News Analysis India

Tag: Rajya Sabha

  • Government ready to answer all questions, debate any issue in Parliament: PM Narendra Modi

    By Online Desk

    As the winter session of Parliament began on Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while addressing the media outside Lok Sabha, said that his government was ready to debate and answer all matters in the Parliament.

    “This is an important session of the Parliament. The citizens of the country want a productive session. They are fulfilling their responsibilities for a brighter future”, the Prime Minister added.

    PM Modi asked the Opposition to maintain decorum during the proceedings. He said that the “citizens of the country want a productive session.”

    Twenty-six new bills are on the agenda of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led central government.

    The government has indicated that the bill to repeal three farm laws will also be taken up on priority. The bill was cleared by the Union Cabinet last week.

    PM Modi also said on Monday morning that the country should be on alert in view of the new Covid variant ‘Omicron’.

    The winter session is scheduled to conclude on December 23.

    (Inputs from ANI)

  • TMC leader Luizinho Faleiro elected to Rajya Sabha unopposed

    By PTI

    KOLKATA: Trinamool Congress leader Luizinho Faleiro on Monday was elected to the Rajya Sabha unopposed in a by-poll, according to a notification of the West Bengal assembly.

    The TMC last week named its vice-president Luizinho Faleiro, a former chief minister of Goa, as its candidate for the by-election.

    “The assembly secretary in a notification today announced that Luizinho Faleiro has been elected to Rajya Sabha in the by-poll. After scrutiny of papers, he was declared elected unopposed,” TMC Chief Whip Nirmal Ghosh said.

    He will collect his certificate on Tuesday, Ghosh said.

    The by-poll to the RS seat was necessitated following the resignation of TMC MP Arpita Ghosh from the Upper House of Parliament.

    “Just like the previous two Rajya Sabha by-polls, Falerio too has been elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha. The time too the opposition BJP did not field any candidate,” he said.

    TMC candidates Sushmita Dev and Jawhar Sircar were earlier elected to the RS unopposed.

    Faleiro ended his decades-long association with the Congress and joined the TMC in September in Kolkata.

    He was appointed as the party’s national vice-president last month.

    The Trinamool Congress, after a stunning victory in the West Bengal Assembly elections earlier this year, is trying to expand its footprint in BJP-ruled Goa and Tripura.

    Assembly elections in Goa and Tripura are due in 2022 and 2023 respectively.

  • Winter Session of Parliament from November 29

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: The Winter Session of Parliament will commence on November 29 and it is likely to conclude on December 23, an official communication from Parliament said.

    “The Seventh Session of Seventeenth Lok Sabha will commence on Monday, the 29th November, 2021. Subject to exigencies of Government Business, the Session is likely to conclude on Thursday, December 23, 2021,” the Lok Sabha Secretariat said in a statement.

    The Rajya Sabha also issued a similar order.

    “The President has summoned the Rajya Sabha to meet on Monday, November 29, 2021, at New Delhi. Subject to exigencies of business, the Session is scheduled to conclude on Thursday, December 23, 2021,” the communication said.

  • Nehru’s birth anniversary: Opposition slams government over absence of RS Chairman, LS Speaker from Parliament event

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: The Opposition on Sunday hit out at the government over the absence of Rajya Sabha Chairman, Lok Sabha Speaker and ministers from the traditional event marking the birth anniversary of those whose portraits adorn Parliament’s Central Hall.

    Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, along with other party leaders, attended the event marking the birth anniversary of India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru.

    “Extraordinary scene today in Parliament at the traditional function to mark the birth anniversary of those whose portraits adorn the Central Hall. Speaker Lok Sabha absent. Chairman Rajya Sabha absent. Not a single Minister present. Can it get more atrocious than this?!” Congress’ chief whip in Rajya Sabha Jairam Ramesh, who attended the event, said on Twitter.

    Tagging Ramesh’s tweet, Trinamool Congress leader Derek O’Brien also hit out at the government.

    “Nothing surprises me anymore. This dispensation is destroying India’s great institutions, including #Parliament one day at a time,” said O’Brien in a tweet.

    Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi took to Twitter to pay tributes to Nehru on his birth anniversary.

