Rajyasabha

Leader of opposition in West Bengal assembly, Suvendu Adhikari on September 20 announced that ''BJP won't nominate any candidate for Rajya Sabha bypoll'' scheduled on October 4. Reportedly, the bypoll was announced after TMC leader Manas Bhuina vacated the seat. Meanwhile, Adhikari also said, ''Our focus is to make sure unelected CM (Mamata Banerjee) to be unelected once again.'' However, TMC said BJP leaders are afraid of loss. 

On the occasion of international women's day, several women MPs have debated the critical issues that gender faces in the Rajya Sabha. While Congress MP Chhaya Verma has demanded reservation for women in state Legislative Assemblies, Shiv Sena's Priyanka Chaturvedi raised a question about the pending Women Reservation Bill. Meanwhile, BJP MP Saroj Pandey maintained that active efforts were being made by the Centre for women empowerment.

Congress MP Ahmed Patel asked the Centre to create a taskforce to form guidelines regarding online-classes. He asked the government to provide gadgets for online-classes, and also demanded an increase in expenditure to aid poor students. The MP said, "Digital India should not become an instrument of 'digital divide'", and alleged that despite the government's promise of 2.5 lakh villages getting broadband connection by 2017, only 23,000… read-more

Closure of the Baghjan well in Assam has, reportedly, led to the loss of Rs 148 crore revenue to Oil India Limited. Wells were closed seeing protests by workers' group at other wells. The fire broke out in May after weeks long gas leakage was ignited. Oil minister Pradhan said, "Loss due to gas burning could not be ascertained as no measure was possible due to fire and extreme heat."

On September 10, opposition parties unanimously announced RJD leader Manoj Kumar Jha as its candidate for Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Elections. Manoj will contest against National Democratic Alliance candidate Harivansh Singh for the post. He is expected to file his nomination on September 11, accompanied by various opposition leaders. The election will take place on September 19 on the first day of the Monsoon session.