Among the notable absentees were Congress president Rahul Gandhi, West Bengal chief minister and Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee, Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam's M K Stalin, Telugu Desam Party chief K Chandrashekhar Rao, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray and Delhi chief minister and Aam Admi Party convenor Arvind Kejriwal.
The demand was raised during a debate on the Constitution (123rd Amendment) Bill 2017 in the Upper House, which was passed by the Lok Sabha on August 2 superseding the amendments earlier carried out by the Rajya Sabha.
In a scathing attack on Bharatiya Janata Party prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, senior Congress leader and Maharashtra Industries Minister Narayan Rane on Sunday said the Gujarat chief minister is a "liar" and "devoid of human values".
Its governing allies are not happy on the economy and complain of ignored concerns but find themselves unable to be assertive.
The Sena said Rane will lose by even greater margin if he contests the elections for the third time.
In Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, the BJP is looking to fill the Opposition slot and not aspire to occupy pole position.
A committee tasked by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to assess the situation on the China border is understood to have reported that Indian troops are not being allowed to patrol up to the perceived Line of Actual Control by Chinese army.
'Today, Dalits can become IAS officers, doctors, IPS, MLAs, MPs and even the President due to the Constitution of India.' 'And if you destroy India's Constitution, then poverty will never disappear.' 'If the BJP is pro-Dalit, they must implement policies which are pro-Dalit.' 'It cannot work if they only talk.'
'Violence is the only answer to violence.'
'We have got our permutations and combinations in place.' 'We are also trying to garner support from some NDA allies.' 'Every section of society has suffered during the four years of Modi rule.'
Student organisations of three political parties on Saturday held a demonstration in the office of the Deputy Director of Education, Pune, Suman Shinde to demand action against the Shamrao Kalmadi College for allegedly extorting money for admission.
The Purvanchal Sena president, Adarsh Sharma, went into hiding soon after a case under the Delhi Prevention of Defacement of Property Act was registered against him at the Parliament Street police station.
'They call us Punjabis as nashedi (drug addicts). So I also asked him with a smile, 'aaj aap kaunsa kar ke aaye hain (what did you take today). He failed to realise my gesture but only saw me smiling,' Akali leader and Union minister Harsimrat Kaur said.
Pranabda hasn't given us any indication of the tough period when he realised Sonia Gandhi had decided to give the presidency not to him, but to then vice-president Hamid Ansari. He wrested the presidency from her, and handed her the biggest defeat of her UPA years, observes Shekhar Gupta.
Political watchers believe that there is little denying the loss of face the party has suffered in its bid to rule India's richest state.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to expand his cabinet when Parliament breaks for recess during the Budget Session. Archis Mohan reports
Rashtriya Janata Dal President Lalu Prasad, touring the Pataliputra constituency has hit out strongly at his former close aide Ramkripal Yadav for joining the Bharatiya Janata Party. Prasad held a public rally at Bikram, 40 km southwest of capital Patna, late on Wednesday evening to garner support for the RJD candidate and her eldest daughter Misa Bharti.
'I am still someone who will open my mouth and speak if I find something is wrong or I dislike anything. Nothing can make me quiet,' Maharashtra Minister Narayan Rane, whose son Nitesh was arrested in Goa this week, tells Neeta Kolhatkar.
Two persons of a right wing Hindu outfit were arrested on Monday for smearing Jammu and Kashmir MLA Sheikh Abdul Rashid's face with paint, ink and mobil oil protesting against his hosting a beef party in Srinagar earlier this month.
All you need to know about the MP who became a trending topic on Twitter.
The 13-day Devendra Fadnavis Maharashtra government won the Trust vote in the Maharashtra assembly.
As Maharashtra's main political players, the Congress-nationalist Congress Party alliance and Bharatiya Janata Party-Shiv Sena combine, brace for the Lok Sabha and subsequent state assembly polls this year, they would have to contend with a new opponent, the Aam Aadmi Party, which has decided to take the electoral plunge in a big way.
Muslim groups observed 'day of sorrow' while Hindu outfits celebrated 'shaurya divas' on the 23rd anniversary of Babri mosque demolition on Sunday, which passed off peacefully amid tight security in Ayodhya, as well as in other parts of the country.
Here's a list of the full first-time ministers in the second term of the Narendra Modi government.
Another bill related to the farm sector, the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill, was passed on Tuesday.
The debate on the Rafale jet fighter deal saw a head-on collision between the government and the Congress in Lok Sabha on Wednesday.
Opposition party is unlikely to block Bills for GST, insurance and e-auction of coal mines.
On its own or with allies the Congress has a strong presence in states that account for a total of 253 LS seats, or 20 short of the magic figure of 272 required to form a government at the Centre. So what is Mamata Banerjee talking about, asks N Sathiya Moorthy.
After a 6.5-hour debate, the upper house clears the bill. Amit Shah said the bill is not anti-Muslim and Indian minorities have nothing to fear from its passage.
'We will have a big say in Delhi in 2018 or 2019 (whenever the elections are) in the Lok Sabha.'
Mamata Banerjee predicts the BJP-led NDA will not get more than 150 seats in the next Lok Sabha election.
"Today, we stand united in solidarity with our security forces in fighting terrorism and in defending the unity and integrity of India."
'Mamata wanted the Congress in alliance with the BJP in Bengal against the Left Front government.' 'Pranab Mukherjee opposed it, stating it would amount to compromising on secularism.' 'In 2021, Mamata defeats the BJP and becomes a champion of secularism.'
Rajya Sabha also rejected an opposition sponsored motions to send the bill to a select committee of the House and for making triple talaq a civil offence with 100 votes against it as compared to 84 in favour.
Maharashtra politics is at crossroads. Anything can happen in this dynamic situation. Uddhav will have to prove he is a worthy inheritor of his father's legacy and keep his cadre and leaders in the party stable. Fadnavis will have to prove that manoeuvrings on floor of the house was an inevitable political necessity to change the destiny of Maharashtra eventually. Modi and Shah will have to show that they can and will are resist use of 'the system' in the pursuit of power. Sheela Bhatt/Rediff.com analyses the situation.
The 1992 Babri Mosque demolition was an "act of planned sabotage" and not a by frenzied mob of Hindu outfits, a news portal claimed on Friday on the basis of a sting operation it had carried over a period of two years.
Its passage in the Lok Sabha is all but certain due to the massive majority the Bharatiya Janata Party and its allies have, and the Union government is confident of its passage in the Rajya Sabha as well with the support of several non-aligned regional parties which have often joined the treasury benches in the past.
If the BJP stays away from controversial issues like the idea of a Hindu state, treats minorities equally, then there is no reason why the NCP should not consider aligning with them, National Secretary of the Nationalist Congress Party and Rajya Sabha member Majeed Memon tells Kavita Chowdhury
Ansari relinquishes office after a decade.
Known for his witty one-liners, Naidu said "after all, the culture of India is agriculture."
