The Ulema Council, which recently staged protests against what it termed as "harassment" of Muslim youths in the name of terror, declared on Turesday that it would field candidates against Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul in the upcoming Lok Sabha election.
Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar has now moved to the newly created Madha constituency in the state leaving his pocketborough of Baramati to daughter Supriya Sule, currently a member of the Rajya Sabha.
A senior Indian Police Service officer deposed before a special Central Bureau of Investigation court on Friday as a prosecution witness in the 1992 Babri Masjid demolition case, in which L K Advani and other Sangh Parivar leaders have been accused of inciting violence.
"Some parts of West Bengal like Purulia had been described as the most backward in the country. A comparison of the socio-economic indicators of Purulia with those in Rae Bareli and Amethi will tell the real story," an editorial in the CPI-M mouthpiece People's Democracy said.
The ruling Bahujan Samaj Party, which has already crossed swords with the Congress, is all set to launch its campaign for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections from the bastion of Gandhi family -- Amethi and Rae Bareli -- on February 9. The party, while announcing its plan to organise Brahmin Sammelans across the state, has decided to organise its first convention in Amethi, parliamentary constituency of All India Congress Committee general secretary Rahul Gandhi.
Fresh from victory in the Lok Sabha polls, Congress President Sonia Gandhi today said the results showed that people have rejected parties dabbling in caste politics or whipping up communal passions.
As the 15th Lok Sabha assembled for the first time on Monday, it was all in the family for many members. The House, which possibly has the highest number of members related to each other, saw fathers, daughters, sons and cousins assembling together under one roof as representatives of people. Leading the list were Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul, elected from Rae Bareli and Amethi respectively.
Pulok Chatterjee, a long time loyalist of the Gandhi family and Dr Manmohan Singh, is likely to succeed K M Chandrasekhar as the Union Cabinet Secretary from January 2010. Chatterjee has served as the district magistrate of Rae Bareli and later worked with Sonia Gandhi, when she was the Leader of Opposition, during the National Democratic Alliance regime. When the United Progressive Alliance came to power, Chatterjee was made the Joint Secretary in PMO.
The move by the district administration in the Sonia-Mayawati battle for the political turf of Uttar Pradesh came hours after the Allahabad high court virtually stayed the state government's decision cancelling the land allotment for a railway project in Sonia's Lok Sabha constituency in Rae Bareily.
A senior IPS officer, who deposed that BJP leader L K Advani had made a provocative speech in Ayodhya moments before the Babri masjid was demolished by Sangh Parivar activists in 1992, was on Friday cross-examined by the defence in a Rae Bareli special court.
Even as suspense continues over alliance between the Congress and the Samajwadi Party, the SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav has said his party would not field candidates against the United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi.
Addressing media persons in Lucknow, Mayawati said, "The Congress is worried only about Rae Bareli, but I am worried about the whole of Uttar Pradesh." Denying allegations of Sonia that her government was against development, Mayawati alleged that the Congress had put impediments in state government's schemes like Ganga and Yamuna expressways.
Enthused scenes of Congress support in Rae Bareli.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to interfere with the criminal proceedings in cases relating to the demolition of disputed structure at Ayodhya in which the trial involving senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani and seven others VVIPs were segregated from others.
Referring to her party's pre-poll alliance with the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh, she said it was based on "mutual respect" and "honest intentions", adding that "the SP-BSP alliance is perfect enough to defeat the BJP, especially in Uttar Pradesh.
Ranjeet Bachchan, 40, who had founded the little known Vishwa Hindu Mahasabha, was allegedly killed because he was "delaying" the proceedings to divorce his wife Smriti Srivastava, who wanted to marry Deepender.
Eleven deaths have been reported in Saharanpur followed by 10 in Meerut, six in Agra, four in Mainpuri, three each in Muzaffarnagar and Kasganj, two each in Amroha, Bareilly, Baghpat and Bulandshahr and one each in Kanpur Dehat, Mathura, Ghaziabad, Hapur, Rae Bareli, Jalaun, Jaunpur, Pratapgarh, Banda, Firozabad, Amethi, Kanpur and Pilibhit, they said.
Does India's first political family see some serious threat to its own bastions? The question was doing rounds in Uttar Pradesh, where lie Rae Bareli and Amethi -- the respective parliamentary constituencies of Congress president Sonia Gandhi and vice president son Rahul Gandhi. Sharat Pradhan reports.
Fifteen years after the demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya, a Central Bureau of Investigations court in Rae Bareli on Wednesday commenced trial of the case in which senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani and seven Sangh Parivar leaders are accused.
The toll in NTPC's Unchahar plant accident has climbed to 34, making it the country's worst industrial disaster in the last eight years.
Making a U-turn, the Mayawati government in Uttar Pradesh on Saturday decided to return the land in Rae Bareli for construction of a rail coach factory, an issue on which she had a high-pitched spat with Congress President Sonia Gandhi during the week.
To a question on whether deciding against contesting in the constituency would send a wrong signal, she said, "No I don't think so... I had said from the start that I will do what my party says...my party decided this and I am happy to follow the instructions."
Give safety and security first to the people, say MPs.
'Both the BJP and SP have workers and cadres across the state, and now it will boil down to which party manages booths smartly and gets its voters to come out.'
Congress President Sonia Gandhi vacated the seat in the wake of office of profit controversy.
Swamy alleged that Sonia had given false information in the poll affidavit filed by her before the Rae Bareli Returning Officer.
The incident occurred at Sindupur village under Bihar police station area. The victim has been shifted to a government hospital in Lucknow and is in a critical condition.
Even as Priyanka is gaining traction among the electorate and the media, her counterpart for the western UP region, Jyotiraditya Scindia, has been low key and perceptibly missing from the 'heat and dust' of elections in UP, reports Virendra Singh Rawat.
Rahul Gandhi spent 45 minutes with the Dalai Lama.
Sonia Gandhi, who was also embroiled in the controversy is seeking re-election today.
Priyanka Gandhi on Monday trashed reports that she wanted to challenge Narendra Modi for the Lok Sabha seat from Varanasi and was stopped by the party high command, stating it is a "personal" decision not to contest and that her family would "wholeheartedly support" her if she ever wanted to.
The core groups had a separate wing of women workers.
Priyanka Gandhi's charge were the key seats of Lucknow, Amethi, Raebareli, Sultanpur, Gorakhpur, Varanasi, Phulpur, Allahabad, Barabanki, and Kushinagar.
"It is the most frivolous petition," a bench headed by Chief Justice Y K Sabharwal said dismissing the petition filed by a Varanasi-based advocate and some others.
An image of a child who is an opening act during Congress rallies.
There was incredibly little chaos, with most bystanders awed, just glad to have Priyanka in their line of vision. There is a no-nonsense air about the strikingly attractive leader, and she can effortlessly control an adoring crowd.
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