The Bharatiya Janata Party, for whom the temple town sharpened its Hindutva plank, is facing a challenge particularly from the Samajwadi Party in the ongoing state polls.
Chandrashekhar said he would ensure that PM Modi is not re-elected to the Lok Sabha from Varanasi.
After spending over two years in a Punjab prison, gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari was brought back to Banda jail early on Wednesday morning.
"All legislators will remain united and stay together till August 14," Congress chief whip Mahesh Joshi said after the CLP meeting chaired by Gehlot.
Extensive arrangements have been made due to the COVID-19 pandemic including personal protective equipment kits for election staff, more polling booths, thermal screening, sanitisers, masks and gloves for voters and markings to ensure social distancing, officials said.
This is the first time, since the JDU-BJP alliance came to power in 2005, that the saffron party has staked claim for the speakers post.
Major political parties in Uttar Pradesh on Saturday ensured victory for all their candidates despite cross voting in Rajya Sabha biennial polls in which senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal emerged triumphant against the Bharatiya Janata Party-backed Independent socialite Preeti Mahapatra.
In terms of electoral fortunes, in all likelihood, the status quo is not going to change in any significant manner. These six seats from Bihar are unlikely to give any clear signal to UPA, NDA or Federal Front.
Both the Independent legislators were absent on the first day of the session.
In a jolt to former Chief Minister Mayawati, the Uttar Pradesh Lokayukta has said public money worth Rs 1,400 crore was siphoned off in construction of memorials during her regime and indicted 199 people including her close aide and former BSP minister Naseemuddi Siddiqui.
Ahead of the 2019 elections, the race for consolidating the Dalit vote-bank has intensified among all the political parties, more so in Uttar Pradesh, where the community comprises almost 21 per cent of the population.
The party also declared sitting MP Praveen Nishad as its candidate from Sant Kabir Nagar
A number of royals have thrown their hat in the ring in the high-voltage Uttar Pradesh assembly elections.
May Prabhu Ram give strength to his family in the hour of sadness to bear the loss. May Prabhu Ram give consolation to people in the country who believe in his values, ideals, culture and traditions," Prime Minister Narendra Modi said wile praying tribute to Kalyan Singh.
Unnao Superintendent of Police Madhav Prasad Verma said the rape survivor, her paternal and maternal aunts along with their advocate met with an accident while on their way to meet her uncle, who is lodged in Rae Bareli jail.
Replying to the debate on the motion, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot criticised the Bharatiya Janata Party, accusing it again of trying to bring down his government.
Nandi had defeated, by a margin of more than 14,000 votes, Keshri Nath Tripathi who was a five-time MLA, and had served thrice as the Uttar Pradesh assembly speaker and was the BJP's state unit president at that time.
The decision was taken in a BJP legislature party meeting held here on Thursday. After the meeting, Kataria told reporters that the motion of no confidence will be moved in the assembly session beginning Friday. He said the proposal was being finalised.
"Had there been no demolition, probably the courts too would have ordered status quo," he said then. And his last wish, he said, was to live till the temple comes up.
Both the BJP and the JD-U abetted the LJP split but interestingly, independently. And there hangs a tale of conflicting interests, gamesmanship, subterfuge, and retribution, reports Radhika Ramaseshan.
'We have to work for our victories.' 'We have to offer a better alternative governance model.' 'Not just criticise the current government.' 'You have to build bridges, learn from what has gone wrong and create a party for all people.'
Nagaraj reached Mumbai accompanied by Karnataka BJP president B S Yeddyurappa's personal assistant Santosh and BJP MLA R Ashok.
The coalition government is on a shaky wicket with 16 MLAs -- 13 of the Congress and three of the Janata Dal-Secular -- resigning their assembly membership. Besides, two independent legislators, who were made ministers recently to provide stability, have quit the ministry and withdrawn support.
While the BJP has the numbers to send its eight candidates to the Upper House, its ally, Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party, which has four MLAs in the 403-member UP assembly, holds key to the fate its ninth nominee.
In Soraon, despite the tie-ups, Congress, SP, BJP and Apna Dal candidates are contesting against their allies.
Its allies Apna Dal (S) and Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party bagged nine seats and four seats, respectively, taking the total tally of the combine to 325.
"Vinay Kumar, alias Lambu, and a teenager have been held in connection with the case. The matter is a fallout of a one-side love affair. "The accused gave some pesticide with water to the three girls," Lucknow Range IG Laxmi Singh told reporters in Unnao.
Newly-appointed chief ministerial candidate Sheila Dikshit and state chief Raj Babbar came out all guns blazing against the SP, BSP and BJP.
Congress candidate Shafia Zubair won the Ramgarh assembly poll in Rajasthan, while BJP candidate Krishan Middha won over his nearest rival from the Jannayak Janata Party for the high-stakes Jind bypoll in Haryana.
Counting of votes will be held on Thursday for 51 assembly seats and two Lok Sabha constituencies spread across 18 states where by-elections were held two days ago.
Accompanied by party leaders Dimple Yadav, wife of SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, Rajendra Chowdhury and Kironmay Nanda, besides businessman Subrata Roy Sahara, Jaya Bachchan, who turns 70 next month, filed her nomination at the Central Hall of the state assembly.
Bahujan Samaj Party Member of Parliament Kadir Rana, two party legislators and former Uttar Pradesh minister Saeed-uz-Zama of the Congress are among 10 persons chargesheeted by the Special Investigation Team probing the Muzaffarnagar riots for provoking communal tension with inflammatory speeches during a Muslim community panchayat.
'If Yogiji has to run this government without any problems, he has to remain in power, and if he has to keep the BJP bosses in Delhi and the RSS happy, then he has no option but to do it.'
'Raman Singh will certainly be defeated by the alliance we have created," says Chhattisgarh's first chief minister Ajit Jogi.
'Vajpayeeji's BJP was democratic.' 'It was a BJP that belonged to its party workers. Every worker, every member was an Atal Bihari.' Today's BJP belongs to businessmen.' 'Modi and Amit Shah have reduced the BJP to a two-man party.'
83 MLAs from the BJP, 11 from the SP, four from the BSP, one from the Congress and three Independents have declared serious criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.
Aditi, a management degree holder from North Duke University, North Carolina, returned to India in 2013 and since then has been working for the constituency nurtured by his father, Akhilesh Pratap Singh, the sitting MLA.
The fifth-term Lok Sabha member is the mascot of the party's Hindutva-wrapped agenda of development as the BJP makes a final push in its bid to capture power in the state
With Maharashtra and Haryana assembly elections, results for 51 assembly and two Lok Sabha bypolls spread across 18 states were declared on Thursday. Here are state-wise results of the bypolls.
The ruling Congress on Wednesday swept the urban body polls in Punjab, winning six municipal corporations, emerging as the largest party in the seventh and bagging most of the 109 municipal council and nagar panchayats.
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