As the Opposition on Wednesday held its first meeting on the presidential election, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party reached out to several parties across the political spectrum to build a consensus choice for the top constitutional post with senior party leader Rajnath Singh speaking to Sharad Pawar, Mallikarjun Kharge, Mamata Banerjee, Akhilesh Yadav and Naveen Patnaik, sources said.
While the BJP went back to the drawing board to recraft its political and governance outreach and regained momentum by notching up surprisingly big wins in a string of assembly polls, the burst of fresh optimism in the main opposition Congress and other INDIA bloc parties fizzled out.
Here's the full list of 49 MPs suspended from Lok Sabha:
In a letter, dated February 16, 2024, issued by the Cabinet Secretariat department, headed by the CM, officials of the Health, Road Construction, Urban Development and Housing and Rural Works departments have been asked to review the decisions taken during the previous grand alliance government in the state.
As the Centre announced the inclusion of caste enumeration in the next census on Wednesday, opposition parties said it is a victory for their long-standing demand and sought time-bound implementation.
Megha Engineering had emerged as the second-biggest buyer of electoral bonds and donated the highest amount of about Rs 586 crore to the Bharatiya Janata Party, according to the data released by the Election Commission on March 21.
This will be the first time the BJP has got more seats than Chief Minister Nitish Kumar-led JD-U in Bihar, underscoring the change in their equations after they joined hands a few months back.
With a significant number of Opposition leaders present at the swearing-in ceremony of the Congress government in Karnataka, Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal on Sunday said Opposition unity requires much more than optics of this nature and stressed the need for meeting of minds, a common agenda and sacrificing partisan interests.
The opposition party, however, said the four eminent Congress MPs and leaders who have been included at the instance of the Modi government will, of course, go with the delegations and make their contributions.
The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) is expected to release its preliminary report this week on the Air India plane crash in Ahmedabad, which resulted in the deaths of at least 260 people. The investigation is ongoing, with the help of foreign experts, and the black box and voice recorder data are being analyzed.
Bihar CM Nitish Kumar said the decision of the merger has already been taken and there was no question of going back on it.
The political uproar continues in Bihar, as Chief Minister Nitish Kumar alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party wanted to make R C P Singh the Eknath Shinde of Bihar and isolate the Janata Dal-United party.
After Modi is elected the leader of NDA MPs, senior members of the alliance like Telugu Desam Party's N Chandrababu Naidu, Janata Dal-United's Nitish Kumar and Shiv Sena's Eknath Shinde will join the prime minister for a meeting with President Droupadi Murmu to present her the list of parliamentarians supporting him, some alliance members said.
Prashant Kishor declares the 2025 Bihar assembly election will be a contest between his Jan Suraaj Party and the BJP-led NDA.
As per the statement issued by the legislative assembly secretariat, speaker of Manipur legislative assembly is pleased to accept the merger of five JD-U MLAs with the BJP under the tenth schedule of the Constitution.
RJD President Lalu Prasad Yadav said on Sunday that the merger of six Janata Parivar parties to counter the BJP has already "happened".
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal-United on Tuesday took out processions across the state, urging people to be on guard against the Bharatiya Janata Party's alleged politics of communalism.
It also asked why the data shared pertained to a period from April 2019 even though the scheme for anonymous political funding was introduced in 2017.
There is no confusion or dispute in the 'Mahagathbandhan' over Tejashwi Yadav being the main face for the Bihar chief minister's post, Congress leader Kanhaiya Kumar said on Friday while asserting that the CM will be from the Rashtriya Janata Dal if the alliance gets a majority in the upcoming polls.
This is the first meeting between Gandhi and Kumar since the latter walked out of the National Democratic Alliance in Bihar and formed a 'Mahagathbandhan' government with the Rashtriya Janata Dal, the Congress and outside support of the Left.
Communist Party of India-Marxist general secretary Prakash Karat called for unification between Communists and Socialists to forge a "viable political alternative". Karat, who was participating in a function to mark the centenary celebrations of late socialist leader Ram Manohar Lohia, said on Tuesday, "the Communists are ready to forge a third force in the country in which socialists should also join and share a common platform."
'Logic, Research, Science Are Modi Government's Limitations.'
The Bihar chief minister, who has of late been making news for goof-ups, made the faux pas at an election rally on the outskirts of Patna.
What some of our leaders were up to in the last couple of days.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday ducked queries about exit polls predicting wins, in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh assembly polls, for his former ally Bharatiya Janata Party which he has vowed to defeat with the help of a united opposition in the next general elections.
'Singh was forced to submit his resignation to Nitish Kumar few days ago and convinced to announce his offer to resign at the party meeting.'
Political parties have fielded sons, wives and daughters-in-law of legislators who quit after being elected to the Lok Sabha.
'When maximum voter participation occurs, they do not vote to re-elect the incumbent government. They vote to change it.' 'How can anyone credibly suggest that crores of young voters -- particularly the unemployed youth -- would vote to re-elect an existing government that has demonstrably failed them?'
Karnataka Minister Umesh Katti died due to cardiac arrest at a private hospital in Bengaluru on Tuesday night, official sources said.
The name of Mahto, the party's former Jharkhand unit chief, was announced here by national president Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan.
'When voting clause by clause on Waqf came up in the JPC, the TDP and JD-U supported the BJP on each and every clause.'
Celebrations broke out as the Grand Alliance was all set for a thumping victory in the Bihar polls.
The opposition on Saturday termed the absence of female journalists from a press conference of visiting Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi "unacceptable" and an "insult to women", and said Prime Minister Narendra Modi's silence in the face of such discrimination exposes the "emptiness" of his slogans on Nari Shakti.
The Congress leadership is upset over Nath's remarks against many leaders of the INDIA bloc, including Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and Janata Dal-United supremo Nitish Kumar, over seat sharing.
'The BJP will use Samrat Choudhary and Vijay Kumar Sinha to check Nitish Kumar.' 'They will not allow him to function freely as before.'
Kushwaha was referring to 'Luv Kush' rally in Patna, a veritable gathering of Kurmis and Koeris upset with supposed hegemony of numerically powerful Yadavs which Prasad, then helming Bihar, was seen as embodying.
India has secured international support in its fight against terrorism, with Russia, Japan, and the United Arab Emirates expressing solidarity and a commitment to working together to combat the threat. This follows a recent terrorist attack in Pahalgam, India, which claimed 26 lives. Multi-party parliamentary delegations from India briefed the leaderships of these countries on Operation Sindoor, India's response to the attack, and discussed ways to enhance cooperation in counter-terrorism and combating radicalism. These developments highlight the growing global consensus against terrorism and the importance of international collaboration to address this shared challenge.
The NDA has retained Bihar with a wafer-thin majority of 125 seats in the 243-member assembly, paving the way for a fourth term for CM Nitish Kumar.
The Janata Dal-United on Monday said that the Opposition parties will seek to put up a united face during the vice presidential election notwithstanding the differences among them on the issue of presidential election.
Kumar, who heads the Janata Dal-United, moved the motion soon after the House passed a proposal for the removal of Rashtriya Janata Dal's Awadh Bihari Chaudhary as Speaker of the assembly.