    Born in 1889, the Congress stalwart remains India’s longest-serving prime minister.

  • Former CBDT chairman PC Mody appointed as new secretary general of Rajya Sabha

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: Less than three months after being appointed as the secretary general of the Rajya Sabha, PPK Ramacharyulu has been replaced with former CBDT chairman PC Mody, sources said on Friday.

    Mody has been appointed as the new secretary general of the Rajya Sabha just weeks before the commencement of the Winter Session of Parliament, which is expected to start from November 29.

    Mody, a former chairman of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), will be the new secretary general of the Upper House of Parliament.

    Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu has signed an order to this effect, sources in the Rajya Sabha Secretariat said.

    Ramacharyulu has now been appointed as an advisor in the Rajya Sabha Secretariat, they added.

    Ramacharyulu was appointed as the secretary general of the Rajya Sabha on September 1.

    No reason has been given for his replacement, the sources said.

    Mody is likely to take charge on Friday, they added.

    Responding to the news of Ramacharyulu being replaced within three months, Congress leader and Rajya Sabha MP Jairam Ramesh wrote on Twitter: “Not surprised at all Dr.P.P.K. Ramacharyulu is a thorough professional, non-partisan and perfectly qualified for the post — three deadly sins in the Modi regime.”

  • Communication output of Rajya Sabha increased manifold in last four years: RS Secretariat

    It also said that the Rajya Sabha's communication output per week in the last four years was 4.5 times that of the preceding five years (2012 to 2017).

  • ‘Matter of immense pride’: PM Narendra Modi on BJP getting first Rajya Sabha seat from Puducherry

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: With the BJP getting its first Rajya Sabha member from Puducherry, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Tuesday that it was a matter of immense pride for every member of the party. He also congratulated Union ministers Sarbananda Sonowal and L Murugan on being elected to the Rajya Sabha from Assam and Madhya Pradesh respectively.

    It is a matter of immense pride for every BJP Karyakarta that our Party has got it’s first ever Rajya Sabha MP from Puducherry in Shri S. Selvaganabathy Ji. The trust placed in us by the people of Puducherry is humbling. We will keep working for Puducherry’s progress.
    — Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) September 28, 2021
    In a tweet, Modi said, “It is a matter of immense pride for every BJP Karyakarta that our Party has got its first ever Rajya Sabha MP from Puducherry in Shri S Selvaganabathy Ji. The trust placed in us by the people of Puducherry is humbling. We will keep working for Puducherry’s progress.”

    He added, “Congratulations to my Ministerial colleagues, Shri @sarbanandsonwal Ji and Shri @Murugan_MoS Ji on being elected to the Rajya Sabha from Assam and Madhya Pradesh respectively. I am confident that they will enrich Parliamentary proceedings and further our agenda of public good.”

    The AINRC-BJP alliance is in power in the union territory of Puducherry.

  • Congress’ Rajani Patil set to enter Rajya Sabha unopposed as Maharashtra BJP withdraws candidate

    By PTI

    MUMBAI: Senior Congress leader Rajani Patil is set to be declared elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha from Maharashtra after the opposition BJP on Monday withdrew its candidate from the next month’s bypoll.

    The by-election was necessitated due to the death of sitting Congress MP Rajeev Satav in May.

    His term in the Upper House of Parliament was till April 2, 2026.

    Monday (September 27) was the last day of withdrawal of nomination papers for the October 4 by-election.

    The BJP had fielded Sanjay Upadhyay for the bypoll and he has now withdrawn from the race, paving the way for Patil (62) to get elected unopposed.

    Patil and Upadhyay were the only candidates in the fray.

    Talking to reporters here, Upadhyay said Congress leaders in the state had appealed to the BJP to withdraw its candidate so that the Congress nominee gets elected unopposed.

    “I have withdrawn my nomination on the party’s directives,” he said.

    “The decision to withdraw my candidature was taken in a meeting of the state BJP core committee,” Upadhyay said.

    Last week, Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole and his party colleague and minister Balasaheb Thorat had met Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Devendra Fadnavis of the BJP and urged him to facilitate unopposed election of Patil.

    The 288-member Assembly formed the electoral college for the by-election in which the BJP is the single largest party with 106 MLAs.

