A resolution commemorating the life of Indian human rights defender Father Stan Swamy and seeking an independent investigation into the death of the Jesuit priest has been introduced in the US Congress, Congressman Juan Vargas has said.
Disappointed at the Union Cabinet recommending President's Rule in Jharkhand, the Jharkhand Multi Morcha on Thursday said that it was not an alternative to an elected government, while the Congress said that it would abide by the decision of the central leadership.
One of the ministers said they are going back to Ranchi for a Cabinet meeting scheduled on Thursday.
Polling will take place amidst tight security in 13 Maoist-affected constituencies in the first phase of 5-stage elections to the 81-member Jharkhand Assembly on Tuesday.
Ravi Shankar Prasad, Bharatiya Janata Party's spokesperson, has confirmed that Shibu Soren is not acceptable to them as the chief minister of Jharkhand and the election commission should fresh election. the Congress and the Rashtriya Janata Dal had already rejected Soren's claim, to chief ministership, who had withdrawan support to Madhu Koda government.
This is a one-sided electoral understanding without taking the RJD into confidence, party's national spokesman Sanjay Paswan said.
Kicking off Bharatiya Janata Party's poll campaign in Jharkhand, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday launched an attack on the state government over the issue of development and asked the people to free the state from dynastic rule to end corruption.
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 Maoist threat should be taken with utmost seriously and the menace should be dealt with in every possible way, political leaders in Jharkhand opined.
As the tussle appeared getting out of hand, the two lawmakers disengaged and went their separate ways.
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.
The ten richest among the 199 candidates in fray in the first phase of polling for Jharkhand assembly belong to Palamau division, according to an NGO involved in election watch.
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.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday assured the country that the beginning of building a "new and developed Kashmir" that will be free from terrorism has been made under Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said that full statehood would be restored to Jammu and Kashmir at an appropriate time.
'The Opposition will continue to be attacked through misuse of agencies, civil society will be force-marched towards extinction and India's plummeting on global indices will continue.' 'Minorities and especially Muslims will continue to have open season declared on them. Institutions will continue their decline,' predicts Aakar Patel.
The lack of clarity on who is next in line, when the time comes, as indeed it will one day some day, reflects poorly on the management of the world's largest political party. It scarcely need be said that a squabble between the contenders, Shah and Yogi, is exactly what the doctor ordered for the Opposition, notes Krishna Prasad.
The Bharatiya Janata Party leader attacked the Congress for according Rahul Gandhi a "special treatment" following his conviction in a defamation case and accused the party of pressuring the judiciary, and doing everything possible to stay relevant.
In Phase 6, indications are that the BJP, which is defending 40 seats, will lose in double digits and gain in single digits. Not good, if you are the ruling party scrambling to earn a working majority, with just one phase left to go, argues Prem Panicker.
Jharkhand Governor Syed Sibtey Razi on Monday night appointed Jharkhand Pradesh Congress Committee president and legislator Pradeep Kumar Balmachu as the officiating speaker of the state Assembly.
The election agent of the candidate, Brahmanand Netam, said he has submitted a reply to the Jharkhand police on the leader's behalf stating Netam is busy with electioneering.
A group of MPs from the opposition alliance INDIA will visit Manipur on July 29 and 30 to assess the situation in the northeastern state which has been engulfed in ethnic violence since May 3.
The Congress on Thursday renamed the Rahul Gandhi-led Manipur-Mumbai yatra starting on January 14 as the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, which will travel through 100 Lok Sabha segments in 15 states including Arunachal Pradesh, and asserted it will prove to be as 'transformative' as his earlier cross-country march.
Top leaders of 26 opposition parties were arriving in Bengaluru on Monday for a two-day brainstorming session with a call for unity and are expected to chalk out their joint programme aimed at defeating the Bharatiya Janata Party in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
'The BJP was supporting him from behind in order to bring down the Congress government.'
Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge, general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, senior leaders K C Venugopal, P Chidambaram and Salman Khurshid were among the party's top brass taking part in the satyagraha at Rajghat.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday announced Prime Minister Narendra Modi will fight again from Varanasi in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections as it named 34 Union ministers in the first list of 195 candidates.
As per a letter sent to the MLAs by the assembly secretariat, the chief minister has expressed his willingness to move a motion of confidence to prove his majority.
Why did Modi single out the Congress and its leaders for the most pugnacious verbal assault while sparing other regional adversaries? If he is trying to get some parties to break the Opposition ranks, it means that the BJP's present bravado is for effect. Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, author of Narendra Modi: The Man, The Times, begins a new column for Rediff.com.
His five-year rule saw the Babri Masjid demolition, the rise of the saffron forces and also the country being placed firmly on a new economic path, away from the Nehru years of public sector socialism.
Opposition parties will hold the next meeting of their 26-member INDIA coalition in Mumbai on August 25 and 26, sources said on Thursday.
A police complaint has been lodged at Barakhamba police station in Delhi, against 26 Opposition parties "for improper use of the name of INDIA and use of the said name for the undue influence and personation at elections."
The party has fielded Parvati Das for the by-election to the Bageshwar assembly seat in Uttarakhand and Lijinlal G for the Puthuppally assembly seat in Kerala.
The conference was seen by many as a show of strength by the Opposition with Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, his Jharkhand counterpart Hemant Soren and Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav joining in to raise their voice against oppression of backward classes.
Where do the big guns stand as counting underway for the Jammu and Kashmir and Jharkhand elections?
Nineteen Opposition parties, including the Congress, the Left, the Trinamool Congress, the Samajwadi Party and the Aam Aadmi Party, came together to jointly announce the boycott, saying they find no value in a new building when the "soul of democracy has been sucked out".
"I met the Governor and informed him that he was constitutionally not bound to accept the recommendation of House dissolution taken by a minority government," Jharkhand PCC Chief Pradeep Kumar Balmachu told reporters at the Raj Bhavan after calling on Ahmed
The setback promises to have far-reaching ramifications within and outside the party as it is likely to fuel voices that have challenged the Gandhi family's leadership and also those who have been a votary of a non-Congress front to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Facing opposition fire for exit polls allegedly being used for stock market manipulation, Axis My India's chief Pradeep Gupta has said he is open to facing all kinds of investigations and it would help do business in a much better way if the government frames specific regulations for pollsters.