As hundreds of employees, highly-skilled as well as semi-skilled, assembled for a "silent appeal" in the national capital on Thursday afternoon, hope was in the air despite an uncertain tomorrow.
The state capital Thiruvananthapuram was exempted from the protest in view of the famous temple festival, Attukal Pongala on February 20, Youth Congress sources said.
The partial shutdown of the government became the longest on record at Friday midnight, when it overtook the 21-day stretch in 1995-1996, under president Bill Clinton.
More discussions were planned for Sunday, while President Donald Trump, who did not attend the negotiating session, was scheduled to be at Camp David for a retreat with White House staff on border security and other topics.
The new Congress, in which the opposition Democrats enjoy a majority in the House of Representatives, begins January 3.
The shutdown would disrupt government operations and leave hundreds of thousands of federal workers furloughed or forced to work without pay just days before Christmas.
Without a resolution, more than 800,000 government workers could be furloughed or sent to work without pay beginning at midnight on Friday, disrupting government operations days before Christmas.
The opposition BJP took out rallies in the city and the state on Tuesday in support of the 'Bangla bandh', while the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) countered it with processions denouncing it.
Life in Kashmir remained severely affected on Monday for the second consecutive day due to a complete shutdown called by protestors against the legal challenge in the Supreme Court on the validity of Article 35A
Left parties call for Bihar Bandh against Muzaffarpur shelter home rape case
The Centre failed to set up the CMB within six weeks of the apex court's February 16 order. The deadline ended on March 29.
The shutdown was the second government closure in less than a month, another product of election-year partisan disputes and persistent internal divisions in both parties.
The CAIT demanded the central government bring in a bill in Parliament to protect Delhi trade and traders from the sealing drive, being carried out by BJP-led MCD.
The Kerala unit of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has called for a statewide shutdown on Sunday in protest against the killing of a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) activist allegedly by Communist Party of India (CPI-M) loyalists
Seoul: Key North Korean websites are back online after an hours-long shutdown that comes amid heightened tensions with the U.S. over Pyongyang's alleged hacking attack on Sony Pictures.Internet access to the North's official Korean Central
Kathmandu: Normal life was partially hit today in parts of Nepal as several opposition parties enforced a shutdown against the reported cancellation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's proposed trip to the religious town of Janakpur.Modi
Hyderabad: A day-long Telangana bandh called today in protest against the passage in Lok Sabha of a Bill to transfer some mandals of the newly-created state to Andhra Pradesh to aid the construction of the
Varanasi: Police on Friday asked a 'dhaba' selling rotis with 'NaMo' mark to shut shop after complaints from certain groups, to which BJP said that the "Modi stamp" on the people's hearts can't be removed."Police
Srinagar: The authorities imposed restrictions in some areas of Srinagar Saturday to maintain law and order in the wake of a shutdown called by the separatists in this Jammu and Kashmir summer capital.Mirwaiz Umer Farooq,
Lucknow: Medical stores and pharmacies here were closed on Friday to protest the central government's new drug policy.All wholesaler shops have also joined the one-day token protest, an office bearer of the striking drug association
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