With jailed Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad disqualified as Lok Sabha member, ally Lok Janshakti Party President Ramvilas Paswan met Rabri Devi in Patna on Tuesday and mooted an alliance of secular parties, including Congress.
However, Karunanidhi said he was not bothered even about his life and that democracy was important for him.
Attempting to form a "secular and democratic alternative" to dethrone the Congress from power at the Centre, the All India Anna Dravida Munetra Kazhagam and the Communist Party of India on Sunday announced their decision to enter into an alliance ahead of the coming Lok Sabha polls.
'If the BJP detoxifies the nuclear liability law, it will bring economic, environmental and, most of all, strategic benefits.' 'Let's keep our fingers crossed and hope that this Budget promise is met soon -- ideally, before Mr Modi heads to his first meeting with Trump 2.0,' observes Shekhar Gupta.
Throwing his party's weight behind the Congress to ensure an Opposition win in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam president and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin on Wednesday said arguments by some favouring a front without the grand old party should be rejected.
Stalin described his party-led coalition as the "Secular Progressive Alliance."
Official said a CBI inquiry has been recommended against Aman Biradari for violation of various provisions of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act.
Shiv Sena will support National Democratic Alliance's presidential candidate Droupadi Murmu, party president Uddhav Thackeray said on Tuesday.
Robert Vadra indicated that he will also join politics and said there is an atmosphere of change in the country. His entire family is working diligently on this, he added.
The Congress and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh are talking about secularism only to cover up their failures in governance and corruption, senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader M Venkaiah Naidu alleged in New Delhi on Tuesday.
DMK Parliamentary Party leader T R Baalu told reporters in New Delhi that Tamil Nadu Law Minister S Regupathy, who led a delegation, handed over to the President what state Chief Minister M K Stalin has 'written', but repeatedly insisted the content of the communication was only known to the CM.
For the BJP, Telangana is a sunrise state in the South, while Karnataka is a southern success despite the ups and downs.
Bypolls will be held on Wednesday in 31 assembly seats spread across 10 states and Kerala's Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency, from where Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is making her electoral debut. Though these bye-elections are not going to have any bearing on the governments, they are seen as a big test for the Congress and the INDIA bloc which failed to put up a united show in the recent Haryana assembly polls. Most of these seats fell vacant after the sitting MLAs contested the Lok Sabha elections and won while in some constituencies, the bypolls are being held due to death of the representatives. The Wayanad seat was vacated by Rahul Gandhi, who also won from the Rae Bareli parliamentary constituency which he kept. Voting will be held in seven seats in Rajasthan, six in West Bengal, five in Assam, four seats in Bihar, three in Karnataka, two seats in Madhya Pradesh, and one seat each in Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Kerala and Meghalaya. Votes will be counted on November 23.
Those joining Prime Minister Narendra Modi's council of ministers for the first time include three former chief ministers -- Shivraj Singh Chouhan (Madhya Pradesh), Manohar Lal Khattar (Haryana) and H D Kumaraswamy (Karnataka).
Suggesting that Muslims have contributed to Narendra Modi's victory in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, SP leader Azam Khan, who had indulged in a vitriolic attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party leader, said they had proved that they were a "secular" community.
'Forming cults around Lalus, Nitishes, Mulayams, Mayawatis and Mamatas will do as much harm to the Republic as the bhakti of the Hindus for Modi will do,' says Mohammad Sajjad.
'This is the first time since Independence that we are facing such a despairing situation.'
They met at Modi's residence in New Delhi a day after the NDA won a majority of seats in the Lok Sabha election, paving the way for him to take the oath for a third consecutive term, a first for any ruling alliance since 1962.
Polling is scheduled in all 20 seats of Kerala, 14 of the 28 seats in Karnataka, 13 seats in Rajasthan, eight seats each in Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, six seats in Madhya Pradesh, five seats each in Assam and Bihar, three seats each in Chhattisgarh and West Bengal, and one seat each in Manipur, Tripura and Jammu and Kashmir.
'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.'
'This decision to go with the BJP is Kumaraswamy's individual decision and not a party decision.'
Kumar, who visited Pawar at the latter's residence in south Mumbai along with deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav, told reporters that what the ruling BJP is doing not in the interest of the country.
A day after failing to topple the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government during the trust vote, leaders of the Left parties, the Bahujan Samaj Party and the United National Progressive Alliance met in New Delhi to chalk out their future course of action.The meeting, held at the residence of BSP supremo Mayawati, was attended by Communist Party of India Marxist General Secretary Prakash Karat, Communist Party of India leaders A B Bardhan and D Raja.
The DMK and its allies submitted a list of pending assembly bills with the Raj Bhavan.
Karra, who became the J&K Congress chief last Friday replacing Vikar Rasool Wani, said a call is already there for all secular parties who are opposed to the "hegemonic attitude" of the BJP to unite.
It said AMU is not and cannot be a university of any particular religion or religious denomination as any university which has been declared an institution of national importance cannot be a minority institution.
Calling the Bharatiya Janata Party communal, activist Anna Hazare on Friday said he never described Narendra Modi as secular.
Tamil Nadu electricity minister was arrested under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), official sources said, making him the first minister in the M K Stalin-led government to face such an action from a central agency.
Chief Adviser to Bangladesh's interim government, Muhammad Yunus, has said the issue of attacks on minority Hindus in his country is 'exaggerated' and questioned the manner in which India projected it.
From being the third largest party in the outgoing Lok Sabha with 37 seats, the AIADMK has to now contend with single digit tally, pushed to the third spot behind arch rival DMK and Congress despite fighting the polls as part of a "mega alliance" with parties, including the Bharatiya Janata Party.
The Congress on Thursday secured a seat in the present Bengal assembly as its candidate Bayron Biswas won the Sagardighi bypoll, defeating the nearest rival of the Trinamool Congress by 22,980 votes.
Creating a positive reform that does away with an official who constitutes a flawed aspect of Indian democracy will allow the BJP to rightfully claim this as one of its positive legacies, suggests Karan P Shah.
'Congress leaders who are making strategy for the Congress to win elections have not even won a class monitor elections.' 'When you have not contested school monitor elections, what will you know about the ground reality?'
From the time he first rose to prominence during the movement against the then UPA government, Arvind Kejriwal has regularly grabbed headlines for his surprise moves and decisions. Here are 10 such instances.
The BJP is focusing determinedly on the seats it lost in 2019, with the hope of winning these either independently or with the aid of its allies.
Murmu's vote share is now likely to go past 61 per cent, while it was earlier estimated to be around 50 per cent at the time of her nomination.
The Left parties, which severed links with the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance on the issue of Indo-US nuke deal, are inclined to have a fresh understanding with secular partners in the ruling alliance, Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar claimed on Wednesday.
'They have no incentive to be part of either the NDA or INDIA at this stage, but they may hedge their bets towards the winning coalition in the post-poll setting.'
A day after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's comment that there was no United Progressive Alliance anymore, Kishor, who has earlier been political advisor to various parties, also called for democratically electing the opposition leadership.
Taking a swipe at United Progressive AllianceChairperson Sonia Gandhi's recent visit to Dakshin Kannada, former Chief Minister and state Janata Dal-Secular President H D Kumaraswamy on Monday claimed the Congress in Karnataka has no political strategy in place to win next year's assembly election and JD-S is the real opposition party which could address people's problems.