    Patil was the candidate of the ruling coalition MVA, led by the Shiv Sena in which the Congress is a key constituent.

  • Sarbananda Sonowal to file nomination for Rajya Sabha polls from Assam on September 21

    By PTI

    GUWAHATI: Union Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, who has been named as the BJP candidate for the vacant Rajya Sabha seat from Assam, will file his nomination on September 21, the party’s state unit president Bhabesh Kalita said here on Saturday.

    Kalita, accompanied by party leaders Santanu Bharali and Binod Hazarika collected the nomination papers on behalf of the former chief minister from the state Assembly within a few hours of announcement of Sonowal’s name as the party candidate in New Delhi.

    Later talking to reporters Kalita said Sonowal will file his nomination for the Rajya Sabha election on September 21.

    “Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and leaders of our allies, like AGP and UPPL will be present during it,” he said.

    Sonowal’s road to Rajya Sabha is expected to be smooth as the BJP-led ruling coalition has an effective strength of 73 MLAs in the 126-member House.

    Though BJP currently has 60 MLAs but effectively the number would be 59 since Sonowal, who was elected to the Assembly from Majuli earlier this year, is likely to resign as a legislator before polling for the upper house is held.

    BJP’s allies Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) and United People’s Party Liberation (UPPL) have nine and five MLAs respectively.

    Five seats in the state Assembly are currently vacant and will increase to six following Sonowal’s resignation.

    The Rajya Sabha seat had fallen vacant following the election of the sitting MP Biswajit Daimary to the Assam Assembly.

    Daimary is currently the Speaker of the Assembly.

    The last date for filing of nomination for the Rajya Sabha election is September 22, while voting and counting of votes will be undertaken on October 4 as per the schedule announced by the Election Commission.

    Assam sends seven representatives to the Rajya Sabha, out of which two are currently held by BJP and main opposition Congress, one each by NDA ally AGP and an Independent.

  • Not forced to resign from Rajya Sabha, says TMC’s Arpita Ghosh

    By PTI

    KOLKATA: A day after resigning as a Rajya Sabha MP, Trinamool Congress leader Arpita Ghosh on Thursday asserted that she took the decision after deliberating with the party’s top leadership and was not forced by it to step down as claimed by some quarters.

    Ghosh told reporters that she quit the Rajya Sabha as she wanted to devote more time to the organisational matters of the party.

    The theatre activist turned politician, who was earlier a Lok Sabha member, said there are differences between being an MP of the Upper House of Parliament and that of the Lower House.

    “When I was elected to the Rajya Sabha, the pandemic started and I didn’t get much chance to deliver as an MP.

    I think I would concentrate more on organisational affairs now.

    I can also devote more time to my passion – theatre – if I stay here (West Bengal),” she said.

    Ghosh was elected to the Rajya Sabha in March 2020 after she lost from Balurghat constituency in the 2019 Lok Sabha poll.

    A nationwide lockdown was imposed on March 25 last year.

    She said the decision to quit from the Rajya Sabha was not sudden as she had been communicating with the party leadership about it for the past two-three months.

    Those who are saying she was compelled to step down by the TMC top brass who were not happy with her work as an MP should provide evidence in support of their claims, Ghosh said.

    Her resignation was accepted by Chairman of the House and Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu on Wednesday.

    Meanwhile, West Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh said, “She (Arpita Ghosh) was forced to resign by the dictatorial leadership of the Trinamool Congress. It shows the party does not believe in democracy within the organisation.”

    Reacting to the state BJP chief’s assertion, senior TMC leader and minister Firhad Hakim said, “Dilip Ghosh should not meddle into internal affairs of the Trinamool Congress.”

    Arpita Ghosh had herself wanted to resign and work for the organisation and the party granted her wish, he said.

    She was among those suspended during the ruckus in the Upper House in the recently concluded Parliament session wherein both MPs and marshals were allegedly injured.

    Arpita Ghosh had her first brush with politics when she became a prominent face of the TMC’s intellectual brigade during the Nandigram and Singur movements during 2006-2008.

    In 2014, she won the Lok Sabha polls from Balurghat as a TMC candidate.