There was no addition to Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar's jewellery though their value increased while her wealth rose by over three-and-a-half times since the 2009 general elections with the total value of her assets declared to be more than Rs 36 crore.
In a fresh bid to end the Parliament deadlock, Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar will on Friday meet leaders of the Left Front and other non-Bharatiya Janata Party opposition parties. Communist Party of India - Marxist General Secretary Prakash Karat, CPI-M politburo member Sitaram Yechury and Janata Dal - United chief Sharad Yadav are among those who will attend the meeting.On Thursday, the Speaker met BJP leaders but failed to bridge the differences as they insisted on a JPC.
Medhavi Kirti, the granddaughter of late veteran Congress leader Babu Jagjiwan Ram, has been campaigning against her aunt Meira Kumar, Lok Sabha Speaker and Congress candidate from Sasaram Lok Sabha seat in Bihar.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge accused the BJP-RSS of carrying out a "well-planned conspiracy" against national heroes and said that Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel's ideology was contrary to the RSS' ideas. He defended the relationship between Sardar Patel and Jawaharlal Nehru, saying they were "two sides of the same coin". He also criticized the BJP-RSS for their alleged attempts to appropriate the legacy of Mahatma Gandhi and Sardar Patel.
Muhammad Yunus proved that he was neither an armchair economist nor a slogan mongering political activist, but a doer destined to do what Mahatma Gandhi said -- to remove every tear from every eye, recalls Rup Narayan Das.
'It does not understand economics. The entire focus of this government is skewed.'
While about 8,000 people are in the long list of invitees, the select list features just a few hundred people, including prominent politicians, leading industrialists, top film stars, sportspersons, bureaucrats and diplomats.
'Fighting Meira Kumar is not a daunting task at all. I hope to give her a very tough fight... Bihar is one state where my Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has challenged Narendra Modi's candidature. As a challenge he should have contested from Bihar and proved Nitish Kumar wrong,' says Dr K P Ramaiah, an IAS officer till a few months ago, now fighting his first election from Sasaram, Bihar.
Saturday's voting will mark the end to the marathon polling process that began on April 19 month and has already covered 486 Lok Sabha seats in 28 states and Union territories.
The Mahagathbandhan's seat-sharing announcement comes a day after the filing of nomination papers for the first phase of Lok Sabha polls was over.
In the wake of the death of the Delhi gangrape victim, Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar on Friday cancelled the visit of an Indian parliamentary delegation led by her to South Africa and her own trip to Namibia to attend a Commonwealth Speakers' conference.
Speaker Meira Kumar plans massive celebrations of the 60th year of Indian Parliament, on May 13, 2012.
What some of our leaders were up to on the weekend.
A resident of Saran district, which incidentally has been the karmabhoomi (land of work) of his famous namesake, Yadav claims to have already booked a flight ticket to Delhi where he proposes to file his nomination papers on June 15.
In Parliament on Tuesday, the Bharatiya Janata Party urged Speaker Meira Kumar to suspend Question Hour to discuss activist Anna Hazare's indefinite fast against corruption.
The no-confidence notice moved by 6 Congress parliamentarians against the UPA government on the Telangana issue has found favour with 84 more Seema-Andhra leaders.
Former telecom minister A Raja has urged Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar to return the Joint Parliamentary Committee report on the 2G spectrum scandal and resubmit it with his written statement.
In a new low in India's parliamentary history, pepper spray was used in the Lok Sabha resulting in hospitalisation of three MPs following a ruckus over introduction of the Telangana bill after which 18 Seemandhra MPs were suspended
Days after he defended Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi for his "puppy" remarks, Bahujan Samaj Party on Wednesday expelled its Hamirpur MP Vijay Bahadur Singh for making statements which went against the "philosophy and principles" of the party.
Pranab Mukherjee was on Wedneday sworn n as the country's 13th President at an impressive ceremony in the packed and historic Central Hall of Parliament.
Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office V Narayanasamy on Wednesday condemned Leader of Opposition Sushma Swaraj'' "act" in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday, describing it as ''unfortunate'' and ''not expected''.Swaraj had alleged that Congress President Sonia Gandhi had instructed party members of Parliament to interrupt her speech.
