The Communist Party of India-Marxist and Forward Bloc on Monday declared their support for incumbent Hamid Ansari in the Vice Presidential poll but another Left party Revolutionary Socialist Party will abstain.
While the Kerala chief minister has not yet shown any sign of accepting the party's line on the SNC Lavalin corruption case -- where Vijayan has been termed an accused by the CBI -- the politburo will try to maintain a balance between the two factions in a last-ditch effort.
Trinamool Congress' margin of victory in the Kolkata South Lok Sabha bypoll suggests people's continued support for the state government policies and further disintegration of Communist Party of India-Marxist, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said on Sunday.
Earlier this month, a fresh round of fratricidal firings started after an interview was carried by the party-controlled TV channel 'Kairali' with a businessman, said to be close to Vijayan, who Achuthanandan had called "a hated person."
This is the first instance of violence since the Central Reserve Police Force was deployed in the area following the 'recapture' of the area by the CPI M. The forces were present at the village when the houses were set on fire.
The government had earlier this week briefed top BJP leadership on the same foreign policy issues.
'In Parliament, he was the one person who stood for democracy and secularism even when the principal Opposition party was not very forthright in taking on the BJP and RSS.'
The Communist Party of India-Marxist took 'extremely strong objection' to the remark of the Prime Minister's Office that parties should eschew temptation of politicising the misery of the people and said the statement on price rise was 'very insulting'. CPM said that as a political party, it is its responsibility to raise the issue of the plight of the people.
"I will say 'Jai Hind', I will say 'Hindustan Zindabad' the CPI-M leader said.
"The WPI is not a true reflection of the burden put on the people through the rise in prices of essential commodities. It is a misnomer to use it as an index for measuring inflation," party leader Sitaram Yechury told reporters. Quoting the oft-repeated phrase 'statistics, more statistics and damned lies', he said the weightage of the basket of food items to calculate the WPI was 22 per cent as against that of steel products which was 25 per cent.
Asked whether Basu should be awarded the Bharat Ratna, CPI-M politburo member Biman Bose told reporters in Kolkata, "I don't know whether Basu fulfills the parameters. If he fulfills it, Basu can be given the highest civilian award.'' Bose flayed senior BJP leader L K Advani for writing to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to propose the honour for Vajpayee, saying the saffron party was playing politics with the country's highest civilian award.
Addressing a press conference after a two-day Politbureau meeting, party general secretary Prakash Karat said this was also the understanding of the other Left parties on Article 356, which provides for imposition of Central rule.
The Maha Vikas Aghadi of the Congress, the Nationalist Congress Party-Sharadchandra Pawar, and the Shiv Sena-Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray on Wednesday announced to contest 85 seats each in Maharashtra assembly elections even as deliberations to seal a final seat-sharing pact are still underway.
The Odisha government has constituted a fact-finding committee to investigate the circumstances surrounding the death of a Nepali student at KIIT University and the subsequent protests by students. The three-member panel will investigate the institute's handling of the situation, including the suspension of students seeking justice. The incident has sparked outrage and raised concerns about the safety of international students at the institute. The Nepal government has threatened to stop issuing no objection certificates for students studying in Odisha if the situation is not resolved.
'The 2020 assembly election was a Tejaswi Yadav election; whereas this is a Lalu Yadav election. It is his plan.'
A 39-member parliamentary panel has been constituted to examine the two bills proposing simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and state assemblies. The panel, chaired by BJP leader Bhratruhari Mahtab, will include prominent members from various political parties, including the BJP, Congress, SP, TMC, and DMK. The panel is expected to submit its report to the Lok Sabha by the first day of the last week of the next session. The government has decided to increase the committee's strength to include more political parties, highlighting the significance of this proposal to reform the election process in India.
There are few leaders in the Opposition line up who can claim a path to party leadership like Sitaram Yechury and certainly, very few who blended that ascent through student politics with awareness about non-elite real India, urban India and liberal politics, as he did, notes Shyam G Menon.
