The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday took a major step to implement its key plank of "one nation, one election" as the Union Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved the constitutional amendment bill to roll out the concept of simultaneous Lok Sabha and state assembly polls, sources said.
Rajya Sabha proceedings were adjourned for the day as amid uproarious scenes with the opposition and treasury benches shouting slogans.
Modi wants the BJP to gets an additional 10% of the vote share from what it won in 2019. Plans are afoot to get new faces to replace MPs with poor chances of winning. Sources say more than 100 MPs are like to be axed, notes Modi biographer Ramesh Menon.
A session of both Houses of Parliament will be held from September 18-22 without Question Hour or private members' business, the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha secretariats said on Saturday.
The over half-an-hour meeting between the opposition parties and the government, however, remained inconclusive.
The plan involves the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha seating half of their members in their respective chambers, reports Archis Mohan.
An ordinance to amend a law to reduce the salaries of MPs by 30 per cent for one year "to meet the exigencies arising out of COVID-19 pandemic" was promulgated.
"Before the BJP came into existence, its forerunners Jan Sangh and RSS had opposed Babasaheb while the Constitution was being adopted," Prakash Ambedkar, who heads Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi, told reporters in Pune.
Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla urged MPs on Monday to follow the prescribed format while taking oath or affirmation and not add words as it lowered the dignity of the Constitution.
Actor-turned-politician and sitting MP Locket Chatterjee has been fielded from Chunchura and another MP Nishit Parmanik from Dinhata. Also, a number of film personalities have been nominated as candidates in the high-stakes battle for West Bengal.
The passage of the Union Budget and other key legislations such as triple talaq will be on top of the agenda for the government.
Both the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha were adjourned till 2 pm after opposition members held protest in Parliament seeking a discussion on the issue.
Floor leaders of the Opposition Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance met on Monday ahead of the start of Parliament's winter session and decided to raise the issue of alleged corruption in the Adani Group and demand a Joint Parliamentary Committee on the matter.11111111111111111111111111
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday announced Prime Minister Narendra Modi will fight again from Varanasi in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections as it named 34 Union ministers in the first list of 195 candidates.
The TDP members in the Upper House refused to leave the chamber even after the House was adjourned for the day.
Only vegetarian dishes were served at the official dinner held at a state-run five-star hotel.
'Whether somebody else can take up (Narendra Modi's position) the answer to it is yes but for that (to happen) some kind of crisis must come and in that crisis Modi must lose the (trust) vote.' 'Only then another candidate from the BJP can come and most likely it could be Nitin Gadkari because he enjoys the confidence (of the RSS as well as that of BJP MPs).'
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday named 14 candidates for the upcoming Rajya Sabha polls including former Union minister R P N Singh and Sudhanshu Trivedi -- the only outgoing MP renominated by the party.
Kalyan Banerjee said that he did not intend to hurt anyone but did not offer any apology for the mimicry act which has been described by Dhankhar as an insult to the post of vice-president, the farmers and his own community.
Lok Sabha could function for only 45 hours this Budget Session against its scheduled 133.6 hours because of daily disruptions and frequent adjournments, a think tank data has shown.
Presiding officers of both Houses Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu on Saturday held deliberations on the logistics of organising the session in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The sources said options were being explored so that both Houses could function simultaneously during the session, and not on alternate days as some sections of the media were claiming.
The Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena on Wednesday nominated Rajan Vichare as the party's chief whip in the Lok Sabha, replacing MP Bhavana Gawali, party leader Sanjay Raut said.
A cross-gender staff deployment -- female officers where male MPs were protesting and male officers where female MPs were protesting -- was made. But this did not deter the MPs belonging to a cross-section of opposition parties -- from the Congress to the Left to the TMC and to the DMK.
Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashwi Yadav arrived in Patna with his bride Rajeshwari Yadav nee Rachel Iris Godinho on Monday a day before the inauspicious month of Kharmaas began on December 14 when bringing a new bride to her marital home is avoided.
Modi, sources said, noted that some opposition members had described the voting in Rajya Sabha as a semi-final before the 2024 Lok Sabha polls as he exuded confidence about the BJP's prospects in the national elections.
Senior Congress leader and Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad made this assertion outside Parliament while speaking to reporters and said the revocation of suspension of the Opposition Rajya Sabha MPs was not a demand, but a 'request'.
Banerjee also stressed the importance of moving forward, leaving behind past misunderstandings.
Asserting the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) wants a constructive debate on the NEET issue, Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Friday said it is unfortunate that they were not allowed to raise it in the Parliament.
After the Shiv Sena's division in Maharashtra assembly, its parliamentary party was also staring at a split with several MPs set to petition Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla to recognise them as a separate group.
The JD-U has five members in the Rajya Sabha, including deputy chairman Harivansh whose fate now hangs in the balance as he may have to resign since his party has moved out of the ruling alliance.
The BJP councillors retaliated by raising slogans against AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal as AAP members returned fire by sloganeering against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
In a letter he wrote to the Chairman, Kharge urged him to not take up any other business in the House and keep the proceedings limited to the discussion on the security breach.
'The Galwan crisis involves the security of the nation, can't we spend eight hours on that?' 'Why are you scared? Why are you running away from that?
Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Tuesday said Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla has recognised Rahul Shewale as the Shiv Sena leader in the Lower House of Parliament.
The Andhra Pradesh Congress and Telugu Desam members of Parliament are to strategise their approach on how to plan an agitation inside Parliament on Friday. Groups of MPs have already fixed dinner meetings. News is that Telangana MPs are also planning such meetings.
Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Thursday said that social distancing norms will be strictly followed in the monsoon session of Parliament in view of the Covid-19 pandemic and 257 MPs of the House will sit in Lok Sabha chamber, 172 in the visitors gallery and the remaining members in the Rajya Sabha chamber and its gallery.
A central BJP minister claimed that the split in the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra will also have an impact in the Lok Sabha as at least a dozen Lok Sabha members of the outfit, out of the total 19, were ready to switch sides.
Full exemption for all health insurance premiums and reinsurance or a reduction in the GST rate from 18% to 5% on health insurance services is likely.
Abstention by the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Telangana Rashtra Samithi also helped the government get its legislation through in the upper house where the ruling party does not enjoy a majority.
Trinamool Congress leader Sudip Bandyopadhyay announced that the opposition parties will meet at Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge's residence on Thursday morning to discuss the issue.
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