What was the "locus standi" of Sonia Gandhi when she along with the then prime minister Manhoman Singh inaugurated legislative buildings in Manipur and Tamil Nadu, the Bharatiya Janata Party asked on Wednesday while countering the Congress's criticism over the inauguration of the new Parliament building by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Several Members of Parliament and Members of Legislative Assembly have declared cases in which they have been charged with inciting communal tension. The Association for Democratic Reforms in a report gives details of elected representatives with such charges.
The party was trounced in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh and is now left with only Himachal Pradesh in the north. It is ruling in only three states on its own and is in power in Bihar and Jharkhand as a junior partner in alliance with regional parties.
The bill to amend the law governing Waqf boards proposes far-reaching changes in the Wakf Act, 1995, including ensuring the representation of Muslim women and non-Muslims in such bodies.
While the BJP and the Congress have always supported the bill, opposition by other parties and demands from some for quota for backward classes within the women's quota have been key sticking points.
Top leaders of the Opposition's Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) held talks in an informal setting in Mumbai on Thursday evening to chart out a concrete roadmap and evolve a structure for cooperation among the alliance partners to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
Ghulam Nabi Azad said this was just a beginning of the alliance process and the nitty-gritty would be decided in the next one or two days.
The meeting of opposition parties has been called by Bihar Chief Minister and Janata Dal-United leader Nitish Kumar to chalk out a joint strategy to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
An all-party meeting on Monday failed to hammer out a consensus over the controversial Insurance Bill, which was scheduled to be taken up in Rajya Sabha.
The Congress also asserted that the opposition INDIA bloc had been formed for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections at the national level and was not state specific.
Over 400 incumbent Lok Sabha members including Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi, Lal Krishna Advani and Rajnath Singh have not yet declared their assets and liability details, according to an RTI reply.
The INDIA bloc has 95 MPs in Rajya Sabha of which 45 were suspended on Monday.
After a meeting of the AAP's highest decision making body -- political affairs committee (PAC) -- at party national convenor and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's residence in New Delhi, Chadha also welcomed the Congress' decision to oppose in Parliament the Centre's ordinance on the control of administrative services in Delhi.
Senior Janata Dal-United leader Dhananjay Singh pitched for Opposition unity ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls and said party workers in Uttar Pradesh want Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to contest the elections from the state's Phulpur constituency.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday said the party will welcome the support of anyone in national interest, even as most exit polls and its own predictions give a majority to the National Democratic Alliance led by it.
In January, Nitish Kumar assured the Rajputs that he has been making efforts to release Anand Mohan from jail.
The parties that have submitted the notice include the Congress, All India Trinamool Congress, Samajwadi Party, Telangana Rashtra Samithi, Communist Party of India, Communist Party of India-Marxist, Nationalist Congress Party, Rashtriya Janata Dal, National Conference, Dravida Munnetra Kazagham and the Aam Aadmi Party.
Consensus emerged on the appointment of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge as the chairperson of the opposition Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA), while Janata Dal-United chief Nitish Kumar's name was proposed for the convener's post, pending approval of parties absent at the alliance meeting on Saturday, according to sources.
Critics say that there's no 'Modi wave' in four Muslim-dominated parliamentary constituencies in Bihar's Seemanchal belt, but Bharatiya Janata Party leaders are hopeful to retain three out of the four seats here. In 2009 general elections, the BJP won in Purnea, Katihar and Araria but lost in Kishanganj.
Mulayam's last rites will be performed with full state honours in Saifai near Etawah in Uttar Pradesh
"I am ready to drink all types of poison," he said.
'It is not just about numbers. Sometimes coalitions and alliances have symbolic value.'
Even as the grand old party seeks to promote opposition unity ahead of the hustings next year, Trinamool Congress supremo and West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, however, would be conspicuous by her absence at the event at Sree Kanteerava Stadium.
According to a senior Congress leader, the constituents of the opposition alliance intend to move forward with the theme "Main Nahin, Hum (We, Not Me)" at the meeting.
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.
The ongoing row over the UPSC issue saw disruption of Parliamentary proceedings on Tuesday as opposition parties demanded a statement from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and a joint parliamentary committee to look into the matter besides a discussion on it.
Exigencies of electoral politics and individual ambitions often stoke family feuds and sibling rivalries.
The Vishwaguru who addressed the maximum rallies and boasted of being blessed with divine energy, who promised guarantees in his own name, turned out finally not invincible, points out Jyoti Punwani.
Kumar had also made it clear that he was in the process of uniting the non-BJP leaders.
The MPs suspended on Tuesday include National Conference's Farooq Abdullah and Congress leaders Shashi Tharoor and Manish Tewari.
Congress said another Mahabharat would be fought over proposed amendments in the land acquisition act.
The TDP and JD-U will have a lot to answer inside Parliament, day after day, session after session, notes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Voting began on Thursday in the by-election to seven assembly constituencies in six states -- a contest symbolic of the fierce turf war between the Bharatiya Janata Party and regional parties.
Jeetega Bharat has selected 125 Lok Sabha seats across the country where it will assist the Opposition alliance.
Rampur Sadar and Khatauli in Uttar Pradesh, Padampur in Odisha, Sardarshahar in Rajasthan, Kurhani in Bihar and Bhanupratappur in Chhattisgarh are the assembly seats where the bypolls are being held.
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.
Grand alliance leaders accuse their rivals of having engineered electoral tactics to confuse its voters.
Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad on Friday left for Delhi to placate Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav, whose party stormed out of the nascent anti-Bharatiya Janata Party grand alliance for Bihar assembly elections on Thursday.
Pitching for larger opposition unity, six constituents of the erstwhile Janata Parivar on Monday shared dais at a mahadharna slamming the Bharatiya Janata Party's 'divisive' politics and accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of telling lies and not fulfilling poll promises on black money.
Voting will be held on Thursday in bypolls to seven assembly seats in six states -- a contest symbolic of the fierce turf war between the Bharatiya Janata Party and regional parties.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances