Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday said that her party is contesting the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections for forming a government and not for striking a coalition with any party.
Polling for the first phase of the high voltage Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections for 55 seats in 10 districts would be held on Wednesday that will decide the fate of two ministers, 31 members of Legislative Assembly and 15 former ministers.
Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh has criticised Bharatiya Janata Party leader Lal Krishna Advani for raising the contentious Ram temple-Babri mosque row before the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections.
'Although Rahul's energy and commitment are to be acknowledged, there is no alternative to good party organisation at the grassroots, and this the Congress lacks. If they set their organisational house in order, combined with an enlightened leadership, the Congress will go far in many states.'
Five years ago, Nazarwala made history when he predicted on Rediff.com that Mayawati would be victorious in the Uttar Pradesh assembly election, winning over 184 seats. With UP heading into a critical assembly election, Nazarwala returns to Rediff.com and writes of a mandate squandered at the altar of megalomania and vanity.
Can you imagine that in the upcoming Uttar Pradesh assembly election Bharitya Janta Party can get almost 24 per cent votes to come second in the four-cornered contest between ruling Bahujan Samaj Party, Samajwadi Party, Congress and BJP?
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.
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.
Unusual means of connecting with the electorate are also being adopted by ministers in the Yogi Adityanath government, who are doing their bit to reach out to the voters.
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.
Polling for the fourth phase of Uttar Pradesh assembly election covering 56 seats spread over 11 districts would be held on that would decide the fate of three ministers, 32 sitting MLAs and 12 former ministers.
The National Investigation Agency appears to be making progress in the Samjhauta Express blasts case. The arrest of Kamal Chouhan, who is alleged to be one of the persons who planted the bomb in the train in February, 2007, that killed 68 people, ensures that the NIA is getting closer to closure of the case.
Rain played spoilsport during polling for the first phase of Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections as only 5.17 per cent of the over 1.70 lakh electorate exercised their franchise in the first two hours.
Releasing his party manifesto for Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, Lok Janshakti Party chief Ram Vilas Paswan on Tuesday said his party would contest on all 403 seats in the state.
A day after being fielded as a candidate in the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, Bharatiya Janata Party leader Uma Bharti on Thursday said she will work for the defeat of Congress in the state the way she made Digvijay Singh "bite the dust" in Madhya Pradesh.
Appealing to party workers to treat Bahujan Samaj Party's victory in Uttar Pradesh assembly elections as her birthday gift, Chief Minister and party supremo Mayawati on Sunday released a list of candidates for all 403 seats in the state.
With the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections just around the corner, senior Congress leader from the state P L Punia has pitted himself against Union minister Ambika Soni over the yet unreleased Bollywood film 'Arakshan' directed by Prakash Jha.
That's a deficit the NDA will have to make up with the help of 'friendly' alliance partners, the very groupings the PM has said are 'family-run'.
"We are confident of getting an absolute majority. If that situation (hung assembly) arises then everything depends on election results," Akhilesh Yadav, President of Uttar Pradesh Samajwadi Party, told PTI.
The combine of the Congress and the Rashtriya Lok Dal will emerge as the single largest party in the forthcoming Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, according to yet another survey commissioned by the party. The survey also indicates that the real battle will be between the Congress and the BJP, with the latter making considerable gains since the last election and winning in 113 constituencies.
Sharat Pradhan examines how Mulayam Singh Yadav's foreign-education son is transforming the Samajwadi Party.
The ruling Bahujan Samaj Party has finalised its list of candidates for a number of places for the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections slated to be held in 2012.
Given the vital role played by cyberspace in new-age electioneering, the UP police have constituted a digital monitoring cell to curb objectionable and defamatory social media posts on the eve of the elections.
The Congress has kicked off the Uttar Pradesh assembly election campaign against state Chief Minister Mayawati with the party signaling in no uncertain terms that Rahul Gandhi would be at the centre stage of the fight for UP, a battle which is set to last for the next one year as Hindi heartland's biggest state becomes the battleground.
Without taking any name, Prasada hit out at the regional parties in the wake of Akhilesh Yadav, the chief of Uttar Pradesh's main regional party, of late making consistent attacks on the ruling BJP.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Uma Bharti on Wednesday said that she accepted full responsibility for the party's poor showing in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly election.
The overall market breadth was negative as 1,844 stocks declined against 986 advancing ones, on the BSE.
Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Delhi has been sent as a special officer to oversee the counting process in Meerut and Bihar's CEO to Varanasi.
The Samajwadi Party on Monday said it would provide free electricity to weavers and farmers and waive loans of kisans if it was voted to power in the Uttar Pradesh assembly election.
Sources in various parties suggest that two lakh votes of the Patel community, locally known as OBC kurmi, for which mother-daughter led Apna Dal (S) and Apna Dal (K) are competing and over one lakh of OBC Rajbhars would be crucial in deciding the outcome of the assembly seats in Varanasi.
The Janata Dal-United has decided to contest the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections by itself, Sharad Yadav said at Bengaluru on Monday.
Rashtriya Lok Dal chief Ajit Singh on Friday said that his party is in the process of holding talks with the Congress for the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections to be held next year.
Former chief minister of Madhya Pradesh Sadhvi Uma Bharti on Tuesday claimed in Lucknow that she will be back in the Bharatiya Janata Party in "another 2-4 days."
The Congress would go to the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections without a chief minister face but will fight under the watch of general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, whom the state party chief Ajay Kumar Lallu described as a 'storm' that will help sweep the polls.
On chances of taking uncle Shivpal Yadav's Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party Lohia along in the polls, he said, "I dont have any problem in this. He and his men will be given due honour".
An Allahabad high court bench of Justice Shekhar Yadav had on Thursday last urged the government and the poll panel to consider postponing the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections for a month or two and banning all political rallies amid the fears of an impending third wave of Covid.
Bharatiya Janata Party leader Uma Bharti on Wednesday said though the party has faith in Hindutva and the Ram temple issue, they would not be its political agenda for the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections scheduled for early next year.
The campaigning for phase one of Uttar Pradesh assembly election on February 10 ends on February 8 evening.
The Bharatiya Janata Party in Uttar Pradesh will be reduced to its 2012 tally of 47 or thereabouts as the wind is blowing in favour of the Akhilesh Yadav-led coalition this election, says Swami Prasad Maurya who left the saffron party to join the Samajwadi Party last month.
The ruling party appears to have worked to a plan, beginning with the weaning away of Congress MLC and MLAs.
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