The Trinamool Congress will abstain from the upcoming vice presidential election as it does not agree with the way the Opposition candidate was decided without keeping the party in the loop, senior leader Abhishek Banerjee said on Thursday.
Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on Thursday rejected claims by Bharatiya Janata Party MP and his former deputy chief minister Sushil Modi that the Janata Dal-United had split with the National Democratic Alliance as the chief minister was not made the Vice President.
As vice president and ex-officio chairman of the Rajya Sabha, Jagdeep Dhankar is inheriting a troubled legacy. Although the government faces no real numerical challenges in the Upper House, political and legal challenges are there aplenty.
Former Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Kalyan Singh was sworn-in as the 20th Governor of Rajasthan on Thursday. Chief Justice of Rajasthan high court Sunil Ambwani administered the oath of office to Singh at a ceremony held at Raj Bhawan.
President Droupadi Murmu said the nation will benefit from Dhankhar's long and rich experience in public life and extended her best wishes for a productive and successful tenure.
President Droupadi Murmu will administer the Oath of Office to the elected Vice President of India Jagdeep Dhankhar at Rashtrapati Bhavan at 11.45 am on Thursday.
"I will always strive to enhance democratic values of country," Dhankhar said after filing his nomination.
The Congress fielded former Governor Margaret Alva's son Nivedit Alva from the Kumta assembly seat.
All MPs of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, including nominated members, are entitled to vote in the vice presidential election.
Dhankar wins vice presidential election by bagging more than 500 votes.
'The West has always opposed a strong nationalist leader in India and Narendra Modi is no exception.' 'The West prefers weak leaders who are amenable to Western pressure and Mr Modi's independent stance is not to the liking of the West,' asserts Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
Dhankhar, who took to cricket in his school days and also had keen interest in spirituality and meditation, began his political journey with the Janata Dal and won the Lok Sabha elections in 1989.
Some of the Congress's new-found enthusiasm for hitting the streets will show its result in the Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, and Karnataka elections. That is when we will know if the Congress will go to the regional parties or the parties will come to the Congress.
Fate of more than ten Governors, including Karnataka's H R Bhardwaj and Punjab's Shivraj V Patil, appointed by the outgoing UPA government hangs in balance with indications that the new dispensation may politely ask them to vacate the Raj Bhavans.
Bharatiya Janata Party veterans like Murli Manohar Joshi, Kalyan Singh and V K Malhotra may be accommodated as governors as their names are doing the rounds for appointment in gubernatorial posts in key states like Karnataka, Maharashtra and Haryana.
Former West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar was on Thursday sworn in as the 14th Vice President of India.
When Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi's name was floated as Venkaiah Naidu's successor as vice president, the RSS instead suggested Jagdeep Dhankar, indicating that he was also Mohan Bhagwat's choice, states Prakash Bhandari.
Gujarat Governor Kamla Beniwal, who had frosty relations with Narendra Modi when he was chief minister of the state, was tonight sent off to Mizoram in a reshuffle of governors effected by the government.
Former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Kalyan Singh was on Tuesday appointed governor of Rajasthan as the Centre named three more Bharatiya Janata Party leaders for the Raj Bhavans in Maharashtra, Karnataka and Goa.
Kamla Beniwal, who had a running battle with Narendra Modi when he was Gujarat chief minister, was on Wednesday night sacked as governor of Mizoram just two months before her tenure comes to an end.
It's not that rapes are happening only in Uttar Pradesh. On Tuesday alone, four rape cases were reported across Rajasthan. The rape victims in the desert state include two minor girls, an elderly woman, a child and a transgender.
Fearing what lies ahead if the Congress led United Progressive Alliance loses power, it is believed that 19 governors appointed by it are considering putting in their papers. Karnataka's Hansraj Bhardwaj has already submitted his papers and is awaiting clearance from the party high command, reports a correspondent.
A brother and sister united in grief at their beloved mother's funeral.
Gujarat Chief Minister and Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi on Saturday sharpened his attack on the Congress in general and party Vice-President Rahul Gandhi in particular at a rally in Udaipur, Rajasthan.
Vasundhara Raje, who led the Bharatiya Janata Paty to a landslide victory in the Rajasthan assembly polls, was on Friday sworn in as the chief minister for the second time, in the presence of Narendra Modi and other top party leaders.
Cassandras and Congressis may sneer at the findings, but the Times Now poll indicated that the Modi government was very much on its way to a second term.
Amid opposition charge of political vendetta in the sacking of Mizoram Governor Kamla Beniwal, the government on Thursday said the decision was prompted by "serious allegations" against her and insisted there was no politics behind it.
Punjab Governor Shivraj Patil was the first who expressed his desire to put in his papers even before Modi government took charge, but he was told by Congress leaders not to do so as it would then put pressure on the others to do the same, reports Anita Katyal.
When the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government came to power in 2004, then Home Minister Shivraj Patil lost no time in replacing four governors appointed by the NDA dispensation.
'India need to look beyond the economic prism.' 'China had no qualms in taking the Kashmir issue to the UN Security Council last year -- not once, but thrice -- thus violating Indian sensitivities,' observes China expert Srikanth Kondapalli.
'For the last 10 years the Congress made the RSS an idea of intolerance, anti-minority, especially anti-Muslim, and an idea of fascism.' 'That has been demolished now by Pranab Mukherjee.'