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.
Communist Party of India-Marxist and anti-acquisition Bhoomi Uchhed Pratirodh Committee activists on Monday exchanged fire in trouble-torn Nandigram in east Midnapore district amidst reports of a gunshot injury to one person.
In an unusually candid admission, the CPI-M blamed corruption and dishonesty among its leaders at the village level for the party's poor show in the recent panchayat elections across the state. "Not everybody in the CPI-M-controlled zilla parishads, panchayat samitis and gram panchayats is honest. We have corruption in our functioning. Even though they are few in number, we have to find out how this happened," CPI-M state secretary Biman Bose said.
Ahead of the Left meeting on Thursday to decide on Presidential poll, Pranab Mukherjee has reached out to CPI-M General Secretary Prakash Karat to seek his support but did not get any commitment.
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.
The ruling CPI-M in West Bengal on Wednesday night said controversial Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen should "leave the state" if her stay disturbs the peace.
Suspected Maoists killed a local Communist Party of India-Maoist leader after raiding his house at Barabazar, about 50 km from Purulia, early on Thursday morning and fled towards the Jharkhand border, a senior police official said.
Seeking to capitalise on the large number of non-Congress and non-Bharatiya Janata Party parties having "substantial support and strength in the country," the All India Anna Dravida Munetra Kazhagam and the Communist Party of India-Marxist on Monday entered into an alliance in Tamil Nadu for Lok Sabha polls.
Chief minister-designate Omar Abdullah met Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha to present letters of support from coalition partners, shortly after the Congress officially extended its backing to the party.
Doctors said his condition was "critical but stable."
Announcing the first list of candidates, Left Front chairman Biman Bose said that of the 16 names announced, 14 are new, of whom three are women.
Charging Home Minister P Chidambaram with adopting a 'partisan approach', the Communist Party of India - Marxist on Monday said the purpose of his letter to the West Bengal government on the alleged role of armed CPI-M cadres was meant to 'serve the political interests of Trinamool Congress'. The party also sought an explanation from him, saying the media was briefed about his letter to Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee even before it reached the state government.
As pressure mounted, the CPI-M-led Left Democratic Front seemed to be supporting Mukesh, taking a cautious wait-and-watch stance.
'The size has left no room for negotiations and pressures. From the very start the signal has gone that this is the ministry and it will remain,' Sitaram Yechury said.
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.
Karat admits that creation of the Third Front was a wrong move.
'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.'
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.
A day after Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy was injured in stone pelting allegedly by Left Democratic Front workers in Kannur, police on Monday booked 17 Communist Party of India-Marxist activists for attempt to murder as the ruling and the opposition engaged in blame game over the incident.
According to police, CPI-M legislator K Bhimrao and other party supporters were arrested from Guindy railway station in Chennai.
The demonetisation has caused untold miseries to the ordinary people, Yechury said.
The two day Communist Partyof India-Marxist state committee meeting which is significant after the Polibureau decision of demoting the octogenarian leader and Chief Minister of Kerala ,V S Achuthanandan from the party polibureau will begin in Thiruvananthpuram on Tuesday.
'It is not impossible that there will be some arrangement with the Congress in West Bengal after the ongoing local body polls.'
A CPI-M leader was stabbed to dead and two others seriously injured by unknown persons in a procession early Monday at Nischintapur in Rampurhat of Birbhum district.
Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra accused the BJP of a "conspiracy to save Home Minister Amit Shah's skin" following a clash in Parliament over allegations of disrespect towards B.R. Ambedkar. She alleged that BJP MPs instigated the violence and pushed opposition members, including Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge, to prevent them from entering Parliament. Gandhi also challenged BJP MPs to say "Jai Bhim" and accused them of having "violent intentions" and insulting the legacy of Ambedkar.
Leaders from other state units are coming to VS's aid ahead of the party's crucial Central Committee meeting even as some ministers of his Cabinet have refused to work with him.
In fresh escalation of political violence in poll-bound Kerala, a 28-year-old Youth Congress worker was hacked to death allegedly by Democratic Youth Federation of India workers at Evoor in Alapuzha on Tuesday even as the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Communist Party of India - Marxist workers clashed in Thiruvananthapuram district leaving at least 30 injured.
The workers have been hospitalised after they suffered series injuries in the ambush by more than 10 CPI-M workers over political rivalry.
The feisty TMC boss also accused the CPI-M of ruining her party's relationship with the Congress, its ally in the Opposition bloc INDIA at the national level.
In a bid to take on the government in Parliament on its decision to allow foreign direct investment in multi-brand retail, the Communist Party of India-Marxist on Wednesday said it has submitted notices in both the Houses seeking a discussion on the issue under rules entailing voting.
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.
The anti-Congress feeling is so sharp that when General Secretary Prakash Karat proposed to the all-powerful Politburo that for the 2009 election the party's policy should be 'Defeat BJP, Reject Congress', the Politburo sent back the revised slogan of 'Defeat BJP, Defeat Congress.'
The Opposition Congress alleged that the blast, which occurred around 1 am according to the police, happened during the manufacturing of country-made bombs by some CPI-M supporters.
Ruling out any election alliance with the Bahujan Samaj Party in the coming Lok Sabha polls, the CPI(M) today said the two parties would, however, come together on common issues to keep the Congress-led UPA and BJP-led NDA at bay.
The Kerala unit of the Congress instantly gets a headache when Shashi Tharoor lets loose one of his observations showering flowers on enemy territory. With every such action triggering controversy within a nervous Congress party, some feel it is high time Tharoor showed a degree of solidarity with the ideals of his party, notes Shyam G Menon.
A supporter of the Communist Party of India Marxist was killed in an attack by Trinamool Congress activists at Hazrakata in Nandigram on Friday, in a fresh eruption of violence after results of Panchayat elections were declared. East Midnapore District Superintendent of Police S Panda said today that the CPI-M supporter was attacked by TC supporters while he was returning home to Hazrakata from Haldia on Thursday night. He was admitted to the Tamluk Hospital. t
With barely a week left for the panchayat polls in West Bengal's Purulia district, maoist ultras have killed two CPI-M leaders in consecutive days. Dubraj Hembram, a local committee member of the party, was shot dead by a gang of maoists at his village Hitinglohar on Monday night.
"The Left parties will take all the necessary steps to stop the government from taking such a harmful step. It is for the Congress leadership to decide whether it wants to be seen as kowtowing to the pressure of the Bush administration or acting democratically and heeding the voice of Parliament and the people. And this decision has to be a quick and clear one. The future of this government depends on the decision they will take," the editorial said.
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