Setting an ambitious target of skill upgradation for 500 million youth by 2020, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday said the UPA Government has fulfilled "much" of its commitments in the National Common Minimum Programme in the last four years.

West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadev Battacharjee's remarks on bandhs continued to haunt him with two senior CPI(M) leaders saying he has been "publicly censured" for his statement and he has "accepted" it.

The CPI-M on Friday congratulated Nepal's Maoist chief Pushpa Kamal Dahal on being elected as the new Himalayan republic's first prime minister and urged all political parties in the country to join hands in adopting a republican constitution.

The CPI(M), spearheading the Left opposition to the Indo-US nuclear deal, on Saturday alleged that the safeguards agreement approved by the IAEA showed that the US Hyde Act would determine the path of the deal.

Somnath Chatterjee on Friday ruled out quitting as Lok Sabha Speaker and hit out at CPI-M for demanding his resignation saying it cannot give any direction to him in his Constitutional office.

From a revolutionary to a pragmatic politician and a king-maker, Harkishan Singh Surjeet donned many a role but his dream of seeing a Communist as Prime Minister remained unfulfilled despite coming to a sniffing distance.

Harkishan Singh Surjeet, the pragmatic Marxist leader, who played a key role in keeping BJP out of power in 1996, died in New Delhi on Friday after prolonged illness.

The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) on Wednesday asked the government not to hand over pension fund management to financial companies for speculative business in the capital market, saying that it was an "anti-worker" decision.

Striking back at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the CPM on Thursday said it was strange that after four years of Left support, he has alleged that they wanted him to behave like a "bonded slave".

The United Progressive Alliance on Thursday rallied behind Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, a day after the veteran Marxist was expelled from the CPI-M.

Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee has been left out of the whip issued by CPI-M to its MPs to vote against the Government in the trust vote on July 22.

The Communist Party of India-Marxist on Tuesday welcomed India's expression of "grave concern" over US and Israeli threats against Iran but said New Delhi must end military ties with Tel Aviv if it is "really concerned".

Left parties are awaiting a response from External Affair Minister Pranab Mukherjee on their letter setting a deadline of July seven for the UPA government to clarify whether it is going to the IAEA, CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat said on Saturday.

Warning the UPA that the BJP is now nurturing hopes of returning to power, the CPI(M) on Thursday asked the Government to implement the Common Minimum Programme in the right earnest instead of "passionately" pursuing issues like the nuclear deal.

In a jolt to the CPI(M)-led Left Front, Trinamool Congress today defeated its candidates in trouble-torn Nandigram in the three-tier panchayat elections in West Bengal.