With the RLD part of the NDA now, Sanjeev Kumar Balyan would expect an easier contest than five years back when the RLD, SP and BSP had an alliance.
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.
They were all fielded by the Samajwadi Party and its alliance partners.
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.
Rajesh Shukla, the lone SP MLA in Madhya Pradesh, along with an MLA of the Bahujan Samaj Party and an independent legislator joined the BJP in Bhopal on Tuesday in the presence Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.
The meeting came a day after Rashtriya Lok Dal president Ajit Singh met the Congress chief for a tie-up in Uttar Pradesh.
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.
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.
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.
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?"
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.
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.
Unconfirmed reports said one person was killed in the mob violence but Senior Superintendent of Police Sunil Gupta claimed he had no such information.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Opposition leaders saw the move also as yet another bid by Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav to impress Muslim minorities.
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.
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.
Speaker Manohar Joshi has decided to call an all-party meeting to discuss how to ensure smooth functioning of the House.
A three-member Lucknow bench of the court in a 2-1 verdict declined to settle the issue of disqualification of the deserting BSP MLAs, saying the issue can be decided only by the Speaker.
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.
In another jolt to the Bahujan Samaj Party, Mayawati's once trusted lieutenant and former minister R K Chaudhary on Thursday quit the party accusing her of "auctioning" tickets to contest assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh.
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.
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