Disgruntled Janata Dal-United leader Upendra Kushwaha on Monday resigned from Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's party, less than two years after returning to the party, and announced formation of the 'Rashtriya Loktantrik Janata Dal'.
Maharashtra now has 20 ministers, including the chief minister, after the council of ministers was expanded on August 9 with the induction of 18 members.
Moving to overturn a Supreme Court ruling, a bill was introduced in Rajya Sabha under which convicted members of Parliament and members of Legislative Assembly cannot be disqualified immediately even though they will be barred from voting in the House and drawing their salary till their appeal is decided.
Patel was administered the oath as the 18th chief minister by Governor Acharya Devvrat at a function held at the Helipad Ground near the new Secretariat.
'Yogiji insisted to Venkaiah Naiduji that he needs two more strong arms to rule Uttar Pradesh.'
Clad in black shirts and white dhotis, the AIADMK members gathered in large numbers at the historic Valluvar Kottam in Chennai to stage a fast agitation demanding that Udayakumar be allotted Panneerselvam's chair in the assembly.
Both the BJP and the Congress have issued whips to their 18 and 24 MLAs respectively asking them to be present in the Assembly and vote as per their party's line.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Monday said the state should stand firmly behind people in the Marathi-speaking areas of neighbouring Karnataka and appealed to political parties not to behave in a way that would hurt them.
As the ruling alliance starts feeling the tremors, discussions on new equations have also started, reports Satyavrat Mishra.
In a statement after the apex court verdict, Thackeray said, "With folded hands, we request the prime minister and the president to take an immediate decision on Maratha quota."
The situation is currently under control, Beed Superintendent of Police Nandkumar Thakur told PTI.
Nishad said he will meet senior BJP leaders, including Amit Shah, in Delhi on Monday to finalise the constituencies where the party will field its candidates.
Madhaw Anand, the party's principal national general secretary and chief spokesperson, resigned from the posts as well as the primary membership stating that the party ran the risk of being "finished" on account of the "inconsequential" move.
Amid reports of Nitish Kumar shifting to Delhi as Rajya Sabha member to play a bigger role in uniting parties against the Bharatiya Janata Party, Bihar Janata Dal-United President Basistha Narayan Singh on Saturday dismissed any such possibility terming the reports as "imaginary."
In yet another sign that not everything is fine between Bihar's ruling partners, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar opposes the BJP's demand for a population control law -- even while seeking a caste-based census, a red flag for the BJP. M I Khan reports.
The governor of a state is not empowered to enter the political arena and play a role in inter-party or intra-party disputes, the Supreme Court said on Thursday, holding that the discretion exercised by then Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari asking Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray to face a floor test was "not in accordance with law".
A top Home Ministry official said no note has been prepared yet to be placed before tomorrow's scheduled meeting of the Cabinet to be chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
The Commission, sources said, will have to decide on who commands the majority in SP before January 17 when the notification for the first phase of assembly polls is issued.
The government was formed 10 days after Shinde raised a banner of revolt against the Shiv Sena leadership. Forty out of 55 Sena MLAs sided with Shinde, which resulted in the collapse of the two-and-a-half-year-old Maha Vikas Aghadi dispensation comprising the Sena, the Nationalist Congress Party and the Congress.
Pakistan's National Assembly has passed a government-backed bill that will provide the right of appeal to Indian death-row prisoner Kulbhushan Jadhav, according to a media report.
Tension was brewing in Moti Karanja area for the last few days as the municipal corporation was carrying out a drive against illegal water connections.
The law, which dilutes the Indian capital's autonomy and emasculates the elected local government's powers, will be a political millstone for the party for the next elections, reports Aditi Phadnis
A day after Nationalist Congress Party extended unsolicited "outside support" to Bharatiya Janata Party in government formation in Maharashtra, party president Sharad Pawar on Monday said it was the "best alternative" to usher in a "stable" dispensation.
Noting that a very important policy for advancement of SCs and STs was Schedules Caste Sub-Plan and Tribal Sub-Plan, Raju said the group has recommended a central and states' legislation on them.
Even as the Centre stayed the Jharkhand government's move to promote tourism at the Parasnath hills after protests by Jains, tribals jumped into the fray staking a claim to the land and asking for it to be freed.
Maharashtra BJP chief spokesperson Keshav Upadhye said there was no political angle to the meeting. "Raut wanted to interview Fadnavis for (the Sena mouthpiece) Saamana and this meeting was to discuss how to go about it," he tweeted.
The Opposition National Conference and Congress lawmakers on Friday disrupted proceedings in both houses of the Jammu and Kashmir legislature, accusing the government of misleading people on the issue of transfer of power projects to the state, and created ruckus in the assembly as Speaker directed marshalling out of some members.
The monk-turned politician will take the reins of the most populous state for a second time in a row after completing his full five-year term.
The former Deputy chief minister made the sensational assertion on his twitter handle, sharing a mobile number which, he claimed, Prasad was having access to despite serving sentences in fodder scam cases.
One of the dropped ministers, Bojjala Gopala Krishna Reddy, resigned from his assembly membership.
The Eknath Shinde-led Maharashtra government has come under fire following the Centre's announcement that Tata-Airbus C-295 transport aircraft project would be set up in Gujarat, with the opposition seeking to know why the project that was supposed to come up in Maharashtra went to the neighbouring state.
He had along with three other ministers rebelled against Amarinder Singh while choosing to side with the camp of state Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu.
Announcing the name of candidates for the West Bengal assembly polls, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday said she will be contesting from the Nandigram constituency as announced earlier.
The interim order was passed on petitions by Stalin and Dinakaran loyalist MLA P Vetrivel.
Given the politics behind it all, one possibility is for binding the governor to act according to the decisions of the state government and clarifying his position vis a vis bills and resolutions passed by the state assembly -- or, re-enacted if returned, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
Notices are being sent to both factions for the January 13 hearing.
It held that though the LG was not a 'titular head', he should not emerge as an 'adversary having a hostile attitude' towards the Council of Ministers but rather act as a facilitator.
Although the BJP has never been ballistic about the BJD and Narendra Modi has avoided being critical of Naveen Patnaik, the BJP is optimistic that the party can improve its electoral fortunes in Odisha on its own, notes Rup Narayan Das.
In a four-cornered fight, the real battle is between Union minister Pratima Bhoumik and CPM's Kaushik Chanda.
'It is a well-thought-out decision. I feel it is difficult for him now to step back.'
