The Congress on Tuesday suffered a major upset in Himachal Pradesh at the hands of the Bharatiya Janata Party in the Rajya Sabha elections which were marred by cross-voting in all the three states though it won three seats in Karnataka while the saffron party pocketed an extra seat in Uttar Pradesh.
Vicky Nanjappa reports on the dilemma that the Andhra Pradesh government headed by Kiran Kumar Reddy faces in the wake of Congress legislators from Telangana deciding to quit their seats to press for a separate state.
Former Congress president Sonia Gandhi, BJP chief J P Nadda and new party entrant Ashok Chavan and Union ministers Ashwini Vaishnaw and L Murugan were among the 41 candidates elected unopposed to Rajya Sabha on Tuesday while Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh will witness polling on February 27.
A resolution to this effect was passed at the party's general body meeting in Hyderabad, party sources said.
Fifteen rebel members of Legislative Assembly belonging to Andhra Pradesh's ruling Congress and main opposition Telugu Desam Party were today disqualified for voting in favour of a no-confidence motion moved by TRS against the Kiran Kumar Reddy government in March this year.
Serious difference in Andhra Pradesh's ruling Congress party on the issue of Telangana state further deepened with ministers and other leaders stepping up their attacks directly on Chief Minister K Rosaiah.
Chances of holding early assembly polls in Telangana and Seema-Andhra, along with the Lok Sabha elections, seem unlikely, says Renu Mittal
KCR will continue as caretaker chief minister until the new government is formed.
The Odisha government told the assembly over 40,000 workers migrated from the state last year, with the highest number -- 26,151 -- from Balangir.
Cross-voting by Left and Congress MLAs on Friday helped Trinamool Congress gain an extra seat in West Bengal while a similar action by Congress MLAs in Andhra Pradesh saw the Telangana Rashtra Samithi making its debut in Rajya Sabha as high drama marked the polls to the upper House in the two states.
However, the Telangana statehood was not even on the agenda of the assembly which reconvened on Thursday morning.
The entire process of the formation of a new state of Telangana is expected to take 5 to 6 months, say experts. The government is likely to impose President's rule in Andhra Pradesh until the process is completed. Vicky Nanjappa reports
The Tamil Nadu assembly on Wednesday adopted a resolution urging the Centre to repeal the Citizenship Amendment Act 2019 to protect and ensure unity and communal harmony and uphold the secular principles enshrined in the Constitution.
The Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly was on Thursday abruptly adjourned till January 3 without even initiating the crucial debate on draft AP Re-organisation Bill-2013 that provides for the creation of a new state of Telangana.
Naidu was an Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad activist during the Emergency and was arrested and jailed.
As the relay hunger strike by the legislators from the Telangana region continued on third day on Monday, demanding the Centre to start the process of formation of separate state, the legislators from Andhra and Rayalseema regions were becoming active once again to bring counter pressure on the Central government.
From being the hand-picked choice of Sonia Gandhi as Andhra Pradesh chief minister to sitting on a dharna in Delhi against division of the state, Nallari Kiran Kumar Reddy has turned from a Congress regional leader to a disgruntled rebel in his nearly 39-month tumultuous tenure.
The 13 members include, sitting Congress MLA Danasari Anasuya (Seethakka) and former legislator Vem Narendar Reddy.
A delegation of Telugu Desam Party legislators met Andhra Pradesh Governor E S L Narasimhan at the Raj Bhavan in Hyderabad on Thursday and handed over a letter informing him about the election of N Chandrababu Naidu as the leader of Telugu Desam Legislature Party.
Jaganmohan Reddy will be sworn in as chief minister on May 30.
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.
Members belonging to the ruling Congress and Telugu Desam Party tried to disrupt the customary address by the Governor to the joint session of the Andhra Pradesh Legislature on Monday by raising slogans for and against the bifurcation of the state.
Janardhana Reddy said he has not launched it with the objective of becoming CM right away in 2023.
In switching over, Nitish has sent out a message that if he could not now become the NDA's PM, then he would need to stay on as CM at the very least, which a third term for Modi would not let him have, N Sathiya Moorthy points out.
By keeping the Sanatana Dharma row alive and adding the Ayodhya temple consecration scheduled for January 22 and adding the free darshan promise from four polled states to the entire country, the BJP may have a self-fulfilling concoction, predicts N Sathiya Moorthy.
The decision to bifurcate Andhra Pradesh has "zero" electoral prospects and it will be a "death blow" to the Congress, Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy has claimed.
Twenty two legislators belonging to the Telangana Rashtra Samithi and the Bharatiya Janata Party along with two independent MLAs associated with them were on Monday suspended from the Andhra Pradesh assembly for two days for constantly disrupting proceedings of the House on the Telangana statehood issue.
Contrary to earlier expectations, the Telangana bill will now be introduced in the Lok Sabha first instead of the Rajya Sabha with the government seeking a fresh recommendation from the President after the Upper House secretariat held it is a money bill.
Notwithstanding vociferous opposition, the government is expected to table the Telangana bill in Lok Sabha on Thursday.
Telugu Desam Party chief N Chandrababu Naidu on Saturday met President Pranab Mukherjee and leaders of political parties in an attempt to find an amicable solution to the problem of division in New Delhi Andhra Pradesh and creation of Telangana state.
Extending its winning run in the south, the Congress on Sunday won 64 assembly seats to form government in the Bharat Rashtra Samiti-dominated Telangana, with the southern solace coming in the midst of a saffron sweep of the Hindi heartland where the Bharatiya Janata Party wrested two states from the grand old party and retained one.
For the BJP, Telangana is a sunrise state in the South, while Karnataka is a southern success despite the ups and downs.
Concerned over high incidents of violence, the Home ministry has asked the Election Commission to conduct the upcoming Lok Sabha polls in 33 Naxal-hit districts in the first phase to ensure maximum security and minimum casualties.
17 MLAs of the TDP were suspended from the assembly for disrupting CM Jagan Mohan Reddy's address on the Andhra Pradesh Decentralisation and Inclusive Development of All Regions Bill, 2020.
Veteran Congress leader Digvijaya Singh and Bharatiya Janata Party candidates Jyotiraditya Scindia and Sumer Singh Solanki on Friday won Rajya Sabha election from Madhya Pradesh.
Government strategists are trying to ensure that the requisite 16 of the 31 states ratify the Bill by the end of this month
President Pranab Mukherjee, the former trouble-shooter of the Congress party, may informally 'guide' the Union government in drafting the bill on the creation of Telangana.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi is said to have appeased two Telangana MP's who met her on Thursday on the Rayal-Telangana issue.
Elections for 19 Rajya Sabha seats spread across eight states will be held on Friday with the contest in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan promising to be a close affair between the BJP and the Congress.
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