The American-born Indian scholar, sociologist and human rights activist was well known for her writing on Dalits, OBCs and Adivasis.
Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi held a virtual meeting on Friday evening with leaders of 19 Opposition parties, including the chief ministers of some Opposition-ruled states, amid efforts to boost Opposition unity and evolve a common strategy against the National Democratic Alliance government.
Chacko, who quit the Congress over his differences with the party leaders in Kerala, said NCP is a partner of the CPIM-led Left Democratic Front in the southern state and he would work for the victory of the Left candidates in the April 6 Assembly polls.
He also claimed that the people were asking are all the jobs under Kerala government reserved for cadres and the university jobs for powerful people in Thiruvananthapuram.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (New Delhi) Jatin Narwal said they have received a complaint in this regard and a probe has been initiated.
Communist Party of India-Marxist on Thursday trashed Bharatiya Janata Party's economic blueprint as 'semantic verbiage' akin to 'fascist demagoguery.
Amid controversy over the Jet Airways-Etihad deal, the Prime Minister's Office on Tuesday said the stake sale matter was still under examination and the issues raised have been referred to various concerned ministries.
According to sources, Naidu and Kejriwal discussed the scenario after the election results are declared and what role their parties, the Telugu Desam Party and the AAP would play in government formation if such a situation rises.
Opposition leaders urged Modi to use the opportunity for the country's benefit.
Accusing the government of being under the influence of corporate houses, Left parties demanded a thorough probe into the CAG findings on the coal block allocation issue and an immediate debate on it in Parliament.
In the wake of last month's brutal gang-rape of a student in a moving bus, a Parliamentary Committee is in favour of bringing Delhi traffic police under the city government as it feels criminals take advantage of multiplicity of authorities.
The government on Friday continued its efforts to evolve consensus on the contentious land acquisition bill as Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh met Leader of the Opposition Arun Jaitley and CPM's Sitaram Yechury seeking their support.
The Communist Party of India-Marxist on Monday castigated West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for allegedly targeting a book by a senior Indian Police Service officer on the plight of Muslims in the state, charging it reflected her 'fascist' and 'intolerant' attitude.
Gandhi alleged that scores were being settled in the country with anyone who raised his voice against the ruling dispensation.
A parliamentary committee, which examined the prevailing bus licencing system in Delhi in wake of the gangrape cum murder incident, has decided to summon Commissioner of Police Neeraj Kumar and transport ministry officials of the Centre and the state soon.
They said the picture did not feature any 'life support system like a ventilator' and it was reassuring that their Thalaivar (leader) was recuperating well.
Communist Party of India-Marxist member in the Joint Parliamentary Committee on 2G spectrum allocation Sitaram Yechury on Wednesday supported calling former Telecom Minister A Raja as a witness before the panel saying it will help reaching "closer to the truth".
Communist Party of India-Marxist leader Sitaram Yechury on Sunday said that he does not see any prospect of early election in the country even though the Trinamool Congress may have withdrawn its support to Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government.
After decades of leaning towards the neighbouring Communist comrades in China, the Communist Party of India-Marxist is having a critical look on the shift in policies of Chinese Communist Party that is taking "imponderable" steps like the decision to admit capitalists into the party.
Hitting out at the United Progressive Alliance and the Bharatiya Janata Party for the present stalemate in Parliament, the Communist Party of India-Marxist has said both did not want the truth about 'coalgate' to come out.
Shiv Sena has said it would recommend eminent agriculture scientist M S Swaminathan's name for the highest post.
Communist Party of India Marxist would support the candidature of United Progressive Alliance's nominee Hamid Ansari for the post of vice president and would make a formal announcement on Monday, senior party leader Sitaram Yechuri said on Saturday. Speaking to reporters, he recalled that it was the CPI-M, along with other Left parties, which had proposed the name of Ansari in 2007 for the vice president's post, which was accepted by the Congress-led UPA.
Other members of the group are former prime minister Manmohan Singh, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Communist Party of India-Marxist chief Sitaram Yechury.
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.
Top leadership of the Communist Party of India-Marxist on Thursday met to firm up its strategy for the Presidential poll ahead of the Left parties meeting in New Delhi amidst indications that the party is mulling either to support United Progressive Alliance candidate Pranab Mukherjee or abstain from the July 19 poll.
The 'Group of 23' leaders who participated included Ghulam Nabi Azad, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Anand Sharma, Mukul Wasnik, Prithviraj Chavan, Manish Tewari, Shashi Tharoor, besides Sibal who hosted the post-birthday dinner for them.
Rahul Gandhi being assigned a major role in connection with next Lok Sabha election has made the Opposition talk of Congress advancing the polls to cut losses, a contention vehemently denied by the party and the government.
Team Anna member Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday met senior Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Sitaram Yechury on the Lokpal issue ahead of the Parliamentary Standing Committee meeting to finalise its report on the anti-corruption law.
"It is unprecedented. When Parliament is in session, a major decision was taken outside Parliament. It has never happened," Communist Party of India-Marxist leader Sitaram Yechury told reporters outside Parliament House.
Asserting that efficiency of Indian Parliament depends to a large extent on the duration and proper conduct of parliamentary proceedings, Communist Party of India-Marxist on Sunday demanded constitutional amendment making 100 sittings a year mandatory.
The outspoken Lok Sabha member from Patna Sahib, in a no-holds-barred assault on the Modi government, said its ministers were a "bunch of sycophants" 90 per cent of whom were hardly known to people.
The Communist Party of India-Marxist asked the Congress to take the initiative in building a consensus on the candidate for the presidential election though it indicated it was not averse to supporting either Vice President Hamid Ansari or Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee for the post.
The return of the Communist Party of India - Marxist-led Left Front in Tripura and the victory of the Forward Bloc in Nalhati in West Bengal reflects the "re-emergence" of the Left parties, said senior CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury.
Left leaders Sitaram Yechury and A B Bardhan on Thursday shared dais with Bharatiya Janata Party's Nitin Gadkari and Murli Manohar Joshi at a demonstration against FDI in retail and hike in diesel prices.
Modi did not have the guts to face the students of the country and so he crushed them using the police, he alleged. "I challenge the prime minister to go to any of the universities, stand over there without his police, without his infrastructure and tell the people what is he going to do with this country," the Congress leader said.
Communist Party of India-Marxist leader Sitaram Yechury asked the Union government on Tuesday to separate coal blocks needed for power generation in the public sector and then go in auctioning of coal blocks that have been allocated to private sector.
The Communist Party of India-Marxist on Thursday said it would decide its strategy on the coal block allocation issue on the basis of a statement Prime Minister Manmohan Singh may make in Parliament on the matter.
Terming Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani's proposed 'rath yatra' as a "farce", the Communist Party of India-Marxist has said the country can ill-afford the sharpening of communal polarisation under the "veil" of fighting corruption.
Attacking Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa in the wake of the Lokayukta indicting him on the illegal mining issue, Left parties on Thursday demanded his resignation, saying the Bharatiya Janata Party leader has no moral authority to continue in his office.
Communist Party of India - Marxist leader Sitaram Yechury on Friday blamed the Congress-ed government and its allies for the chaos in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday night, which led to the adjournment of the House sine die without the passage of the Lokpal Bill. He lashed out at the Congress and its ally Trinamool congress for "engineering" a situation which made it impossible to transact any business.