The Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday evening announced its list of members for the Rajya Sabha.
Azad was elected to the Upper House from Jammu and Kashmir, which does not have an assembly currently after it was made a Union Territory with the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution.
Singh was widely regarded as an expert in the rural and agricultural landscape of the country and is credited with the conceptualisation and implementation of the NREGA (National Rural Guarantee Employment) Act.
The 77 ministers have been divided into eight groups to develop technology-based resources, create a pool of professionals for recruiting in their teams and other similar initiatives to be adopted in the offices of all ministers' offices to bring more transparency and further improve and efficiency of the Modi government, the sources said.
Talks between Bharatiya Janata Party president Nitin Gadkari and sulking senior party leader Gopinath Munde remained inconclusive late on Sunday with both sides sticking to their stand over the appointment of their men in key posts in Maharashtra and hold over party politics in the state. "I have been holding talks with our state in-charge M Venkaiah Naidu, Ananth Kumar and general secretary (organisation) Ramlal. Today, I met party president Nitin Gadkari," he said.
Eleven migrant workers were charred to death in a major fire accident at a scrap godown in Hyderabad in the early hours of Wednesday.
As the United Progressive Alliance-II government completed two years in office, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday dubbed it the "most dishonest" government in the history of independent India and charged it with failing on fundamental issues of corruption and price rise.
The Aam Aadmi Party on Tuesday alleged that the Indian Army was using caste as a factor for recruitment under the Agnipath scheme, drawing a swift rebuttal from Defence Minister Rajnath Singh who rejected the charge as a "rumour".
"We, the undersigned parties, wish to register our anguish and serious concern over the manner in which the Government is hurriedly passing legislations without any scrutiny by Parliamentary Standing or Select Committees. This is a fundamental departure from the established practice and healthy traditions of enacting legislations," the letter said.
In an embarrassment to the Bharatiya Janata Party gernment in Madhya Pradesh, the Supreme Court on Wednesday decision of the state authorities to allot at throwaway prices land to a trust named after late party leader Kushabhau Thakre.
Singh had taken the two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine on March 4 and April 3.
Terming the cash-for-votes scandal as "mother of all scams", senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader M Venkaiah Naidu on Saturday demanded that a special investigation team be set up to find out who was the beneficiary.
The Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate L K Advani has asked the second rung leaders in the party to contest elections. Advani had wanted some of them like Arun Jaitley, M Venkaiah Naidu and Sushma Swaraj to take charge of the election campaign at national level.
The Bhartiya Janata Party Parliamentary Board in New Delhi on Thursday unanimously decided that there was a need for a change in the party leadership in Karnataka, and advised Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa to resign from his office.
With leaders of various opposition parties taking out a protest march in support of their demand for revoking the suspension of the 12 MPs, the Bharatiya Janata Party leader Pralhad Joshi took a swipe at them, saying the voters of the country have given them "marching orders" twice -- a reference to their back-to-back defeats in two Lok Sabha elections -- and will reduce their presence further.
Asserting that the Bharatiya Janata Party would continue to insist on a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe into the 2G spectrum allocation issue, senior party leader M Venkaiah Naidu on Monday said it is the government's responsibility to resolve the stalemate in Parliament.
Senior BJP leader Gopinath Munde, sulking over some decisions taken in his own state Maharashtra, on Saturday held discussions with senior party colleagues M Venkaiah Naidu and Ananth Kumar but party President Nitin Gadkari stayed away from the exercise.
Upping the ante, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday set a 24-hour deadline to the United Progressive Alliance government to reject Governor H R Bhardwaj's recommendation to impose President's Rule in Karnataka or face a nation-wide agitation against it and him.
'In a special gesture, UAE President and Ruler of Abu Dhabi Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, accompanied by senior members of the Royal Family, was at Abu Dhabi airport for the interaction with PM'
A cross-gender staff deployment -- female officers where male MPs were protesting and male officers where female MPs were protesting -- was made. But this did not deter the MPs belonging to a cross-section of opposition parties -- from the Congress to the Left to the TMC and to the DMK.
The Bharatiya Janata Party is wanting for the Telangana Bill to be referred to the Standing Committee of Home Affairs before it is introduced in the Lok Sabha. It also plans to write to the Speaker if the House Meira Kumar on the issue.