Reflecting escalation of confrontation with the government, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday decided to boycott meetings to be called by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kamal Nath or Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar as it accused Congress President Sonia Gandhi of not allowing the opposition to air their views in Parliament.
The government on Monday achieved a breakthrough in the logjam in Parliament with the opposition agreeing to allow financial business to be taken up on Tuesday.
Opposition and members of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam in the Joint Parliamentary Committee on 2G on Wednesday demanded the ouster of chairperson P C Chacko for being "highly partisan" and asked Speaker Meira Kumar to replace him with a new chief. The JPC has 30 members, including Chacko.
Almost a fortnight after former bureaucrat K P Ramaiah took voluntary retirement from the Indian Administrative Service, he is ready to take on Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar, a former Indian Foreign Service officer, in the Lok Sabha polls from the Sasaram seat in Bihar.
Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party and Left parties on Tuesday demanded separate debates with voting on Foreign Direct Investment in retail and related amendments in Foreign Exchange Management Act rules in Lok Sabha, but it was vociferously opposed by the government and rejected by Speaker Meira Kumar.
Rejecting Opposition demand for removal of P C Chacko as Joint Parliamentary Committee chairman, Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar on Thursday asked the panel chief and members to work out an agreeable solution to end the current "impasse" on its report on 2G Spectrum.
Fifteen opposition members of the Joint Parliamentary Committee on 2G spectrum scam on Wednesday wrote to the committee secretariat rejecting the panel's draft report in toto, setting the stage for worsening of the confrontation with the government on the issue. The 15 members, who had met Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar last week to express "no-confidence" in panel chief P C Chacko, wrote separate letters stating that they are rejecting the report "in toto".
Opposition, including Bharatiya Janata Party, Left and other parties, on Tuesday walked out of the Lok Sabha, charging the government with indulging in one scam after another and saying they would not be party to the passage of the Finance Bill and the Railway Budget.
Senior Congress leaders admit that the JPC issue has boomeranged against the party, reports Renu Mittal.
Even as the government prepared the ground for a fruitful session by reaching out to main opposition BJP on the Land Acquisition Bill, new disclosures in the media might play a spoiler for it.
Developmental works being undertaken by India in war-torn northern Sri Lanka and the current political situation came up for discussion when Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar met President Mahinda Rajapaksa in Colombo on Friday. Kumar is in Colombo to attend the 58th Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference. She met Rajapaksa at his official residence and discussed a host of issues that concern the relationship between the two countries.
Ahead of the all-party meeting called by her on Wednesday, Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar on Tuesday said she would appeal to everyone to allow Parliament to function smoothly amid apprehensions that the Opposition could cause disruptions over chopper scam and other issues.
Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar has convened an all-party meeting in New Delhi on Wednesday to ensure smooth functioning of the Budget Session of Parliament, which begins on February 21.
Despite Speaker Meira Kumar admitting an adjournment motion by the Bharatiya Janata Party on the issue, members including those of BJP, Shiv Sena, Bodoland People's Front and All India United Democratic Front trooped into the Well condemning the violence.
Bharatiya Janata Party leader S S Ahluwalia has been appointed advisor to Speaker of Lok Sabha to recommend the mode and format of digitalisation of the Parliamentary library.
Controversial Samajwadi Party member Yashvir Singh on Thursday sought to bring down the curtain on the issue of snatching a copy of the quota bill in the Lok Sabha from Minister V Narayanasamy by expressing regret.
The Bharatiya Janata Party and Samajwadi Party on Thursday blocked in the Lok Sabha a bill to provide reservation for SCs and STs in government job promotions, delaying the measure which was seen as quid pro quo for Bahujan Samaj Party's support to United Progressive Alliance on Foreign Direct Investment in retail.
Parliament's standing committee on finance, headed by Bharatiya Janata Party leader Yashwant Sinha, on Thursday finalised its report on the Companies Bill, 2011.
Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar on Wednesday justified the sudden adjournment of Parliament, saying there was no option, as it was not running. She said the disturbances created by members of Parliament in the House amounted to betrayal of the people who have elected them.
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