The Bharatiya Janata Party-backed Samajwadi Party rebel candidate Nitin Agarwal was elected deputy speaker of the Uttar Pradesh assembly on Monday, defeating Narendra Verma, the official candidate of Akhilesh Yadav's party, by 244 votes.
To repeated questions, the SP chief asserted that the Congress was 'very much in the alliance'.
According to the findings of the CSDS-Lokniti survey, the BJP saw a marginal increase in its support among the Muslim voters as compared to the 2017 assembly elections.
The decision of some key regional parties like the Biju Janata Dal, the Telangana Rashtra Samiti and the Aam Aadmi Party to skip a key opposition meet called by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on the presidential poll has cheered the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party as it believes that their absence has only highlighted the faultlines and one-upmanship among its rivals.
Both the BJP and the Congress have banked on new and young faces, some of whom have been nominated by the parties for the first time.
A day after meeting Rashtriya Lok Dal chief Jayant Chaudhary, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday held talks with AAP leader Sanjay Singh and Apna Dal (K) chief Krishna Patel in the run-up to the 2022 assembly polls.
Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav on Monday said that the country is witnessing 'politics of change' and called on the youth to make it successful.
Nearly 137 public meetings in UP...
The 'Group of 23' leaders who participated included Ghulam Nabi Azad, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Anand Sharma, Mukul Wasnik, Prithviraj Chavan, Manish Tewari, Shashi Tharoor, besides Sibal who hosted the post-birthday dinner for them.
Amid the raging feud in Samajwadi Party, its senior leader Shivpal Yadav reached Delhi on Wednesday evening to invite 'like-minded' socialists for the party's 25th anniversary celebrations on November 5, a move seen as an attempt to stitch an alliance for the state assembly polls.
'No indiscipline will be tolerated but I am hopeful that Pilot will turn up for the meeting
With about 18 weeks to go for the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, the state is being barnstormed by one notable politician after another.
'Yogi was there, but ultimately the BJP got extremely worried and therefore Modi pitched in.'
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Congress' chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala and senior leader Jairam Ramesh were among the 10 candidates elected to the Rajya Sabha on Friday from Karnataka, Rajasthan and Haryana, while counting was underway in Maharashtra after an eight-hour delay due to wrangling by rival parties over alleged breach of voting rules.
The Samajwadi Party released its list of 40 star campaigners in which there was no mention of Mulayam Singh Yadav.
Scindia also said that as far as talks for alliances are concerned, "like-minded parties should also think in a like-minded way".
There are a total 623 candidates in the fray, and affidavits of eight of them could not be analysed because they were either badly scanned or incomplete, the ADR said.
The BJP stormed back to power in the crucial state of Uttar Pradesh, trouncing its main rival SP, with Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath asserting that people have buried the politics of caste and religion.
Voting for the seventh and final round will be held on March 7 for Varanasi and its eight adjoining districts.
While the Congress has cited alleged poaching attempt as a reason for keeping their MLAs in the hotel, the BJP said they moved theirs to train them on the Rajya Sabha poll process.
Poonam Sinha is likely to file nomination on April 18.
The Trinamool Congress on Friday made its foray into Uttar Pradesh by winning the Mat assembly bye-election. TMC candidate Shyam Sundar Sharma defeated his nearest rival Yogesh Chaudhary of the Rashtriya Lok Dal by 6,604 votes
Rashtriya Lok Dal chief and Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh on Monday described Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee as a "qualified" candidate for the post of President but said his views on others were equally positive.
On the eve of the all-party meeting on Lokpal issue, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday night held consultations with United Progressive Alliance constituents after which a "broad consensus" was reported on the approach to the matter.
Congress and Rashtriya Lok Dal held a crucial meeting in New Delhi on Thursday night to finalise seat sharing arrangements for Uttar Pradesh assembly elections to be held early next year.
'We felt it is our responsibility to stand by the farmers' and extend support of the whole of Maharashtra, Shiv Sena and Uddhav Thackeray saahab'
The April 11 polling will decide the fate of several political bigwigs.
Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh's son Jayant Chowdhary, Rashtriya Lok Dal leader, was on Monday issued a notice by Election Commission for allegedly violating the model code of conduct after he was caught on camera taking cash from a local leader during a poll meeting in Mathura.
They alleged that while the two main political parties in the state -- the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Samajwadi Party -- have 'cheated' them, the other parties are 'ineffective'.
In a jolt to Rashtriya Lok Dal, its Rajya Sabha member of Parliament Shahid Siddiqui and Anuradha Chowdhury, a former aide of party chief Ajit Singh, on Sunday joined the Samajwadi Party ahead of the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls.
The first list put out for the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections has a total of 77 candidates with a criminal background. Topping this list are both the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party who have 13 candidates each with serious criminal charges against them.
Newly appointed Union civil aviation minister and Rashtriya Lok Dal chief Ajit Singh on Sunday said his alliance with the Congress has now provided a "clear-cut alternative" to the people of Uttar Pradesh against the "oppressive" Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party government.
Many in the Telangana region have shown some interest in the RLD and depending on how honest they are to the cause they would think of supporting them, says Vicky Nanjappa.
The beleaguered United Progressive Alliance got a boost on Saturday with the Rashtriya Lok Dal, led by Ajit Singh, deciding to join the coalition at the Centre and fight the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections in alliance with the Congress. Ajit Singh, whose RLD has five members in the Lok Sabha, met Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Saturday evening and expressed his willingness to join UPA. His decision was welcomed by the Congress president.
The Sena also suggested that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi should join Pawar's effort to unite the Opposition, only then can a consolidated front gain real strength.
The nodal officer for EVMs in Varanasi, a returning officer (RO) in Sonbhadra district and an additional election officer in Bareilly district have been pulled out from election duties, a day ahead of the counting of votes in UP.
The Muslim card played heavily by the Congress party will be at test on Tuesday, when the 67-state assembly constituencies go to poll during Phase VI of the seven-phased Uttar Pradesh election.
The Congress would prefer to sit in the opposition in case it fell short of numbers in the election to the Uttar Pradesh assembly than supporting any other party, senior leader Digvijay Singh has said. He also raised questions over the possibility of Congress ally Rashtriya Lok Dal heading the government in case the combine gets majority.
Akhilesh Yadav, the 39-year-old son of Samajwadi Party strong man Mulayam Singh, is the man who has directed his party's campaign for the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections. The three-time member of Parliament from Kannauj is no stranger to electoral politics, but elections 2012 is at another level altogether.
The election authorities on Tuesday gave a clean chit to Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh's son and Rashtriya Lok Dal leader Jayant Chowdhury who was caught on camera accepting money from a local leader in Mathura and allegedly violating the model code of conduct.
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