The 15-year-old Congress-Nationalist Congress Party alliance in Maharashtra broke up on Thursday with the regional party deciding to contest next month's assembly polls on its own and pulling out of the government, setting the stage for its fall.
The opposition parties also alleged that the gangster was killed to protect the UP government.
In a veiled attack on Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley, Bharatiya Janata Party Member of Parliament Maneka Gandhi on Tuesday asked the party why it was shying away from demanding the resignations of Union ministers Sharad Pawar and Praful Patel, for their alleged involvement in the IPL scam. Maneka said Patel and his daughter had flouted so many rules, but still the party had not demanded the minister's resignation.
Singh made these comments at the launch of Mukherjee's book -- The coalition years.
No signs of tension reflected on the faces of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee. The trio in fact stayed back in Lok Sabha even after the House was adjourned for an hour.
Ram Jethmalani passed away a few days before his 96th birthday on September 14.
However, it was Narendra Modi's 27 rallies that attracted maximum attention.
The Congress has also asked the prime minister's office to co-ordinate better with various ministries over the issue of inflation.
Sanjay Kakade, while speaking to a television channel, also said he does not think that the Shiv Sena will sit in the opposition.
Skirting the issue of a pre-poll alliance with Sharad Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party, Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Monday kicked off her party's campaign for the October 13 Maharashtra assembly polls, with a call to workers to reach out to the people with renewed vigour.Sonia reaffirmed her party's irrevocable commitment to protecting the interests of the 'aam admi', which was the focus of the Congress' policies and programmes.
Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray, who has issued a diktat to his partymen to greet Rahul Gandhi with black flags for his "Mumbai for all Indians" remark, on Friday attacked Marathi ministers at the Centre for "not protesting Rahul's anti-Mumbai statement".
Campaigning has reached a fervent pitch in Bihar with senior political leaders wooing the voters, one last time before the state goes to the polls.
The development came a day after the Jammu and Kashmir government issued a statement asking political leaders not to visit the Valley.
The Congress general secretary was joined by leaders like Ahmed Patel, A K Antony, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Randeep Singh Surjewala, besides hundreds of party workers at the India Gate on Monday in a show of solidarity with the students from Jamia Millia Islamia and several other universities across the country protesting the contentious amended citizenship law.
"The fact is a Maratha from Maharashtra has become slave of a foreign lady. At least Maratha leaders should not do that,' he said.
There was a "broad agreement" on five issues over which the 18 parties will target the government
The PBD this year functions as a political stage for the BJP government at the Centre and in Uttar Pradesh. Both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress president Rahul Gandhi have been wooing the Indian diaspora through widely publicised events across the country. At the PBD, the mood was either largely pro-Modi, and when not, apolitical.
Political observers feel that the outcome of the elections weighs in favour of the BJP which had won a massive mandate in the Lok Sabha elections, held earlier this year.
Deshmukh at a press conference in Mumbai on Sunday had threatened to sever ties with the NCP if it continued to raise the issue of Sonia Gandhi's foreign origins.
Do Uddhav Thackeray, Aditya Thackeray, Sanjay Raut, and Sharad Pawar want the deaths of the Bhima Koregaon accused to be associated with their regime? asks Jyoti Punwani.
In a bid to embarrass Narendra Modi and Amit Shah, Nitish Kumar has invited 'bujurg' Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani to attend his oath-taking ceremony.
Modi, Shah and Nadda have created a strategy to boost the BJP and the government's image.
In a not-so-veiled remarks targeted at Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, senior leader A R Antulay has squarely blamed the Congress high command for the situation the party finds itself at present
Political differences blurred as Congress president Sonia Gandhi wrote a personal letter to Union minister Gopinath Munde's family condoling his death and Rahul Gandhi visited the Bharatiya Janata Party office to pay respects to the departed leader.
Slamming the Union budget as 'insipid' and lacking in stimulus for growth, the Congress on Saturday said it does not address the main issue of unemployment and describes the mindset of the government.
The NCP chief said the Congress leader has 'done a service to the Congress and the nation' by not assuming the post of prime minister.
Sources said Rahul's meeting with Pranab follows the former's participation in the Congress Core Group meeting for the first time on July 12.
Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar has now moved to the newly created Madha constituency in the state leaving his pocketborough of Baramati to daughter Supriya Sule, currently a member of the Rajya Sabha.
Thakur will be part of the 21-member committee headed by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, according to a bulletin issued by the Lok Sabha Secretariat.
Former Maharashtra Chief Minister and senior Congress leader A R Antulay passed away on Tuesday.
With the United Progressive Alliance starting to get its act togther ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar had a meeting with Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday over seat-sharing in Maharashtra and some other states.
Pawar said after the last year's assembly polls, BJP leaders approached him to support the Devendra Fadnavis government in the state, but he told Prime Minister Narendra Modi that the NCP will not go with the BJP and if possible, it will form government with the Sena or sit in the opposition.
As the 15th Lok Sabha assembled for the first time on Monday, it was all in the family for many members. The House, which possibly has the highest number of members related to each other, saw fathers, daughters, sons and cousins assembling together under one roof as representatives of people. Leading the list were Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul, elected from Rae Bareli and Amethi respectively.
Kamal Nath said that the Bharatiya Janata Party was perturbed as its "corruption over its 15-year rule is going to be exposed"
The ground, which served as the battleground for the 51-year-old bureaucrat-turned-politician during the Anna Hazare-led India Against Corruption movement, is getting decked up and workers are busy making arrangements.
Gehlot said the CAA is against the Constitution and divides people in the name of religion.
If Uddhav continues in this mode as a serious-minded, capable leader with his hands firmly on the steering wheel, and succeeds in enabling Maharashtra weather the current storm, there is every possibility of his emergence as a leader who will be seen as someone who is ready to play a larger role, observes Amulya Ganguli.
"It was a casual remark...I had not taken Sonia Gandhi's name. You don't talk everything serious in public meetings...some jokes and lighter things are also necessary," Pawar told reporters.
The advertisement highlights NCP chief Sharad Pawar's accomplishments as Union agriculture minister and thanks the UPA government for its support. While the Congress said it was unaware of the advertisement, the NCP claimed it was not issued by the party.
