India Politics

By IANS,

By IANS,

By IANS,

By IANS, New Delhi : The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Tuesday asked the Congress-led government to seek a vote of confidence in the Lok Sabha after the Left's withdrawal of support over the India-US nuclear deal. “The government is in minority now. It is now incumbent on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to seek a vote of confidence in the Lok Sabha,” BJP spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters here.

By Sudeshna Sarkar, Kathmandu : A team of five parliamentarians from India's ruling Congress party wound up their junket to Nepal Monday without meeting the two big Indian joint ventures which have been in deep labour trouble for over a week now, as well as hundreds of Indians languishing in flood relief camps in Nepal. Led by K.K. Rao, the team included Alka Balram Kshatriya and Ratna Bai, members of the upper house Rajya Sabha, and two MPs from Lok Sabha, the lower house - S. Sathyanarayana and Jhansi B. Lakshmi.

By IANS, Bhopal : The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) candidate from Madhya Pradesh's Sumawali constituency was arrested Sunday for violating the model code of conduct during re-poll, the police said. While eye-witnesses claimed BSP candidate Ajab Singh Kushwah was trying to lure voters by distributing money among them, Morena police superintendent Santosh Kumar Singh said he was arrested for campaigning during re-polling. "Kushwah and his driver were arrested and the vehicle in which they had reached near the polling booth was seized," said Singh.

By IANS, New Delhi : India's ruling coalition and its Left allies Wednesday said they would pursue efforts to end their flaming row over the India-US nuclear deal and meet again "in due course". After about 100 minutes of talks at External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee's residence, leaders of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) and its Left allies declared that an expected showdown had been averted. Mukherjee read out a brief statement after the ninth UPA-Left nuclear committee meeting.

Patna : Bihar Education Minister Ashok Choudhary shocked a delegation of a citizen forum for communal harmony and peace on Tuesday by saying he...

By IANS, New Delhi : Lok Sabha was adjourned for half-an-hour Wednesday following uproar that followed heated demands by MPs demanding a discussion on the drought situation in the country. The issue was raised by Janata Dal-United (JD-U) leader Sharad Yadav soon after the house met at 11 a.m. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Left parties supported Yadav's demand for a discussion, saying that the country was facing a severe drought condition.

By IANS, New Delhi : The Samajwadi Party Tuesday formally declared support for the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) soon after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government was reduced to a minority following the Left's parting of ways. But it said it would not join the cabinet. Amidst talk of a division in its ranks, Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav said that all its 39 Lok Sabha MPs would back both the nuclear deal and the government in case a trust vote was taken in parliament.

By V.S. Karnic, IANS,

By IANS, Jammu : Jammu and Kashmir's main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti Monday accused Chief Minister Omar Abdullah of enforcing a "bullet for stone" policy in dealing with the law and order situation in the Kashmir Valley. The PDP leader said that it was for the first time that any state government had resorted to such a "brutal" policy, where protesters throwing stones were being met with bullets in the streets of Kashmir.

New Delhi : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said the ideology propounded by Sufi saints is an integral part of Indian ethos,...

Bulandshahr : A case has been registered against Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) activists for holding a march and burning an effigy of Uttar Pradesh...

By Asbah Farooqui, The general perception in the country is that due to its imprudent fiscal policy, the UPA has driven our economy to the ground. While it would be fair to say that the central government could have done a better job, one should avoid getting carried away while judging them. In order to better understand their performance we need to be cognizant of the fact that the UPA has battled a once-in-lifetime near-depression, for almost half of its tenure. And,to get a more holistic picture we need to compare India’s performance with the rest of the world, during the same period. Once we do that, it becomes quite obvious that while things could have been better, they could have very easily been worse.

By IANS, Guwahati : Hundreds of opposition Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) leaders and supporters Monday took to the streets protesting against spiralling prices of essentials in Assam. More than 5,000 AGP supporters, led by its president Chandra Mohan Patowary, marched through the city thoroughfares, shouting anti-government slogans. "The Congress-led government under Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi has miserably failed to check price rise of essentials. Instead of trying to control rise in prices, the chief minister is busy trying to shield traders," the AGP president said.

Agartala: The Election Commission will set up nine all-women polling stations - with all-women polling personnel - in Tripura, an official said here Wednesday. "Considering...

By IANS, Kolkata: Emphasising that people do not like shutdowns, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee Saturday said her Trinamool Congress will not resort to such a form of agitation.

By IANS, Bhubaneswar : The ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and its allies have given a call for Orissa shutdown July 5 to protest the hike in fuel prices, a senior BJD leader said Monday. "We have given a state wide bandh (shutdown) call on July 5. Our allies will join us in the strike," BJD spokesman Baishnab Parida told IANS. The party's allies in the state are the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, the Communist Party of India, the Communist Party of India-Marxist, the Forward Bloc, the Samajwadi Party, the Nationalist Congress Party and the Rashtriya Janata Dal.

Lucknow : By holding up Parliament because its leaders had been called to answer charges in the National Herald case, the Congress party was...

By Manzar Bilal, TwoCircles.net, In first week of February I was in Kolkata to attend the 3-day vehicle rally jointly organized by West Bengal unit of Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind (JUH) and Public Democratic Conference of India (PDCI) to campaign for reservation for Muslims. This rally was backed by several social, religious and political parties.

By TCN Staff Reporter,

By IANS,

Kolkata : The Congress Tuesday said election observers should not depend on the state government for central forces and accused the Trinamool Congress of...

By TwoCircles.net Staff Reporter, New Delhi: On the occasion of Arba'een or Chehlum of Imam Husain, the grandson of Prophet Mohammad (pbuh), Anjuman-e-Haideri called upon...

By IANS,

New Delhi : The TRS Wednesday asked the central home ministry to bring forward the the date of creating the new state of Telangana...

Panaji : Some activists with "highly questionable" motives are "blackmailing and witch-hunting" people in high places and are levelling false allegations against a high...

By IANS, New Delhi : All political parties in India Sunday night agreed to unite in fighting terrorism and unanimously agreed on a slew of measures, including setting up a Federal Investigating Agency, to prevent attacks such as Mumbai faced last week. “The resolutions passed in the all-party meeting include setting up of a Federal Investigating Agency and strengthening of security along the coastline,” External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee told reporters after the five-hour meeting, convened by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

New Delhi: The Delhi government will set up a cell and monitoring committee to look into the problems faced by students from the northeastern...

By IANS, Hyderabad : A week before elections start in Andhra Pradesh, Praja Rajyam Party (PRP) of superstar Chiranjeevi Thursday suffered a big jolt with another key leader resigning and branding it a "poisonous tree". Prakala Prabhakar, the party spokesman and an intellectual face in the party, handed over his resignation to the staff at PRP office here and then launched a bitter attack on the leadership without naming anyone. Alleging that PRP was spreading poison, he termed the party a "company" and said the allegations made by several others were true to a large extent.

By IANS,

By IANS, Kozhikode : A.P. Abdullakutty, Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) MP, who is not aware about his exact date of birth, said that he approached a Nadi astrologer "just out of curiosity" during his visit to Vaitheeswaran Koil at Thanjavur in Tamil Nadu. Nadi astrology is based on the belief that the past, present and future of all human beings were foreseen by ancient Hindu sages and are written about in palm leaf manuscripts.

By IANS, New Delhi : Hours after it became clear that the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) will get another term in office, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh got down to the business of planning his new cabinet from a wider, and perhaps, better choice of MPs without being constrained by alliance pressures.

By IANS, Kolkata : Facing criticism, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee Thursday defended her remarks on corruption in judiciary and said she was talking about reforms.

