The Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) gave a huge blow to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance by winning 43 seats out of total 80 Lok Sabha seats of Uttar Pradesh, as per the Election Commission.
'The Constitution of India defeated the BJP.'
Mukhtar Ansari's Quami Ekta Dal's merger with the Samajwadi Party last year had triggered turmoil in that party.
The states and union territories where the elections are being held in this phase are Assam (4), Bihar (5), Chhattisgarh (7), Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu (2), Goa (2), Gujarat (25), Karnataka (14), Maharashtra (11), Madhya Pradesh (8), Uttar Pradesh (10) and West Bengal (4). The BJP has bagged the Surat seat unopposed.
The BSP-Congress tie-up is a done deal. Only the formalities need to be gone through and announced.
The SP president and the RLD chief announced the tie-up on social media for the general elections later this year.
However, the BJP is sceptical about the SP-BSP alliance as they believe Mayawati and Akhilesh will "finish off after fighting among themselves."
Voting for the second phase of Lok Sabha polls will be held on Friday for 88 seats in 13 states with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi seeking a second-straight term from Wayanad in Kerala.
Apart from the 18 members of the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA), including the Bharatiya Janata Party, seven non-National Democratic Alliance parties will attend the ceremony, going by their stated position on the issue which has snowballed into another political flashpoint between the ruling and opposition camps.
The BSP is contesting on 20 seats in Karnataka election with an alliance with Janata Dal-Secular while the SP is contesting on 27 on its own.
About 82 per cent of the total income from unknown sources declared by national political parties in 2022-23 came from electoral bonds, according to a poll rights body.
However, the national party count has gone down to six from 14 in over seven decades.
The four-time MLA and OBC leader joined the saffron party in presence of Bharatiya Janata Party president Amit Shah.
All 13 candidates in the fray in Indore against Lalwani, who won by a potentially record margin votes, lost their security deposit, indicating they were clearly rejected by the voters. If a candidate gets fewer than one-sixth of the total valid votes cast in a constituency, his/her security deposit is seized by the EC.
Mayawati added that the BSP's relationship with the SP is never going to end and she will try to ensure that their relationship stays intact.
Ajay Kumar Lallu said the party has emerged as the main challenger to the "oppressive" UP government and the 'winds of change' were blowing in the state.
"The BJP tried every trick to defeat the BSP candidate and indulged in malpractices," the BSP supremo alleged.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati, and Shiv Sena-Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray were among the famous faces who queued up at the polling booths on Monday to caste their votes in the fifth phase of the Lok Sabha elections.
The two parties named the seats distributed among them in a statement signed by SP president Akhilesh Yadav and BSP chief Mayawati.
Sources said the committee is also expected to underline its unhappiness at the conduct of some opposition members during its proceedings and make a mention of it in its recommendations to the House.
Vijay has a lot of young and middle-aged women fans, but as voters, they are possibly now with the DMK, or remain with the AIADMK. Recapturing this constituency would have helped Vijay's political launch and the GOAT script and dialogues could have gone a long way in helping out. But the kind of script and screenplay and the unusually and equally unnecessary long run-time (3 hours, 3 minutes) that GOAT offers takes the film experience over the heads of those that are not familiar with secret agents and uranium theft in Tamil cinema, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
The ruling Congress, voted to office in 2018 after 15 years in opposition, and the Bharatiya Janata Party are the main contenders for power in the state, where the Aam Aadmi Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party and some regional outfits are also in the fray.
'His way of communication is different than the first yatra.' 'Maybe his anger and frustration stems from the fact that no one is asking hard questions to the government and he is trying to do that.'
Members from the Jayant Chaudhary's Rashtriya Lok Dal too were part of the group, their participation seen as another indication that the party is all set to switch sides from the SP to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.
Shinde welcomed the former Rajasthan minister to the Shiv Sena and said Gudha left the ministerial position for the cause of people.
Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla has referred MPs' complaints on the issue involving BJP member Ramesh Bidhuri's use of objectionable words against BSP's Danish Ali to the Privileges Committee, sources said on Thursday.
Describing Mayawati as a "living goddess", the ruling BSP in Uttar Pradesh, facing a hail of criticism over the garland issue, says it will continue to weigh its party supremo in gold and silver.
Anil Singh, the Unnao MLA, said, "I am with Maharaj-ji (Adityanath)."
The BSP, which fielded nearly 100 Muslim candidates, won only four out of the 77 assembly seats dominated by Muslim voters.
"We don't agree with the ideology of the Congress. But we will support it to keep the BJP out of power," Mayawati said.
Here's the full list of 49 MPs suspended from Lok Sabha:
Muslims have been given tickets in 36 of the 100 seats.
The notable names in the BJP's first list include Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Varanasi, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh from Lucknow, Hema Malini from Mathura, Ajay Mishra Teni from Kheri, Smriti Irani from Amethi, Lallu Singh from Faizabad (Ayodhya) and Mahendra Nath Pandey from Chandauli among others.
Opportunistic face of SP has come before the people: Yogi Adityanth.
The Lok Sabha's Privileges Committee, headed by BJP member Sunil Kumar Singh, took up other issues on the agenda as Bidhuri, who was campaigning for the party in poll-bound Rajasthan, kept away.
However, there was no official word from the Lokpal.
He was billed as the next big thing in Dalit politics in Uttar Pradesh and a challenge for the Bahujan Samaj Party but Mayawati's party is least impressed by the exploits of Chandrasekhar Azad 'Ravan' let alone consider him a threat.
Reacting to the results, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said that in the by-elections held on 13 seats in seven states, the people of the country have given their support to the INDIA bloc.
Defections have become the order of the day in Uttar Pradesh. And on Saturday suspended ruling Bahujan Samaj Party member of Legislative Assembly Guddu Pandit switched loyalties to the Samajwadi Party.
The BSP leader stuck to her remarks and told reporters after the protest that she stands by what she has said.
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