Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday expressed confidence in the unity of the opposition Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) in combating injustice nationwide, a day after Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee's decision to go solo in the Lok Sabha polls in West Bengal.
Congress general secretary (communications) Jairam Ramesh said like other states, the BJP started the game of using money power, power of the government and muscle power to destabilise the Congress government in Himachal Pradesh but has failed.
The parties which gave chief ministers and sent scores of MPs to Parliament, drew a blank this time.
The first time the Election Commission has taken cognisance of a model code of conduct complaint against a sitting prime minister.
The Congress rebels are seeking to install a person of their choice as the new chief minister of the state.
'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.
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.
Gupta, along with some other leaders, joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in the presence of Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri and the party's national general secretary Vinod Tawde.
The Congress on Sunday hit back at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his 'redistribution of wealth' remarks targeting the party, saying after facing 'disappointment' in the first phase of Lok Sabha polls, the PM has now resorted to 'lies' and 'hate speech' to divert people from the real issues.
The poll panel said it found Kharge's letter, placed in the public domain in the middle of the ongoing electoral process, 'highly undesirable' and designed to create confusion, misdirection and impediment to the conduct of smooth, free and fair elections.
In his letter to Sitharaman, Venugopal said media reports have exposed the alleged "quid-pro-quo between BJP and several firms, which in a strange coincidence donated to it, after the Enforcement Directorate (ED), Income Tax Department (IT) and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and others, raided or searched those enterprises".
Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh posed questions for the prime minister ahead of his rallies in Karnataka.
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.
"Remember, the IT Department and the ED implement the Pradhan Mantri Hafta Vasuli Yojana. The State Bank of India implements the #ElectoralBondScam. And at the end of the day, all of these institutions report to the same person: the Finance Minister," Ramesh alleged.
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.
On Tuesday, when trends indicated she was going to win her election, the four-time National Award winner said, 'Heartfelt gratitude to all the people of Mandi for this love and trust... This victory belongs to all of you, this is the victory of your trust in Prime Minister Modi and the BJP, this is the victory of Sanatan and in the honour of Mandi.'
The returnees also included three independent MLAs, who too had landed in Panchkula on Tuesday after casting their votes in the Rajya Sabha election.
Megha Engineering and Infrastructure, the little-known Hyderabad-based firm that in recent years won the prestigious Zojila tunnel deal among other projects, forayed into city gas and acquired a media group, was the second largest donor to political parties using electoral bonds.
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'.
Here is the complete list of ministers in Modi 3.0 and their portfolios:
Jairam Ramesh's tenure as Minister of Environment and Forests cannot be assessed in a hurry; there are lots of positives there, but also many question marks, says Himanshu Thakkar
In a major setback for the Congress ahead of the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls, former Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan who announced his resignation from the Congress party on Monday, will join the Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday.
Gandhi said the Congress' slogan is 'count' because that would be the first step towards justice.
The West Bengal Congress unit issued a denial and said the state president meant "TMC and BJP are just the opposite sides of the same coin as both are venomous and spread lies".
The reservations of Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh on the projected additional electricity generation capacity of 100,000 Mw during the 12th Five-Year Plan (2012-17) period has failed to cut much ice with the Planning Commission.
Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh has created a political buzz with his remark that ''election is not a beauty contest'' while commenting on reports on the pitching of Rahul Gandhi and Narendra Modi for the 2014 general elections by their respective parties.
"Both the Central and State governments have failed in saving the animal. Yet it appears to be a mystery. No bullet wound (was found)... I think there is a very preponderant possibility of poisoning," Ramesh said as he visited the sanctuary amidst the controversy over the government's tiger revival plan.
The Congress on Friday claimed that a 'silent undercurrent' is brewing across western Uttar Pradesh against the 'failures' of the Modi government, as it flagged issues such as 'neglect' of sugarcane farmers and examination paper leaks.
The party was reacting to Kumar's decision to resign as Bihar chief minister and leaving the Mahagathbandhan alliance in the state and also dealing a body blow to the opposition bloc INDIA.
The petition was 'under process' to ascertain whether Ramesh occupied the NAC post after he became a Rajya Sabha member, sources said.
Asked how many seats INDIA bloc will get, Gandhi said, "Have you heard Sidhu Moose Wala's song '295'? So 295 (seats)."
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.
After being reprimanded by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for his controversial remarks in China, Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh met Home Minister P Chidambaram on Wednesday and is said to have clarified the context of the statement.
It seems odd that someone as erudite, articulate and suave as Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh should get entangled in to one controversy after another, in quick succession.
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