Kumar, a Dalit, as its candidate for president against NDA's nominee Ram Nath Kovind.
'Rahul is misguided by a handful of family retainers who don't want him to show unrestrained initiative in forming allies.' says Sudhir Bisht.
According to an insider, "Winning is all that matters to the BJP. The leaders were warned that he was an undesirable character but they said look at his victory margin."
The Bahujan Samaj Party has resisted giving up the bungalow on 13-A, Mall Avenue, saying that it had been converted into a memorial to Kanshi Ram in 2011, and the BSP leader occupied just a small portion of it.
Several politicians said they were not even aware of the provision in the UP Act.
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.
The Akali Dal-BJP alliance won on four seats and the AAP bagged one.
The EC announced on Friday evening that out of eight parties only Sharad Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party and the CPI-M accepted the dare. Friday was the last date to enlist for the challenge.
Oppn members went into the area of treasury benches carrying a black banner, which demanded Shah's resignation, as Speaker Om Birla continued with proceedings of the House.
The National Democratic Alliance government will completely review the security provided to more than 150 VIPs by the previous United Progressive Alliance regime following completion of the upcoming budget session of Parliament.
'When he was killed, did you ask questions of the Muslim community? When we spoke of 'aar-paar' you are asking questions.'
'This time, even the professedly secular parties have maintained a conscious distance from being identified with Muslims.' 'This could be interpreted as a success of the BJP campaign of what it has been calling 'minority appeasement', says Mohammad Sajjad.
The April 11 polling will decide the fate of several political bigwigs.
The opposition parties also alleged that the gangster was killed to protect the UP government.
The Ambedkar statue that was vandalised in Badaun's Dugraiyya village on April 8 was repainted saffron on April 9.
Some lawyers in the Congress argued against upsetting the judiciary. It was a tongue lashing from Sharad Pawar that spurred the Congress and other parties to go ahead with their move.
The decision was announced by Ghulam Nabi Azad in New Delhi at a press briefing.
Coming down hard on the Akhilesh Yadav government for the Badaun gangrape case, Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati on Sunday said transferring and suspending officers will not help and the Samajwadi Party to tighten the noose around its own patymen.
Opposition parties questioned the law and order situation in Uttar Pradesh, where elections are due next year.
The average asset of a Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament is Rs 20.17 crore, says a report by the Association for Democratic Reforms. It also says that 67 per cent of Rajya Sabha MP's are crorepatis.
The fate of 1,351 candidates will be sealed by 1.63 crore voters in high-stakes multi-cornered contest in Haryana which goes to polls on Wednesday with top guns including the kin of the three famous 'Lals' battling it out in the state.
'They must take the bull of conservatism within their own ranks by its horns as much as they need to speak out against the fallacies of the non-Hindutva (or 'Muslim-friendly') political forces as well,' argues Mohammad Sajjad.
Former Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal and four-time MP on Tuesday filed his nomination papers for the Chandigarh Lok Sabha seat, polling for which will be held on April 10.
The kisan is as integral a part of the BJP's master plan for the 2019 polls as the Dalit because it surmised that the farmers and Dalits were as restive in UP as in much of the country, and if it had to cut its losses, its reflexes must kick in fast. Radhika Ramaseshan reports.
Modi and Shah's next focus will be South India, and the Maharashtra and Jharkhand assembly elections. Shah is unlikely to abdicate control over the party even after he joins the government. Modi and Shah both know only too well that the party makes the government, and not the other way round.
'The BJP has been tinkering with the Indian Constitution every now and then.' 'Instead of celebrating November 26 as Constitution Day, the BJP was more interested in (the VHP's) Dharam Sabha which was called that day.' 'This shows they believe more in the Ram mandir than in the Constitution.'
Fourteen ministers are from the Congress, nine from its ruling coalition partner Janata Dal-Secular and one each from the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Karnataka Pragnyavantha Janatha Party.
While other parliamentarians were locked into heated debates over the Gujarat Dalits' protests, Rahul could be seen taking a power nap.
A number of royals have thrown their hat in the ring in the high-voltage Uttar Pradesh assembly elections.
The fate of 961 candidates, including Union ministers Giriraj Singh, Subhash Bhamre, S S Ahluwalia and Babul Supriyo of the BJP and former Union ministers Salman Khurshid and Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury of the Congress, will be decided by about 12.79 core voters in the fourth phase.
From lining up allies to having them accept him as the Opposition's prime ministerial candidate in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Congress president Rahul Gandhi's real challenge has just begun, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
It is likely that small parties would be given very few seats to contest, but these parties believe that they would be able to swing the result in favour of bigger alliance partners by transferring their vote bank.
Piqued by the Congress' sustained tirade against the Bharatiya Janata Party's election campaign committee chief Narendra Modi following his multi-pronged attack on the ruling party, BJP on Wednesday replied by dubbing Congress as the "most communal" party suffering from "Modi-phobia".
Shivpal Yadav will contest the elections from Jaswantnagar, the constituency sought for him by SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav.
BJP leader Narendra Modi on Sunday attacked Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav accusing them of indulging in vote bank politics and "misleading" Muslims in the name of secularism.
The Congress on Sunday said it will give a "good fight" to Bharatiya Janata Party leader Narendra Modi on Varanasi seat and did not rule out fielding an outsider.
The Congress, the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Community Party of India-Marxist have all called for the resignation of Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar following the violence that broke out after the conviction of Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim on Friday.
Bukhari also backs Trinamool Congress but says no support to SP and BSP. Kavita Chowdhury reports.
The BJP's losses in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, where the UP CM had addressed nearly 75 rallies, has put a big question mark on his ability to deliver in high-octane contests, reports Virendra Singh Rawat.
The government assured the Opposition that reservation to Anglo-Indians will be considered later.
