Seeking to steal a march over Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad, Nitish Kumar-led Janta Dal-United announced on Thursday that its five Lok Sabha members from Bihar will resign on Friday to protest the attacks on North Indians in Maharashtra.
It will be starting from the scratch for several leaders, big and small, with the redrawing of Parliamentary constituencies as their pocket boroughs have disappeared following the delimitation exercise.
"Personally I have lost my father for the second time in Jyoti Basu's death," former Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee on Sunday said expressing his deep shock over the Marxist patriarch's death.
The petitioner had a Congress background and in the recorded conversation, deregatory references were said to have been made against apex court judges.
The Parliamentary committee examining the cash-for-vote scam has no plans as of now to call Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh and Congress leader Ahmed Patel for questioning.
Action against Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee was decided well before the trust vote, but was not announced lest it should affect discussion over issues that prompted the party to withdraw support to the UPA Government, Kerala Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan said.
No business could be transacted in the Lok Sabha and Speaker Somnath Chatterjee had to adjourn the House for the day.
BJP patriarch Vajpayee and Lok Sabha Speaker Chatterjee, the senior-most and the only two ten-term MPs in the 14th Lok Sabha, will not be contesting the general elections this time for different reasons.
A day after his angry outburst against some MPs for disrupting Lok Sabha proceedings, a regretful Speaker Somnath Chatterjee today withdrew his critical remarks, saying he had made these in "little frustration".
"After the 12-day session, Feb 26 will be the last day for me," he told a select group of journalists describing s "the worst period of my life" his tenure in the post which came to him "unexpected and unsolicited".
Ravi said that a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs had been fixed with the agenda of proroguing them, to have a fresh session in February with the Presidential address on the first day.
Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee on Tuesday disqualified Telugu Desam Party MP M Jagannath, who defied a party whip and voted for the Congress-led United Progressive government in a trust vote He was diusqualified according to the Anti-Defection Law under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution, a Lok Sabha release said.
The Speaker referred to the Home Ministry the matter related to Sanjeev Saxena, alleged aide of Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh, Sudheendra Kulkarni, a close aide of senior BJP leader L K Advani, and Suhail Hindustani, a day after the parliamentary inquiry committee said there was need for further investigation into the roles played by them.
The gory memories of the 2001 Parliament attack came alive at a function to mark the martyrdom of the security personnel who laid down their lives to save the symbol of Indian democracy.Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Leader of Opposition LK Advani, chairperson of United Progressive Alliance Sonia Gandhi and other senior leaders of various political parties offered floral tributes.
Dubbing the Mumbai terror strikes as 'most horrendous', Parliament on Wednesday sought strict action and all out efforts to prevent recurrence of such attacks. In the wake of the Mumbai terror strikes, Home Minister P Chidambaram will make a statement on terrorism in Lok Sabha on Thursday.
A commemorative stamp of late Joachim and Violet Alva was released by President Pratibha Patil in New Delhi today, coinciding with the birth centenary year of the couple.
With Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray targeting some Members of Parliament from Bihar, including Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, in an editorial in party mouthpiece Saamana, Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee on Wednesday said that such references amounted to contempt of the House.
Former Lok Sabha Speaker and expelled Communist Party of India-Marxist leader Somnath Chatterjee on Monday said Jyoti Basu, whom he considered as his 'political guru', had asked him to preside over the crucial trust vote debate in the lower house in 2008, saying that the party cannot give any direction to him as he held a constitutional office.
Feeling "tortured" by the Left parties' repeated "questioning" of his decisions, Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee on Friday threatened to step down "here and now" as a protest against "insult" to the Chair. Chatterjee said a "new culture" had emerged in the House wherein the members "go on questioning" the Speaker's ruling.
The Lok Sabha was adjourned till 12 noon on Monday amid uproarious scenes. Meanwhile, the Rajya Sabha was adjourned for the day as a mark of respect to Laxminarayan Sharma, a sitting member of the House who died last week.
Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh was forced by an agitated Opposition and Speaker Somnath Chatterjee to withdraw his un-parliamentary remarks against Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
Those disqualified by Speaker Somnath Chatterjee are Bhalchandra Yadav (Khalilabad), Ramakant Yadav (Azamgarh) and Mohammad Shahid Akhlaque and their seats in the House have been declared vacant. Petitions for their disqualification were filed by the BSP under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution (anti-defection law) on the ground that the three MPs had voluntarily given up the membership of their party and joined the Samajwadi Party.
For that matter, almost every main political party in the House had turncoats in the crucial trust vote that the government won comfortably. They include Congress, Janata Dal-United, Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, Shiv Sena, Telugu Desam Party, Telangana Rashtra Samiti, National Loktantrik Party and NPF. The Lok Sabha Secretariat had already served the show cause notices on the concerned MPs, asking why they should not be expelled for defying the whip.
Joining issues with the British delegation in Malaysia, Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee on Friday asserted that no "deal" was made to support Malaysia's candidature to a senior post in the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association election for which is to be held tomorrow.
Breaking his silence, Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee on Friday ruled out quitting and hit out at the Communist Party of India Marxist for demanding his resignation, saying it cannot give any direction to him in his Constitutional office."I have consciously taken the principled decision to uphold the Constitution of India at the risk of being unjustifiably dubbed as anti-party," he said in a five-page statement.
Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee on Wednesday said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh could undertake a foreign visit during the Parliament session, but other ministers should not go abroad without his permission.
Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, who has so far maintained silence about his expulsion from the Communist Party of India Marxist, is planning to write a letter to party General Secretary Prakash Karat, according to sources.
Singh, who drove to Chatterjee's residence in New Delhi, did not speak to the waiting media persons after the meeting that lasted about 10 minutes.
Samajwadi Party general secretary Amar Singh on Tuesday alleged that six Lok Sabha Members of Parliament from his party were being forcibly kept inside the Uttar Pradesh Bhavan in New Delhi ahead of the crucial trust vote and charged Bahujan Samaj Party chief Minister Mayawati with playing coercive politics.Talking to newsmen before the second and final day of the special session of the Lok Sabha, Singh said one or two of them might be rebels from his party.
'Why on earth should I apologise? What did I do? I have been like this all my life. I only listen to my inner voice and do what I feel is right. I am a braveheart and am never scared. I have always swum against the tide and have never stooped,' Marxist stormy petrel Subhas Chakraborty lets fly
Communist Party of India-Marxist general secretary Prakash Karat on Saturday said his party has not taken any decision yet to ask Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee to quit office. "No, that is not correct. There is no such decision as yet," Karat told PTI over phone when asked whether the party has asked Chatterjee to step down and that he would quit on Monday.
Outgoing Speaker Somnath Chatterjee expressed concern about the manner in which money was flaunted by some MPs during the Trust Vote on July 23rd last year to save the government.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday said the office of Lok Sabha Speaker has been "truly elevated and dignified" by Somnath Chatterjee, who set himself as a "role model".
"You do not deserve one paisa of public money," an angry Speaker Somnath Chatterjee said as members of several political parties stormed the Well of Lok Sabha raising a spate of issues and disrupted Question Hour.
Pranab Mukherjee's speech was so boring that half of the Treasury benches were found napping. Newsmen peeped from the Press Gallery to see the mood of the MPs.
The presentation of the Interim General Budget for 2009-10 was on Monday interrupted briefly as the Lok Sabha adjourned after JD(S) member M P Veerendrakumar complained of uneasiness.
President Pratibha Patil, Vice-President Hamid Ansari, Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee and several other leaders greeted Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who turned 75 on Wednesday.
The right to recall as a strategy for enforcing greater accountability of Parliamentarians is expected to come up for discussion in the Commonwealth conference.
The Speaker informed the House that he was accepting Sidhu's resignation with effect from Monday.
The external affairs ministry had pleaded that in view of the unqualified apology tendered by him, the matter be closed.
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