The first of the two-phase urban local body polls in Uttar Pradesh will take place on Thursday, a major poll battle in the politically crucial state ahead of the 2024 parliamentary elections.
Mayawati said the "chaiwala" prime minister has now turned "chowkidar" and this shows the "change" India witnessed under this government.
SP-Congress alliance is likely to consolidate Muslim vote in their favour.
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.
Several SP leaders fear Muslim voters may shift loyalty, which will benefit rivals like the BJP.
All India Congress Committee general secretary in-charge of Uttar Pradesh Ghulam Nabi Azad said the party would not react immediately and would come out with a detailed reaction in Lucknow on Sunday.
The opposition on Tuesday termed as an 'election jumla' the women's reservation bill brought by the government with many leaders raising questions over the proposed legislation, contending it doesn't account for reservation for OBC communities and that it will be effective at the earliest by the 2029 Lok Sabha polls.
Four Sukhoi jets flew down from Bareilly and four Mirage 2000s from Gwalior and skimmed the six-lane highway in simulated landings, a first for any road inauguration event.
The government on Tuesday introduced a constitutional amendment bill reserving 33 per cent seats for women in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies, reviving a proposal pending for years and blending history, politics and societal imperatives on the first day in the new Parliament building.
The ruling party is worried as the alliance represents over 50 per cent of the state's population, reports Virendra Singh Rawat.
Twenty months after he had pushed his son Akhilesh Yadav to the forefront of politics and crowned him as the youngest chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, Samajwadi Party President Mulayam Singh Yadav is trying to once again project himself as the poster boy of his party.
The party will also leave two seats for the Apna Dal, and entered into an electoral agreement with the lesser known Jan Adhikar Party.
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.
60-year-old Yadav was the leader of Azad Bharat Vidhik Vaicharik Kranti Satyagrahi, an outfit claiming to owe allegiance to Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose whose members had encroached on Jawahar Bagh area for two years and clashed with police on Thursday when they tried to evict them.
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.
Under Election Commission guidelines, campaigning has to end 48 hours before the close of polls for each phase.
As the Opposition held its first meeting on the Presidential polls and names of Farooq Abdullah and Gopalkrishna Gandhi also cropped up, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party reached out to several parties across the political spectrum to build a consensus choice with senior party leader and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh speaking to Sharad Pawar, Mallikarjun Kharge (Congress), Mamata Banerjee (Trinamool Congress), Akhilesh Yadav (Samajwadi Party) and Naveen Patnaik (Biju Janata Dal).
SP leader Akhilesh Yadav has successfully poached a number of OBC leaders from the ruling party, including Swami Prasad Maurya, in his efforts to broaden his party's social base beyond the traditional Muslim and Yadav votebank to take it on this time round.
PM also came up with new acronym of Vikas--V for 'vidyut', K for 'kanoon vyawastha' and S for 'sadak'.
Meanwhile, the Congress said that that it is ready to go it alone in Uttar Pradesh in the Lok Sabha election.
'These guys who are running away -- they are running away from all that the BJP stands for.'
The BJP campaign highlighted Yogi's persona as a tough-as-nails leader and an incorruptible man with no nest to feather; Modi's charisma which was turned on full blast in the penultimate phases; Amit Shah's ground work; a well-oiled party organisation, and the RSS's back-up.
Counting began at 8 am under multi-tier security cover. At first, postal ballots will be counted and then EVMs opened.
Party chief Chaudhary Ajit Singh and Jayant Chaudhary will decide on the number of seats the party will contest and the matter may be discussed during a meeting in the next few days
73 constituencies will vote on Saturday.
Why are the 'secular' parties silent about the lynchings on our streets? Are they so busy forging political alliances that they ignore the numerous distortions of Constitutional values?
In the same breath, the RPI-A leader said, "No one can challenge Prime Minister Narendra Modi -- neither Congress president Rahul Gandhi, nor SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, nor BSP supremo Mayawati."
The woman was gang-raped on September 14 following which she was admitted to the AMU's Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College and Hospital in Aligarh.
Shah had on Tuesday attended a party event in Lucknow where he said that the Opposition is spreading rumours about the CAA.
The Uttar Pradesh government's oft-repeated claims about the success of the 2013 Kumbh Mela have fallen flat, with the Comptroller and Auditor General pointing out various failures and pitfalls in the mega event.
With Lok Sabha poll results just a week away, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday said it did not believe in 'political untouchability' and was open to support from any party.
Rahul Gandhi had earlier indicated that he might be present at the Patna rally.
According to the findings of the CSDS-Lokniti survey, the BJP saw a marginal increase in its support among the Muslim voters as compared to the 2017 assembly elections.
The class 12 English exam of the Uttar Pradesh secondary school board was cancelled in 24 districts after the question paper was leaked hours before the beginning of the test on Wednesday.
Her tone and tenor was clear and unflinching as she vowed to storm back to power in 2017,
Faceless Ambedkarite groups from across the country are running BSP's election war rooms, writes Archis Mohan.
Addressing a rally in Lucknow in support of the CAA, Shah threw the challenge for the debate to Rahul Gandhi, Mamata Banerjee, Akhilesh Yadav and Mayawati. He also declared that the construction of a Ram temple 'touching the skies' in Ayodhya will begin within three months.
'Congress and BSP are in the fray, but not in the contest.'
Deriving from Narendra Modi's continuing charisma, the proposed scheme, if and when implemented, can cut both ways. That is to say, if Modi can win, he can lose. Or, someone else in his place, later on, could lose as much as he could win in his time, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
'The Modi-Shah duo won't leave the war zone without putting up a tough fight.' 'Modi's slogan for 2019 could well be, "I have done much. Give me one more chance to do even more".' '2019 will be tough for the BJP.' 'But it will be even tougher for the Opposition -- united or otherwise,' says R Rajagopalan.
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