mr. Jaishankar please refer to the RTI reply dated 27-1-2015...The Reply justified the circumstances under which India acknowledged that a small island belonged to Sri Lanka," Chidambaram said.
A notice issued on Monday to the Andhra Pradesh government to put on hold the government project is, in fact, meant to help out the Opposition-ruled states of Orissa and Chhattisgarh whose land is threatened to be submerged because of the project.
A delegation of Congress leaders met EC officials and raised several issues, including the use of pictures and large cut-outs of the prime minister in government buildings and colleges and demanded that those be removed to maintain a level-playing field in the upcoming parliamentary election.
The Congress on Wednesday said the Supreme Court judgment on certain matters relating to transactions by the Adani Group has proven to be 'extraordinarily generous' to Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and asserted that the party's fight against crony capitalism and its ill-effects on prices, employment and inequalities will continue.
Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee will not be part of the virtual meeting on Saturday morning as she is preoccupied with prior engagements, they said.
The Congress on Monday said Parliament is getting adjourned repeatedly as Home Minister Amit Shah 'refuses' to make a statement on the Lok Sabha security breach issue which is his duty and responsibility.
"This year the Ministry has received 579 proposals from all the State Governments under the National Afforestation Programme out of which 270 have been accorded sanction," Jairam said.
In his poll rallies, Modi framed Pitroda's comments in his wider onslaught against the Congress, asserting that they have exposed its hidden agenda and that the party has become so removed from the country's social and family values that it wants to legally rob people of their assets and lifelong savings they want to bequeath to their children.
Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Friday took 'serious note' of certain objectionable remarks made by BJP member Ramesh Bidhuri in the House and warned him of 'strict action' if such behaviour is repeated in the future, officials said.
Transport accounts for between 5 and 8 per cent of our greenhouse gas emissions, says Jairam Ramesh.
Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Mukesh Dalal was on Monday elected unopposed from Surat Lok Sabha constituency in Gujarat after all other nominees withdrew from the fray, a poll official said.
Separately, the poll panel also issued a notice to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, asking him to respond to the complaints filed by the BJP against him and the main opposition party's senior leader Rahul Gandhi regarding their remarks.
The Congress will begin the Rahul Gandhi-led Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra from the violence-hit Manipur on Sunday, in what is being seen as the party's bid to set the narrative in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls and put the spotlight on issues such as unemployment, price rise and social justice.
'We were activists when we were students. It was as students that we were propelled to fight for justice. Neither of us regret that.' 'Where the country is now, more and more people should become vocal.'
Reflecting the unease in party over praise of Aam Aadmi Party by its leaders, a Congress leader on Friday likened it to early days of Lalu Prasad's rule in Bihar in the nineties while another slammed Union minister Jairam Ramesh for praising Arvind Kejriwal's party.
'I think a little less superiority, a little more humility on the part of India will serve us very well in the future,' says Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday suggested that if the Congress comes to power, it would redistribute wealth of people to Muslims and cited former PM Manmohan Singh's remark that the minority community had the first claim on the country's resources.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Friday asked Union Home Minister Amit Shah why he was not giving a statement in Parliament on the security breach issue but was giving interviews to TV channels.
Trinamool Congress leader Derek O'Brien Thursday held West Bengal Congress chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury responsible for an alliance not working out between the two parties in West Bengal.
'He messaged me on Friday at 8:52 AM and then at 2:47 PM I replied, 'Are you planning a switch?'. At 2:48 he sent a message, 'is speaking to you not possible?' I said I will call you and at 3:40, I spoke to him'
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday dubbed the electoral bonds as the 'world's biggest extortion scheme' and alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the 'champion of corruption'.
While the Congress top brass has declined the invitation to the January 22 consecration ceremony at Ayodhya's Ram temple, the party's Uttar Pradesh unit plans to go ahead with its own event a week earlier in the holy town.
Referring to the mimicry issue, President Droupadi Murmu also said she was dismayed at the manner in which Vice President Dhankhar was "humiliated" in Parliament complex.
It was business as usual for Jairam Ramesh in his new rural development ministry where he held extensive meetings with officials on his first day that stretched past midnight.
Union Minister for Rural Development on Thursday met nine Union Ministers with the draft of a Bill for lower level bureaucracy, which is likely to be presented in parliament by early next week.
Union Rural development Minister Jairam Ramesh is burning the midnight oil to bring the Land Acquisition and Resettlement and Rehabilitation Bill 2011 before the Cabinet on Monday so that it can be cleared and then introduced in Parliament before the Monsoon Session ends on September 8.
In a strongly worded letter to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Congress' Jairam Ramesh accused him of distorting facts.
A voter turnout of 60.19 per cent was recorded till 5 pm in the third phase of Lok Sabha elections in 93 constituencies spread over 11 states and Union Territories on Tuesday with sporadic incidents of violence in West Bengal.
The caste and Below Poverty Line census has been suspended in the poll-bound Uttar Pradesh by Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh, though it goes on nonstop in Punjab, Goa, Uttarakhand and Manipur also have simultaneous elections.
The new rural development minister wants to use technology to force states to make payments. Critics suggest that he should fix existing problems first.
The Congress on Monday said it welcomed the reported move as the party has been raising the demand for long.
'These betrayers don't realise that their exit opens up vast new opportunities to those whose growth they have always stunted'
Gandhi, who is being attacked by the BJP for his 'democracy under attack' in India remarks in the UK, had addressed a press conference in the national capital on Thursday, after being disallowed from defending himself inthe Lok Sabha and said if Indian democracy was functioning, he would be able to say his piece in Parliament, asserting that it is a 'test of democracy'.
Jairam Ramesh has taken over as the minister of state for power. According to him, the Tenth Five-Year Plan was a disaster in terms of capacity addition & so was the Ninth Plan. Of the target of around 41,000 Mw, only 23,000 Mw was added. In effect, the first 2 years will see an addition of almost the same capacity as the entire Tenth Plan. But achieving the Eleventh Plan target of 80,000 Mw is going to be a big challenge. He hopes to see at least 3-4 more projects in a year.
In an interview with Suman Guha Mozumder, Union Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh says a little less superiority and a little more humility on the part of India will serve us very well in the future.
Union environment minister Jairam Ramesh has written to the Prime minister on the need to review the earlier central plan to develop six 'nuclear parks'.
The Congress has so far announced 82 candidates for the seven-phase Lok Sabha polls beginning April 19.
Hundreds of rural women who gathered to collect forms for a newly announced government scheme in Jorhat district of Assam left their queues to greet Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who was leading the 'Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra' through the area on Thursday.
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