Celebrations broke out as the Grand Alliance was all set for a thumping victory in the Bihar polls.
Ajit Singh represented a bridge between a constituency that represented a more traditional era in politics and a modern, forward-looking, India, remembers Aditi Phadnis.
There was considerable disquiet in the Congress after Mukherjee accepted the invitation of the RSS to address its workers at its headquarters in Nagpur.
Speculations are rife about a tie-up between the Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Janata Dal- United after Chief Minister Nitish Kumar resigned following the severe drubbing his party suffered at the hands of the Bharatiya Janata Party in the Lok Sabha polls.
Sources said the opposition parties would look to avoid the prickly leadership question as of now and emphasise on building a common ground.
Giving a message of larger opposition unity, Congress President Sonia Gandhi and former prime minister Manmohan Singh will march with leaders of at least ten parties from Parliament House to President House on Tuesday and submit a memorandum against the new land bill.
The editorial in Saamana said the "Wagner group" has shown dictatorship can be challenged.
However, speculation remained rife that the meeting was part of Banerjee's plan to form an opposition front with regional players minus the Congress.
Sharad Yadav says that reports about disquiet among the factions are 'sponsored'.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Friday said a decision on whether to oppose the Centre's ordinance on the control of administrative services in Delhi would be taken before the Parliament session.
The leaders attacked the BJP, accusing it of trying to create "Hindu-Muslim disturbances" to benefit politically and making false claims and promises.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan and Minister of State for Health Ashwini Choubey are at the hospital to enquire about his health condition.
It won't be surprising if Sharad Pawar plunges into the electoral fray if he finds that he has enough numbers to topple N Srinivasan.
In an embarrassment to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, a senior Janata Dal-United Legislator Chhedi Paswan met Bharatiya Janata Party prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi following which the party suspended him for six years.
Information and Broadcasting Minister M Venkaiah Naidu said all the commissions were functioning and the process of filling up the vacancies was on.
Mallikarjun Kharge, former Congress President Rahul Gandhi, General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra attended the swearing in ceremony, while former AICC President Sonia Gandhi was absent. Chief Ministers of Congress ruled states Ashok Gehlot (Rajasthan), Bhupesh Baghel (Chhattisgarh) and Sukhvinder Singh Sukku (Himachal Pradesh) and several top party leaders were also in attendance.
The opposition would push for the passage of the two bills -- the farmers' freedom from indebtedness bill and the farmers' right to guaranteed remunerative minimum support prices for agriculture commodities bill -- in the Rajya Sabha
Several prominent opposition leaders including Nationalist Congress Party's Sharad Pawar, Bihar Chief Minister and Janata Dal-United leader Nitish Kumar and National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah will share the dais at a rally being organised by Indian National Lok Dal in Haryana's Fatehabad on Sunday.
The BJP on Thursday lent its support to the chief minister even as both houses of Bihar legislature recognised JD-U as their principal opposition party.
Political stalwarts Murli Manohar Joshi, Sharad Pawar and former Lok Sabha speaker P A Sangma, cricketer Virat Kohli and Carnatic musician K J Yesudas were among the 89 people who were selected for this year's Padma awards.
Actor-politician Shatrughan Sinha, who joined the Congress ahead of the Lok Sabha election, lost to Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad from Patna Sahib constituency in Bihar by 2.84 votes.
Although it saw a veritable who's who of the Oppostion leadership, the Samajwadi Party stayed away from the Iftar dinner hosted by Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Monday.
The Congress is planning to call a meeting of Opposition parties in May. It is possible to keep all possibilities open in case Karnataka yields a hung House, leading to a recalibrated Opposition.
Mayank Agarwal played a captain's knock of 109, as his side took a 64-run lead on Day 2
The Shiromani Akali Dal skipped the meeting, besides the Aam Aadmi Party, the TRS and the BJD.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday alleged that the Janata Dal-United is misusing the office of Bihar Assembly Speaker Uday Narain Choudhary, adding that the Sharad Yadav -led party wants to stay in power and also play the role of opposition.
"(Former PM) Atal Bihari Vajpayee said 'raj dharma' was not followed in Gujarat (during the 2002 riots). Now, 'raj dharma' is not being followed in case of Andhra Pradesh. We have been denied what was rightfully ours," he claimed.
Amid political standoff in Bihar, Janata Dal-United leader Nitish Kumar on Wednesday met President Pranab Mukherjee to convey the support of 130 MLAs and urged him to advise the state governor to take an immediate decision claiming that any delay will pollute the atmosphere in the state and encourage "horse-trading".
As the Opposition held its first meeting on the Presidential polls and names of Farooq Abdullah and Gopalkrishna Gandhi also cropped up, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party reached out to several parties across the political spectrum to build a consensus choice with senior party leader and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh speaking to Sharad Pawar, Mallikarjun Kharge (Congress), Mamata Banerjee (Trinamool Congress), Akhilesh Yadav (Samajwadi Party) and Naveen Patnaik (Biju Janata Dal).
As the 2019 Lok Sabha election approaches, some rare photographs from the 1996 election campaign, which saw a Bharatiya Janata Party prime minister for the first time in India's history, albeit only for 13 days.
The six suspended MPs were also present at the protest.
With the Congress down in the dumps and the BJP juggernaut on a roll, 'secular' parties are attempting to revive the Janata Parivar coalition to fill the vacuum.
Bihar's ruling Janata Dal-United on Friday dropped its three sitting members of Parliament and nominated new faces for the Rajya Sabha polls to be held on February 7.
'It is very unfortunate that the AAP seems to be looking at the issue through the prism of rivalry with Congress in Delhi and Punjab'
The Ethics Committee of Rajya Sabha headed by veteran Congress leader Karan Singh, decided to give Mallya one week time to explain his conduct.
Janata Dal-United MLAs gathered at Nitish Kumar's official residence for the crucial legislature party meeting on Sunday to choose a new leader in the House after the JD-U leader's resignation following the ruling party's debacle in the Lok Sabha elections in the state.
Banerjee feels that as long as Sonia Gandhi is the leader of the Congress Parliamentary Party, she should be the undisputed leader of a united front of opposition parties, reports R Rajagopalan.
Senior Janata Dal-United leader Shivanand Tiwari on Tuesday created flutters by praising Narendra Modi at the Janata Dal-United convention in Rajgir, triggering spontaneous protests from the party workers.
Centenarian Janata Dal-United Member of Parliament Ram Sundar Das on Tuesday fainted on stage at the party convention in Rajgir and was rushed to a hospital.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, however, was conspicuous by her absence at the event, which was attended by tens of thousands of people as the Congress sought to promote opposition unity.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances