What some of our leaders were up to this week.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar was an experienced leader and it would be great if a proposal came to make him the convenor of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA), his deputy Tejashwi Yadav said on Wednesday.
Earlier in the day, rich tributes were paid to Yechury at the Communist Party of India (Marxist) headquarters at the AKG Bhavan here, where his mortal remains were brought from his residence in the morning.
The incident sparked a political blame game in the state where bypolls to nine assembly seats will be held on November 20. Opposition parties blamed the BJP government in the state and said the deaths raise serious questions about the negligence of the administration.
Curbs under Section 163 (power to issue an order in urgent cases of nuisance or apprehended danger) of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), which were set to expire on Sunday, have now been extended till December 31 in Sambhal.
At least 30 people were killed and 60 others injured in a pre-dawn stampede at the Sangam area of the Maha Kumbh early on Wednesday as crores of pilgrims jostled for space to take a holy dip on the occasion of one of the most auspicious days of Mauni Amavasya, officials said.
Maurya resigned as the party's national general secretary on February 13, accusing the leadership of discriminating against him and not defending him over his controversial statements on the Ramcharitmanas and the Ayodhya temple consecration ceremony.
Although Mulayam Singh has made public his preference for Akhilesh as his successor, younger son Prateek's presence in the rival camp hasn't gone unnoticed.
The ruling SP declared the candidates for nine assembly seats besides changing the candidates of 14 constituencies ahead of the 2017 UP polls.
Another meeting convened by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge at his residence in New Delhi on Wednesday with the floor leaders of the INDIA constituents in Parliament will, however, go ahead according to its schedule to formulate the opposition strategy for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
What some of our leaders were up to in the last couple of days.
Few in Varanasi expect the result to be different from 2014 and 2019. The only point of interest is whether Narendra Modi will increase his winning margin against his rivals.
Soon after getting formally installed as Uttar Pradesh chief minister, Akhilesh Yadav has got down to giving shape to his core team of bureaucrats, many of whom were known to have been loyalists of his father and Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav.
This dictatorial attitude with the help of police will not be tolerated, Yadav said.
The BJP had registered a one-sided victory on all the 17 SC-reserved seats in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. But in 2019, out of these 17 seats, it lost Nagina and Lalganj seats to the Bahujan Samaj Party.
"The government is afraid of oath ceremony of a student leader and is stopping me at the airport to prevent me from visiting Allahabad," the SP chief claimed.
Mulayam said his son had promised to leave the post of party president after staying at the helm for three months, but he did not do so.
Saini's elevation as Haryana chief minister fits in with a pattern that has gathered pace in the BJP after the Congress and its allies like the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh and the Rashtriya Janata Dal in Bihar began making an aggressive bid to woo the largest group of communities and politically most significant, especially in Hindi-speaking states, by pushing for a caste census.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his deputy Tejashwi Yadav on Wednesday met Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge in New Delhi in the presence of Rahul Gandhi.
Kumar also asserted that his efforts should reap benefits for the younger generation, "for people like (his deputy) Tejashwi Yadav".
Party sources said the UP CM was "upset" over sacking on Friday of his two close aides -- Sunil Yadav alias Sajan and Anand Bhadauria.
Amid the raging feud in Mulayam Singh Yadav's family, Samajwadi Party leader Ramgopal Yadav on Thursday said the leadership had committed a "mistake" by removing Akhilesh Yadav as party's UP president and that "differences" had arisen due to some "misunderstanding".
The electoral battle in Varanasi, according to locals and political experts, is not about whether the PM will win for a third successive occasion, but if he will increase his share of the votes polled and his win margin.
Bypolls to 10 assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh will be a litmus test for the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA)'s unity after the group's success in the recent Lok Sabha polls when they won more than 40 seats, significantly contributing to the Bharatiya Janata Party's failure to win a simple majority in parliament.
Bharti accused the media of distorting her statement, attributing it to the BJP's agenda.
The Supreme Court on Friday questioned the Bihar government as to why it published its caste survey data but refused to restrain it from making public further data, and said it may examine if the state has power to conduct such an exercise.
Sixty-eight Rajya Sabha members, including nine Union ministers, are completing their tenure this year, triggering a race of sorts among leaders across political parties to eye a six-year term in the Upper House of Parliament.
Campaigning for May 13 elections in 96 Lok Sabha constituencies across 10 states and Union territories including all seats in Andhra Pradesh, where assembly elections are also being held concurrently, and Telangana concluded on Saturday evening.
'They are trying to stoke emotions to build fear.' 'They have done nothing and that is why they are trying to divert attention.'
The war in Samajwadi Party was far from over on Sunday with a defiant Ram Gopal Yadav declaring Akhilesh Yadav as party president at the national convention in Lucknow which was declared as "unconstitutional" by supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav.
The sources said the Congress is the binding force for the opposition bloc and the stronger the Congress emerges the better for the alliance.
The BJP attacked Kejriwal after he refused to comment on the Maliwal "assault" matter during a press conference in Lucknow. He was flanked by Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav and AAP Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Singh.
To repeated questions, the SP chief asserted that the Congress was 'very much in the alliance'.
Through the yatra the UP CM would try to send the message that he was in the driver's seat, notwithstanding all the hue and cry within the party.
'Laluji is like my father and I am like his son.'
The announcements were made as per the compromise formula worked out by SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav who asserted that "There can be no division in the party."
This is the first full-scale review of VIP protectees by the Union home ministry after the Modi 2.0 government took charge.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Saturday hinted that a meeting of opposition leaders may take place in Patna after the crucial Karnataka assembly polls were over as many would be busy electioneering there.
Banerjee said the prime minister will now have to move around the country and also abroad with two crutches.
'At no point did Kamal Nath and Digvijaya indicate that the Opposition bloc was formed only to fight the Lok Sabha polls.'
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