Union ministers Virendra Kumar, Kiren Rijiju and Anurag Singh Thakur have been included in the rejigged Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs headed by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, according to a notification issued by the Cabinet Secretariate last night.
Union minister and BJP leader Smriti Irani said it was "absolutely shocking" to see the former Haryana chief minister sitting calmly on a tractor while having woman members of his party pulling it physically.
Sources said Rahul Gandhi is likely to contest from Rae Bareli, but a final call is yet to be taken by the first family of the Congress.
The Congress on Wednesday came out in defence of Rahul Gandhi saying he never disrespects women and the Bharatiya Janata Party is indulging in an 'indecent' act of accusing him of 'misconduct' as it does not want a debate on Manipur violence.
The Lok Sabha had taken up discussion on the Motion of Thanks, moved by Bharatiya Janata Party member Chandra Prakash Joshi, on Tuesday, after three days of disruptions in Parliament.
Indicating his keenness to contest the Lok Sabha elections from Amethi, Robert Vadra, businessman and husband of Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has said that the people of Amethi expect him to represent their constituency if he thinks of becoming a member of Parliament.
Sharma was the key person who looked after Rae Bareli and Amethi constituencies on behalf of the Gandhis.
The ministry of minority affairs informed the Lok Sabha that in 2022-2023, it had been allotted Rs 5,020.5 crore (Rs 50.20 billion); in the Revised Estimates, it had got Rs 2,612.66 crore (Rs 26.12 billion); and had spent, until the end of March this year, Rs 712.5 crore (Rs 7,12 billion).
Priyanka Gandhi asked what was stopping the human resources development minister from setting up an IIT here.
President Droupadi Murmu hosted a dinner for the outgoing Union council of ministers at Rashtrapati Bhavan.
The event was also attended by Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar and Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla.
In embarrassment for the BJP, former Union minister Sanjay Paswan on Thursday accused Union ministers Smriti Irani and Bandaru Dattatreya of showing "grave insensitivity".
Speaking to reporters at the Gujarat BJP headquarters, the Union textiles and women and child development minister hit out at Gandhi over his comment that the Congress, if voted to power, would scrap the contentious legislations.
Backing the agitating students of the Hyderabad university, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday called the suicide of a Dalit research scholar at the premier institute a "national shame" and accused the Centre of trying to indulge in "casteist politics".
Samajwadi Party district chief Ram Udit Yadav joined the dharna by the Congress members at the office of the chief medical officer, around 12 km from the hospital.
Her successor in the HRD Ministry Prakash Javadekar elevated as a member of the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs.
The 43-year-old popular television actor-turned politician continued to cultivate Amethi in the past five years despite her loss in 2014 to Gandhi and this helped her reap electoral dividends.
She also challenged him to a public debate 'without a handwritten script' over his criticism of the Modi government.
During a cabinet meeting earlier in the day, Modi lauded both Naqvi and Singh for their contributions to the country during their ministerial tenure, sources said.
Congress along with Communist Party of India-Marxist and Janata Dal-United accused Irani of "willfully misleading" Parliament.
The outlet, 'Silly Souls Cafe and Bar', was at the centre of a raging controversy after the Congress last week alleged Union minister Smriti Irani's daughter was linked to the property, a charge rejected by the minister.
Amid criticism that the Congress had given a walkover to Irani in Amethi, sources said, the party in its wisdom believed that Rae Bareli's historical, emotional and electoral importance for the Gandhi family was higher than that of Amethi.
Targetting Priyanka Gandhi, senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Arun Jaitley on Monday said her ignorance about the presence of party candidate Smriti Irani in Amethi showed the Congress star campaigner's "arrogance at its worst".
A day after he hit the spotlight with a comment on parents and sex, trouble mounted for influencer Ranveer Allahbadia on Tuesday with Mumbai police at his doorstep, YouTube pulling down the episode of 'India's Got Latent' and the issue being raised in Parliament.
A war of words broke out on Monday on Twitter between Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani and Congress leader Priyanka Chaturvedi, with the Bharatiya Janata Party leader taking a dig at Rahul Gandhi, saying that losing Assam elections was "his forte".
26 candidates in Amethi fray take away 60,545 votes; the difference between the victorious Smriti Irani and Rahul Gandhi is 55,120 votes.
The political war of words over Manipur intensified on Saturday with the BJP raising the incidents of atrocities against women in West Bengal and Rajasthan and questioning the 'silence' of the opposition, which termed it as a diversionary tactic to avoid debate on the situation in the north-eastern state.
Amid the row over her educational qualification, Union Minister Smriti Irani had asked the Delhi University not to disclose it to an RTI applicant, the School of Open Learning has told the Central Information Commission.
Smriti Irani, the new minister of human resource development, hasn't completed her graduation and yet achieved success in life. Here are some other people who have chosen similar paths.
The Congress on Thursday slammed the Centre after a May 4 video of two women being paraded naked in Manipur surfaced, with party president Mallikarjun Kharge accusing the Narendra Modi government of turning democracy into 'mobocracy'.
BJP heavyweights Smriti Irani, Arjun Munda, Ajay Mishra Teni and Kailash Chaudhary were among the 13 Union ministers who tasted defeat in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, as stunning losses in three Hindi heartland states forced the BJP to rely on allies to form the government.
Dismissing allegations that a letter written by him to Union HRD ministry led to the suspension of the five scholars, Dattatreya sought to clarify that he merely forwarded a representation given to him by the Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad.
She urged people not to mock the women who are speaking out against the harassment meted out to them.
Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) partners Samajwadi Party and Congress on Wednesday announced a tie-up for the Lok Sabha polls in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, with UP's main opposition party leaving 17 out of the 80 seats in the state for the ally.
"We are going to have a meeting with our partners tomorrow. These questions will be raised and answered there," Gandhi told a press conference in New Delhi when asked if the Congress and its allies will approach parties that are part of the National Democratic Alliance to try and form a government.
Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani said a controversy over German being replaced in KV schools has been created "deliberately" and asserted that its continuation as third language would have been a violation of the Constitution.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the NDA won 64 seats -- 62 bagged by the BJP and two by Apna Dal.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Cabinet colleagues celebrated the second International Day of Yoga on Tuesday at different parts of the country.
Rediff.com lists Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 23 Cabinet ministers and their educational qualifications.
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