The Bharatiya Janata Party has designated party general secretary Ananth Kumar and senior leader S S Ahluwalia to assist P A Sangma in the Presidential election management.
Chidambaram caught napping. The tug of war for Pranab's seat in Lok Sabha. Kapil Sibal is very afraid these days. All this, and more, in this edition of Dilli Gupshup
Even though Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel will move this proposal only on Thursday in the Cabinet meeting, the government is already going ahead with the proposal regardless of the response from other concerned ministries like finance, environment and forests, and tourism and the planning commission.
Dr Singh is confident that his government will push ahead its reforms agenda.
With outside ally Samjawadi Party breathing fire in the last few days, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday acknowledged the possibility of its withdrawal of support to United Progressive Alliance but ruled out any threat to his government or early elections.
It is expected that the finance ministry will be handled for some time by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Opposition backed Presidential candidate P A Sangma will file his nomination on Thursday, the day when United Progressive Alliance nominee Pranab Mukherjee will submit his papers.
After quitting the United Progressive Alliance coalition on the Sri Lankan Tamils issue, the Dravida Munetra Kazhagam on Monday demanded that India should boycott the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting scheduled to be held in Colombo in November.
Former Jharkhand Chief Minister and Member of Parliament Babulal Marandi has extended support to the Third Front.In a letter to Telugu Desam Party chief Chandrababu Naidu, the prominent Jharkhand leader said he supported the Front, which was a non-United Progressive Alliance and non-National Democratic Alliance option. He said that he could not attend the Front's meeting in New Delhi due to prior poll-related commitments.
Pranab Mukherjee, who seems headed towards the Rashtrapati Bhavan, on Saturday turned nostalgic at his ancestral house in Bengal's Birbhum district.
Declaring that the Prime Ministerial candidate of the Third Front would be decided after the elections, Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati hosted a dinner for the leaders of the grouping and resolved to defeat the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance and the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Deomocratic Alliance.
Bharatiya Janata Party National President Nitin Gadkari on Friday led party leaders and workers in courting arrest as part of its nationwide 'jail bharo' agitation in Nagpur to protest rising inflation and recent hike in petroleum products.
The Congress on Friday rejected opposition Presidential nominee P A Sangma's demand for a debate with United Progressive Alliance's Presidential nominee Pranab Mukherjee saying the President of India is not supposed to be managing the economy of the country.
The United Progressive Alliance government had faced criticism from all quarters over the detention of Anna Hazare hours before the activist was scheduled to go on an indefinite fast.
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief M Karunanidhi on Thursday justified his party's decision to withdraw support to the United Progressive Alliance government on Sri Lankan Tamil issue but refused to term the Centre's stand as a "betrayal".
Amid uproar over the Central Bureau of Investigation's raids against his son M K Stalin, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief M Karunanidhi on Thursday gave a guarded reaction on whether the action was a case of political vendetta. The DMK patriarch said it could be possible that the raids happened without the knowledge of the United Progressive Alliance government.
With the Bharatiya Janata Party losing Biju Janata Dal as an ally in Orissa, the Congress on Monday gloated over the plight of its principal challenger alleging National Democratic Alliance was "virtually non-existent" and there was "no serious challenge" to the United Progressive Alliance in the Lok Sabha polls.
The print order for former President A P J Abdul Kalam's yet to be released book 'Turning Points -- A Journey Through Challenges', a sequel to his earlier work, 'Wings of Fire', is being stepped up to 50,000 copies from 30,000 earlier.
In the backdrop of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam withdrawing support to United Progressive Alliance, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and Samajwadi Party state president Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday said his party's support to the UPA would continue and final decision would be taken by SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav.
With the exit of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam from United Progressive Alliance, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday sought to drive a wedge between Congress and Samajwadi Party demanding immediate removal of Union Minister Beni Prasad Verma for his remarks against Mulayam Singh Yadav.
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".
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday shot off a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, complaining against Home Minister P Chidambaram's comment on the issue of IPS officers, alleging that the United Progressive Alliance government was trying to destabilise his government.
Slamming Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam President M Karunanidhi for announcing his party's withdrawal from the United Progressive Alliance over the Sri Lankan Tamils issue, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on Tuesday described it as a 'drama'.
In only two of the past 12 occasions has the BSE S&P Sensex recorded a gain during the month before the Union Budget's presentation.
Even as suspense continues over alliance between the Congress and the Samajwadi Party, the SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav has said his party would not field candidates against the United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi.
With United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi naming Pranab Mukherjee as the Presidential candidate, priests at Sri Jagannath Temple at Puri sought the Lord's blessings for him.
Pranab Mukherjee, the United Progressive Alliance's presidential candidate, has friends across the political spectrum, in the Left as well as the Bharatiya Janata Party, says Aditi Phadnis
Ending months of speculation, the ruling coalition met on Friday evening at the residence of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh where its Chairperson Sonia Gandhi put forward the name of the 77-year-old veteran Congressman from West Bengal as its candidate, which was unanimously approved by the leaders of the constituent parties
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday met senior Congress colleagues, including Pranab Mukherjee, to discuss the Presidential poll issue ahead of the United Progressive Alliance meeting.
Sources in the Samajwadi Party said that Mulayam Singh Yadav, his cousin and party general secretary Ram Gopal Yadav and another senior leader Naresh Aggarwal have held at least five rounds of discussion with Congress leaders
Armed with the Comptroller and Auditor General report, opposition on Tuesday targeted Prime Minister Manmohan Singh over appointment of Suresh Kalmadi as Commonwealth Games Organising Committee chief.
The Communist Party of India-Marxist on Thursday termed as "unprecedented" the proposal to make Prime Minister Manmohan Singh a presidential candidate, saying it shows the lack of principles that ties the United Progressive Alliance coalition
The Congress silence comes at a high cost, notes a Rediff Correspondent.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday during which the issues of financial package for the state and United Progresseive Alliance's Presidential candidate are likely to come up for discussion.
