In a letter to Dhankhar, Ramesh said sending the Bill to the joint committee of both Houses means "devaluation and denigration" of the status and functions of the standing committee.
'With the deaths of Jayalalithaa and Karunanidhi, the BJP and Congress thought that they had a chance.' 'They have conceded that power is with the Dravidian parties.'
'There is a need for a younger person at the top, but the old guard wants to grab the post themselves,' points out Amulya Ganguli.
With many claimants for the chief minister's post in Uttarakhand, the ball was on Saturday back in the court of All India Congress Committee chief Sonia Gandhi to take a call, as the party observers wrapped up their consultations with Congress and independent Members of Legislative Assembly on the leadership issue. Congress general secretaries Ghulam Nabi Azad and Chaudhary Birendra Singh, in-charge of the affairs in the state, held separate talks with each of the MLAs.
In a counter offensive after 13 MLAs resigned on Saturday dealing a blow to the 13-month-old government, a delegation of Congress leaders met Speaker K R Ramesh Kumar and submitted the petition seeking, under the anti-defection law, disqualification of the rebel legislators in line with the decision taken at a meeting of the Congress Legislature Party on Tuesday.
As reports of political parties swiftly switching loyalties -- to quench their thirst for power -- swirl over Maharashtra, Rediff.com speaks to different players involved in the game of thrones.
The ceremony to inaugurate the new Parliament building will begin with an early morning havan and a multi-religion prayer on Sunday followed by a formal opening in the Lok Sabha chamber by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
With the BJP's strength in the 40-member Goa assembly increasing to 27 with two-thirds of Congress legislators joining it, the Sawant government does not need allies' support any longer.
Three ministers from Andhra-Rayalaseema regions submitted their resignations to Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy late on Thursday night even as at least 15 others are understood to have backed out following a stern warning by the high command.
The bypolls were necessitated after Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya vacated their seats following their election to the Uttar Pradesh legislative council.
"If we had the numbers, we wouldn't have waited for anyone. The Congress and the NCP didn't cross the 100 mark...we will work as a responsible opposition," Pawar said.
JD-S sources read it as an attempt by Modi to sow seeds of doubt in the Opposition ranks.
Rajasthan is reeling under a huge financial burden with the state's debt having gone beyond Rs 5.59 lakh crores. Rajasthan has increased expenditure on education by 203.4 percent, by 105.4 percent on health, by 227.14 percent on housing. Its expenditure on social welfare schemes has increased by almost 2,475 per cent.
PM Modi's remarks at the rally at Akbarpur come amid a row in Karnataka where schools have stopped Muslim girls from attending classes while wearing hijab.
During a fresh round of talks with North-East Democratic Alliance (NEDA) convenor Himanta Biswa Sarma earlier in the day, the NPP leaders stuck to their demand for change in the leadership of the BJP-led coalition government, they said.
Housing Minister M T B Nagaraj and K Sudhakar handed over their resignations at the Speaker's chamber in Vidhana Soudha.
Karnataka chief minister-designate Siddaramaiah and his deputy D K Shivakumar arrived in New Delhi on Friday to discuss with the party's high command the names of ministers to be inducted into the new cabinet and the allocation of portfolios.
Earlier, BJP leader Ram Lal said the Goa government is stable and no demand has been made for a change in the leadership.
Singh was under investigation by the federal agency as part of the case lodged under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) against an educational trust run by his wife and former legislator Kanta Andotra, they said.
Pandemonium prevailed in the Karnataka assembly on Wednesday with Minister for Rural Development and Panchayat Raj K S Eshwarappa and State Congress president D K Shivakumar charging towards each other stopping short of coming to blows.
In an interview to PTI, Mishra, who on Wednesday agreed with the state Cabinet's proposal to call an assembly session from August 14, said he has always directed the state government to follow constitutional provisions in sending its request for convening a session.
BJP's central leadership has thrown its weight behind Yogi Adityanath, putting a stop to murmurs against the state government months ahead of the assembly polls.
As the rebellion by senior Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde plunged the Maha Vikas Aghadi government in Maharashtra in a political crisis, an editorial in the party mouthpiece Saamana on Thursday said the renegade legislators should "mend their ways in time".
The Nationalist Congress Party leader was speaking in the assembly on a resolution moved by Speaker Rahul Narvekar urging the government to formulate a new women's policy.
An all-party meeting on Monday failed to hammer out a consensus over the controversial Insurance Bill, which was scheduled to be taken up in Rajya Sabha.
They raised slogans against the Bharatiya Janata Party and the central agencies.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge used poetry and humour to take swipes at the government on Monday, saying nothing will be accomplished by changing names, and went on to recall how first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru's 'inclusive' approach of involving opposition parties had led to the laying of a strong foundation for the Constitution.
Former PM H D Deve Gowda on his party's prospects in the coming elections.
The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a plea challenging the government's decision to constitute the delimitation commission for redrawing the legislative assembly and Lok Sabha constituencies in the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
Rather than a blind reproduction of the government template, a more productive way of enforcing affirmative action in the private sector could be to emulate an American model, suggests Kanika Datta.
Khushi Dubey, Hari Shankar Tiwari and Mata Prasad Pandey represent the resentment among Brahmins towards the Adityanath government. Radhika Ramaseshan reports.
The Congress in Rajasthan plunged into a crisis on Sunday as several MLAs loyal to Ashok Gehlot submitted resignation letters over a possible move to appoint Sachin Pilot as the next chief minister, their rebellion erupting just ahead of a Congress Legislature Party meeting.
Congress leaders from Maharashtra Ashok Chavan, Prithviraj Chavan and Pradesh Congress Committee chief Balasaheb Thorat attended the meeting along with the top brass of the party, including Ahmed Patel.
Asserting that the Congress government in the state will not only complete its five years but will also win the next assembly elections, Gehlot again accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of conspiring to topple his government at any cost.
The MLAs, who are seemingly unhappy with their leadership, arrived in Surat on Monday night and are camping at the Le Meridian Hotel, they said.
Unsure about having the numbers in the Rajya Sabha, the Congress, the Trinamool Congress and other parties have decided they will create awareness about the "divisive" nature of the proposed legislation, reports Archis Mohan.
Polling in Phase II of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections consists of 67 constituencies spread across 11 districts.
The meeting was convened by the Congress. Six major parties -- the DMK, the SP, the BSP, the TMC, the AAP and the Shiv Sena -- choose to stay away. The BJP took a swipe at the absence of major opposition parties at the meet and also said that their anti-CAA resolution must've made Pak happy.
The government on Monday said that matters regarding Chinese intrusion can't be discussed in Parliament as it concerns the security of the country.
The bypolls were conducted for two Assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh, one each in Meghalaya and Odisha and the Jalandhar Lok Sabha constituency in Punjab.
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