Various opposition parties like the Congress, the Trinamool Congress, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, the Nationalist Congress Party, the Rashtriya Janata Dal, the Communist Party of India, and the Communist Party of India-Marxist raised vociferous protests in the upper house while opposing the resolution and the bill.
Having emerged as the face of opposition resistance to the Narendra Modi juggernaut after the TMC's triumph in the assembly elections, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is locked in an unequal battle as she squares off with "lightweight" rivals in her own lair--Bhabanipur.
The 61-year-old feisty leader, who had single-handedly wrecked the red bastion in West Bengal in 2011, was unfazed by the Left-Congress alliance ahead of the assembly polls.
The Congress's share has almost halved, down from 12 in 2014 to six now.
The Modi government is learning to deal with the reality that it does not have a majority in the Rajya Sabha.
81 per cent voter turnout recorded in West Bengal, 80 per cent in Assam.
Bengali sub-nationalism is slowly emerging as a rallying cry ahead of the West Bengal assembly elections due next year.
Over 1.54 crore voters in the eastern states of West Bengal and Assam will exercise their franchise in the 1st phase of polling
On the sidelines of the NITI Aayog governing council meeting, CMs of West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala met PM Modi.
Opposition parties on Monday lashed out at the Bharatiya Janata Party government in Uttar Pradesh for not allowing their leaders to visit Lakhimpur Kheri after eight people died in violence there during an anti farm law protest, alleging it was an attempt to cover up and demanding the sacking of Union Minister Ajay Mishra and the arrest of his son, who have been named in an FIR.
Gadkari said the bill's early passage in Lok Sabha was necessary so that it could be moved to the Rajya Sabha for passage during the ongoing session, which ends on Friday.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley appealed to parties to rise above partisan considerations to support it.
Consolidating its position, the Bharatiya Janata Party wrested high-profile Rampur and Azamgarh Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh from the Samajwadi Party and won three assembly seats, including that of Chief Minister Manik Saha, in Tripura in by-election results announced on Sunday.
Kovind may bag over 62 per cent votes but fall short of the 69 per cent votes polled by incumbent Pranab Mukherjee in 2012.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday termed the cancellation of over 25,000 school jobs as 'gross injustice' and alleged that it was a ploy by the Bharatiya Janata Party to stop these job losers from being deployed in poll duty.
During the debate on the 'Motion of Thanks on the President's Address', Leader of the House Piyush Goyal and Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman strongly objected to 'insinuations' against the prime minister, who was also present in the House.
Fourteen persons were killed in the firing on a demonstration against land acquisition on March 14, leading to a nationwide outrage and the Calcutta high court 'suo motu' ordering a CBI investigation.
Polling was by and large peaceful in the bypolls for three Lok Sabha and seven assembly seats spread across five states and Delhi on Thursday barring an incident of stabbing of a policeman in Tripura, where polling was the highest at 76.62 per cent.
Among those killed were eight from TMC, and one worker each of the BJP, the CPI-M, the Congress and the ISF.
The Congress, Left parties, Trinamool Congress and some others were in the forefront of this attack on the government, which is set to garner around Rs 7,900 crore through the decision.
Indrani Roy deconstructs the controversy over Trinamool Congress MP Tapas Pal controversial remarks on rape.
'Had the BJP gone along with the NPP, that would have eased the task of the Congress of winning more seats.' 'That was a great strategy of the BJP.' 'It helped the NPP get more seats than perhaps if it had gone as a pre-alliance partner with the BJP.'
Mamata Banerjee fended off a spirited challenge by a resurgent Bharatiya Janata Party in West Bengal with a landslide victory for her Trinamool Congress on Sunday for a third consecutive term and the saffron party and the Left Democratic Front were poised to form government again in Assam and Kerala respectively while the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam stormed back to power in Tamil Nadu after a gap of 10 years.
Attacking the Congress for its 65 years of "misrule", the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party on said it was unthinkable that a national party has to be welcomed as a "regional party" in the Lok Sabha but promised to take the opposition party along in the decision-making process.
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.
Stalin said one cannot and should not decide the mood of the entire country based on the results of one state elections.
Most of the parties supported 'one nation one election', says defence minister Rajnath Singh.
The two bills -- Farmer's Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020, and the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020 -- were passed by Lok Sabha on Thursday.
Vice chairman of the Dwarkadheesh Devsthan Samiti says there was nothing 'humiliating' in being asked about caste at a Hindu shrine.
The Centre has sought a detailed report from the West Bengal government on the circumstances leading to the violence.
The Opposition on Sunday lashed out at the Bharatiya Janata Party over the killing of gangster-politician Atiq Ahmad and his brother Ashraf Ahmad in Uttar Pradesh's Prayagraj district, alleging that 'jungle raj' and 'mafia raj' were prevalent under its rule.
Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury raised the Karnataka issue and accused the ruling party of 'poaching' its MLAs in the state.
Political observers say Banerjee is fast emerging as the face of the Opposition and would be a force to reckon with in the next general elections in 2019.
Sharad Pawar of the Nationalist Congress Party, Sharad Yadav of the rebel Janata Dal-United, D Raja of the Communist Party of India, Hardik Patel (Gujarat's Patidar leader), Dinesh Trivedi (Trinamool Congress) and Sushilkumar Shinde (Congress) attended the meeting and joined the march.
Assembly elections are due in the summer of 2016 in five places: Assam, West Bengal in the east and Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry in the south
K N Balagopal (Communist Party of India -Marxist) said the Congress and the BJP were acting as A-Team and B-Team and not allowing the House to discuss the bills.
'The situation in the country is very scary.' 'There is an increasing attack on the Constitutional democratic rights of our people.'
All India Congress Committee general secretary in-charge of Uttar Pradesh Ghulam Nabi Azad said the party would not react immediately and would come out with a detailed reaction in Lucknow on Sunday.
The Congress said it will observe 'Save Democracy Day' on Friday with party workers and leaders holding protest marches at all district and state headquarters.
Modi garners nearly 37% vote nationally, courtesy West Bengal, Odisha, Karnataka and Telangana.
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