Uttar Pradesh Urban Development Minister Azam Khan, who shot into the spotlight for making a lot of hue and cry over his frisking by US security officials at Boston airport last week, is now off to South Africa,.
Akhilesh Yadav has instructed party MLAs to vote for opposition candidate Meira Kumar, SP patron Mulayam Singh Yadav and his brother Shivpal Yadav might go in favour of NDA's nominee Ram Nath Kovind.
The BJP and its allies won all assembly seats in Modi's Varanasi and Adityanath's Gorakhpur, and the SP bagged all 10 segments in Yadav's Azamgarh Lok Sabha constituency.
The ceremony on Friday will be attended by Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and chief ministers of Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled states.
Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav on Saturday showered praise on Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani and used his comments to lash out at his son Akhilesh Yadav's government in Uttar Pradesh.
Notwithstanding former Samajwadi Party general secretary Amar Singh's claims that his "illness" had forced to step down, party sources said it was a deliberate sideline by SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav's son Akhilesh Yadav that prompted Singh to withdraw in anger.
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.
Supension of senior IPS officer Amitabh Thakur, who was locked in a tussle with Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav, on Tuesday set off a political storm with the Opposition terming it an "act of revenge" by the ruling party.
The counsel, while repeatedly harping on the arguments that courts have no power to order a CBI probe, suggested that a "via media solution" could be worked out by ordering a judicial inquiry into the "disproportionate" assets.
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.
On Friday, former ministers Swami Prasad Maurya and Dharam Singh Saini, five BJP MLAs and one from the Apna Dal-Sonelal had crossed over to the Samajwadi Party.
Uttar Pradesh Minister Azam Khan, who was briefly detained on Wednesday at a United States airport, on Sunday, accused External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid of hatching a "conspiracy" to defame him outside India.
On Thursday, November 3, Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav will launch his Samajwadi Rath Yatra. The official launch of the party's election campaign, but also a way of assessing how much traction he has among the people.
In a bid to embarrass Narendra Modi and Amit Shah, Nitish Kumar has invited 'bujurg' Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani to attend his oath-taking ceremony.
The colourful rally galvanised the BRS workers who shouted slogans hailing the party-led regime's welfare schemes in Telangana and peppy political songs praised Rao's 'national' emergence.
The new faces in the state cabinet include former Indian cricketer Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Shovandeb Chattopadhaya, Kolkata Mayor Shovan Chatterjee, Abani Mohan Joarder, Abdur Rezzak Mollah, Suvendu Adhikari, Rabindranath Ghosh, Churamani Mahato, James Kujur, Siddikullah Choudhury, Asima Patra, Ghulam Rabbani, Zakir Hossain, Sandhya Rani Tudu, singer Indranil Sen, Tapan Dasgupta and B Hansda.
The expensive giant statues of Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati and party symbol elephant in Uttar Pradesh will remain safe with Samajwadi's star campaigner Akhilesh Yadav saying on Tuesday they will not be pulled down after the change of guard in the state.
"There is no matbhed (difference) or manbhed (ill feelings) among our leaders," Yadav said.
As BJP leaders went all out to project the event as a moment of national pride, some leaders were directly critical of the ceremony with Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, belonging to the Communist Party of India-Marxist, slamming the state's role in the Ram Temple consecration, saying the line that demarcates religion and state seems to be 'getting thinner and thinner'.
After being deserted by people whose battles he fought, Amar Singh is going to have another go at politics, says Aditi Phadnis
The panchayat polls or those for district panchayat chiefs are not held on a party symbol but candidates enjoy the tacit support of various parties.
Top leaders of Opposition parties will brainstorm at a meeting in Patna on Friday to chalk out a roadmap for the formation of an anti-Bharatiya Janata Party front for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, with sources saying that they would look to avoid the prickly leadership question and emphasise on common ground.
Mulayam announced that sacked minister Gayatri Prajapati will be taken back in the UP cabinet.
Finally waking up to the unabated indiscipline in his party rank and file leading to spate of violent incidents, Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav on Tuesday issued a terse warning to the newly-appointed members of his son Akhilesh Yadav's ministry, telling them to behave.
Expelled Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh said on Saturday that party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav's claims of being anti-English education were just a facade meant to gain political mileage.
In the recent past, Adityanath and the RSS seem to have come closer. The warmth is more on the part of the RSS. And even now, not all requests from the RSS are accommodated by the UP government, points out Aditi Phadnis.
A defiant Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav said, "We are going for polls... Will return again."
His father and Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav did not hesitate to appoint the most tainted bureaucrats at chief secretaries of the state during his last stint as chief minister of India's most populous state.
Pictures from the Saifai Mahotsav 2016.
In a major development in the ongoing Samajwadi Party feud, Mulayam Singh Yadav has postponed the national convention of party called by him on January 5.
For the second time in four days, Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav today expressed unhappiness over functioning of the government led by his son Akhilesh, and asked those in responsible positions to focus on "public interest" rather than "self interest".
Two groups -- one for a separate state of Telangana and the other for a united Andhra Pradesh -- are holding meetings in New Delhi and Lucknow to urge the government to rule in its favour. Vicky Nanjappa reports
A clerical error compounded by callousness of the higher bureaucracy has raised a storm over the already vexed Ayodhya issue.
In a setback to the main opposition Samajwadi Party, the BJP wrested both Rampur and Azamgarh Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh.
"Changes should be visible in six months and the manifesto should be implemented within a year as there is no guarantee when Lok Sabha elections are announced after that," Mulayam said, addressing party leaders and workers at a function to mark the 102nd anniversary of Dr Ram Manohar Lohia in Lucknow.
Some candidates in these two states have been provided security till the poll process ends.
Sources said the opposition parties would look to avoid the prickly leadership question as of now and emphasise on building a common ground.
'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.'
Urdu journalist cum politician Shahid Siddiqui, who made waves recently when he was sacked by the Samajwadi Party for interviewing Gujarat CM Narendra Modi for his paper, spoke to Neerja Chowdhury on Uttar Pradesh, the goings on in the SP and the government led by it, of which he has had more than a ringside view.
In line with his plan for a complete makeover of the Samajwadi Party, Akhilesh Yadav, the party general secretary and son of chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, on Tuesday expelled a functionary for indulging in vandalism and showing black flags to Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi in Aligarh earlier in the day.