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.
Members from the Jayant Chaudhary's Rashtriya Lok Dal too were part of the group, their participation seen as another indication that the party is all set to switch sides from the SP to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.
SP veteran Mulayam Singh Yadav claimed that there was "no discord".
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 best-case scenario is that the BJP will top out at around 50 seats in UP -- a drop of 12 from the 62 it had won in 2019. Taken in tandem with Maharashtra and Karnataka, this is what is likely to put paid to the BJP's ambitions of a third term for Modi, argues Prem Panicker.
Even though Mulayam Singh decided which ministers to drop and which ministers to lose their portfolios, the reshuffle is being projected as a reflection of Akhilesh Yadav's assertive self.
Addressing a press conference in Lucknow on Monday, he sought to emphasise that he had charted out a comprehensive development plan for the state.
Mulayam to return to Mainpuri seat.
Controversial Uttar Pradesh politician Raghuraj Pratap Singh -- better known as Raja Bhaiya -- who was dropped from the Akhilesh Yadav ministry, is all set to be re-inducted into the government on Friday.
Chandauli Superintendent of Police Ankur Agarwal said a team of police had gone to the house of a sand trader in Manragpur village of the Saidraja area on Sunday.
Swami Prasad Maurya, who recently stirred controversy over his remarks on Ramcharitmanas, and veteran leader Azam Khan are also among the 14 national general secretaries.
Polling on three graduates and two teachers constituencies of the council was held on January 30 and counting of votes by ballot began on Thursday evening and was completed on Friday.
The 700-page report tabled in the state assembly on Sunday said the riots, following the murder of two persons by a youth from a minority community in Kawal town on August 27, 2013, took place as the then inspector of intelligence unit Prabal Pratap Singh failed to give an exact number of people going to attend a mahapanchayat at Mandaur.
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.
The districts where polling is being held on Thursday are Ambedkar Nagar, Balrampur, Siddharth Nagar, Basti, Sant Kabir Nagar, Maharajganj, Gorakhpur, Kushinagar, Deoria and Ballia.
As questions remained whether the killing of a police officer in which Raja Bhaiya has been booked was planned, a postmortem showed the victim was beaten up before being shot dead.
Controversial Uttar Pradesh Minister Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias 'Raja Bhaiya' resigned on Monday and faced possible arrest after he was booked for alleged conspiracy in the killing of a police officer over which a Central Bureau of Investigation probe will be ordered.
The Yogi Adityanath government on Wednesday transferred 20 senior IAS officers, shunting out Principal Secretary-Information Navneet Sehgal and others who wielded considerable influence under the Akhilesh Yadav dispensation.
The SP chief went to his father's residence to invite him to the October 5 national executive meeting, party MLC Sunil Singh Yadav said.
Spread over 10 districts, polling in these constituencies will be held from 7 am till 6 pm on Thursday.
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.
Who would be footing bill for what was supposedly a "family affair" could be anybody's guess.
The Congress vice president has eyes on the larger objective of his partnership with Akhilesh, which may provide the template against the BJP in 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
Amarinder, 75, was sworn in as the state's 26th chief minister along with nine ministers, including Navjot Singh Sidhu.
The Bihar CM and Rahul, through their emissaries, have been in touch to shape an alliance with the Akhilesh Yadav-led SP faction as its head.
The sixth round of Uttar Pradesh assembly polls will see voting for 57 seats on Thursday sealing the fate of political heavyweights such as Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, the Congress' Ajay Kumar Lallu and Samajwadi Party's Swami Prasad Maurya.
SP chief Akhilesh Yadav and MP Ramgopal Yadav accompanied 44-year-old Dimple during the filing of nomination papers at the District Magistrate's office in Mainpuri.
Home to several Yadav family bastions, Phase III of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly Elections is especially crucial for the Samajwadi Party.
Facing criticism over his remarks about deaths at riot relief camps in Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh Sports and Youth Welfare Minister Narad Rai on Sunday said death cannot be averted and people died at the camp despite all arrangements by the government.
She waited for the call promised by her son in the evening but only got the heartbreaking news that Indian Air Force pilot K Praveen was no more.
State deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya among 692 candidates are contesting on 61 seats spread across 12 districts in the fifth phase.
Samajwadi Party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav's demise might not have any direct political impact on the party, but its president Akhilesh Yadav will now have to work without his 'shield and shadow'.
The number of policemen injured in them was 1,443 and 13 were killed, the data showed.
Campaigning for the fifth phase ended on Friday evening, and all necessary arrangements have been completed, state Chief Election Officer Ajay Kumar Shukla said in Lucknow on Saturday.
While people voted in a fifth round that will set the tone as this election rounds into the straight, and while Modi on the stump chews the cud of personal grievances and hackneyed promises that have long since passed their use-by date, there is a rogue wave rising -- what damage it will do, we will know 16 days from today, observes Prem Panicker.
To maintain dignity of the House, government was forced to place this proposal of suspension, minister Pralhad Joshi said
In a letter to his father and party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav, the chief minister declared his intention to commence his yatra, which was put off last month after the open turf war with his uncle Shivpal Yadav.
Former district panchayat member Prem Yadav, 50, was attacked with sharp edged weapons and killed by his rival Satyaprakash Dubey and his family when he went to the latter's house. In retaliation, Yadav's supporters from Abhaipur attacked Dubey's house and killed Dubey and four of his family.
A day after the Central Bureau of Investigation gave a clean chit to independent MLA Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiyya in Deputy Superintendent of Police Zia-ul-Haq's murder case, the former Uttar Pradesh minister met Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav fuelling speculations about his re-induction as minister in the government.
The stringent National Security Act (NSA) has been invoked against two people lodged in jail for allegedly burning photocopies of extracts from the Ramcharitmanas, officials said on Monday.
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