He came to power with a huge mandate in 2012, but Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav has now forfeited the voters' trust.
The ruling SP declared the candidates for nine assembly seats besides changing the candidates of 14 constituencies ahead of the 2017 UP polls.
Earlier on Wednesday, the district court ruled that a priest can perform prayers before the idols in a cellar of the Gyanvapi Masjid, a significant development in the legal battle over the mosque adjacent to the Kashi Vishwanath temple.
'His way of communication is different than the first yatra.' 'Maybe his anger and frustration stems from the fact that no one is asking hard questions to the government and he is trying to do that.'
Home to several Yadav family bastions, Phase III of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly Elections is especially crucial for the Samajwadi Party.
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.
A meeting of Opposition parties, organised by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, will be held in Patna on June 23, his deputy Tejashwi Yadav said on Wednesday.
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday said the National Population Register and the National Register of Citizens were against the poor people and minorities of the country, while asserting that he will not fill up the NPR form. Addressing a press conference at the Samajwadi Party headquarters, he said, "Be it the NPR or the NRC, these are against the poor people, minorities and Muslims of the country."
A voter turnout of over 40 per cent was recorded till 1 pm on Monday in the fourth phase of Lok Sabha elections in 96 constituencies spread over 10 states and Union Territories amid incidents of violence in Andhra Pradesh and reports of poll boycott in some villages of Uttar Pradesh.
Consensus emerged on the appointment of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge as the chairperson of the opposition Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA), while Janata Dal-United chief Nitish Kumar's name was proposed for the convener's post, pending approval of parties absent at the alliance meeting on Saturday, according to sources.
BJP sources suggest that the upcoming elections will likely revolve around the renewed enthusiasm for the temple unless another theme with religious and nationalist undertones emerges.
Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav and warring uncle Shivpal were conspicuous in their absence.
Taking potshots at the Bharatiya Janata Party, some opposition leaders also wondered if Goel resigned to contest the Lok Sabha polls on its ticket like former Calcutta high court judge Abhijit Gangopadhyay.
This is the first full-scale review of VIP protectees by the Union home ministry after the Modi 2.0 government took charge.
"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.
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 time Modi has no emotive message to take to the stump. Muscular nationalism doesn't work against the backdrop of China's successive inroads into Indian territory. Rising prices is a sore point that cuts across class and caste barriers; unprecedented levels of unemployment has the youth in a ferment. This has reduced the BJP campaign to a laundry list of recycled grievances and thinly veiled communal appeals, neither of which are working as well as they have in the past, argues Prem Panicker.
According to insiders, their lack of enthusiasm is showing on the ground. There is nothing to suggest that their enthusiasm will return in the final four phases of polling, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
'Laluji is like my father and I am like his son.'
Kumar also asserted that his efforts should reap benefits for the younger generation, "for people like (his deputy) Tejashwi Yadav".
The notable names in the BJP's first list include Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Varanasi, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh from Lucknow, Hema Malini from Mathura, Ajay Mishra Teni from Kheri, Smriti Irani from Amethi, Lallu Singh from Faizabad (Ayodhya) and Mahendra Nath Pandey from Chandauli among others.
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 June 23 meeting of opposition parties, called by Bihar Chief Minister and Janata Dal-United leader Nitish Kumar, will see anti-BJP players chalk out a strategy for the Lok Sabha polls.
Discarded Indian pacer Praveen Kumar has joined Samajwadi Party on Sunday ahead of the upcoming Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls. Kumar, who has represented India in six Test matches and 68 ODIs, said that he met UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav and took the decision to join his party. "I have met CM and decided to join the party. I will do whatever is possible for the party," Kumar told reporters after meeting the CM, who is also state president of SP.
Party sources said the UP CM was "upset" over sacking on Friday of his two close aides -- Sunil Yadav alias Sajan and Anand Bhadauria.
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 police on Wednesday detained the father and uncle of the accused. The other accused, Sajid's brother Javed, is absconding, the police said.
If there is one lesson that should be heard by every political party it is that both candidates and campaigners need something more than a famous surname to push them over the winning line. T V R Shenoy lists the lessons of Election 2012.
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".
People had also started gathering at Mukhtar Ansari's residence in Ghazipur and there was a large deployment of security personnel around the house.
The stakes are significant for the BJP in this round as the party had in 2019 won an overwhelming majority of these seats, including all in Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, that will go to polls on May 7.
With the assembly poll results in three states being a disappointment for the Congress, some rumblings have begun among the constituents of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) ahead of their meeting on December 6, with many leaders alleging that the grand old party ignored others, but was unable to win elections on its own.
Harping on putting up a united front, the Congress alleged that democracy is being "mercilessly murdered" and MPs who raise people's issues are suspended from the House.
Asthana was sent on a forced leave after the CBI registered a case of corruption against him. His plea to quash the FIR was rejected by the Delhi high court.
The Super 30 initiative took shape six years ago as an experiment. Today, it has exceeded all expectations.
Prayers were performed in a cellar of the Gyanvapi mosque in Varanasi on Wednesday night following court orders allowing the resumption of a practice said to have been discontinued three decades back, Kashi Vishwanath temple trust president said.
Besides Yadav, the CBI is likely to question Gayatri Prajapati, who was arrested in 2017 following a complaint of rape by a woman residing in Chitrakoot.
Three MLAs of Uttar Pradesh's ruling Samajwadi Party, including Mahendra Singh who was arrested from a dance bar in Goa, were suspended from party membership for their alleged involvement in anti-party activites.
A voter turnout of 60.19 per cent was recorded till 5 pm in the third phase of Lok Sabha elections in 93 constituencies spread over 11 states and Union Territories on Tuesday with sporadic incidents of violence in West Bengal.
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.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances