Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister and former state BJP president Keshav Prasad Maurya had also dropped a hint in a recent tweet, saying Yaduvanshi (Yadavs), Ravidasiyo (Jatavs) and Pasmanda Muslims will be brought closer to the BJP so that the lotus 'blossoms' in every booth in UP.
Samajwadi Party member of Parliament Shafiqur Rehman Barq has been booked for sedition following his recent remarks allegedly defending the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan and equating it with India's own freedom struggle, police said on Wednesday.
After being outwitted by the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party in the recent Rajya Sabha elections in Maharashtra, the ruling Shiv Sena-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) is now facing another challenge of getting all its six candidates elected to the state Legislative Council in the June 20 polls, which has once again put the spotlight on Independents and smaller parties.
The polls were deferred due to the spread of coronavirus.
In a jolt to the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance in Maharashtra, the Bharatiya Janata Party won four of the six seats in the state legislative council, including Nagpur, and wrested the Akola-Buldhana-Washim seat from the Shiv Sena.
Days after Herwad village in Maharashtra's Kolhapur district passed a resolution to ban the customs associated with widowhood to maintain women's "right to live with dignity", those spearheading the campaign are now following up with the state government, demanding that a law be framed to end the "regressive" traditions.
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.
The chief minister, who is currently not a member of either of the Houses of the state Legislature, submitted his nomination papers to the election officer in Mumbai.
'The EC's role in this is questionable. What is the reason for this delay? Are they waiting for instructions?'
"I am also quitting as member of Legislative Council," Thackeray said in a webcast.
The MLAs, who are seemingly unhappy with their leadership, arrived in Surat on Monday night and are camping at the Le Meridian Hotel, they said.
On Sunday, a team comprising deputy commissioner of police Hemraj Singh Rajput, assistant commissioner of police Nitin Jadhav and two inspectors, reached Fadnavis's bungalow 'Sagar' around noon.
'How can we tolerate if a Constitutionally-appointed governor acts in violation of the Constitution?'
'The message the BJP is sending is that they are in no way responsible for Uddhav's downfall and it was only Shinde who is to be blamed.'
As CM, he took decisions that confirmed his image as a Hindutva mascot. Early in the first term, he banned illegal slaughterhouses and the state police cracked down on cow slaughter. But the menace of stray cattle created disquiet among farmers, presenting the Adityanath government with a new challenge.
Two other ministers Swantradev Singh and Mohsin Raza also took oath.
Apart from Thackeray, Council Deputy Chairperson Neelam Gorhe (Shiv Sena), four candidates of the Bharatiya Janata Party -- Ranjitsinh Mohite Patil, Gopichand Padalkar, Praveen Datke and Ramesh Karad; Nationalist Congress Party's Shashikant Shinde and Amol Mitkari and Congress's Rajesh Rathod were in the fray for the nine seats, which fell vacant on April 24.
The party is likely to take a decision in a couple of days, with the nomination for the first phase of three phase-polls set to begin from October 1, they said.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday sacked its recalcitrant Bihar member of legislative council Tunnaji Pandey whose utterances against Chief Minister Nitish Kumar were putting a strain on the tenuous relations between the two alliance partners.
Thackeray, who is currently not a member of either of the Houses of state Legislature, was not present at the Cabinet meeting where the decision was taken.
So far, 50 people have also been injured in these incidents, the government said in a statement.
Names of eight-term MLA from Gaya town Prem Kumar and that of Kameshwar Choupal, a Dalit MLC who had laid the foundation stone for the temple at Ayodhya in the 1990s, are also doing the rounds for the post in the political circles.
Failure to get elected by May 28, ie within six months of taking oath as CM, would have resulted into a Constitutional crisis for the Thackeray-led government, which was averted after the Election Commission announced elections to the nine seats in the Council.
Dinesh Pratap Singh, who was elected to the state legislative council for the second time in 2016 and left the Congress last year, is pitted against UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi on a seat held by her since 2004.
The former Deputy chief minister made the sensational assertion on his twitter handle, sharing a mobile number which, he claimed, Prasad was having access to despite serving sentences in fodder scam cases.
In a major embarrassment for the ruling Congress in Jammu and Kashmir, one of the its sitting MLCs has filed nomination against the party's official candidates for elections to the state legislative council.
K C Tyagi, senior Janata Dal-United leader and close confidante of party president Sharad Yadav, on Saturday filed nomination for the lone Rajya Sabha seat vacant from Bihar following resignation of rebel leader Upendra Kushwaha.
Members of the Legislative Council asked how some former legislators could enter the Vidhan Bhavan premises amid COVID-19-related restrictions and sought a report on the matter.
Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati on Sunday lambasted Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav for ignoring the institution of the Speaker during the on-going 125th anniversary celebrations of the Uttar Pradesh State Legislature. Mayawati sought to draw Akhilesh's attention to the absence of any mention of the Legislative Assembly speaker or the chairperson of the UP State Legislative Council in a full-page advertisement that appeared in all major newspapers.
Taking its probe to the doorsteps of former Uttar Pradesh minister Raghuraj Pratap Singh, the Central Bureau of Investigation on Saturday questioned his cousin and member of state legislative council Akshay Pratap Singh in connection with the violence in Balipur village in which Deputy Superintendent of Police Zia-ul-Haq was killed.
Uttar Pradesh's Chief Minister-designate Akhilesh Yadav has said he will seek an election to the state's Legislative Council instead of contesting an Assembly by-poll.
Nitin Gadkari, national president of the Bharatiya Janata Party, had Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani to 'high tea' last evening at his Nagpur residence. The meeting was termed a 'courtesy call'.
The Maharashtra legislative assembly on Thursday unanimously passed a bill which makes Marathi a compulsory subject across all schools in the state. The development came on `Marathi Bhasha Din' (Marathi language day) which is celebrated on February 27, the birth anniversary of poet and Jnanpith award winner late V V Shirwadkar. The state legislative council had passed the legislation, titled `Maharashtra Compulsory Teaching and Learning of Marathi Language in Schools Bill, 2020', on Wednesday.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on Thursday filed his nomination papers for biennial elections to the state Legislative Council.
State BJP spokesman Keshav Upadhya termed it as "vendetta politics", while former chief minister Fadnavis said this would not impact his plans to travel and meet people.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday and discussed issues related to the Maratha reservation, pending GST compensation and the proposed Metro car shed in Kanjur.
The move by the Andhra Pradesh cabinet came after the Y S Jaganmohan Reddy government last week failed to pass in the Upper House of the state legislature two crucial Bills related to its plan of having three capitals for the state.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan was on Wednesday declared elected to the state Legislative Council.The election was unopposed since the opposition did not field a candidate against him.Chavan was declared elected after the deadline for withdrawal of nomination papers ended on Wednesday.With the election, Chavan has fulfilled the Constitutional stipulation of getting elected to the state legislature within six months of being sworn-in as the chief minister.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the election of Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan for the state Legislative Council which he won unopposed as the opposition parties did not field any candidates against him. A bench of justices R M Lodha and H L Gokhale dismissed the plea of Shiv Sena Member of Legislative Council Anil Dattatray Parab who had challenged the Election Commission's decision to hold the election.
for the Congress top brass, Srinivas possesses all the traits for an effective leader