The Uttar Pradesh assembly was paralysed on the opening day of the winter session on Monday, when Bahujan Samaj Party members trained its guns on the Samajwadi Party government headed by Akhilesh Yadav.
Consensus eluded an all-party meeting called on FDI issue on Monday even as Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party provided comfort to the government by not insisting on voting and Trinamool Congress springing a surprise by speaking in a similar tone.
Virtually stroking the fire on the suddenly hyped issue of reservation to the Jat community, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati on Wednesday blamed the Congress-led central government for its continued dilly-dallying.
The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, Samjawadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party will have to change, modify or amend their stand on Foreign Direct Investment in retail to break the deadlock in Parliament, says Sheela Bhatt
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Arun Jaitley is expected to table the report of Rajya Sabha's Select Committee on Lokpal in the Upper House on Friday, the second day of the winter session of Parliament. The committee is headed by Congress leader Satyavrat Chaturvedi and such reports are usually tabled by the chairmen of the committees. The government is expected to consider the recommendations made by the Select Committee.
Rajya Sabha could not function on the first day of the winter session of Parliament, with issues like Foreign Direct Investment and reservation to Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes in promotions triggering an uproar that led to its adjournment for the day.
Bracing for an opposition onslaught in Parliament, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will host a dinner for United Progressive Alliance leaders on Friday to firm up a joint strategy on various issues like Foreign Direct Investment that are expected to come up during the session beginning next week.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Sunday reached out to Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati ahead of winter session of Parliament, but she remained evasive on her party's stand on plans by Trinamool Congress to bring a motion against Foreign Direct Investment.
In a major relief for former Uttar Pradesh chief minister and Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati, the Allahabad high court on Monday dismissed petitions against her in the Taj Corridor case.
Former minister in the Bahujan Samaj Party government in Uttar Pradesh Babu Singh Kushwaha has alleged that he is being trapped into the National Rural Health Mission scam as a part of a conspiracy hatched by senior bureaucrats.
Talking tough, Chief Election Commissioner S Y Quraishi on Wednesday said Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati should think before criticising the EC order to cover her statues and Bahujan Samaj Party's poll symbols in government parks.
As soon as Speaker Meira Kumar concluded her reference on International Women's Day, SP members began raising slogans demanding dismissal of the Uttar Pradesh government, complaining that it was showing "dictatorial tendencies".
Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati on Tuesday received support from unexpected quarters on the issue of covering elephant statues in poll bound UP with Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi terming the decision as 'ridiculous'.
Scores of Samajwadi Party workers were arrested in Allahabad on Monday while staging a demonstration as part of the party's statewide stir against the Bahujan Samaj Party government even as the Leader of Opposition in the state Legislative Council was kept in "preventive detention."
All major functionaries of the party are expected to attend the function, but government officials have been told to keep away from the event. Sharat Pradhan reports from Lucknow.
Hours after the work of draping the statues of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati and Bahujan Samaj Party's election symbol elephant was completed, the parks in which they were installed in Lucknow have been closed for the public till the assembly polls get over. There are nine such parks including Manyavar Kanshiramj Green Eco Garden at VIP Road, Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar Samajik Parivartan Sthal, Gomtinagar and Smriti Upvan, Ashiana Kanshiram Smarak, Jail Road.
Claiming shunted IAS officer Kunwar Fateh Bahadur has been appointed principal secretary to Chief Minister Mayawati, opposition parties in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh on Wednesday asked the Election Commission to remove him from the post immediately.
The induction of former Bahujan Samaj Party leader Babu Singh Kushwaha is a sign of the Bharatiya Janata Party's nervousness on the Uttar Pradesh battlefield. It is also the result of the BJP's intra-party tensions, analyses Sheela Bhatt
Dozens of statues of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati and numerous that of elephants (which also happens to be ruling Bahujan Samaj Party's election symbol) in and around parks and memorials built by her in Lucknow and Noida were being hurriedly veiled from Monday morning by officials in pursuance of the Election Commission's order.
Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday said the United Progressive Alliance government at the Centre was on a "ventilator", supported by Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party, which were always talking about mid-term polls. BJP leader M Venkaiah Naidu said the UPA government was the "worst and corrupt government," and the country hadn't had such a government since independence.
Hours after he joined the Bharatiya Janata Party, ousted Bahujan Samaj Party minister and former Mayawati confidante Babu Singh Kushwaha was raided by the Central Bureau of Investigation early on Wednesday morning.
Neerja Chowdhury analyses why BSP supremo Mayawati is bargaining hard with the UPA government
Out of the candidates announced so far, 65 are below the age of 50 years and 19 are women, he said.
In a surprise move, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati sacked two more of her ministers on Wednesday evening, taking the number of dropped ministers over the past two months to six.
'When the assembly elections happened in West Bengal, it was predicted that Mamata didi will win only by a thin margin but she won with a huge margin'
Three women, including a Bahujan Samaj Party leader, who levelled some allegations against two ministers and staged a demonstration in front of Uttar Chief Minister Mayawati's cavalcade during her surprise visit in Aligarh, have been arrested, a senior police official said.
Uproar over a member's alleged harassment by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's security personnel in Parliament precincts forced the adjournment of the Lok Sabha for nearly two hours on Wednesday. Bahujan Samaj Party and Samajwadi Party members rushed into the Well as soon the House reassembled at noon after an earlier adjournment, demanding action against the Special Protection Group personnel responsible for the incident, in which BSP MP Rama Shankar Rajbhar was manhandled.
Submitting its closure report before a special court in Lucknow, the Central Bureau of Investigation on Friday stunned all and sundry by concluding that Lucknow Deputy Chief Medical Officer Y S Sachan had "committed suicide" in the Lucknow district jail on June 22, 2011. His body had been discovered in an abandoned toilet of the prison.
In an interview with CNN-IBN Editor-in-Chief Rajdeep Sardesai, the West Bengal Chief Minister questioned the stability of the Centre saying Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati may bail out the government for now, but people won't bail them out in future.
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.
The Uttar Pradesh government on Thursday slapped the Gangster's Act on mafia don-turned-Bahujan Samaj Party MP Dhananjay Singh who was arrested last week in connection with a double-murder committed in 2010.
Communist Party of India-Marxist leader Sitaram Yechury on Sunday said that he does not see any prospect of early election in the country even though the Trinamool Congress may have withdrawn its support to Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government.
Both Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party might be thoroughly opposed to the United Progressive Alliance government's recent decision to allow FDI in retail as well as the hike in diesel price, but neither of these parties are likely to immediately part ways with the UPA.
Political parties and leaders wait with bated breath for the Haryana and Jammu-Kashmir assembly poll results on Tuesday.
Former Bahujan Samaj Party minister Naseemuddin Siddiqui, indicted in the memorial scam, on Tuesday questioned the legal status of the Uttar Pradesh Lokayukta as Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav asserted law would take its own course in the matter.
Uttar Pradesh Lokayukta indicted 199 government officials, including two ministers, in the Rs 1,410 cr memorial scam. However, the omission of then chief minister Mayawati from the list has raised eyebrows. Sharat Pradhan reports
Pointedly blaming Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi for the United Progressive Alliance's government's nod to Foreign Direct Investment in retail, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati made it clear on Saturday that she would oppose the move tooth and nail."The Bahujan Samaj Party will launch a strong movement against the policy in case the UPA government manages to get the approval of Parliament," she declared.
While giving a call to oust the Bahujan Samaj Party government from Uttar Pradesh, Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi on Thursday urged the people to bring the Congress to power in order to see a transformed state.
Rejecting Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati's request to allow Parliament to pass reservation in promotion bill, Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday decided it will continue to force adjournment of both the Houses on coal block allocation issue.