By Richa Sharma, IANS, New Delhi : They are apolitical and have been pursuing their independent careers, but the general elections have brought them out on the campaign trail. Wives of several Lok Sabha candidates in the capital are busy for over 20 hours a day, wooing voters on behalf of their husbands. The wives are concentrating on women voters who form over 45 percent of Delhi's electorate. Promila Sibal, wife of Congress candidate from Chandni Chowk Kapil Sibal, feels that women in her husband's constituency are more open to her and talk on a variety of issues.

By IANS,

By IANS, Ranchi : The All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU) candidate was leading in the Hatia by-poll while the two national parties, the BJP and Congress, were trailing in the counting Friday.

By IANS, Patna : Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar Monday began his 'Vikas Yatra' (Development March), aimed at getting first-hand information about development works initiated by the state government in rural areas and to hear people's grievances personally. Kumar will also camp overnight in villages across the state to provide an opportunity to villagers to tell him their grievances and monitor implementation of different schemes.

By IANS,

Chennai : Prime Minister Narendra Modi Sunday landed at the Chennai airport enroute to India's rocket port of Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh. The special aircraft...

By IANS, New Delhi : A court here Friday issued fresh summons against Bharatiya Janata Party leader Vijender Gupta in a defamation case filed by Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit.

By IANS, Thiruvananathapuram : The opposition disrupted proceedings on the first day of the Kerala assembly's new session Monday, demanding that Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan either quit or sack those ministers who have spoken against him. Immediately after question hour, Congress legislator Aryadan Mohammed sought to introduce an adjournment motion to discuss the "grave situation in the state" where the collective responsibility of the cabinet has been lost.

By Aparajita Gupta, IANS, Kolkata : Amidst Indian Air Force (IAF) surveillance, huge deployment of central forces and shortened polling hours, three Maoist-infested western districts of West Bengal vote April 30 in the shadow of increased terror strikes by the radical left group in eastern India.

Hyderabad: The Allagadda assembly constituency in Andhra Pradesh, from where a deceased candidate of the YSR Congress party was declared elected in the elections...

By Pervez Bari, TwoCircles.net,

By V.S. Karnic, IANS Bangalore : Although elections to the Karnataka assembly, now in suspended animation, are not on the horizon, the state is already witnessing a high-pitched emotional campaign for the people's mandate. Sarcasm, shedding of tears in public, visits to holy places, special pujas, seeking blessings and support of religious heads have begun in earnest as the three main contenders for power in the state pull out every trick in the electoral trade to beat their rivals.

New Delhi: The Lok Sabha Friday witnessed protests by opposition members over the issue of Mahatma Gandhi's assassin Nathuram Godse being eulogised by a...

By IANS, Gangtok : Over 56 percent polling was recorded by 3 p.m. in Sikkim, where elections were underway Thursday for the one Lok Sabha and 32 assembly constituencies. However, according to joint chief electoral officer (CEO) C.P. Dhakal, the turnout could be as high as over 75 percent since most of the polling stations had still not reported with updated data.

Bhubaneswar : The newly elected legislators of the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) Sunday unanimously elected Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik as their leader. Patnaik, who...

By IANS,

By IANS, Bhubaneswar : He stepped down as chief minister a decade ago amidst scandals. Earlier this year, his party asked him to relinquish the post of leader of the opposition. He holds no organisational position. Last week, his name did not figure in the list of candidates released by his party for the coming elections. These are signs of a politician on the wane, especially one who, at 82, appears well past his prime. Surely, it is time for J.B. Patnaik, the patriarch who dominated Congress politics in Orissa for over three decades, to quietly enjoy his autumn.

By IANS,

By IANS,

New Delhi : The National Conference of Women Legislators on Sunday adopted a resolution to work for transparent, accountable and inclusive governance and to...

By Jaideep Sarin, IANS,

New Delhi : The curtains came down on campaigning in the national capital Tuesday evening as the city braces its first three-way Lok Sabha...