The 79-year-old activist also demanded an inquiry by a sitting judge of the Jharkhand high court.
Bharatiya Janata Party leader Raghubar Das was on Sunday sworn-in as the new chief minister of Jharkhand, becoming the first non-tribal leader to rule the state.
The party was trounced in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh and is now left with only Himachal Pradesh in the north. It is ruling in only three states on its own and is in power in Bihar and Jharkhand as a junior partner in alliance with regional parties.
The impending expulsion of Trinamool Congress (TMC) member Mahua Moitra from the Lok Sabha, three bills to replace criminal laws and a proposed law for the appointment of election commissioners are issues set to dominate the Winter Session of Parliament, with the government urging the Opposition to ensure a conducive environment for discussions in the House.
The Congress also asserted that the opposition INDIA bloc had been formed for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections at the national level and was not state specific.
MPs and MLAs taking bribes to vote or make a speech in the house are not immune from prosecution, the Supreme Court said on Monday in a landmark, unanimous verdict that overrules its 1998 judgment protecting such lawmakers.
Bharatiya Janata Party veteran L K Advani on Tuesday backed party leader Yashwant Sinha saying he is the 'right person' to be chief minister and suggested that he should leave jail after securing bail to lead the 'historic agitation' against power crisis in Jharkhand.
'Nobody is speaking up for Muslims today.' 'Secular parties too have calmed down because they feel this will hurt the Hindu vote (bank).' 'In this scenario, where does a Muslim go?'
Jharkhand Mukti Morcha Legislative Party leader Hemant Soren on Thursday submitted his resignation letter as an MLA to his father Shibu Soren and offered his Dumka seat to the Jharkhand chief minister to contest and enter the state assembly.
A sizeable number of MLAs from across state assemblies cross-voted in support of President-elect Droupadi Murmu, defying their parties' stated support to Opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha, sources said on Thursday.
Decks were cleared on Thursday for holding of assembly elections in the state, which has been under President's Rule for the last nine months, with the Union Cabinet approving dissolution of the 81-member House.
Raghuvar Das, the national vice president of the Bharatiya Janata Party will be the first non-tribal chief minister of Jharkhand after he was elected the leader of BJP legislative party.
He denied speculations that the three ministers, who appear to be switching sides to the UPA to topple his government, have faxed their resignations to the governor.
"The governor has returned to Ranchi...so far he has not issued any order," an official source in Raj Bhavan said.
Soren also claimed that his Assam counterpart Himanta Biswa Sarma indulged in "purchase" of Jharkhand MLAs.
In Kerala, 95 out of 135 MLAs, accounting for 70 per cent, have declared criminal cases against themselves.
The Jharkhand high court on Thursday asked Jharkhand Mukti Morcha chief Shibu Soren to surrender before the sub- divisional judicial magistrate in Jamtara before August 2.
The state governments expressed their resolve to end the menace as India played global host to 2018 World Environment Day celebrations with the theme "Beat Plastic Pollution".
The Supreme Court on Tuesday appointed senior advocate P S Patwalia as amicus curiae to assist it in examining whether an MP or MLA can claim immunity from criminal prosecution for taking a bribe to make a speech or vote in the legislative assembly or Parliament.
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 five RJD members abstained from voting, while Enos Ekka of Jharkhand Party, Independent Harinarayan Rai, Congress' Gopal Nath Sahadeo and Arup Chatterjee of the Marxist Coordination Committee were absent.
With President's rule scheduled to end in Jharkhand on July 18, the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha and Congress leaders on Tuesday held talks on the possibility of formation of a government in the state.
This is a one-sided electoral understanding without taking the RJD into confidence, party's national spokesman Sanjay Paswan said.
Optimistic over forming a new government in Jharkand, the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha is all set to stake a claim for government formation, with Rashtriya Janata Dal supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav vowing to install him as chief minister at all costs.Requiring a majority of 41 for the 81-member House, the JMM has 17 MLAs and guaranteed support of Congress, RJD and NCP.Four independents have pledged support to Soren and the JMM is lobbying to get the backing of at least 3 independents.
Indications are that the DMK combine will win more seats than the AIADMK and BJP, but is facing a tough fight in about half a dozen from the rest, predicts N Sathiya Moorthy of the electoral contest in Tamil Nadu.
The Election Commission today announced by-polls to three assembly constituencies in Delhi which fell vacant after Bharatiya Janata Party MLAs were elected to the Lok Sabha in the recently-held general elections.
The Union Cabinet on Monday recommended President's Rule in Jharkhand. According to official sources, the Jharkhand assembly will be kept under suspended animation.The state had witnessed political uncertainty after Jharkhand Chief Minister Shibu Soren was forced to resign, in the wake of his humiliating defeat in the bypoll in Tamar constituency.
A Jharkhand court on Monday directed Chief Minister Shibu Soren to appear before it on February 3 in connection with a 35-year-old double murder case. Soren, who will seek a trust vote in the Jharkhand assembly on January 7, is the sole accused in the case, in which eight others were acquitted in 1986. Soren was made one of the accused in the double murder case which had occurred on April 15, 1974 over the killing of a goat at Kudko under Pirtand police station in Giridih.
According to insiders, their lack of enthusiasm is showing on the ground. There is nothing to suggest that their enthusiasm will return in the final four phases of polling, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Warning against canvassing for the December 18 phase of Jharkhand assembly polls, Maoists on Tuesday burnt the campaign vehicle of an Independent candidate contesting from Panki assembly constituency in Palamau district, the police said.
Kejriwal charged that the BJP toppled Manipur, Bihar, Assam, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra governments.
The Congress and the Left parties have not only extended support to the Samajwadi Party candidate but are also campaigning for him, in accordance with the spirit of the new opposition togetherness ahead of next year's general election.
The second phase of polling began Saturday morning on 20 constituencies in Jharkhand, which votes in five phases to elect 81 members of the legislative assembly.
Buoyed by the Bihar assembly by-poll results, Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad on Saturday met Congress President Sonia Gandhi pleading for a secular alliance for the assembly elections in Jharkhand that is due soon.
'The UP government will implement the quota for the upper castes fully without touching the reservation for other sections of society'
In the Interim Budget, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced that a high power committee would be set up to consider the challenges arising from 'fast population grown and demographic changes.' 'But who wants data? It pays to feed people's fears, insecurities and apprehensions. If such fears don't exist, they must be created,' her husband Parakala Prabhakar says in this fascinating excerpt from his book, The Crooked Timber of New India: Essays on a Republic in Crisis.
It is unfortunate that the Congress has taken a decision of contesting the elections in alliance with the JMM without even consulting allies in the UPA government, he said.
In a big organisational rejig, the BJP named Union minister G Kishan Reddy, Sunil Jakhar and Babulal Marandi as party presidents in Telangana, Punjab and Jharkhand respectively.
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