The Shiromani Akali Dal skipped the meeting, besides the Aam Aadmi Party, the TRS and the BJD.
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.
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).
Joining hands with his arch rival, Lalu Prasad Yadav, paid off for the Bihar chief minister
Known for weighing his options carefully before making any move, Kumar, upon a closer look, comes across as a risk taker who has not shied away from going against the tide.
Endorsing Nobel laureate Amartya Sen's views against Narendra Modi, the Janata Dal - United on Tuesday said the Bharatiya Janata Party leader was not fit to be the prime minister and his arrival on the national stage has resulted in focus shifting from burning issues to non-issues.
The Congress on Thursday virtually ruled out any grand alliance in poll bound Uttar Pradesh including with Samajwadi Party insisting that Rahul Gandhi wanted to set things right in the state which is in bad shape for past 27 years in non-Congress rule.
Known for weighing his options carefully before making any move, Kumar, upon a closer look, comes across as a risk taker who has not shied away from going against the tide.
Kurien adjourned the House till noon.
But he doesn't want to shut the door completely on the Yadav family as that could create problems for him in 2019.
Conceding that the RJS is the "big brother" in Bihar, the Congress said that Rahul was "the face of anti-NDA forces" in the country.
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.
JD-U leader Sharad Yadav speaks about the recent crisis in Bihar
JD-U on Friday dismissed the Samajwadi Party-driven formation of a 'Third Front' for the Bihar polls and said that there was "only one front" in the state.
Members from Opposition and treasury benches had a heated exchange of words in Rajya Sabha on Tuesday over Prime Minister Narendra Modi's remarks on foreign soil that he wanted to clean the dirt of 60 years forcing three adjournments in the pre-lunch session.
Pawar pressed for forging alliances of anti-BJP parties at state level and favoured picking up the prime ministerial candidate after the election results, as happened after the 1977 and 2004 general polls.
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.
A meeting of the Janata Dal-United Legislature Party has been called on February seven amid reports that Bihar Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi was under pressure to quit and make way for his predecessor Nitish Kumar.
A two-day meet of Communist Party of India-Marxist politburo began in New Delhi on Sunday amid attempts to bring all non-Congress, non-BJP parties on a common platform ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.
The government may scale down security of Kashmiri separatist leaders, who snubbed members of all-party delegation on Sunday.
Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal-United on Monday expelled its party leader and Lok Sabha candidate from Sheohar seat Shabir Ali for praising BJP Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi.
The Janata Dal-United president was, however, dismissive of any such suggestion and told reporters after the meeting that "too much was being read into" the meeting which, he insisted, was a usual interaction between the prime minister and a chief minister.
About 2.34 crore voters, spread across 78 assembly segments of the 243-strong assembly, will decide the fates of 1,204 candidates, including the Speaker and 12 members of the state cabinet.
This is the first full-scale review of VIP protectees by the Union home ministry after the Modi 2.0 government took charge.
The Congress top brass staged a dharna in Parliament for the 2nd day in protest against suspension of its MPs.
They are likely to meet Sitaram Yechury following the meeting with Gandhi.
'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'
All the three leaders expressed their best wishes to her, sources said.
Hundreds of people are still seen attending the rallies without wearing face masks and pushing and shoving each other for space.
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.
Janata Dal-United on Wednesday suspended two Lok Sabha MPs, Jai Narayan Nishad and Purnmasi Ram, from the party for six years on charge of engaging in anti-party activities.
The Thiruvananthapuram MP, who was speaking at the Kerala Literature Festival in Kozhikode on Friday, said while he concedes the BJP's dominance, it is also a fact that they have lost many states and them losing the central government is not impossible.
Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, who have extended support to the Congress to form the government in the state, were not present.
Kejriwal said that the ordinance must be defeated collectively in Parliament where it is likely to come up for voting as a law in the forthcoming session.
Mayank Agarwal played a captain's knock of 109, as his side took a 64-run lead on Day 2
'To summarise, PM Modi's failures in the last nine years can be categorised under 'durniti' (bad policies), 'anyay' (injustice) and - perhaps most importantly - 'badniyat' (ill intention)'
If the Indian government insults them, then they will will ensure its removal, Gandhi said.
Deadlock on Monday continued on the issue of Congress alliance in Bihar for Lok Sabha polls with seat sharing with Rashtriya Janata Dal coming under strain and Janata Dal-United ruling out any adjustment with the party.
Why you are so egoistic? You have branded everyone in the country a black marketeer and have yourself turned into a saint ," Banerjee said.
After the first meeting called by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in Delhi and attended by 17 parties, the leaders said that it has been decided that a common candidate who will 'uphold the democratic ethos of the country' will be chosen as the opposition nominee.
