State-run MTNL has put its overseas acquisitions plans on the backburner for the time being as it decides to focus on improving its marketshare in Delhi and Mumbai--the only places where it operates.
As their "political marriage" is all set to end, the Left parties are out to target the ruling UPA for which they are preparing a "chargesheet" against the government detailing its "unkept promises" and "obsession" with the nuclear deal.
The Communist Party of India Marxist on Monday dismissed as 'defunct and ineffective' the United Progressive Alliance -Left Coordination Committee and said it made little difference whether to continue in it or not. ''The UPA-Left Coordination Committee was formed for exchange of opinion between the government and Left parties on major policies. But it has now virtually turned into an ineffective and defunct body,'' CPI-M politburo member Biman Bose said.
A solution to the Singur issue ran into rough weather on Sunday when Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee raised certain objects after a consensus was understood to have been reached between her party and West Bengal government, a senior minister said.
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) contention that capitalism was the only way to industrialise West Bengal has made Left Front partners aghast.
Fresh from confabulations with AIADMK leader J Jayalalithaa, CPI top leader A B Bardhan sees another opportunity for the Left parties to play a more effective role at the Centre after the Lok Sabha elections next year.
'This government has time and again proved that they are not worthy of our support. That is why we are talking about withdrawing support at this stage. We have supported it for the past four years. But the government has not proved that it is worthy of our support. So we will have no other option but withdraw support.'
RSP leader Abani Roy spoke about the reason for pulling out of the UPA-Left co-ordination committee, the Centre's policies, the uneasy relations with the CPI-M and the Left's prospects in the coming general elections.
Four people, three belonging to RSP and one to CPI-M, died in poll-related violence at Basanti in South 24 Parganas district and another was killed at Domjur in Howrah district, IG (Law & Order) Raj Kanojia told media persons in Kolkata.
Three Congress workers were killed ahead of Monday's fourth phase of panchayat polls in four districts of West Bengal and at least 100 houses vandalised and looted in South 24-Parganas district on Sunday.
Some people stand out just by being unassuming. Sanak Mishra, chief executive officer (CEO), Mittal Steel India, is one of them.
The CPI-M said it has its own ideas as to what constituted such an alternative while the CPI and RSP raised doubts over the venture being spoken about by some regional parties.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday expanded his council of ministers, inducting 11 ministers, including 10 new faces, in the exercise which left Shiv Sena unhappy as it was denied a Cabinet berth.
The Communist Party of India on Thursday voiced strong opposition to the Budget proposal to increase foreign direct investment cap in three key sectors of telecommunication, insurance and aviation threatening to take to the streets on this issue.
The nationwide strike on Tuesday called by the Left parties against the hike in petrol and diesel prices evoked a mixed response with it getting unruly in some parts of the country.
Governor R L Bhatia administered the oath of office and secrecy to Chandy at Raj Bhavan in Thiruvanthapuram.
590 cricketers -- including 370 Indian players and 220 overseas players -- will go under the hammer during the two-day mega auction in Bengaluru on February 12 and 13.
The Congress expressed its 'whole-hearted' support to the 'Bharat bandh' called by farmer unions against the new agri-marketing laws and announced that it will hold protests that day at all district and state headquarters in solidarity with the demands of the farmers. TRS president and Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao said the party rank and file would actively participate in the bandh to ensure it was a success.
The Congress high command on Thursday approved the list of its candidates for Lok Sabha polls in Kerala retaining all but two sitting MPs, including Union Ministers Shashi Tharoor and K V Thomas, giving a head start to the party in the campaign against rival Left Democratic Front.
The Congress on Friday suspended two of its legislators for voting for the Trinamool Congress in the Rajya Sabha biennial election for five seats in West Bengal.
'One of the reasons for the BJP's recent resounding success in West Bengal is the resentment of the locals against the Trinamool Congress for failing to maintain law and order.' 'So, it isn't only the supposed pampering of the Muslims by the Trinamool Congress which has undermined its base among the Hindus,' notes Amulya Ganguli.
In a first such action in India's electoral history, the Election Commission had Wednesday ordered campaigning in the nine West Bengal constituencies to end at 10 pm on Thursday, instead of 6 pm on Friday, in the wake of violence between the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Trinamool Congress in Kolkata during Amit Shah's roadshow.
Bharatiya Janata President Amit Shah's visit to Mumbai on Wednesday has been cancelled, a party spokesperson said in Mumbai.
Notwithstanding initial signs of a rapprochement, BJP-Shiv Sena-led 'Mahayuti' on Tuesday night failed to resolve its differences over seat-sharing for the Maharashtra Assembly polls with smaller parties expressing disagreement over the meagre share offered to them.
The victory of the ruling Congress-led United Democratic Front in 12 of the 20 Lok Sabha seats in the state has made Chief Minister Oommen Chandy stronger as Kerala is one of the few states that bucked the anti-Congress trend in the country.
Accusing Trinamool Congress of creating widespread fear psychosis through "terror and intimidation" in West Bengal, the Left parties on Tuesday sought Election Commission's intervention to ensure free and fair polls.
As HMT, one of India's biggest watchmaking company, gets set to down its shutters, we are asking you, our dear readers to share photographs of your HMT watches.
Samajwadi Party and the Nationalist Congress Party on Monday announced entering into alliance for the coming Bihar assembly elections and claimed they were in talks with some other anti-BJP and anti-Congress regional parties.
"It is about time that India and its institutions are protected from these 'institution wreckers'," said Jaitley.
Successors of those who migrated to Pakistan and China during Partition will have no claim over the properties left behind in India, with Parliament on Tuesday passing a bill to amend a 49-year-old law.
In a firm indication of fast-changing political equations in the influential sugar belt of Western Maharashtra, the Shiv Sena and the Bharatiya Janata Party have shaken the monolith of Congress-Nationalist Congress Party clout ingrained in the cooperative network with spectacular gains in the Assembly elections.
Puducherry has been battered by heavy rains since the beginning of November and officials have assessed that such a quantum of downpour had not been seen in the last 100 years.
A total of 13 motions were moved in support of Birla.
Former BJP chief Nitin Gadkari on Monday met Raj Thackeray in Mumbai, triggering speculation that the saffron party is trying to win over the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief into the National Democratic Alliance for the upcoming elections even as he said there is no reason for Shiv Sena to be annoyed by his meeting with Raj.
A bill to amend the Citizenship Act, one of the six items on which government had issued ordinances, was on Monday passed by the Lok Sabha.
After Finance Minister Arun Jaitley moved the amended Finance Bill for consideration by the Lok Sabha, Deepender Hooda (Congress) said this was a "historic" occasion as never in the past had the Rajya Sabha amended the Finance Bill.
Earlier, while presenting the Budget on February 1, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had proposed to cap cash transactions at Rs 300,000 with effect from April 1.
The reported meeting of a journalist considered close to yoga guru Ramdev, a staunch BJP supporter, with 26/11 mastermind Hafiz Saeed generated heat in Parliament on Monday with Rajya Sabha witnessing two adjournments during Question Hour.
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