A meeting of the United Progressive Alliance coordination committee is being held on Thursday against the backdrop of the political crisis in Maharashtra that has seen cracks widen in the ruling Congress-NCP coalition in the state.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday expressed confidence that the NDA will get more than 400 seats and the BJP will win at least 370 seats in the Lok Sabha elections.
With Tamil Nadu reeling under acute power shortage, Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on Friday squarely blamed the Congress-led UPA and her arch rival Dravida Munettra Kazhagam for the crisis but said load-shedding would gradually ease from next month and the state will be free of power cuts from end 2013.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday sought public views on the 'charge sheet' it intends to prepare in seeking to corner the UPA government over its "failure" on several fronts and to highlight the scams unearthed during the present regime.
Pledging to take corruption head on, the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance on Sunday night promised to punish the guilty in scams and assured the people that it would demonstrate through actions and not words what it meant.
'The government must give up its neo-liberal polices and obsession with GDP growth and shift its ideological centre of gravity leftwards.'
Former Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Monday said the high growth that Indian economy has logged in the first quarter of the current fiscal was on account of the UPA policies and the new government must give it the due credit.
Describing China as the biggest threat to the country, Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav slammed the United Progressive Alliance for being a "silent spectator" to alleged Chinese encroachment of Indian territory.
The opposition on Tuesday termed as an 'election jumla' the women's reservation bill brought by the government with many leaders raising questions over the proposed legislation, contending it doesn't account for reservation for OBC communities and that it will be effective at the earliest by the 2029 Lok Sabha polls.
Notwithstanding the bitter ties between Left parties and the Congress, the RJD today claimed that the CPI(M) would be "compelled" to join ranks with UPA to keep communal forces at bay.
Almost without exception, all ministers from non-Congress coalition partners of the UPA have been behaving as though they are a law unto themselves.
Sticking to its demand for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's resignation for the irregularities in coal block allocation, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday termed the United Progressive Alliance government as the "most corrupt" and demanded cancellation of 142 allocated coal blocks. "There is no doubt that this UPA government is the most corrupt government of all times. Earlier, the Bofors scam was considered the biggest, in which Rs 64 crore was taken as bribe," he said.
While two Team Anna members targetted United Progressive Alliance Presidential nominee Pranab Mukherjee and demanding a probe into allegations against him, anti-graft crusader Anna Hazare on Monday appeared to endorse his candidature for the top post terming him as "better than other UPA ministers".
Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati on Wednesday kept up the suspense on continuance of outside support to the United Progressive Alliance government at the Centre, saying a decision on the issue will be taken soon. She also asked party cadres to be ready for snap polls which "can take place any time" in view of the "instability" at the Centre.
As Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav offered a prop to beleaguered UPA after Trinamool Congress walked out of the ruling coalition, Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday said it has no intention of toppling the government and will "wait and watch".
'What you need is a credible Opposition, a credible platform to persuade people to believe that it can replace this government.'
Alleging that the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government's mindset has led to "decay" of key institutions including Parliament, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday said it poses a serious issue before the next Lok Sabha as it is threatening the survival of democracy in the country.
The former Union minister also slammed Shashi Tharoor for his statement that praising the Prime Minister Narendra Modi for doing the right things would lend credibility to the opposition's criticism of him.
As Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh threatened withdrawal of support to the UPA government over the Jamia Nagar encounter, party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav on Tuesday said the support was extended in the national interest and there was no question of its withdrawal.
His statement came hours after five of his party ministers in Andhra Pradesh resigned from the Congress-led government.
At the end of UPA-2's three years in power, India has become a more unbalanced, strife-torn and unhappy society, with reduced human security and tattered social cohesion. Rather than correct policy course, the government deals with the resulting discontent with brute force, says Praful Bidwai
As United Progressive Alliance completes three years in office, opposition Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday claimed the government may fall anytime as coalition partners were unhappy and were not even ready to break bread together.
Despite the missive on the impact of foreign retail on the small kirana shops in the country written by Congress President Sonia Gandhi to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, everyone in the government knows that it was never to be taken seriously.
Lok Janshakti Party chief Ramvilas Paswan on Sunday said his party would support United Progressive Alliance candidate for Presidency.
Figures don't lie. And they say the UPA's 10 years of economic growth is slightly better than the previous 10 years of growth. End of debate.
The Left parties' unhappiness over the functioning of the United Progressive Alliance government and especially its economic policies came to the fore on Monday with the Revolutionary Socialist Party deciding to withdraw from the UPA-Left coordination committee.
The Samajwadi Party is ready for mid-term Lok Sabha polls but it is supporting the United Progressive Alliance government to keep communal forces at bay, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav said on Sunday.
Having kept it alive for four years with outside support, the Left on Tuesday branded the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government as 'no different' from its predecessor National Democratic Alliance government, on the economic and foreign policy fronts.The Marxist leader said Left parties, at their joint meeting in New Delhi on May 23, will further review the performance of the UPA government and take appropriate position.
Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday took potshots at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, alleging his "lack" of leadership had made the United Progressive Alliance government a "sinking ship" and prompted even allies like Trinamool Congress to declare that he should be moved to the President's post.
While Rahul Gandhi has seen a number of houses, he may also opt to stay with his mother and Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi.
Mr Rahul Gandhi himself has given seven different prices in different speeches with regard to the Rafale, that is the 2007 offer.
Yadav also pressed for the caste census which, he said, would be a major issue in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
As Congress-led UPA-II completes three years in office, party leaders on Wednesday said India has performed much better in comparison to other countries during these years but the growth has not been up to the expectations of the government.
Denouncing the United Progressive Alliance government as a "failure" on all fronts, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday came out with a scathing "chargesheet" on its 10-year rule that accused Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi of being equally guilty of all ills by exercising authority without responsibility.
From the economy to foreign policy issues, to addressing the serious challenge posed by communal forces which are out to viciously polarise and divide Indian society, the UPA II government has shown a certain pronounced weakness and lack of vision and commitment that could seriously harm India in the long run, notes Sanjay Kapoor.
Tearing into the claims of the United Progressive Alliance about its flagship employment generation programme MNREGA, BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi on Tuesday alleged it had only "filled the pockets of Congress" and sought to debunk the much-touted RTI.
Prasad alleged there was pressure for extraneous considerations and 'bribe' for not finalising the Rafale deal during the UPA rule.
Senior Janata Dal-United leader Dhananjay Singh pitched for Opposition unity ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls and said party workers in Uttar Pradesh want Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to contest the elections from the state's Phulpur constituency.