Sources said the opposition parties would look to avoid the prickly leadership question as of now and emphasise on building a common ground.
Twenty suspended Rajya Sabha members on Wednesday started a 50-hour relay protest inside the Parliament complex, with sources saying the Opposition declined the chairman's offer that they express regret over their members' behaviour in the House to get the suspension revoked.
The ruling Trinamool Congress in West Bengal demanded Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw's resignation over the horrific triple train crash in neighbouring Odisha.
Ramesh, however, said it was too early to talk about all this right now as the Congress' first priority was the upcoming elections in Karnataka and the string of state polls this year.
The padyatra concluded at the Lal Chowk area on Sunday with Rahul Gandhi unfurling the national flag but the official closing would take place on Monday in Srinagar, amid snowfall.
In UP and Bengal, it is willing to sacrifice its interests to stop the BJP and would work towards ensuring the BJP did not win incremental seats in Odisha and Telangana.
Several opposition leaders on Monday wrote to the Rajya Sabha chairman claiming that Leader of Opposition in the House Mallikarjun Kharge was not accorded a seat commensurate with his position during the swearing-in ceremony of President Droupadi Murmu.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, however, was conspicuous by her absence at the event, which was attended by tens of thousands of people as the Congress sought to promote opposition unity.
Mamata's 'there is no United Progressive Alliance (UPA)' remark after a meeting in Mumbai with Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar, an ally of Congress in Maharashtra, evoked a strong response from the party, currently being led by interim president Sonia Gandhi.
This is for the second time in the last three months that Sinha has come out with praising words for Rahul Gandhi and his 'Bharat Jodo Yatra'.
Initiating the debate on the bill from the opposition's side, Congress leader Sonia Gandhi said that any delay in bringing the reservation into effect would be "gross injustice" to Indian women.
The Rajya Sabha was adjourned twice while the opposition parties staged a walkout in Lok Sabha on Tuesday, voicing their protest against the increase in the prices of petrol, diesel and cooking gas LPG.
Former Union minister Yashwant Sinha will be the consensus presidential candidate of several opposition parties, including the Congress, the Trinamool Congress and the Samajwadi Party, the parties said in a joint statement on Tuesday.
Leaders of 38 parties have confirmed their participation in a meeting of the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) to be held in the national capital on Tuesday, Bharatiya Janata Party president J P Nadda said.
The Congress-led opposition stepped up its attack on Friday against the government over the Adani row and demanded that there should be a thorough investigation into what they alleged was a 'mega scam' as it involved public money.
On the eve of the meeting hosted by it, the Congress clarified that it will oppose the ordinance on Delhi services in Parliament, a key condition put by the AAP to attend the talks.
These include key constituencies held by Opposition parties such as Uttar Pradesh's Rae Bareli (Sonia Gandhi, Congress) and Mainpuri (Mulayam Singh Yadav, SP); Maharashtra's Baramati (Supriya Sule, Nationalist Congress Party); West Bengal's Jadhavpur (Mimi Chakraborty, TMC); Telangana's Mahabubnagar (Srinivas Reddy, TRS) and Madhya Pradesh's Chhindwara (Nakul Nath, Congress).
Mamata Banerjee's party won 132 seats and was all set to pocket two more to post a hat-trick of wins, decimating a frail challenge from the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, the Left Front and the Congress, officials said.
Parties have decided to take this action against a government that, a senior leader alleged, has been routinely "insulting the constitution."
The closed-door discussions between Kishor and Pawar at the latter's residence lasted for about one-and-a-half hours, sources said.
'Switching loyalty from one party to another is completely unfair as it devalues my vote.'
A G20 dinner invitation from President Droupadi Murmu describing her position as 'President of Bharat' triggered massive debate on Tuesday, with the opposition alleging that the government is planning to drop India and stay with just Bharat as the country's name.
Uncertain political times in Meghalaya, Nagaland, Tripura.
What would Parliament be without these nine ladies?
Chidambaram, who is the Congress' senior election observer for the Goa Assembly polls, also hit out at the Trinamool Congress for its barbs at the Congress for not forging an alliance with it, saying the party continued to poach Congress leaders, despite making an offer of a tie-up.
Ahead of the 2022 assembly elections, Churchill Alemao 'merged' the NCP with the TMC. The 'merger' took place when Mamata Banerjee was in Mumbai talking to NCP supreme leader Sharad Pawar on how to forge Opposition unity!
The vote share of the Congress, which won 11 assembly seats in Goa this time, plunged by nearly five per cent as compared to what it was in the previous election, while the BJP, which retained power in the coastal state, saw a marginal rise in it, the data shared by the Election Commission shows.
CPI-M general secretary Sitaram Yechury and CPI general secretary D Raja said the top leadership will not attend the meeting called by the TMC chief.
However, speculation remained rife that the meeting was part of Banerjee's plan to form an opposition front with regional players minus the Congress.
The women's reservation bill is back in focus ahead of Parliament's winter session, with several opposition parties, including the Janata Dal-United, which had once opposed the move, demanding that it be introduced and passed in this session.
If only the Congress could rebuild on its strengths and develop a modern enough ideology, we could again be moving towards a clearer two-party political landscape, asserts Shekhar Gupta.
As part of the efforts to bring several opposition parties together on a common platform to defeat the BJP in 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Pawar met Kharge on Thursday evening.
The Association of Democratic Reforms said Goa has set a unique record, which is "unparalleled" in the history of Indian democracy.
The results of the assembly elections in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh are also likely to play out during the start of the session.
The talk of an anti-BJP front got revived after leaders of various parties and prominent individuals congregated at Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar's New Delhi residence last month.
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.
What some of our leaders were up to on Monday, December 12.
'The way opposition parties such as the Nationalist Congress Party, Shiv Sena, the Samajwadi Party, Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Jharkhand Mukti Morch have supported her, if she wins, she will be the biggest opposition face for 2024'
'Mamata Didi is the only politician who can take on the might of Modi.'
With just over a month to go for assembly elections in Goa, political observers feel the Congress may upset the Bharatiya Janata Party's plans for retaining power in the coastal state, but appear less enthused about the Trinamool Congress, whose entry has added colour to the poll campaign.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Investor Information - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances