All political parties were asked at the dinner meeting on Monday night to suggest names for the alliance and the same would be discussed and consensus would be arrived at during the deliberations.
Locked in a bitter tussle with the Centre over the control of administrative services, Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party national convenor Arvind Kejriwal will meet the chiefs of the Trinamool Congress, Shiv Sena-Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray and the Nationalist Congress Party this week seeking their support.
The move is being seen as an attempt to forge opposition unity to defeat the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance.
In an embarrassment to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, a senior Janata Dal-United Legislator Chhedi Paswan met Bharatiya Janata Party prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi following which the party suspended him for six years.
Senior Janata Dal-United leader Shivanand Tiwari on Tuesday created flutters by praising Narendra Modi at the Janata Dal-United convention in Rajgir, triggering spontaneous protests from the party workers.
President Pranab Mukherjee expressed condolences over the loss of lives in the stampede and called upon the authorities to provide all assistance and help to the victims.
A two-day meet of Communist Party of India-Marxist politburo began in New Delhi on Sunday amid attempts to bring all non-Congress, non-BJP parties on a common platform ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.
Centenarian Janata Dal-United Member of Parliament Ram Sundar Das on Tuesday fainted on stage at the party convention in Rajgir and was rushed to a hospital.
The INDIA bloc has 95 MPs in Rajya Sabha of which 45 were suspended on Monday.
Opposition leaders will also meet the Election Commission and raise the issue of tallying the paper trail of votes with the electronic voting machine figures as directed by the Supreme Court.
The Vishwaguru who addressed the maximum rallies and boasted of being blessed with divine energy, who promised guarantees in his own name, turned out finally not invincible, points out Jyoti Punwani.
Members from Opposition and treasury benches had a heated exchange of words in Rajya Sabha on Tuesday over Prime Minister Narendra Modi's remarks on foreign soil that he wanted to clean the dirt of 60 years forcing three adjournments in the pre-lunch session.
'Bihar, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Bengal can be the game changers of 2024.'
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan and Minister of State for Health Ashwini Choubey are at the hospital to enquire about his health condition.
Janata Dal-United MLAs gathered at Nitish Kumar's official residence for the crucial legislature party meeting on Sunday to choose a new leader in the House after the JD-U leader's resignation following the ruling party's debacle in the Lok Sabha elections in the state.
18 leaders from 14 parties said it is unfortunate that the government has 'unleashed a misleading campaign to malign the combined opposition' and blaming it for the continued disruption of Parliament proceedings.
If the party's members aren't sure what it stands for, see no path to wealth or power, and endure control by a dynasty, which, almighty as it is within the party, cannot get them the votes, they are likely to explore options, notes Shekhar Gupta.
Efforts to forge unity in the opposition ranks gained momentum on Monday with the Congress asserting that a 'vast majority' of non-Bharatiya Janata Party outfits will meet soon, after Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar met its president Mallikarjun Kharge and senior leader Rahul Gandhi.
They are likely to meet Sitaram Yechury following the meeting with Gandhi.
The JD-U has 115 MLAs in the 243-member assembly, most of who are reportedly with Nitish
This is the first meeting between Gandhi and Kumar since the latter walked out of the National Democratic Alliance in Bihar and formed a 'Mahagathbandhan' government with the Rashtriya Janata Dal, the Congress and outside support of the Left.
'To summarise, PM Modi's failures in the last nine years can be categorised under 'durniti' (bad policies), 'anyay' (injustice) and - perhaps most importantly - 'badniyat' (ill intention)'
A meeting of the Janata Dal-United Legislature Party has been called on February seven amid reports that Bihar Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi was under pressure to quit and make way for his predecessor Nitish Kumar.
The editorial in Saamana said the "Wagner group" has shown dictatorship can be challenged.
Despite facing stiff opposition, two candidates from the ruling party in Bihar, the Janata Dal-United, have won the Rajya Sabha by-polls with the support of the Rashtriya Janata Dal party.
The RSS wants BJP to field a 'swayamsevak', while the Opposition has mulled fielding former West Bengal governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi.
Sources said the opposition parties would look to avoid the prickly leadership question as of now and emphasise on building a common ground.
Joining hands with his arch rival, Lalu Prasad Yadav, paid off for the Bihar chief minister
YSR Congress party chief YS Jaganmohan Reddy will meet Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and his father and Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav on Tuesday evening in Lucknow, to garner political support for a united Andhra Pradesh.
Amid political standoff in Bihar, Janata Dal-United leader Nitish Kumar on Wednesday met President Pranab Mukherjee to convey the support of 130 MLAs and urged him to advise the state governor to take an immediate decision claiming that any delay will pollute the atmosphere in the state and encourage "horse-trading".
Giving a message of larger opposition unity, Congress President Sonia Gandhi and former prime minister Manmohan Singh will march with leaders of at least ten parties from Parliament House to President House on Tuesday and submit a memorandum against the new land bill.
Ahead of the second phase of polls in the state, Banerjee's letter, which was released by the Trinamool Congress on Wednesday, seeks to drum up support from opposition leaders by stating how non-BJP states have suffered due to the saffron party led Centre's actions.
In switching over, Nitish has sent out a message that if he could not now become the NDA's PM, then he would need to stay on as CM at the very least, which a third term for Modi would not let him have, N Sathiya Moorthy points out.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday alleged that the Janata Dal-United is misusing the office of Bihar Assembly Speaker Uday Narain Choudhary, adding that the Sharad Yadav -led party wants to stay in power and also play the role of opposition.
'The Modi-Shah duo won't leave the war zone without putting up a tough fight.' 'Modi's slogan for 2019 could well be, "I have done much. Give me one more chance to do even more".' '2019 will be tough for the BJP.' 'But it will be even tougher for the Opposition -- united or otherwise,' says R Rajagopalan.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, however, was conspicuous by her absence at the event, which was attended by tens of thousands of people as the Congress sought to promote opposition unity.
Kumar had also made it clear that he was in the process of uniting the non-BJP leaders.
Top Opposition leaders, including Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Sunday lashed out at the Narendra Modi government for "doing nothing other than 'show-baazi'" by slashing allocations to all major social security schemes like MGNREGA.
The Congress on Thursday virtually ruled out any grand alliance in poll bound Uttar Pradesh including with Samajwadi Party insisting that Rahul Gandhi wanted to set things right in the state which is in bad shape for past 27 years in non-Congress rule.
The Samajwadi Party on Thursday pulled out of the 'grand alliance' in poll-bound Bihar, saying it felt "humiliated" as it was not consulted while deciding seats and would contest the assembly elections in the state on its own.
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