On Monday, when the marshals came wearing the new uniform together with aiguillette, some members commented if 'marshal law was being imposed'.
The session will see 18 sittings without any weekend break or holiday, they said. The dates and other details of this first-of-its-kind session will be announced soon.
Terming "unacceptable" and "unfortunate" the demand for resignation of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi following his questioning by the SIT in the 2002 riots case, senior BJP leader M Venkaiah Naidu on Sunday said there was "no prima-facie" case against him.
The decision of some key regional parties like the Biju Janata Dal, the Telangana Rashtra Samiti and the Aam Aadmi Party to skip a key opposition meet called by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on the presidential poll has cheered the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party as it believes that their absence has only highlighted the faultlines and one-upmanship among its rivals.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday remained non-committal on the issue of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi campaigning in the Bihar elections, indicating that it would take a call on the issue when the polls are nearer. "Why are you so keen about campaign details? That will be known to you at an appropriate time. We are now in the process of selection of candidates," senior party leader M Venkaiah Naidu told reporters when asked about it.
Opposition members led by Trinamool Congress MP Sukhendu Sekhar and Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge asked the government to clear its stand over the nationality of the minister. Without naming the minister, Sekhar said: "The prime minister has been allowed to lay a list of the ministers after the reshuffle. Go through Wikipedia, then you will find that the name of the gentleman... a minister of state for home affairs is a reportedly a Bangladeshi." Sekhar was also supported by Kharge and other opposition members.
In the midst of speculations over who will succeed Rajnath Singh, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh on Wednesday clarified that it was not against four Delhi-based senior Bharatiya Janata Party leaders, who the RSS chief had virtually ruled out as party president. RSS All-India Propaganda Chief Manmohan Vaid said, "Reports that the Sangh is against four leaders of the BJP are completely false. M Venkaiah Naidu,Arun Jaitley,Sushma Swaraj and Ananth Kumar are all senior leaders".
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader M Venkaiah Naidu on Friday took strong objection to the absence of Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao, Commerce Secretary Rahul Kullar and top intelligence officials from the Standing Committee meeting of the home ministry. Friday's meeting was held to discuss a bill on Land and Port Authority.
Leader of Opposition L K Advani on Sunday turned 83 with President Pratibha Patil and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh being among the first to wish him on the occasion.
Along with them, ex-BJP lawmaker Ram Shakal took the oath.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday took a dig at feisty Congress MP Renuka Chowdhury, saying her laughter reminded him of epic serial 'Ramayana'.
Having failed to make former Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje quit as leader of the opposition accepting its diktat, the Bharatiya Janata Party central leadership said on "her resignation can wait". M Venkaiah Naidu, BJP pointsman for talking to Raje on the issue and deal with her demands before she accedes to the party demand, evaded a question on the fate of the Rajasthan leader saying there were other pressing issues occupying the central leadership's attention at
This is the Upper House's third best productive session in the last 14 sessions since the Monsoon Session (243rd Session) of 2017, the Rajya Sabha officials said.
The Bharatiya Janata Party in Maharashtra is set to deploy its top leaders for campaign for the October 13 assembly polls with senior party leader L K Advani and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi leading the charge.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday defended Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi in the Ishrat Jahan encounter controversy, saying he cannot be held responsible for everything that happens in the state.
After sending conciliatory signals over the last few days, former Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhra Raje on Monday skipped a scheduled meeting with senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader M Venkaiah Naidu to discuss the stand-off in the party's state unit, citing ill-health. Instead, Raje, who was expected to discuss her demands at the meeting before she accedes to party president Rajnath Singh's order to resign as leader of Opposition in the Rajasthan assembly, sent her son.
Many feel that the money from their MPLADS should go directly to a district hospital in their respective constituencies rather than a central fund like PM CARES. Archis Mohan reports.
Former Bharatiya Janata Party president M Venkaiah Naidu on Monday made a presentation before the BJP parliamentary board on how the party should approach the Lok Sabha polls.
Wives of the two Hyderabad-based professors -- Gopikrishna and Ch Balram -- who are held captive by Islamic State terror group since July 29, also met External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Union Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu.