Bharatiya Janata Party MP Harsh Vardhan on Friday alleged that some people with vested interest have 'dragged' his name into a row over certain objectionable remarks made by his party colleague Ramesh Bidhuri in the Lok Sabha.
The BJP had registered a one-sided victory on all the 17 SC-reserved seats in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. But in 2019, out of these 17 seats, it lost Nagina and Lalganj seats to the Bahujan Samaj Party.
Bharatiya Janata Party MPs Sunny Deol and Sanjay Dhotre were among those who missed casting their votes in the presidential poll on Monday.
Jannayak Janta Party, which had emerged as the kingmaker last assembly polls, was decimated this time round, while the Indian National Lok Dal also failed to create much impact, with prominent leaders of both outfits Dushyant Chautala and Abhay Singh Chautala losing their seats.
Opposition leaders have slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party over its Lok Sabha member Ramesh Bidhuri, who is in the eye of a storm for his derogatory comments against Bahujan Samaj Party MP Danish Ali, being given poll responsibility by the party in Rajasthan's Tonk district.
Akhilesh Yadav's stock rose dramatically on Tuesday with his Samajwadi Party cutting the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party down to size in Uttar Pradesh.
Lodhi, who represented the Bada Malhera assembly seat in Chhatarpur district, joined the BJP at the ruling party's state headquarters in the presence of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.
Behind its high-decibel campaign, powered by well-organised party machinery, the BJP also appears to have made a slight departure from its 'next generation' approach to stay ahead of an aggressive Congress and enhance its prospects of securing a majority of seats.
S P Singh Baghel and B L Verma who made it to the Union council of ministers on Wednesday are two prominent Other Backward Classes leaders from Uttar Pradesh.
The SP chief said they will now "consult" the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Gondwana Gantantra Party for the Madhya Pradesh polls.
'It is an existential crisis. We cannot recover lost ground through social media. We need to forge alliances and reshape our ideological contours.'
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader and party's candidate from Kalkaji, Ramesh Bidhuri, has yet again courted controversy by allegedly saying that after victory in the Delhi assembly polls next month, he will develop smooth roads in the constituency like Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi's 'cheeks'.
In the absence of Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee in the Rajya Sabha, a Bahujan Samaj Party member described her junior E Ahammed as a "duplicate minister" on Friday.
The Congress this time won six of the 10 seats reserved for the SC category, one less than in 2018.
'The Speaker should have asked Ramesh Bidhuri to withdraw his words and apologise.'
In a letter to the prime minister, Ali also demanded that he be provided enhanced security in view of an "escalation of threats" against him.
With all 29 under its belt, the BJP became the first political party to achieve such a feat after 40 years in Madhya Pradesh.
Gearing up for the upcoming state assembly polls, the Bharatiya Janata Partyon Wednesday named its organisational spearheads for the elections, putting Union ministers Dharmendra Pradhan, Pralhad Joshi, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat and Bhupender Yadav in charge for the contest in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab and Manipur respectively.
The response was tepid in other parts of the country even as several INDIA bloc parties as well as other non-BJP outfits extended their support to the bandh.
The BSP leader won the Bijnor Lok Sabha seat in 1989, her first electoral triumph.
"Nobody is sympathising with Atiq Ahmad because a criminal should be punished. But anyone who will see this video will question if we are a democracy. Every criminal has the right to be heard in court and be convicted there. But you can see they were killed in police custody in the open," he said.
Samajwadi Party candidate Afzal Ansari is the incumbent MP and slain don Mukhtar Ansari's elder brother. Afzal had won the 2019 election on a BSP ticket after defeating the BJP's Manoj Sinha, now the J&K lieutenant governor.
Fresh trouble seems to be on the cards for Bahujan Samaj Party MP Dhananjay Singh after a 42-year-old woman in New Delhi lodged a complaint against him of rape and criminal intimidation, police said on Thursday.
Terming Bahujan Samaj Party member of Parliament Shafique-din Barq's walkout from the Lok Sabha when the national song was being sung as "Taliban-like conduct", the Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday said such leaders do not have a right to be parliamentarians or even citizens of the country.
Earlier in the day, BSP supremo Mayawati said her party will make efforts to not field 'bahubali' (strongmen) or mafia candidates in the upcoming polls and announced that Ansari, who is lodged in a jail in Banda, will not be given a ticket from Mau again.
BSP is the first party in the state to release names of candidates for the forthcoming assembly polls. The list of 62 candidates from 31 districts included three women and one Muslim. Party sources said the BSP would try to repeat its success story in Uttar Pradesh. For the purpose, the party has roped in members of different castes, particularly Brahmins and Thakurs of the upper caste.
Allahabad has seen some interesting battles, such as the Congress's Amitabh Bachchan defeating H N Bahuguna in 1984 or the 1988 by-poll that marked V P Singh's emergence as the contender for the PM post.
Defying strong opposition from the Congress, the Madhya Pradesh government on Thursday passed a stringent anti-terror law, arguing it was the need of the hour and that it was not meant against any particular community. The Congress and the Bahujan Samaj Party, which wanted the legislation to be referred to a select committee, staged a walk-out and tore copies of the bill in the state assembly.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party has ridiculed the move as 'hypocrisy' saying Congress leaders had termed Lord Ram as an imaginary character.
Criminals and terrorists have no caste or religion, he said, adding that those who have suspicions on such police action can always approach courts for remedial measures.
Ahead of the Madhya Pradesh elections, Bharatiya Janata Party MLAs from Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Maharashtra have arrived in Bhopal as part of the ruling party's programme wherein every legislator will be allotted one assembly seat each that they are supposed to visit to take stock of the ground situation, party leaders said.
Police in Palwal said the accident occurred at about 1.15 am when Hasan was travelling from Mathura to Delhi in a Scorpio vehicle, which collided with a truck coming from the opposite direction near Banchari village on National Highway 2.
The party said it was 'an inexcusable slip-up', for which responsibility was being fixed and action would be taken.
Bahujan Samaj Party Member of Parliament Shafiqur Rahman Barq, who had walked out of Lok Sabha while Vande Mataram was being played, has been dragged to court by a social activist for "showing disrespect" to the national song. Pradip Tewari, in his petition filed in the Chief Judicial Magistrate's court of Pilibhit district on Monday, has also accused Barq of passing derogatory remarks against Vande Mataram, his counsel Sant Ram Rathore said.
Umesh Pal, the prime witness in the 2005 murder of Bahujan Samaj Party MLA Raju Pal, was shot dead outisde his residence in Prayagraj, the police said.
Don-turned-Bahujan Samaj Party member of Parliament Dhananjay Singh was arrested in Lucknow on Sunday evening in connection with his alleged involvement in a double murder case.
The Bahujan Samaj Party will not enter into any poll alliance while contesting the next Assembly election in Madhya Pradesh.
Thirty per cent of candidates contesting Madhya Pradesh assembly election on the Congress, the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party tickets have criminal cases against them, according to an analysis of candidates' affidavits released by watchdog Association for Democratic Reforms.
"The party will try to connect with these voters by organising 'Sneh Milan: Ek Desh, Ek DNA Sammelan' in various West Uttar Pradesh districts," he said, adding these conferences would start after Eid next month and the first convention will be held in Muzaffarnagar.
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