The Rashtriya Lok Dal, with five members in the Lok Sabha, on Monday formally joined the United Progressive Alliance amid speculations that its chief Ajit Singh would be included in the Cabinet as the civil aviation minister. With the RLD joining the ruling coalition, its strength has gone up from 272 to 277 MPs. In the backdrop of speculations that Ajit Singh will be inducted into the Cabinet, Digvijay Singh was asked who will be the next civil aviation minister.
The NDA govt will carry forward "good" policies and rail projects of UPA.
Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati has withdrawn her party's support to the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government at the Centre. Mayawati has accused the UPA of neglecting Uttar Pradesh and meting out step-motherly treatment to her party and the UP government.
Mamata Bannerjee, a key United Progressive Alliance constituent, has put the cat amongst the pigeons by demanding that the UPA set up a co-ordination committee to discuss important issues and decisions before they are made and implemented. She said the recent petrol price hike was undertaken without her consent.
Ruling out any differences between the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party, Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad on Wednesday said Sharad Pawar is the biggest "supporter and well-wisher" of the United Progressive Alliance government. "There are no differences with Sharad Pawar. He is the biggest supporter and well-wisher of the UPA," Azad told reporters.
Senior Trinamool Congress leaders on Tuesday said that quitting the United Progressive Alliance government had brought them a sense of freedom and relief.
Accusing the United Progressive Alliance of being in power at the Centre only by 'manipulating smaller parties', the Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday said, the Manmohan Singh's government has completely exhausted its mandate to rule the nation.
'Without a poverty line, how are we to know whether poverty is the same, or it has come down or it has gone up?'
The UPA-II may not talk about this, but it continues to implement its programme to revive ailing PSUs by investing fresh capital.
Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Thursday said it's a pity that since switching sides, Scindia has adopted the Modi government's "uncaring attitude" to the public.
Sources in the Congress have begun to brief business houses and mediapersons with 'adequate numbers' to prove that the United Progressive Alliance government is in majority, despite Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress pulling out its 19 members of Parliament from the government.
Unlike 2004 when Sonia Gandhi took things into her hands and hit the road and stitched up alliances, there is a lack of grip this time, as if things are on auto pilot. Cabinet meetings get over in minutes. People are glibly talking of a third front government in 2009 supported by the Congress.
Both Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party might be thoroughly opposed to the United Progressive Alliance government's recent decision to allow FDI in retail as well as the hike in diesel price, but neither of these parties are likely to immediately part ways with the UPA.
The Nationalist Congress Party has decided to pull out of the UPA government and support it from outside in protest against the way the party was treated by Congress, creating fresh trouble for the ruling coalition.
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.
In the backdrop of the hype over Mulayam Singh Yadav attending UPA's anniversary dinner, his Samajwadi Party sought to downplay it and went on to attack the Centre over 2G and other scams.
The BJP game-plan: Take the top slot, or a close second, either for the 'Lotus' or the larger NDA, if it can and push the AIADMK to the third place, explains N Sathiya Moorthy.
Pawar said the UPA-Left committee constituted to iron out the differences had already held four rounds of "good discussions and we hope both sides would amicably and with full responsibility settle the issue in our future meetings".
The CPI-M on Tuesday warned the UPA government at the Centre would "face the consequences" if it went ahead with the Indo-US nuclear deal. CPI-M politburo member Sitaram Yechuri said the outcome of the discussion between India and IAEA regarding the nuclear deal would be conveyed to Left parties by the government on March 17 at the Left-UPA Coordination Committee meeting.
Modi launched a scathing attack on the Congress alleging that the opposition party has become outdated and has always been against any kind of reservation.
Rulers in New Delhi and their political aides in sensitive states like Tamil Nadu have to be doubly careful not to provoke a situation whose consequences may be much more than visible now to the naked eye, notes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday warned that Bihar's areas close to the borders (seemant) will become 'infested with infiltrators' if Prime Minister Narendra Modi was not voted back to power.
Incumbent Hamid Ansari is the United Progressive Alliance's candidate for the Vice President's post and he is all set to get a second consecutive term.
Former union minister for child and women development and senior Congress Party leader Krishna Tirath on Monday joined the Bharatiya Janata Party after meeting party chief Amit Shah.
The Karnataka high court on Tuesday struck down the appointment of Justice Chandrashekaraiah, the Upa Lokayukta. Justice N Kumar and Justice Kempanna observed that due process was not followed while appointing the Upa Lokayukta.
'They just say we agree to your demands in the meetings, which is lip service. But on the ground they do not implement anything.'
In switching over, Nitish has sent out a message that if he could not now become the NDA's PM, then he would need to stay on as CM at the very least, which a third term for Modi would not let him have, N Sathiya Moorthy points out.
It's the floundering economy that caused the Congress' grievous loss in the Assembly elections.
'There was trust, but perhaps there was also this apprehension that given the supreme post of prime minister, Sonia Gandhi felt her authority may be a challenged.'
On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate the economic achievements of the government?
Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee has agreed to attend the second meeting of the UPA co-ordination committee to be held on August 22, sources said.
This is the first bill passed by the Lower House of Parliament in the Winter session, which began on Monday.
"The BSP has no intention to join the UPA nor there will be any such intention in future," she said in a press release in Lucknow.
However, economic growth in five years of the UPA and NDA cannot be compared because of the now complex back series data, reports Indivjal Dhasmana.
The Centre, last year, had also decided to freeze the minimum wage paid under NREGA at Rs 100. Subsequently, the wages paid in many states under NREGA are lower than the minimum wages in the state.
'After Manoj Jarange Patil began his long march towards Mumbai on January 20, he kept increasing his demands and the government meekly surrendered to him.'
It will expedite disposal of cases as they won't get inordinately delayed, Shah said.
UPA to take decision on MDMK status in the central coalition
In an apparent attempt to act as a pressure group within the United Progressive Alliance, two constituents -- Rashtriya Janata Dal and Telangana Rashtra Samithi -- Thursday announced the formation of an informal group within to "review" UPA
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