Yechury said the prime minister was making statements after statements outside Parliament when it was in session but not inside and this 'amounts to utter contempt of Parliament'.
While the CPI-M in a statement after the secretariat on Friday maintained that Balakrishnan, who is also a Polit Bureau member, had sought leave for further treatment which had been accepted, the leader of opposition in the state assembly Ramesh Chennithala dubbed the move as a delayed dawning of wisdom.
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The chief executive officer of a jute mill was beaten to death allegedly by workers on the factory premises after he refused to agree to their demand on wages at Bhadreswar in Hooghly district on Sunday.
Four Communist Party of India-Marxist supporters and a party worker were shot dead by Maoists on Friday after they suspected them to be police informers and their bodies dumped on the highway at West Midnapore and Purulia districts, the police said.
The EC announced on Friday evening that out of eight parties only Sharad Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party and the CPI-M accepted the dare. Friday was the last date to enlist for the challenge.
Left parties were on Thursday divided on the Presidential election with the Communist Party of India-Marxist and Forward Bloc deciding to support United Progressive Alliance candidate Pranab Mukherjee while the Communist Party of India and Revolutionary Socialist Party opting to abstain from the voting.
'These allegations need to be treated with utmost seriousness.'
The CPI(M), which has finalized 80 Lok Sabha seats, is in talks with other like-minded parties to forge electoral alliances on some more constituencies in its bid to forge an alternative against Congress and BJP.
The fallout from the Justice K Hema Committee report on harassment and abuse in the Malayalam film industry intensified on Monday as a case was filed against well-known filmmaker Ranjith, and several female actors stepped forward with disturbing accounts of the mistreatment they faced at the hands of their various male counterparts.
A water theme and amusement park, the first such cooperative venture run by Kerala's ruling CPI(M), has been opened at the picturesque temple town of Parassinikadavu in Kannur district on Sunday.
Tafajjal Hossain polled 33,849 votes in the by-election to the Boxanagar seat while CPI-M's Mizan Hussain got only 3,884 votes.
Among the national parties, the Congress, Aam Aadmi Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Communist Party of India-Marxist opposed the proposal, while the Bharatiya Janata Party and the National People's Party supported it.
Justice Shekhar Kumar Yadav, an Allahabad High Court judge, is set to appear before the Supreme Court Collegium to explain his controversial statements made at a Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) function. The Supreme Court has sought a report from the Allahabad High Court after news reports surfaced regarding Justice Yadav's remarks, which were widely condemned as "hate speech". The judge's statements, made at a VHP event, sparked outrage from various quarters, including opposition leaders and lawyers. The Bar Association of India has also condemned the judge's remarks and called for an apology.
The first Railway Budget of this Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance government is a cosmetic exercise, high on rhetoric and low in substance, the CPI-M said.
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has demanded an enquiry into what it alleges is a Rs 60,000 crore (Rs 600 billion) financial scam involving the manner in which 2G spectrum was allocated by the ministry of communications.
With the Communist Party of India-Marxist capturing some areas near Nandigram over the past few days, an eight-party anti-land acquisition organisation on Thursday said that the areas would be 'freed soon with people's help.' "Just wait. The areas captured by the CPI-M will be freed soon with help from the people," said Gana Unnayan O Jana Adhikar Sangram Samity president Maulana Siddiqulla Chowdhury.
Umanath, who mentioned people like Mukesh Ambani and Kalanidhi Maran too, got stuck when he came to Amitabh. "Amitabh Bachchan has amassed more than Rs 190 crore," he said, adding sarcastically, "Yes, the same Amitabh you see in that advertisement for chocolate."
Banerjee accused the BJP of resorting to divisive tactics in the face of anticipated defeat in the initial phases of polling.
Just eight months after its good showing in the Lok Sabha polls, the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) seems to be running out of steam with internal bickering and conflicting ambitions resulting in diminishing electoral returns that have once again put the Bharatiya Janata Party in the driver's seat in national politics.
However, the national party count has gone down to six from 14 in over seven decades.
The UPA-Left committee on the nuclear deal will meet on November 16.
