The Rashtriya Lok Dal, with five members in the Lok Sabha, on Monday formally joined the United Progressive Alliance amid speculations that its chief Ajit Singh would be included in the Cabinet as the civil aviation minister. With the RLD joining the ruling coalition, its strength has gone up from 272 to 277 MPs. In the backdrop of speculations that Ajit Singh will be inducted into the Cabinet, Digvijay Singh was asked who will be the next civil aviation minister.
The CAG observed there was no change in the price of 'flyaway aircraft package'.
The BJP's strategy seem to be to wean away allies from the Congress, in Dravidian Tamil Nadu, and maybe later in UP, Bihar and elsewhere, though in slow doses, but without wooing them into a new alliance. The idea seems to be only to weaken the INDIA bloc from within -- and leaving it at that, notes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Mamata Bannerjee, a key United Progressive Alliance constituent, has put the cat amongst the pigeons by demanding that the UPA set up a co-ordination committee to discuss important issues and decisions before they are made and implemented. She said the recent petrol price hike was undertaken without her consent.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi Wednesday took the Congress to the cleaners over making the 2024 general elections about the protection of the Constitution, saying Indians voted on the plank only once when they threw out the Indira Gandhi government in 1977 after the Emergency.
Unlike 2004 when Sonia Gandhi took things into her hands and hit the road and stitched up alliances, there is a lack of grip this time, as if things are on auto pilot. Cabinet meetings get over in minutes. People are glibly talking of a third front government in 2009 supported by the Congress.
Ruling out any differences between the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party, Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad on Wednesday said Sharad Pawar is the biggest "supporter and well-wisher" of the United Progressive Alliance government. "There are no differences with Sharad Pawar. He is the biggest supporter and well-wisher of the UPA," Azad told reporters.
The UPA-II may not talk about this, but it continues to implement its programme to revive ailing PSUs by investing fresh capital.
Senior Trinamool Congress leaders on Tuesday said that quitting the United Progressive Alliance government had brought them a sense of freedom and relief.
Accusing the United Progressive Alliance of being in power at the Centre only by 'manipulating smaller parties', the Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday said, the Manmohan Singh's government has completely exhausted its mandate to rule the nation.
Pawar said the UPA-Left committee constituted to iron out the differences had already held four rounds of "good discussions and we hope both sides would amicably and with full responsibility settle the issue in our future meetings".
The CPI-M on Tuesday warned the UPA government at the Centre would "face the consequences" if it went ahead with the Indo-US nuclear deal. CPI-M politburo member Sitaram Yechuri said the outcome of the discussion between India and IAEA regarding the nuclear deal would be conveyed to Left parties by the government on March 17 at the Left-UPA Coordination Committee meeting.
The NDA govt will carry forward "good" policies and rail projects of UPA.
Similarities between NDA and UPA on some key policy issues are now becoming too stark to be ignored, says A K Bhattacharya.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Sonia Gandhi and party leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury have received invitations for the consecration ceremony of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya on January 22.
Sources in the Congress have begun to brief business houses and mediapersons with 'adequate numbers' to prove that the United Progressive Alliance government is in majority, despite Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress pulling out its 19 members of Parliament from the government.
Both Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party might be thoroughly opposed to the United Progressive Alliance government's recent decision to allow FDI in retail as well as the hike in diesel price, but neither of these parties are likely to immediately part ways with the UPA.
The Nationalist Congress Party has decided to pull out of the UPA government and support it from outside in protest against the way the party was treated by Congress, creating fresh trouble for the ruling coalition.
In the backdrop of the hype over Mulayam Singh Yadav attending UPA's anniversary dinner, his Samajwadi Party sought to downplay it and went on to attack the Centre over 2G and other scams.
On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate the economic achievements of the government?
Incumbent Hamid Ansari is the United Progressive Alliance's candidate for the Vice President's post and he is all set to get a second consecutive term.
The Karnataka high court on Tuesday struck down the appointment of Justice Chandrashekaraiah, the Upa Lokayukta. Justice N Kumar and Justice Kempanna observed that due process was not followed while appointing the Upa Lokayukta.
The TDP and JD-U will have a lot to answer inside Parliament, day after day, session after session, notes N Sathiya Moorthy.
"The BSP has no intention to join the UPA nor there will be any such intention in future," she said in a press release in Lucknow.
Former union minister for child and women development and senior Congress Party leader Krishna Tirath on Monday joined the Bharatiya Janata Party after meeting party chief Amit Shah.
What the INDIA alliance needs is neither a counter to Modi's tall personality and undiminished charisma nor a counter-narrative to his Hindutva agenda, now centred on the Ayodhya temple consecration on January 22, argues N Sathiya Moorthy.
Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee has agreed to attend the second meeting of the UPA co-ordination committee to be held on August 22, sources said.
It's the floundering economy that caused the Congress' grievous loss in the Assembly elections.
Official said a CBI inquiry has been recommended against Aman Biradari for violation of various provisions of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act.
The Centre, last year, had also decided to freeze the minimum wage paid under NREGA at Rs 100. Subsequently, the wages paid in many states under NREGA are lower than the minimum wages in the state.
UPA to take decision on MDMK status in the central coalition
In an apparent attempt to act as a pressure group within the United Progressive Alliance, two constituents -- Rashtriya Janata Dal and Telangana Rashtra Samithi -- Thursday announced the formation of an informal group within to "review" UPA
There is nothing "fundamentally inconsistent" with a minority institution being an institution of national importance (INI), the Supreme Court said on Wednesday while hearing arguments on the vexed issue of minority status to Aligarh Muslim University (AMU).
After Congress, the United Progressive Alliance on Thursday endorsed government's recent tough economic decisions and discussed the need "to do more reforms".
Expressing concern over the rupee reaching an all-time low, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said the currency is likely to plunge further as a share of the US financial stimulus package given to India during the sub-prime crisis in 2008-09 may be withdrawn by the Federal Reserve.
The resignation also signals a continuing saga of unaddressed concerns of young leaders, once considered close to former Congress president Rahul Gandhi.
Bharatiya Janata Party chief ministers and key party leaders from states on Saturday got together to discuss the economic situation in the country and issues of governance and federalism with party president Nitin Gadkari accusing UPA of "governance deficit" and "policy paralysis".
West Bengal government has expressed surprise at the way the UPA government was rushing through legislation on the Food Security Bill when the general election was "knocking at the door" and without a full-fledged implementation mechanism.
Seeking to project a united picture of the ruling alliance, the UPA coordination committee headed by Congress president Sonia Gandhi will hold its first meeting on Wednesday.
The Bharatiya Janata Party postponed its country-wide anti-UPA agitation, which was scheduled to start Monday, in the wake of the killing of several Congress leaders in a Naxal attack in Chhattisgarh.
