Prolonged parleys with different power centers led to several hiccups before Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav could induct four new faces in his team in Lucknow on Thursday. The total tally of council of ministers is now 60.
Amar Singh built an extensive network for the party, and was often spotted with celebrities, from the Bachchans to Anil Ambani to Subrata Roy.
The hi-tech customised rath of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on Thursday broke down after barely covering a kilometre, forcing him to switch to his official vehicle to continue his state-wide tour.
Attacking the central government, he said it has made everybody stand in queue and wondered if this was the 'achche din' for which people had voted for Narendra Modi. "It has harmed the economy," he said.
The past two years have been all about navigating the choppy waters of family connections, complicated intrigue and courts of appeal that have a tendency to cross each other out
To repeated questions, the SP chief asserted that the Congress was 'very much in the alliance'.
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.
'Rahul Gandhi should have prevented Nitish Kumar from going.' 'He must pacify Mamata Banerjee if he has a cause of Mohabbat Ki Dukaan.' 'He should bring this Mohabbat Ki Dukaan on the political canvas.'
The Congress and the Left parties have not only extended support to the Samajwadi Party candidate but are also campaigning for him, in accordance with the spirit of the new opposition togetherness ahead of next year's general election.
Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav's son Akhilesh said he would give credit to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for Raj Babbar's landslide victory in the recent Lok Sabha by-poll at Firozabad.
With the state going to polls soon, Akhilesh Yadav needs to step out of his father's shadow and come into his own as the state's CM.
This is dil ka alliance, mil ke jeetenge (It is an alliance of heart, we will win together)... says Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi while addressing a joint press conference with Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav.
Those whose cover has been reduced include Samajwadi Party chief and former Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav, leaders Shivpal Yadav and Azam Khan, Dimple Yadav and Ram Gopal Yadav, and Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati.
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.
Kumar also asserted that his efforts should reap benefits for the younger generation, "for people like (his deputy) Tejashwi Yadav".
Facing strident demands for the arrest of Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiya booked in the DSP murder case, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday promised to take action against those found guilty.
The SP chief said they will now "consult" the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Gondwana Gantantra Party for the Madhya Pradesh polls.
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.
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.
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'.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and demanded smooth transfer of funds for Central schemes like Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Gurantee Act and asked for help in holding the forthcoming Kumbh festival, cleaning of the Ganga and coal supply to the state.
The Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that the Central Bureau of Investigation probe into the alleged disproportionate assets of Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and his son, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, would continue.
Even as Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav has been busy fighting his father and Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav to take control of the party, his step-brother Prateek Yadav has kept himself away from the hullaballoo and has been busy building his biceps.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday said the decision to join the United Progressive Alliance government at the Centre in the changed political scenario would be taken by Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav.
Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav was in his elements once again on Monday when he chose to run down ministers in his son Akhilesh Yadav's government at a public rally in Mau.
Two weeks before the Samajwadi Party's awesome victory in the UP assembly election, Akhilesh Yadav spelled out his priorities in an exclusive interview to Rediff.com
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav's wife Dimple is likely to try her luck at the hustings once again. Her name was already being projected as the Samajwadi Party frontrunner for the forthcoming by-election for the Kannauj Lok Sabh seat, vacated by none other than her husband after he became UP chief minister.
"Mulayam Singh is the first choice of party legislators, members of Parliament and senior party office bearers. He has experience of running the government and he will be the CM, if party is voted to power", Akhilesh said in reply to a question
'The consecration of Ram Lalla in Ayodhya has demoralised them.' 'And, now it is reflecting in their individual reactions as they are losing hope to take on the BJP in 2024.'
The group led by Akhilesh Yadav is the Samajwadi Party and is entitled to use its name and reserved symbol bicycle, the three-member Election Commission headed by Nasim Zaidi said in its order.
Akhilesh said people feel that they have been misled (by the BJP) for forming the government.
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.
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.
The chief minister said the Congress-Samajwadi Party alliance will win an overwhelming majority in the assembly polls and get more than 300 seats in the 403-member House.
Modi, who has stepped up his attack on Akhilesh in recent days, also said that the chief minister is to be blamed if people of the state which he ruled for five years do not see 'achche din'.
Kabaddi players participating in an event in UP's Saharanpur were seen with plates and containers having rice inside a toilet.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi greets 93-year-old Lilabai Chitale during the party's Bharat Jodo Yatra at Patur in Akola. Lilabaiji went to jail in 1942 when she participated in the Quit India Movement of 1942.
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.
SP to field Mulayam's daughter-in-law in bypoll