Faced with one crisis after another, the beleaguered ruling alliance desperately needs a seasoned politician like Pranab Mukherjee to bail it out, says Anita Katyal
The Communist Party of India leader A B Bardhan on Wednesday said there was room for a credible alternative of Left and secular parties in the country to fill the "political vacuum" created by people's rejection of the two alliances led by Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party in the recent Assembly elections.
Asking the United Progressive Alliance government not to succumb to "pressure" to accept United States President Barack Obama's economic and strategic alliance proposals, the Left parties on Monday claimed that these will only benefit the US and go against India's interest.
Opposition National Democratic Alliance and estranged United Progressive Alliance ally Trinamool Congress on Friday criticised the decision to allow Foreign Direct Investment in multi-brand retail, saying government has surrendered to crony capitalism and feared that the policy will spell doom for farmers and small traders.
Dubbing Opposition Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam as an "evil force", All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief J Jayalalithaa on Wednesday accused it of 'conniving' with ally Congress and the United Progressive Alliance government to create hurdles in Tamil Nadu's progress.
Criticising the United Progressive Alliance government for creating disparity between states ruled by the National Democratic Alliance and others, Bharatiya Janata Party chief Nitin Gadkari on Tuesday said that the Centre must understand the reality of federal structure of the country.
Renu Mittal reports on how the United Progressive Alliance government is walking the tight-rope over the Sri Lankan Tamils issue.
The division of Andhra Pradesh will see not just a change in the geographical profile of the state but will also totally alter the political landscape across the regions and re-write the fortunes of all major parties.
"We have enough human resource and a diplomat told me that 21st century's Saudia Arabia, with its rich human resource, is India," the Nerhu-Gandhi scion said in his eight-minute speech.
Calling the United Progressive Alliance a "minority government" and ruling out the possibility of a Third Front government, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday claimed that the National Democratic Alliance would come to power after the 2014 elections.
The United Progressive Alliance coordination committee is scheduled to meet in New Dekhi on Thursday, with the ongoing political crisis in Maharashtra to rule the roost.
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.
0After committing support to the United Progressive Alliance, Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav on Saturday ruled out his involvement in formation of third front before the next Lok Sabha polls even though he had an intriguing meeting with Sukhbir Badal, President of national Democractic Alliance's key constituent Akali Dal.
Congress MP Rahul Gandhi on Friday expressed his regret that the Other Backward Class (OBC) quota was not provided under the Bill brought by United Progressive Alliance (UPA) in 2010.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leaders Ravi Shankar Prasad and C P Thakur were detained in Patna on Thursday during a protest against the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government over Foreign Direct Investment in multi-brand retail and the hike in diesel prices. Several other opposition leaders have also been detained by the police.
With an eye on the general election, the government on Monday unveiled a series of audio-visual clips, as a part of its multi media campaign to highlight its achievements and showcase the impact of the United Progressive Alliance's policies in the last nine years. Information and Broadcasting minister Manish Tewari, in whose presence the presentation was made, said the multimedia initiative was different from the 'India Shining' campaign of the NDA.
The Indian economy has been shaped by 22 finance ministers till date.
The Congress on Tuesday reiterated that the United Progressive Alliance government has taken firm steps to bring back black money stashed abroad in the last three years, and criticized leaders of the National Democratic Alliance for lending support to yoga guru Baba Ramdev's agitation.
From the time he first rose to prominence during the movement against the then UPA government, Arvind Kejriwal has regularly grabbed headlines for his surprise moves and decisions. Here are 10 such instances.
Sharing the dais with Ramdev, Bharatiya Janata Party President Nitin Gadkari on Monday pledged his party's "full support" to the yoga guru's agitation against black money and launched a blistering attack on the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government on issues like corruption and black money.
Trinamool Congress, a major constituent of the United Progressive Alliance, on Monday night decided to support the alliance's vice presidential poll candidate Hamid Ansari but oppose any decision to open the multibrand retail to FDI and bills on forward marketing in commodities and privatisation of pension fund in the monsoon session of Parliament.
The United Progressive Alliance on Monday announced the constitution of a coordination committee under the chairpersonship of Sonia Gandhi to ensure cohesive functioning of the alliance, a demand that was placed by ally NCP during its recent stand-off with Congress.
The Congress-led United Progressive Alliance coalition at the Centre, which has been plagued by ally trouble, has finally constituted a coordination committee with all its alliance partners to hold regular consultations
In fresh embarrassment to the erstwhile United Progressive Alliance regime, particularly to former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, former Comptroller Auditor General Vinod Rai has claimed that coalition functionaries had deputed politicians to get him leave out names from the audit reports in the Coalgate and Commonwealth Games scams.
The Congress in Maharashtra is making all efforts to woo the Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena to back United Progressive Alliance nominee Pranab Mukherjee for the presidential poll on Thursday.
With the United Progressive Alliance declaring Hamid Ansari as its candidate for the post of vice president, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday decided to go for a contest, but maintained that it will finalise its nominee after consulting National Democratic Alliance allies.
Rejecting Nitish Kumar's charge that Bihar was being discriminated against and ignored by the United Progressive Alliance government, Congress said nobody should play politics on the issue of special status to the state.
The minister said he was able to build consensus on VAT when he was the Finance Minister during the UPA-I term.
With an eye on next year's general elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday projected itself as the sole alternative to Congress, vowing to move ahead with unity and expand the National Democratic Alliance to oust the United Progressive Alliance, which it termed a "coalition of the corrupt".
In positive signals for the United Progressive Alliance, the Samajwadi Party today said it will not support any National Democratic Alliance Presidential candidate and did not want mid-term elections.
If the Congress reached 90, it would have a pretty good chance of holding the BJP below the 272 mark. A hundred seats will rock national politics, argues Shekhar Gupta.
The United Progressive Alliance government's decision to go ahead with an ordinance allowing convicted MPs and MLAs to continue in office and contest elections is a clear move to help out beleaguered Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad Yadav.
An opinion poll on Monday night projected the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance securing majority with 275 out of the 543 Lok Sabha seats in the elections.
Standard and Poor's (S&P) in its report released on Monday 'Will India Be The First BRIC Fallen Angel?' said: "Slowing GDP growth and political roadblocks to economic policy making could put India at risk of losing its investment grade rating".
Training his guns at the ruling United Progressive Alliance at the Centre, Bharatiya Janata Party president Nitin Gadkari on Thursday said the Congress was going through a "bad time" and his party-led alliance will capture power in the next Lok Sabha elections. The country was suffering due to rising prices, growing unemployment, declining exports, corruption and poverty, Gadkari said.
As the Trinamool Congress-Congress combine headed for a sensational victory in the Lok Sabha election in West Bengal, going by the alliance's winning trends, her supporters erupted into celebrations.
Members of national panels have received calls from ministries to step down. Kavita Chowdhury reports
Sibal, a prominent Opposition voice and a former Congress leader, also said that instead of a common minimum programme, the Opposition parties should talk about a 'new vision for India'.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday said she had suggested to the Congress that an advisory council comprising prominent personalities from civil society be set up to give a direction to the opposition, but rued that the plan did not materialise.
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