In further signs of fissures within DMK, party chief M Karunanidhi's son M K Alagiri on Monday skipped the crucial executive committee meet, which is likely to take key decisions in the wake of the party's pullout from the United Progressive Alliance.
Coinciding with the 96th birthday of late Indira Gandhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh inaugurated the first of its seven branches at a function in Mumbai in the presence of United Progressive Alliance Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, coalition leaders Sharad Pawar and Farooq Abdullah, besides Finance Minister P Chidambaram.
United Progressive Alliance's Presidential candidate Pranab Mukherjee said in Kolkata on Saturday night that if necessary, he would definitely talk to Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, seeking her support to his candidature.
After withdrawing support to the United Progressive Alliance government over the Sri Lankan Tamil issue, DMK's five representatives resigned from the Union Council of Ministers which were accepted by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh late on Wednesday night.
According to our Delhi correspondent, following the fallout with the Dravida Munetra Kazhagam, Congress president Sonia Gandhi told outgoing Fertiliser Minister M K Alagiri that she was taken by surprise after the DMK withdrew support from the United Progressive Alliance chairperson.
Three Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam ministers -- S S Palanimanickam, S Gandhiselvan, S Jagatrakshakan -- on Wednesday submitted their resignations from the government to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. But Union minister and DMK leader M K Alagiri was conspicuous by his absence.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday demanded an "independent and credible" inquiry into the violation of human rights in Sri Lanka even as she refused to comment on key United Progressive Alliance partner the Dravida Munnetra Kahzagam withdrawing support to the bgovernment at the Centre
Though the Shiromani Akali Dal had offered to extended support to The NDA but refused to issue a whip and left it on individual members to vote according to their choice during the vote.
Shiv Sena's executive president Uddhav Thackeray has clarified that backing United Progressive Alliance nominee Pranab Mukherjee for the coveted post of President of India does not mean his political outfit is supporting the ruling Congress party.
Amid threat to pull out Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam ministers and quit the United Progressive Alliance coalition on the Sri Lankan Tamils issue, party chief M Karunanidhi made a fresh demand insisting that Parliament adopt a resolution incorporating the two amendments he had suggested to the government to be moved on the US-backed resolution at the UNHRC.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee is expected to file on June 28 his nomination papers for the Presidential election.
BJP President and Leader of Opposition L K Advani on Tuesday conceded that the National Democratic Alliance's boycott of the Budget session of Parliament had created a 'wrong perception' in the public.
A Trinamool Congress minister on Saturday said ally Congress was free to quit the Mamata Banerjee ministry government in West Bengal.
Nationalist Congress Party leader Sharad Pawar on Thursday met Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and assured her of support to any candidate that the United Progressive Alliance puts forth. "I told her (Gandhi) that whoever UPA nominates, we will support," Pawar told reporters after his 30-minute meeting with the Congress chief to discuss the issue of Presidential election.
Was a Mumbai tycoon behind Wednesday's political drama? A Rediff Correspondent discusses the conspiracy theories making the rounds.
Left leaders Sitaram Yechury and A B Bardhan on Thursday shared dais with Bharatiya Janata Party's Nitin Gadkari and Murli Manohar Joshi at a demonstration against FDI in retail and hike in diesel prices.
Samajwadi party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav on Sunday admitted that he had offered "issue based support to the United Progressive Alliance provided it drops Trinamool Congress from the alliance." Pointing out that the UPA government's policies were against common people, he said, "We have opposed their anti-people policies in the Lok Sabha. Our support to them will be based on consensus over issues like national security, price rise and the plight of farmers."
Bharatiya Janata Party president Rajnath Singh on Monday alleged that the United Progressive Alliance government extended a red carpet welcome to Pakistan Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf during his personal visit to Ajmer Sharif, when it should have scaled down relations with Islamabad after the killing of two Indian soldiers.
Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial nominee and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on Friday accused the Congress party and the United Progressive Alliance government of conniving with terrorist outfit Indian Mujahideen, suspected to have played a key role behind the serial blasts at his Patna rally last month.
Former Union Minister and Bharatiya Janata Party official spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain on Sunday said his party would disclose its strategy on Presidential elections only after the ruling United Progressive Alliance coalition announces name of its candidate.
In an exclusive interview with IBNLokmat, Union Agriculture Minister and Nationalist Congress Party president Sharad Pawar has blamed the United Progressive Alliance for the spiralling prices of food items.
Finance Ministers play a key role in shaping the economy of a country.
Union minister Nitin Gadkari on Wednesday told Rajya Sabha members that he was the ''father of toll tax" on expressways in the country as he built the first such road in Maharashtra during his stint as the state minister in late 1990s.
Handing a warning to the United Progressive Alliance, Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav on Saturday said the Centre should immediately implement the Sachhar Committee recommendations for the welfare of Muslims, failing which it will have to go out of power.
The National Human Rights Commission report prepared for the second universal periodic review, a mechanism created by the United Nations General Assembly in 2006 for examining the universal coverage of human rights across the world, will come up for discussion in a meeting early next year.
However, Congress strategists are not unusually perturbed over the critical barbs aimed at Rahul. They believe his aggressive posture was meant to showcase the 'real Rahul Gandhi'.
The biggest challenge before Chidambaram, who will be presenting his eighth budget, would be to keep every constituent happy, arrest decelerating economic growth and bring down fiscal deficit to committed level of 4.8 per cent of the gross domestic product.
Nationalist Congress Party on Tuesday expressed grave disappointment over the railway budget with its chief Sharad Pawar telling a meeting of the United Progressive Alliance coordination committee that Mumbai has been neglected, which is "not acceptable".
Unnoticed by the rest of the world, a bizarre drama was played out in Jharkhand recently -- that is, even more bizarre than the claims made by Jharkhand Chief Minister Shibu Soren's aides that Soren voted for the United Progressive Alliance in the Lok Sabha because he is suffering from Alzheimer's disease, so he forgot that it was the National Democratic Alliance which was supporting his government in Jharkhand.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday ripped apart the United Progressive Alliance government's economic policies, stating that the Manmohan Singh-led administration had chosen to ignore the opposition's concerns about the financial recession.
Accusing the United Progressive Alliance government of being soft on Pakistan-sponsored terror, Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday suggested that the diplomatic relations with the neighbouring country be scaled down "for the time being".
Broader markets end flat too after a volatile trading session.
The United Naga Council on Monday lifted its 100-day economic blockade on the Manipur side of two national highways without any condition but with a caveat that agitation would be re-launched if the government did not make an 'alternative arrangement' for Nagas in the state.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday mounted pressure on the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government to seek a thorough probe in the VVIP chopper deal. The party also alleged that a corruption of such magnitude cannot happen without political patronage.
Doubting the United Progressive Alliance government's intentions in conducting an impartial probe into the VVIP chopper deal, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday demanded that a special investigation team be set up to investigate the matter under a monitoring mechanism.
The Bandra-Worli Sea Link, which was inaugurated by United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi in Mumbai on Tuesday, will be named as Rajiv Gandhi Setu.
Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front leader Yasin Malik sharing a dais with Lashkar-e-Tayiba chief and Mumbai attacks mastermind Hafiz Saeed in Pakistan Monday created a flutter in this country and led to a demand for cancelling his Indian passport.
Nine ministers in the Manmohan Singh-led United Progressive Alliance government have criminal records pending against them. Of the nine ministers, one minister face serious charges, according to a National Election Watch report.
'The hanging has made Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah's position very vulnerable. The government has created an issue in Kashmir when there was none.'
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