Sensing an impending storm at its crucial meeting on June 20 to discuss its poor show in the recent Lok Sabha elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party has decided to set up an in-house committee to analyse the reasons for its electoral defeat.The decision to set up the committee is expected to be finalised at the party's 'core committee' meeting in New Delhi on Wednesday. Besides party President Rajnath Singh and Opposition leader L K Advani, senior leaders will also attend.
The opposition alliance believes "compulsive abstention" has no place in presidential elections.
The 70-year-old leader attended a meeting of the floor leaders of NDA allies in both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha in the Parliament chamber of Opposition leader Lal Krishna Advani on Thursday.
The gory memories of the 2001 Parliament attack came alive at a function to mark the martyrdom of the security personnel who laid down their lives to save the symbol of Indian democracy.Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Leader of Opposition LK Advani, chairperson of United Progressive Alliance Sonia Gandhi and other senior leaders of various political parties offered floral tributes.
The war of words between United Progressive Alliance government and the main Opposition BJP over the economic situation saw BJP leader Yashwant Sinha calling Finance Minister P Chidambaram a 'conceited person' for labelling L K Advani 'our own John McCain'. Advani, Leader of Opposition and BJP's prime ministerial candidate, had called a meeting of 15 top captains of Indian industry on Thursday to discuss the issues plaguing the Indian economy in the wake of the global meltdow
A 7-hr debate was held over the contentious bill. Oppn amendments rejected.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday blamed the Congress for the "disgraceful" pepper spraying incident in Lok Sabha, saying it was a "drama" enacted by the ruling party and vowed not to engage with the government on any issue again.
'The government seems inclined to 'settle' the Kashmir issue in blatant violation of the unanimous resolution by both Houses of the Indian Parliament in 1995. The country must be vigilant about this.'
Joginder Tuteja looks at the big hits scored, and presents his half-yearly report.
Mukesh and Anil Ambani, known for their bitter battle ever since they parted ways in 2005, will once again come together under the same roof tomorrow on the occasion of the 75th birthday of mother Kokilaben, triggering a speculation of a possible rapprochement between the two.
Terming the ordinance on convicted members of Parliament and members of Legislative Assembly as "immoral and unconstitutional", the Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday said President Pranab Mukherjee is not "duty-bound" to give assent to it and suggested to him that he should send it back to the government.
'The BJP will be the single largest party in the next Lok Sabha, the only one party with a three digit tally.'
As Saif turns 50, Joginder Tuteja looks at his top money-spinners over the years.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Sushma Swaraj has said that the situation in her party is 'volcanic' following its defeat in the Lok Sabha elections.
Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Thursday said he would reach out to all political parties to support bills on economic reforms in Parliament.
Talking to media persons in New Delhi, Antulay denied having ever raised doubts on who killed Karkare. The Union minister added that he will meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi in this regard.
'Modi wants to go down in history not necessarily as India's first overtly Hindu RSS pracharak prime minister, but as a world statesman who built the idea of India as a great nation.'
Shekhawat was accompanied by former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and other NDA leaders.
Stating that the GJM was seeking appointment with the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil and the Leader of the Opposition L K Advani, Gurung told PTI from Darjeeling that a delegation, comprising GJM central committee members, would meet MPs of different political parties.
Congress spokesperson Manish Tiwari on Friday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of double standards."When the Ahmedabad serial blasts case was allegedly cracked, the chief minister of Gujarat and leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha L K Advani did not waste a second in calling press conferences, both in Ahmedabad and Delhi, to pat themselves on the back. The BJP will have to answer as to why it is trying to suppress the investigations into the Modasa blasts? he said.
Saying the CPI-M has nuked the farmers in Nandigram and the UPA government, LK Advani says the NDA will raise the Nandigram issue in Parliament.
The meeting saw Opposition agreeing to undertake orderly behaviour in the House and in turn Chatterjee withdrawing the controversial reference of the MPs, mostly from the BJP- led National Democratic Alliance, to the Committee, sources said. An announcement on the issue is expected when the House reassembles at 14.00 hours. "Wait till two," the Speaker said, when reporters asked him about the outcome of the meeting.
The Indian National Lok Dal on Sunday rejoined the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance and announced that it will contest the coming Lok Sabha elections in Haryana in alliance with the BJP.
'When economic policies were attacked by people on his own side, he went ahead despite all the criticisms in the coalition, within the party and the Sangh Parivar.'
The fact that Home Minister Amit Shah recently met Raje was a marker that Delhi will be compelled to take her more seriously than it would care to. Like B S Yediyurappa, she's a regional chieftain who can't be discarded at will, reports Radhika Ramaseshan.
Ajit Singh-led Rashtriya Lok Dal on Monday joined the NDA fold and announced that the "formidable alliance" would work towards a change in government in the Centre and in Uttar Pradesh.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who arrived along with his deputy Manish Sisodia, paid tributes to the Mahatma on his birth anniversary.
'After Bharat Ane Nenu, I have been getting a lot of interesting scripts from the Telugu industry.' 'I would like to balance between Hindi and Telugu films.'
Shivraj Singh Chouhan was on Saturday sworn in as Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister for third consecutive term, nearly a week after he led Bharatiya Janata Party to a spectacular hat-trick in Assembly elections.
Could the defeat of Vasundhara Raje, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, and Raman Singh in last year's polls in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh, respectively, augur a transition in the command structure of these states, where they reigned supreme?
On the eve of the Trust motion, National Security Adviser M K Narayanan and Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon briefed most of the UPA speakers, including Rahul Gandhi, on the intricate details of nuclear deal to prepare them well for the debate.
The Speaker, Somnath Chatterjee who held an all-party meeting in New Delhi on Wednesday, said the whole country was under scrutiny and not just members of Parliament alone after the Mumbai terror attack.
But the party has yet to evolve a consensus within the NDA over its choice, given Bihar Chief Minister and JD (U) leader Nitish Kumar's open support for Kalam.
The modalities for seat-sharing would be worked out later after AGP had talks on a similar arrangement with other opposition parties, he said. Stating that various problems of the state were discussed at the meeting, Patowary said, opposition leader Advani was urged to raise in Parliament the issues concerning the people here to pressurise the centre for solving them.
The leaders were protesting the hike in petrol and diesel prices.
BJP's chief returning officer O P Kohli who conducted the organisational elections in the country said there were 15 sets of nomination papers all in support of Rajnath Singh's candidature.
The thrust of the conclave would be to expose the UPA's failures on price rise and inflation which has hit the the common man adversely.
Responding to Leader of Opposition Lal Kishenchand Advani's demand for a decision before Wednesday, the anniversary of the attack, Patil said no deadline had been set in such cases earlier.
The Kapoors prayed for the matriarch at a chautha.
Malik said Congress leaders requested that the meeting be postponed to Wednesday.
