Mayawati was outmanoeuvred by the BJP in the race for the Rajya Sabha in Uttar Pradesh just days after she helped the Samajwadi Party snatch two Lok Sbaha seats from the saffron party in bypolls.
Three prisoners, including a member of Bahujan Samaj Party MLA Mukhtar Ansari's gang, were shot dead inside the Chitrakoot district jail on Friday after which the Uttar Pradesh government suspended two jail officials, police said.
Maurya resigned as the party's national general secretary on February 13, accusing the leadership of discriminating against him and not defending him over his controversial statements on the Ramcharitmanas and the Ayodhya temple consecration ceremony.
"The court of Additional Sessions Judge/First MP-MLA Court Durgesh also imposed a fine of Rs 5 lakh on Mukhtar and Rs 1 lakh on Afzal," ADGC Criminal Neeraj Srivastava said.
The bypolls were conducted for two Assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh, one each in Meghalaya and Odisha and the Jalandhar Lok Sabha constituency in Punjab.
Among the seven seats which witnessed a stiff contest between the BJP and the regional parties, the saffron party held three and the Congress two, while the Shiv Sena and the RJD had one each.
District authorities have filed a case against 10 political and community leaders including ex Bahujan Samaj Party MP Kadir Rana and former Uttar Pradesh minister Saeeduzama of Congress for allegedly making inflammatory speeches.
These are the 15 seats to watch out for in Rajasthan where assembly elections will be held on November 23. The state has 200 constituencies.
The assembly bypolls in Bihar and Maharashtra, scheduled for November 3, are set to be the first electoral test of the popularity of the respective state governments after a change in the political alignment.
Singh defeated Bharatiya Janata Party's Dara Singh Chauhan in the bypoll to the Ghosi Assembly constituency in Mau district with a margin of 42,759 votes on Friday.
Terming the incident as serious, UP CM Yogi Adityanath has ordered a probe.
While Nagaraj made no clear announcement of taking back resignation, the same was affirmed by Shivakumar while speaking to media outside Nagaraj's residence.
Rebels in the Bahujan Samaj Party have attacked their party chief Mayawati for her "extortionist tendencies," with BSP's Rajya Sabha MP Jugal Kishore calling her "daulat ki beti".
'Educated Muslim women overwhelmingly voted for me because of Modiji's stand on triple talaq.'
Hours after Uttar Pradesh labour and employment minister Swami Prasad Maurya quit his post, his daughter and the Bharatiya Janata Party's Badaun MP Sanghamitra Maurya on Tuesday claimed her father has not joined any party and will reveal his strategy in a couple of days.
Voting began on Thursday in the by-election to seven assembly constituencies in six states -- a contest symbolic of the fierce turf war between the Bharatiya Janata Party and regional parties.
'The tragedy with Indian Muslims is that they do politics from the heart, not from the head.'
Disgruntled Janata Dal-United leader Upendra Kushwaha on Monday resigned from Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's party, less than two years after returning to the party, and announced formation of the 'Rashtriya Loktantrik Janata Dal'.
'Can you imagine that Surat's voters won't have any say now in exercising their fundamental right to choose a candidate of their own choice? This is what the BJP has reduced India's democracy to.' 'With this ugly act, in one stroke, the BJP has disenfranchised the voters of Surat.'
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.
The statement of Gudha came after former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi batted for the "one-man, one-post" concept in lines with the party's Chintan Shivir reforms amid possibility of Gehlot contesting election for the post of national president of the party.
The Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress remain the most dominant political forces in Chhattisgarh, though the state has several regional outfits that have pockets of influence, while the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is making a determined bid to challenge its well entrenched rivals and make a mark in polls to the 90-member House.
Muslims constitute 20% of UP's electorate. Currently, Muslim voters are divided between Akhilesh's SP and Mayawati's BSP. What will tilt the balance? Can Muslims back the winning party? Mohammad Sajjad explains the mysteries of UP's Muslim politics.
Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju said the police had initiated action in the case.
The murder of Atiq and his brother and the police encounter with his son have raised many questions about the propriety of how crime is tackled by the Yogi government. But Yogi knows he has the support of the people who are fed up with crime holding the state to ransom for decades, asserts Ramesh Menon.
The FIR, in which 15-20 unnamed people were also mentioned, was registered at the Gurubuxganj police station in Rae Bareli.
Members of the community held a meeting with social justice department officials in Jaipur, according to a statement.
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.
A court in Varanasi on Monday convicted gangster-politician Mukhtar Ansari in the murder of Congress leader Awadhesh Rai more than 30 years ago.
'Every Congressman in Rajasthan is in Ashok Gehlot's pocket.'
With the Yogi Adityanath government taking credit for cracking down on criminals and making it an election issue, political parties are now having a rethink on aligning with those who have a criminal background but also enjoy influence in their areas.
Shah on Sunday tweeted a picture of their meeting and welcomed the Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party leader to the NDA.
After hearing, the high court dismissed the petition as the Speaker had passed the order on BJP MLA's complaint to disqualify the BSP legislators.
According to media reports, Singh made objectionable remarks on Mayawati over an infamous episode when the BSP chief was reportedly assaulted by Samajwadi Party workers at a guest house in Lucknow in 1995 that triggered decades of animosity between the two parties.
The Punjab assembly on Monday "unanimously" passed the confidence motion moved by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on September 27, even as Congress members staged a walkout.
The Union minister asked Gandhi to "follow the law "and secure acquittal from a higher court.
Speaking to ANI, Asha (mother of the arrested accused Lovelesh) said, "Pata nahi uske naseeb mein kya likha tha (Don't know what was written in his destiny)."
Officials said most of the preparations are complete and the counting will start at 8 am on Saturday.
The Congress secured 43.90 per cent vote share as it wrested Himachal Pradesh from the Bharatiya Janata Party, winning 40 seats in the 68-member assembly in the hill state which maintained its tradition of voting the incumbent government out of power since 1985.
Gangster-politician Atiq Ahmad on Wednesday claimed that he was being harassed in the Sabarmati Central Jail in Gujarat.
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