Mukherjee, along with Parliamentary Affairs Minister PK Bansal and Human Resources Development Minister Kapil Sibal, held meetings with BSP leader Satish C Mishra and RJD chief Lalu Prasad as the debate was underway in the Rajya Sabha in effort to woo them
The Constitution (116th Amendment) Bill was defeated in the Lok Sabha by a determined Opposition, helped by the absence of parties supporting the government from outside like the Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party and the Rashtriya Janata Dal
With the announcement of the dates of the forthcoming assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Manipur, Goa and Uttrakhand, political parties have sharpened their attacks on their rivals in order to score a political advantage and attract voters to their fold. Bharatiya Janata party leader Rajnath Singh claimed that Congress party's presence in UP polls would be insignificant.
The new Lokpal Bill was on Thursday at the centre of a fresh controversy before its introduction in the Lok Sabha, with the Rashtriya Janata Dal, Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party and All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen members protesting exclusion of minorities from the anti-graft bench of the proposed ombudsman.
Mayawati's eventful tenure in Uttar Pradesh seems to be heading for a change in the upcoming assembly elections, expected to be held in February-March next year.
A person cannot be entitled to Y or Z category security merely on the ground of being a former minister, the Supreme Court observed on Wednesday while declining to entertain the plea of a Bahujan Samaj Party leader from Uttar Pradesh. "If you, as a matter of fact, are not entitled under the rule for security you cannot be given security. This can't be given at the expense of the state exchequer," a bench comprising justices Gyan Sudha Misra and Madan B Lokur said.
The ruling Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh on Wednesday retained the Handia assembly seat by defeating its Bahujan Samaj Party rival by a comprehensive margin of more than 26,000 votes.
Newly appointed Union civil aviation minister and Rashtriya Lok Dal chief Ajit Singh on Sunday said his alliance with the Congress has now provided a "clear-cut alternative" to the people of Uttar Pradesh against the "oppressive" Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party government.
After her attempts attract Brahmins and Dalits, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and Bahujan Samaj Party president Mayawati is now all set to woo Muslims, Kshatriyas and Vaishyas.
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.
On being asked if she would choose to withdraw her party's support to the Congress-led Union government, Mayawati said, "I have convened a huge rally of the party in Lucknow on October 9, which will be followed by a meeting of our party national executive on the following day. There we will take a final call on the question of continuing our support to the UPA government."
The Criminal Investigation Department of the Uttar Pradesh government on Thursday filed a chargesheet against Bahujan Samaj Party member of Legislative Assembly Purshottam Naresh Dwivedi for allegedly raping a 17-year-old Dalit girl.
A total of 2,021 candidates filed their nomination papers for the December 4 polls on all the wards.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati on Thursday issued orders for the arrest of Bahujan Samaj Party member of Parliament Purshottam Naresh Dwivedi and his three aides after the Crime Branch submitted its preliminary report confirming that they gang raped a 17-year-old Dalit girl in Banda, about 180 km from Lucknow.
The Bahujan Samaj Party on Monday expelled former Family Welfare Minister Babu Singh Kushwaha, once a close confidant of Mayawati who was removed from her cabinet in the wake of the killing of two chief medical officers and the National Rural Health Mission scam.
Samajwadi Party and Shiv Sena on Thursday thwarted an attempt in the Rajya Sabha to take up for passage the contentious Bill providing for quota in promotion for Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes in government jobs.
Making a veiled attack on the Mayawati government, Congress General Rahul Gandhi said an "elephant" in Lucknow was eating away all the money sent by the Centre for the poor in Uttar Pradesh.
The swearing-in ceremony of the Mann's cabinet will be held at Punjab Raj Bhawan at 11 am, officials said.
The ruling Bahujan Samaj Party has finalised its list of candidates for a number of places for the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections slated to be held in 2012.
The Uttar Pradesh assembly on Monday passed Chief Minister Mayawati's proposal to split the state in four parts, by voice vote.
'This is not the first time I have refused to stand for this particular song and this will not be the last time,' Lok Sabha MP Shafiqur Rahman Barq tells Rediff.com's A Ganesh Nadar. 'I have no problems with Jana Gana Mana.'
A Bahujan Samaj Party member on Wednesday left the Lok Sabha as the national song was being played to mark the sine die adjournment of the Budget Session of Parliament, prompting an angry rebuke from Speaker Meira Kumar.
In the past five years, UP's Opposition remained passive and defensive against the BJP, a trend that does not augur well for the impending battle.
The party would consider aligning with any party after assessing the post-poll situation, she said.
Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati on Tuesday said her party was supportive of the black money issue raised by yoga guru Ramdev but she did not agree with the way he allowed National Democratic Alliance leaders to make speeches from his platform against other political parties.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati held an emergency meeting of senior government officials in Lucknow on Tuesday night after a blast shook the temple town of Varanasi killing a child and injuring 20 people.
Singh defeated Bharatiya Janata Party's Dara Singh Chauhan in the bypoll to the Ghosi Assembly constituency in Mau district with a margin of 42,759 votes on Friday.
Bharatiya Janata Party's ongoing "Jan Swabhimaan Yatra" is proving to be the last nail in the coffin of the Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party government in Uttar Pradesh, said party leader Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi.
Even as Samajwadi Party Chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and his son Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav both preferred not to react to their bete noire Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati's threat to thrash SP goons, Mulayam's brother and multiple portfolio minister Shivpal Yadav has decided to do a tit for tat.
Bahujan Samaj Party MLA Krishna Kumar Singh, who had joined the Samajwadi Party, was on Monday disqualified from the Uttar Pradesh assembly by the Speaker, the fourth party MLA to face action under the anti-defection law.
She tries to keep the BJP at bay in Uttar Pradesh as a counter to Mulayam's tentative support, points out Aditi Phadnis
Under attack over the controversial Rs 685-crore Dalit memorial, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati on Friday hit out at Congress saying it had no right to criticise when it has raised so many memorials for the Nehru-Gandhi family across the Yamuna bank in Delhi.
A statue of Bahujan Samaj Party supremo and former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati in the heart of Lucknow was attacked by vandals on Thursday. The statue was attacked with a hammer, beheaded and its hands were chopped off.
The younger son of local Bahujan Samaj Party leader Deepak Bhardwaj has been questioned by police to ascertain whether he allegedly gave the contract to kill his father, apparently angry over his relationship with a woman.
The erstwhile Bahujan Samaj Party government's decision to transfer over 500 acres of land to the Noida Authority in 2009 has resulted in a whopping Rs 2,600 crore loss to the state exchequer, the Comptroller General of India has pointed out.
Bahujan Samaj Party president and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati on Thursday suspended party MLA Jitendra Kumar Siingh Babloo, who happened to be the twelfth party legislator to be sacked by her over the past four years that she has been in power in the country's most populous state.
A local Bahujan Samaj Party leader and businessman Deepak Bharadwaj was shot dead on Tuesday morning by two men in his farmhouse in south Delhi, police said.
Even the kidnapping and murder of her husband did not lead her into bowing before the demand of powerful ruling BahujanSamaj Party lobby to withdraw her candidature. Undaunted by the odds, Kamla Devi won the local panchayat pradhan election from Majhwara village in Sultanpur district on Thursday.
Sitting Bahujan Samaj Party member of Parliament Dhananjay Singh was on Wednesday suspended from the party by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati for reportedly rendering support and meeting expelled Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh in jail.