Exit polls by News 18-Ipsos, India Today-Axis and News 24-Chanakya had projected 336, 339-368 and 336-364 seats respectively for the NDA.
The move is being seen as an attempt to forge opposition unity to defeat the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance.
"NCP president Sharad Pawar, Loktantrik Janata Dal president Sharad Yadav, DMK chief MK Stalin, Bihar's former deputy chief minister and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, SP president Akhilesh Yadav, BSP chief Mayawati and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal among other opposition leaders will attend the oath-taking ceremony in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh on December 17," said well-placed sources.
The Opposition on Tuesday termed the Union Budget as a 'kursi bachao budget' driven by political compulsions and claimed that it ignored opposition-ruled states in a bid to 'appease' Bharatiya Janata Party's allies.
Nath, a nine-time MP from Chhindwara seat and currently president of state Congress unit, will take oath at a grand function to be held at Jamboree Maidan in BHEL area instead of Lal Parade Ground as announced earlier.
The Samajwadi Party is keen to have a "crucial role" for party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav in 2014 but ruled out formation of any 'Third Force' before the next Lok Sabha elections.
Amar Singh built an extensive network for the party, and was often spotted with celebrities, from the Bachchans to Anil Ambani to Subrata Roy.
From the word go, Bihar growled its needs out when an MP from the state said aloud: "Give something for Bihar also, Madam." Every time the Budget mentioned cities and towns in Andhra Pradesh, "Kursi Bachao" was the call from Congress MPs.
"I do not mind if attacks are made on me but what pains me is that Modiji snatched the food park from Amethi...it was meant to transform Amethi and Raebareli," he said.
The TDP and JD-U will have a lot to answer inside Parliament, day after day, session after session, notes N Sathiya Moorthy.
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.
Union Steel Minister Beni Prasad Verma on Monday went about doling out cash and gifts to Congressmen and journalists in Uttar Pradesh to apparently ensure their allegiance to him before the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls.
Renu Mittal explains why United Progressive Alliance government's crucial legislative plans may not work despite all its efforts.
The Congress party on Tuesday vowed to oppose the present format of the land bill both inside the Parliament and outside.
The biggest thing that his party's government has done is to give the country a prime minister who speaks, says Amit Shah.
CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury was in Chennai on Saturday and AIADMK sources said Tamil Nadu CM J Jayalalithaa could be sounded as convenor for the proposed Third Front. Aditi Phadnis reports
That's a deficit the NDA will have to make up with the help of 'friendly' alliance partners, the very groupings the PM has said are 'family-run'.
The Sena also suggested that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi should join Pawar's effort to unite the Opposition, only then can a consolidated front gain real strength.
Congress senior leaders concede that UPA could be safe in terms of numbers but that does not solve problem totally
Congress, Samajwadi Party, Trinamool Congress, Bahujan Samaj Party and Left MPs stormed into the Well of the House, saying the people were being cheated.
All India Congress Committee general secretary in-charge of Uttar Pradesh Ghulam Nabi Azad said the party would not react immediately and would come out with a detailed reaction in Lucknow on Sunday.
'Mayawatiji no more controls the bahujan vote in UP.' 'In this election more than 40 per cent of the BSP's core voters blessed the SP without the SP even asking for it.'
Mamata Banerjee's sights are not on the next month's Presidential election. She is focusing on another election that will take place in 2024.
While Modi had a party and an organisation that supported him, all Mulayam, a self-made man with no inheritance in politics, had was a set of (fairly flexible) beliefs.
To a question whether his party will not forge a coalition with any political party, Azad said, "If any political party is willing to accompany the Congress, and the Congress feels that it can fight the BJP, then it will be definitely accommodated."
The second list has named 16 candidates from Uttar Pradesh and five from Maharashtra.
The Shiv Sena on Thursday hit out at the Congress for describing Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat as 'Hitler' for his controversial 'Hindu nation' remarks saying it is the same party which appeased Muslims to derive political mileage while ignoring Hindus.
Ruling out resignation of Union Minister Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti for her controversial remarks, the government on Wednesday came down heavily on opposition for disrupting Parliament accusing it of 'authoritarianism'.
Keeping the government on tenterhooks on key reform measures like the Insurance Bill and Goods and Services Tax, the Congress party on Monday said there is "no blank cheque" on its support on these in Parliament as the "devil lies in the details".
'It is not his doing, but Rahul Gandhi is forced by circumstances.' 'In taking political decisions, everything has to get his clearance.'
'If Muslims who are 20 percent of UP's population feel the SP has no future they will go with the BSP. Even if 10 percent Muslim vote goes to the BSP every equation will change.'
The past three weeks have demonstrated that the Congress is still to recover from the drubbing it received in Lok Sabha elections, says Rediff.com contributor Anita Katyal
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.
Congress slammed former Comptroller Auditor General Vinod Rai for his claim that he was pressurised to drop names of those involved in scams during the United Progressive Alliance regime, saying "sensationalizing" things has been his staple.
Gandhi came along with Mukherjee and while the former president left after sometime, the Congress chief offered to drop him back but Mukherjee politely refused.
Sachin Tendulkar and Rekha's tenures in the Rajya Sabha end this month.
This is for the first time in a Lok Sabha election that results of voting machines will be matched with slips generated by paper trail machines.
In a stinging attack on Narendra Modi, Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party was trying to hoodwink Muslims by talking of apology after "having allowed their carnage" in 2002 and dismissed as "baseless propaganda" Gujarat chief minister's development claims.
The outgoing Lok Sabha had 23 Muslim MPs, the most being from Congress and TMC. The highest number of Muslim MPs were in 1980 when as many as 49 MPs from the community which constitute nearly fifth of Indian population present in the Lok Sabha.
Rahul Gandhi said the meeting was very productive and everyone decided to stop the BJP from further assault of institutions and the Constitution.
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