'It is obvious that this is both illegal and unconstitutional.'
Referring to attempts made by Azad to forge the relationship of 'bua' with her, Mayawati said she cannot have any respectable relationship with such people.
He was billed as the next big thing in Dalit politics in Uttar Pradesh and a challenge for the Bahujan Samaj Party but Mayawati's party is least impressed by the exploits of Chandrasekhar Azad 'Ravan' let alone consider him a threat.
"I can say with confidence that the BJP will form the government in the state," he reiterated.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party is headed for a big win in the Uttar Pradesh legislative council polls, bagging Barabanki and Ayodhya and leading in several other places. But it lost Varanasi to an Independent candidate.
Adityanath has of late earned the nickname "bulldozer baba", which helped the party create a narrative of tough administration in the state polls.
Of the total 166 names declared so far by the Congress, 119 candidates will be making their electoral debut.
After a spell of relative calm, Jammu and Kashmir witnessed a spate of killings of innocent civilians last month, triggering apprehensions of an intense cycle of violence and turmoil in the region.
Amid the ongoing protest against the new farm laws, Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait on Sunday asked the farmers to keep their tractors ready stating that they may have to reach the national capital anytime.
According to BJP insiders, every Union minister has been given 3-4 seats to mentor and has been told to work hard on these constituencies in the next 20 months to ensure the party's victory.
Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra asked the Bharatiya Janata Party why are they preventing peasants from coming to Delhi to raise their demands.
A farmers' protest against three farm laws of the Centre, which was continuing on a national highway in Uttar Pradesh's Baghpat district since December 19 last year, has come to an end with the protesters alleging use of force by police.
"Darr to lagta hai par bhook say zyada darr lagta hai (I am scared but I fear hunger more than death)," he said as he pointed to his kids adding "back home we won't be able to find two square meals".
The 20 districts where there would be no relaxation yet are Meerut, Lucknow, Saharanpur, Varanasi, Ghaziabad, Gorakhpur, Muzaffarnagar, Bareilly, Gautam Buddh Nagar, Bulandshahr, Jhansi, Prayagraj, Lakhimpur-Khiri, Sonbhadra, Jaunpur, Baghpat, Moradabad, Ghazipur, Bijnor and Deoria.
The panchayat polls or those for district panchayat chiefs are not held on a party symbol but candidates enjoy the tacit support of various parties.
He also rejected allegations of being a vote cutter and cleared the air about his fallout with the Akhilesh Yadav-led party.
UP Power Minister Shrikant Sharma stirred up a hornet's nest with his tweet terming the Congress president a 'coward and impotent'.
Heads have started rolling over the violence in Muzaffarnagar with the Uttar Pradesh government today transferring top police officials, including Saharanpur DIG, SSP Muzaffarnagar and SP Shamli.
A government official in Lucknow said Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath expressed grief over the incident and announced an ex gratia of Rs 2 lakh each to the families of the deceased migrants and Rs 50,000 to the seriously injured.
The elections are being seen as a semi-final to the 2022 assembly election.
However, the farmers are still protesting, demanding a law on MSP. Besides MSP, the farmers are also demanding a resolution for the livelihood of the families of the 700 farmers who died while protesting against the three farm laws.
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.
OBC leader Dharam Singh Saini on Thursday became the third minister to resign from the Uttar Pradesh cabinet this week, giving yet another jolt to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in the run-up to the assembly polls.
'It is only when those who are oppressed stand for themselves that society is forced to create space for them,' says Aakar Patel.
The two parties named the seats distributed among them in a statement signed by SP president Akhilesh Yadav and BSP chief Mayawati.
Three prisoners, including a member of Bahujan Samaj Party MLA Mukhtar Ansari's gang, were shot dead inside the Chitrakoot district jail on Friday after which the Uttar Pradesh government suspended two jail officials, police said.
The BSP, which fielded nearly 100 Muslim candidates, won only four out of the 77 assembly seats dominated by Muslim voters.
The sole intention of the opposition parties is to create roadblocks on the path of development, the prime minister said, as he termed their action "anti national".
Campaigning came to an end on Saturday for the single-day election in Uttarakhand and Goa, two states known for political volatility where the Bharatiya Janata Party is attempting to retain power, and for the second phase of assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh on February 14.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has conceded for the first time that divisions within the ruling African National Congress prevented appropriate action against the influential Gupta family from India for their alleged involvement in massive state capture.
Azad said the Bhim Army will run parallel to the party and continue to fight for Dalit rights and enrol new members.
'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.'
The ED has attached seven sugar mills worth over Rs 1,097 crore in a money laundering case against former Uttar Pradesh BSP MLC Mohammed Iqbal and his family, officials said.
Asaduddin Owaisi's AIMIM, which is going to contest next year's Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls on the promise of creating leadership among Muslims, has created unease in the political parties that so far considered the members of the minority community as their core "vote bank".
975 people have been arrested in connection with the violence in Muzaffarnagar, in which 40 people lost their lives, police said on Tuesday.
The BJP's bucket list this time includes districts such as Sultanpur, Aligarh, Firozabad, Deoband, Ghazipur, Basti and Mirzapur -- to rename a few. Virendra Singh Rawat reports.
"Our party is stronger than the Congress in the state. While the Congress won 40 seats in panchayat polls, we scored a victory in 83 panchayats. AAP got over 40 lakh votes in these polls, where 1600 party candidates contested," Singh, AAP's UP in-charge and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh said.
'About 90 per cent of our netas have no loyalty and will go with the winner.'
The Congress wants the 28 seats it won in 2012 plus 20 seats where the party was runner-up plus 57 seats where it was ahead of the SP in 2012.
A 28-year-old man from Uttar Pradesh has claimed that his right hand was chopped off by some locals in Haryana's Panipat where he had gone in search of a job. However, a family has filed a complaint against the man, identified as Ikhlaq from Nanauta in Saharanpur district, that he allegedly sodomised a seven-year-old boy.
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