Stating that it was a "conscious" decision to quit electoral politics, Union Agriculture Minister and Nationalist Congress Party President Sharad Pawar on Friday filed his nomination papers for the biennial Rajya Sabha polls scheduled to be held on February 7.
Opposition parties in India are demanding a discussion on the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and national security in the upcoming Winter Session of Parliament. They raised concerns about federalism, national security, and the purity of voter lists during an all-party meeting.
The boycott is on the issue of government's refusal to part with a CVC report to the Parliament's Public Accounts Committee.
Shouldn't the government's nominees for the Rajya Sabha have shown some interest in public affairs, some evidence that they have an understanding of national issues, asks Sherna Gandhy.
The Register of Interest contains information about financial and business interests of MPs to ascertain conflict of interest. Vicky Nanjappa reports.
Trinamool Congress has named Derek O'Brien as its chief whip in the Rajya Sabha. The party, which is a key constituent of the United Progressive Alliance government, has sent a communication in this regard to the Rajya Sabha secretariat, sources said in New Delhi on Thursday.
But Congress' Kiran Chaudhary and BJP's Shakuntala Hegde lost in a close contest in the biennial elections.
Amendments moved by the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Left to the President's address against the National Counterterrorism Center was defeated in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday.
A Constitution amendment bill providing for quota for SCs and STs in government job promotions was on Monday passed by Rajya Sabha with an overwhelming vote of 206 in the 245-member House.
'You can say it was a moment that can be described as unimaginable or unbelievable.'
In June, on a visit to Nainital in Uttarakhand, Dhankhar had collapsed at the Kumaon University.
Days after his ministry told smartphone makers to preload a state-run cybersecurity app on all new devices, Communications Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia on Tuesday said users are free to delete the Sanchar Saathi app, and it will remain dormant till they register on it.
Rajya Sabha failed to transact any business for the seventh consecutive day as Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday stepped up attack on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and demanded Law Minister Ashwani Kumar's sacking in the wake of Supreme Court observations on the coal issue.
Sources close to Rajya Sabha MP Abhishek Manu Singhvi allege that the sex CD is part of a political conspiracy to tarnish him and ensure that he is not a candidate for ministership in the reshuffle. Renu Mittal reports
BJP MP Medha Kulkarni stopped a Dandiya event in Pune after receiving noise complaints from local residents during the Navratri festival. She cited disturbances to senior citizens and those with health issues, alleging inaction despite complaints to local authorities.
Singh asked Shah not to act with 'political motives' while being a home minister.
The Lokpal Bill will come up in Rajya Sabha on Friday and is a "priority" for the government, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kamal Nath said on Thursday.
Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde was on Thursday forced to eat his words and apologise in the Rajya Sabha after he made certain remarks about Samajwadi Party member Jaya Bachchan, triggering uproar.
Mayawati was outmanoeuvred by the BJP in the race for the Rajya Sabha in Uttar Pradesh just days after she helped the Samajwadi Party snatch two Lok Sbaha seats from the saffron party in bypolls.
Bahujan Samaj Party and Samajparty Party, which support the United Progressive Alliance from outside, on Wednesday created repeated obstructions in Rajya Sabha, prompting an angry Bharatiya Janata Party to allege that the government has decided not to run the House because of its 'number game'.
Trinamool Congress, which had earlier been ambiguous on the rule under which the debate on Foreign Direct Investment should take place, on Tuesday moved a motion in Rajya Sabha seeking discussion with voting. "This House disapproves the entry of FDI in multi-brand retail," read the motion moved by Trinamool members D Bandopadhyay and Vivek Gupta under Rule 168, which entails voting.
Bringing the prime minister in the line of fire, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday accused him and his ministers for the "choreographed disturbance" in the Rajya Sabha on the Lokpal issue and insisted that since the government wanted a weak ombudsman and lacked numbers, it ran away from a vote.
According to party sources, the 83-year-old leader was admitted to the city's M S Ramaiah Hospital on Tuesday, and is being taken care by the doctors there.
Proceedings in Rajya Sabha were repeatedly disrupted on Monday before being called off for the day as opposition members protested on the alleged phone-tapping and other issues and demanded discussions on them in the House.
The notices given by Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad and Deputy Leader of Congress in the House, Anand Sharma, seek to corner the government on the issue accusing it of "destabilising" a democratically-elected government in Uttarakhand.
The decision was taken keeping in mind the party norm that no CPI-M leader can represent the party in the Upper House for more than two terms.
Setting aside their confrontation over the CAG report on coal block allocation, opposition and the ruling dispensation on Tuesday got together in a rare show to unanimously elect Congress leader P J Kurien as Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday called on President Droupadi Murmu separately within hours at the Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi.
The election for six Rajya Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu is turning into a high-impact zone.
Digvijaya Singh is no longer in Rahul's close circle of advisers. His move to the Upper House was to ensure that the senior leader does not meddle in Madhya Pradesh politics in the run up to the crucial Lok Sabha polls. Anita Katyal reports
The election is scheduled for February 13. Their names have reportedly been cleared by the coalition government of the NC and the Congress.
Congress leader P Chidambaram has refuted Home Minister Amit Shah's allegations regarding the delay in the execution of Afzal Guru, calling them a 'lie and distortion'.
Vice Chairman Harivansh regretted that 78 hours of business were lost due to disruptions and that the House functioned for only 27 hours.
Leader of the Opposition Arun Jaitley, Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati, Union ministers Vilasrao Deshmukh and Rajeev Shukla, and Telugu superstar Chiranjeevi and actor Jaya Bachchan were among the 50 new members who took oath in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday.
Announcing the party decision, Bihar JD-U president Vashishtha Narayan said, ""It was a necessary step because being leader if a person indulges in anti-party activities it has to be condemned unanimously."
The government also took note of pending cases in various high courts and said that 1.66 lakh cases relating to sexual assaults were pending across the country at several stages.
Acrimonious scenes were on Monday witnessed in the Rajya Sabha as members from the Bharatiya Janata Party, Lok Janshakti Party and Nationalist Congress Party clashed over the issue of reported low Muslim representation in admissions to private schools in Delhi. The sharp exchanges during Zero Hour also led to a heated argument between Ram Vilas Paswan, who raised the issue and BJP members, who alleged that Paswan was casting aspersions on P J Kurien (in the Chair).
The elections for the deputy chairman of the Rajya Sabha election is expected some time next week. The vacancy arose because the term of K Rehman Khan has ended. The Bharatiya Janata Party will take the contest seriously; much like it did for the Presidential and vice-presidential polls and may ask the Telugu Desam Party or the Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam to contest.
Students at Tezpur University in Assam have shut down the institution, protesting against Vice Chancellor Shambhu Nath Singh over allegations of corruption and financial irregularities. The shutdown has led to the cancellation of end-term examinations and has garnered support from teachers and non-teaching staff.
With the Department of Telecom asking mobile phone makers to pre-install Sanchar Saathi application in new handsets, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Tuesday described it as a 'snooping app' and alleged that the government is turning the country into a dictatorship.
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