The Samajwadi Party on Tuesday suffered a major setback when it lost the prestigious Firozabad Lok Sabha seat, with party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav's daughter-in-law losing to actor-turned-politician Raj Babbar of the Congress, by a huge margin of over 85,000 votes. Babbar, a former Member of Parliament from Agra who rebelled against the SP and joined the Congress before the Lok Sabha elections in May, secured 3,12,728 votes while Dimple Yadav got 2,27,385 votes.
Despite being arch detractors on the home turf of Uttar Pradesh, Mulayam Singh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party and Dara Singh Chauhan of the Bahujan Samaj Party will have to sit next to each other in the first row in the Lok Sabha.
Dumpy said, 'Congress has failed to counter communal forces or do anything concrete for the cause of minorities and dalits.'
Capping its impressive showing in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, the Bahujan Samaj Party also swept the three Lok Sabha bypolls for Mirzapur, Robertsganj and Bilhaur.
R K Singh Patel, a sitting MLA from Chitrakoot-Karvi, joined SP in the presence of state PWD Minister Shivpal Singh Yadav.
BSP candidate Virendra Singh defeated SP's Anil Rajbhar, son of Ramjit Rajbhar, whose death necessitated the bypoll, by 3,510 votes.
The petition had challenged UP Governor Shastri's decision to invite Mulayam Singh Yadav to form government without considering Mayawati's recommendation for dissolution of the assembly.
The rebels have formed a separate outfit, the Loktantrik BSP, and sought its merger with the Samajwadi Party.
The meeting came a day after Rashtriya Lok Dal president Ajit Singh met the Congress chief for a tie-up in Uttar Pradesh.
Mulayam Singh Yadav's son took exception to certain remarks made by a BSP member against his father.
The seat had fallen vacant after a court held the earlier held null and void the earlier election.
'It is an existential crisis. We cannot recover lost ground through social media. We need to forge alliances and reshape our ideological contours.'
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.
On Tuesday, 49 opposition MPs were suspended for the remaining part of the session for disrupting proceedings, taking the total tally of suspended MPs in Lok Sabha to 95.
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.
In a sensational turn of events which could seriously affect the United Progressive Alliance's chances in the July 22 trust vote, Samajwadi Party Rajya Sabha MP Shahid Siddiqui, a close aide of Mulayam Singh and Amar Singh, has quit and joined the Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party.
The Uttar Pradesh chief minister also accused the Congress-led coalition of treating SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav with kidgloves despite a similar case pending against him and his family, and wondered, "What is the political pressure behind this?"
The ruling Bahujan Samaj Party has won the by-elections to all five constituencies, two Lok Sabha and three Vidhan Sabha seats, which went to polls on April 12. BSP candidate Bhismshankar alias Kushal Tiwari won the Khalilababad Lok Sabha seat by a margin of over 64,000 votes, trouncing his nearest rival Bhalchandra Yadav of SP. BSP nominee Akbar Ahmad Dampi won the Azamgarh Lok Sabha seat defeating his nearest rival Ramakant Yadav of BJP by a margin of over 53,000 votes.
The June 23 meeting of opposition parties, called by Bihar Chief Minister and Janata Dal-United leader Nitish Kumar, will see anti-BJP players chalk out a strategy for the Lok Sabha polls.
Unconfirmed reports said one person was killed in the mob violence but Senior Superintendent of Police Sunil Gupta claimed he had no such information.
Results coming out of Lok Sabha polls show that parties like Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party and Tamil Nadu's Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam managed to corner a large number of votes but failed to convert them into seats, while parties with lesser vote share have got seats to show in their kitty.
I was not ready to spend money and they demanded money. I don't want to use money in politics. Unfortunately in the BSP, money has become everything. There is a mafia working in the party that controls everything.
An India TV-C Voter exit poll showed the SP securing 23 to 27 seats, the BJP 13 to 17, the BSP 11 to 15 and the Congress two to six seats from today's voting.
The closure of Reliance Fresh outlets in Lucknow is a boost for the Samajwadi Party.
Ahmed, who has been declared a proclaimed offender in Bahujan Samaj Party MLA Pal's murder case by a trial court in Allahabad, said he feared for his life.
The chief minister also stated in unambiguous words that while dealing with the complaints the government would proceed in accordance with the law and irrespective of the caste, creed and political affiliations of the guilty.
Opposition leaders saw the move also as yet another bid by Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav to impress Muslim minorities.
The SP has offered 11 seats to the Congress and seven seats to the RLD for the upcoming parliamentary elections.
The ruling Samajwadi Party on Tuesday wrested from the Bahujan Samaj Party two assembly seats, including one represented by the BSP chief, Mayawati, before her resignation.
It was curtains down on the high-decibel campaigning for the fourth phase of the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls as sparring among political rivals intensified during the last-minute canvassing on Monday.
UP Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya said the BJP parliamentary board and its national leadership will decide under whom the upcoming state assembly elections will be fought.
The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) defeat in the Bhadohi Assembly by-election in Uttar Pradesh last month was a big blow. Not only was this the first major setback for the Mayawati-led BSP, but also showed the flaws in the first-Lucknow-next-stop-Delhi project.
'The Mulayam government pressurised officials, IG-Range, DIG, and SP-STF were transferred, even I was made to resign within 15 days'
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