For Adityanath, it's not just a chance to reaffirm his dominance in Uttar Pradesh, it's an opportunity to solidify his narrative as a vote-winner.
In the backdrop of the Muzaffarnagar police's order asking eateries on the Kanwar yatra route to display their owners' names, senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader and former Union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi on Thursday said it may spread the 'disease of untouchability'.
Prajapati and two other convicts Ashok Tiwari and Ashish Shukla were present in the court when the judgment was pronounced.
Akhilesh said that the defeat of the Dalit candidate would cement his party's relations with Mayawati-led BSP.
'Amar Singh witnessed some of the major political developments from close quarters'
Espousing an aggressive pro-backward and Dalit stance synchronising with the Maurya controversy, the SP has thrown down the gauntlet with Akhilesh upping the ante on the burning topic, reports Virendra Singh Rawat.
'...if elections were to be held today.' 'The problem is Akhilesh is not very aggressive.' 'Had he started his campaign aggressively six months ago, the picture in UP would have been very different.'
A government school teacher, his wife and two daughters were allegedly shot dead at their rented accommodation on Thursday, over a month after the family lodged a first information report (FIR) against a man saying he would be responsible if something untoward happened to them, police said.
Police said they had received a complaint from one Ravindra Singh, a pilot with SAR Aviation Service Private Limited, who alleged that his firm's helicopter was stolen. Singh claimed that the chopper was taken away in parts in a truck by some people in May. He claimed that he was assaulted when he confronted those people.
Janata Dal-United chief Sharad Yadav on Wednesday shared the dais with Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav on the inaugural day of SP's national convention in Lucknow, fuelling speculation about their joining hands.
Rattled by Samajwadi Party's rout in Lok Sabha polls, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday sacked 36 leaders having status of minister of state in his government but ruled out his resignation.
Mulayam laid bare his anger for the first time after the SP's defeat in the UP assembly election fought under the leadership of Akhilesh.
The SP president and the RLD chief announced the tie-up on social media for the general elections later this year.
A win for SP could provide some consolation for Akhilesh Yadav after the defeat in the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections early this year and the loss of Azamgarh and Rampur Lok Sabha seats to the BJP in June bypolls.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav has showered praise on the multiple and extravagant monuments and parks built by his bete noire -- Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati.
"Let them show whatever they have got. We are winning with a majority," Akhilesh Yadav said, dismissing predictions to the contrary on some TV channels.
Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera called the order "state-sponsored bigotry".
The Congress party may not give a walkover to Samajwadi Party President Mulayam Singh Yadav and his chief minister son Akhilesh Yadav in their respective constituencies at the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
Discredited and ousted Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh was understood to be behind the protest demonstrations at a function organised by Uttar Pradesh Urban Development and Minorities Welfare Minister Azam Khan on his home-ground, Rampur on Monday.
On Tuesday, Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi accused BJP MP Anurag Thakur of "abusing and insulting" him during the Lok Sabha discussion on the Union Budget.
'At no point did Kamal Nath and Digvijaya indicate that the Opposition bloc was formed only to fight the Lok Sabha polls.'
In a surprising turn of events, Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav on Sunday pulled up his son's government in Uttar Pradesh, saying that the Akhilesh Yadav government only spoke of 'foundation laying' and not inauguration of schemes.
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.
Amar Singh built an extensive network for the party, and was often spotted with celebrities, from the Bachchans to Anil Ambani to Subrata Roy.
Notwithstanding reluctance of some leaders of regional parties to make it public, UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav is strongly in favour of a Third Front to prevent communal forces from coming to power after the Lok Sabha elections
The Samajwadi Party and Congress have announced that they will contest together under the INDIA bloc.
Gleaning lessons from Amit Shah's compendium of Chanakya-isms, the Samajwadi Party is keeping its operations low-key and working on an inclusive strategy.
Controversy shrouds the expansion of the Akhilesh Yadav ministry on Monday with a social activist throwing a spanner by challenging before Governor Ram Naik the possible re-entry of tainted former Mines Minister Gayatri Prajapati.
The eligible bachelor said 'I-do' at a farm house in Delhi, in the presence of his parents Lalu Prasad Yadav and Rabri Devi, his eight siblings and their families
He also claimed that corrupt persons and officials had joined hands with the government during the previous regime when Akhilesh was the chief minister and the same thing was happening in the present dispensation.
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.
The 90-minute meeting is being seen as an attempt at reconciliation between Shivpal, a Cabinet minister, and Akhilesh after intervention of the latter's father Mulayam.
A photograph of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat sitting with Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav has set tongues wagging in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh, with the Congress taunting that the S in SP means the Sangh.
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.
Parties like the Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party, Mahaan Dal, and Janvadi Party-Socialist had distanced themselves from the SP after its defeat in the 2022 state assembly elections.
The sources said the Congress is the binding force for the opposition bloc and the stronger the Congress emerges the better for the alliance.
'It was a disaster on his part to give an oral remark which allowed ascertainment of the religious character of places of worship.' 'This disrupted the social harmony of the country.'
The much speculated expansion of the Uttar Pradesh cabinet will take place on Thursday. Chief Minister Aklhilesh Yadav, who gave indications to that effect on Tuesday, is all set for enlarging the size of his 56-member council of ministers.
Rahul Gandhi, who was also present at the event, refused to comment on UP CM's proposal.
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.
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