The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a plea by senior advocate Kapil Sibal challenging the interpretation of the Tenth Schedule's 'deemed merger' provision, which allows MLAs and MPs to avoid disqualification under the anti-defection law, citing its 'huge repercussions on our polity'.
Most defections originated from three major parties -- the Congress, BJP and BSP.
Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla has invited Trinamool Congress leader Abhishek Banerjee for a meeting on June 19 to discuss the party's internal split. This comes after 20 rebel TMC MPs sought recognition as a separate group following their merger with the Nationalist Citizens Party of India. Birla plans to hear both factions before making a decision, while Banerjee has argued against recognising any separate group within the AITC, citing anti-defection laws and a recent Supreme Court judgment.
Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Abhishek Banerjee has formally petitioned Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla to disqualify 20 rebel MPs, arguing their claimed merger with the lesser-known Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI) is invalid under the anti-defection law.
Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla has approved the merger of six Shiv Sena (UBT) MPs with the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and allowed separate seating for 20 rebel TMC lawmakers who joined the Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI), ahead of the Monsoon session.
Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla is set to make crucial decisions regarding the status of rebel factions from the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and Shiv Sena (UBT) before the Monsoon session of Parliament begins on July 20, following demands for their disqualification by their parent parties.
The Shiv Sena-UBT is facing a significant internal crisis, with reports suggesting that 'six to seven' of its nine Lok Sabha MPs are preparing to form a separate group. MP Arvind Sawant has formally requested Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla not to recognise any such breakaway faction, emphasising the primacy of the political party over its legislative wing.
Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla is set to make crucial decisions regarding the disqualification petitions against rebel MPs from the Trinamool Congress and Shiv Sena (UBT) before the upcoming monsoon session of Parliament. Both parties have sought the disqualification of their defecting members under the anti-defection law, while the Speaker is consulting legal experts and examining precedents to ensure legally sound decisions.
A group of dissident Trinamool Congress (TMC) MPs, led by Jagadish Chandra Barma Basunia, plans to meet Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla to seek recognition as the 'real TMC' parliamentary group, claiming the support of 19 members amidst an escalating internal party crisis.
Ideology is dead; long live the numbers game that is being played with the sole intention of securing a two-third majority in the Lok Sabha for the NDA, observes Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
Rajya Sabha elections in Bihar, Odisha, and Haryana were marred by allegations of cross-voting and 'horse trading', leading to suspensions and warnings from the Congress party.
Congress MP Manish Tewari has introduced a bill in Lok Sabha that seeks to allow parliamentarians to take an independent line in voting on bills and motions other than those affecting the government's stability in a bid to free them from "whip-driven tyranny" and promote "good lawmaking".
While it is evident that the INDIA bloc has not shut its doors on Nitish Kumar, those within the NDA are hopeful that the JD-U's support base would benefit them as well
If he cannot do it this term by using his bureaucracy and experts from different fields, it will be a tragedy, asserts Ramesh Menon.
Many were hoping that with Vajpayee's NDA gone, there would be a return to the Congress normal. Nobody was prepared for the opposite. Sonia Gandhi was sceptical. This became the only issue over which Manmohan Singh took on his party bosses and risked his government. Politically, it was riskier than the 1991 reform, recalls Shekhar Gupta.
The current situation in Kerala politics is perhaps best described as a case of the state's traditional two front politics now seeing a third front (the BJP) muscling in with the potential outcome being either a messy three front affair or a renewed endorsement of the two front pattern but with one of the old fronts compromised or quashed, observes Shyam G Menon.
Himachal is first state in the country to pass such a bill under which "A person shall not be entitled for pension under the Act, if he has been disqualified at any point of time under the tenth schedule of the Constitution".
The 17th Lok Sabha, which was dissolved on June 5, did not have a deputy speaker for its full term, and it was the second consecutive term of the lower house without an LoP.
Ajit Pawar-led group was the real Nationalist Congress Party when two factions emerged in the party in July 2023, Maharashtra assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar on Thursday held.
He furnished an undertaking before a bench of Justices Surya Kant and KV Viswanathan pursuant to a March 14 order by the apex court.
Modi brought up the emotive issue of the gurdwara in Kartarpur Sahib, a place sacred to Sikhs as Guru Nanak Dev spent the last years of his life there, and blamed the Congress for country's partition, saying they did it for sake of power.
The Goa bench of the Bombay high court on Thursday upheld the Goa assembly speaker's order dismissing two petitions seeking the disqualification of 12 MLAs who left their respective parties and joined the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in 2019.
Left with just three MLAs, the Congress does not have the required one tenth of the legislative strength in the 40-member House to claim the Cabinet minister-level post.
Should the anti-defection law in India exist only to prevent democratically elected governments from being toppled?
There is a rise in the number of women elected to the state legislatures in 2023 compared to 2018, except in Rajasthan.
There is simmering disquiet in the Communist party and the world is watching as to what can unfold in China in the days to come ahead of next year's party congress, notes Rup Narayan Das.
Fadnavis on Saturday said the ruling Eknath Shinde-BJP coalition in Maharashtra is a legitimate government.
Here's the full text of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's address to a joint session of the United States Congress, delivered on Thursday.
Without naming his predecessor Uddhav Thackeray, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Friday launched a scathing attack on him, stating that it must be found out who betrayed the people's mandate, Bal Thackeray's ideology and an ally of 25 years.
'Ajit Pawar wants to escape from the clutches of the investigative agencies.'
Seeking to make inroads in Chhattisgarh, Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday announced 10 'guarantees' for the upcoming assembly polls in the Congress-ruled state including free electricity, monthly 'samman rashi' for women and Rs 3,000 monthly allowance for the unemployed.
According to the cause list of August 20 uploaded on the apex court website, a bench comprising Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra is scheduled to hear on Tuesday.
Maharashtra Nationalist Congress Party president Jayant Patil on Sunday said his party has moved a disqualification petition against Ajit Pawar and eight others who took oath as ministers in the Eknath Shinde-led state government.
'Switching loyalty from one party to another is completely unfair as it devalues my vote.'
'Whatever duties I have to dispense off as a Speaker I will do the needful in accordance with the provisions of the law.'
They staged an hour-long 'dharna' at the statue of Mahatma Gandhi inside the Parliament House complex denouncing the BJP and Sangh Parivar outfits for creating communal tension.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Bharatiya Janata Party leader Sumitra Mahajan will be appointed Speaker of the 16th Lok Sabha on Friday. Other key parliamentary posts like that of Leader of Opposition, deputy Speaker, chairman of the Public Accounts Committee and head of the all-important standing committee on finance will be keenly contested.
Fifteen rebel members of Legislative Assembly belonging to Andhra Pradesh's ruling Congress and main opposition Telugu Desam Party were today disqualified for voting in favour of a no-confidence motion moved by TRS against the Kiran Kumar Reddy government in March this year.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday appealed to the people of Manipur to maintain peace and promised that justice will be ensured to all sections of the society.
'The real issue between India and China is that the Chinese have transgressed along the Line of Actual Control at multiple points.'
