The Samajwadi Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party appeared to take early leads in Uttar Pradesh where counting of votes began after a seven-phased elections concluded on Saturday.
The BJP lost 15 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in 2019. Union ministers have been deployed in all 15, tasked with turning the result around.
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.
On chances of taking uncle Shivpal Yadav's Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party Lohia along in the polls, he said, "I dont have any problem in this. He and his men will be given due honour".
The BJP is far more prepared than the Congress as their pool of prospective candidates is much bigger, reports Prakash Bhandari.
Nineteen political parties, including the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress, received over Rs 1,100 crore during assembly polls in five states and Union territories in 2021 and spent over Rs 500 crore, a big chunk of which went towards advertisements and travel expenses for star campaigners, a study said on Friday.
With uncertainty looming over the Maha Vikas Aghadi government's stability in the wake of Shiv Sena minister Eknath Shinde camping in Gujarat with some party MLAs, the stand of 29 legislators from smaller parties and Independents is likely to be crucial.
At a massive rally in Lucknow, the Bahujan Samaj Party supremo came down heavily on Mulayam Singh Yadav and his son -- Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh. Offering hope to the ruling coalition at the Centre she said that she is opposed to FDI in retail, but is willing to be convinced of its merits.
An FIR under Sections 153A, 504 and 509 of the Indian Penal Code and Section 310 under the SC/ST act was lodged against Singh.
Gandhi had on Saturday said that the Congress reached out to the BSP leader, offering her the chief minister's post for contesting the assembly polls together, but she did not respond.
The Nishad Party also demanded 160 seats for the 2022 state elections.
In a major blow to the Samajwadi Party, Ranjana Bajpai, chief of the SP's women's wing, joined hands with the party's avowed rival Bahujan Samaj Party on Saturday.The move comes in the wake of SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav's decision to withdraw her ticket as the party nominee for the Sitapur Lok Sabha seat.Attributing her decision to the 'neglect of Brahmins in the Samajwadi Party', Bajpai pointedly accused SP general secretary Amar Singh of having "hijacked the party."
Espousing an aggressive pro-backward and Dalit stance synchronising with the Maurya controversy, the SP has thrown down the gauntlet with Akhilesh upping the ante on the burning topic, reports Virendra Singh Rawat.
According to sources, the Uttar Pradesh police had arrived in Ahmedabad most likely to take Ahmed, who is a key accused in a high-profile killing that took place in February, to their state.
Ahmed Patel, who was undergoing treatment at a Gurugram hospital after testing positive for COVID-19, breathed his last after multi-organ failure in the wee hours of Wednesday, his son Faisal confirmed.
The BJP stormed back to power in the crucial state of Uttar Pradesh, trouncing its main rival SP, with Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath asserting that people have buried the politics of caste and religion.
Reacting to Yadav's dig at her on Wednesday, Mayawati said she has never aspired to become the President and the Samajwadi Party leader was dreaming about it to clear his path to become the Uttar Pradesh chief minister.
'Commentators have said that dealing with allies as equals will make Modi more sensitive.' 'Remember that the people Modi is dealing with are equally autocratic in their own lairs.' 'Further, Modi always has handy the threat of dissolving Parliament and calling for fresh polls.' 'Most of his own party, and certainly his allies and opponents having blown their budgets of efforts and resources in the just concluded elections, have no stomach for this.' 'They are all greatly looking forward to the loaves and fishes of office on offer.' 'That gives Modi an unbeatable advantage in any push-comes-to-shove situation,' explains Shreekant Sambrani.
The meeting of opposition parties has been called by Bihar Chief Minister and Janata Dal-United leader Nitish Kumar to chalk out a joint strategy to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
Voting will be held on Thursday in bypolls to seven assembly seats in six states -- a contest symbolic of the fierce turf war between the Bharatiya Janata Party and regional parties.
Mulayam's last rites will be performed with full state honours in Saifai near Etawah in Uttar Pradesh
Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav and his chief minister son Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday jointly sounded the party's bugle for 2014 Lok Sabha elections from this eastern Uttar Pradesh hub, ill-famed as a home and haven for several terrorists.
At present, there are 18 Bahujan Samaj Party MLAs in the 403-member Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly.
With Bollywood connections of Amar Singh not a secret, the SP could well take a lead in bringing stars during the electioneering.
Mukhtar Ansari's Quami Ekta Dal's merger with the Samajwadi Party last year had triggered turmoil in that party.
The Congress on Monday nominated Bharatiya Janata Party turncoat Ashish Shukla against the saffron party's nominee, Sanjay Sinh, from the high-profile Amethi assembly seat in the upcoming Uttar Pradesh assembly polls.
Anger cannot be an end in itself to Rahul Gandhi's politics -- it must instead catalyse a new political strategy, argues Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
Five Honourable MPs must be brought from their jail cells to Parliament, television cameras recording every move. It shall be an unsavoury beginning to the new alliance.
As the Opposition on Wednesday held its first meeting on the presidential election, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party reached out to several parties across the political spectrum to build a consensus choice for the top constitutional post with senior party leader Rajnath Singh speaking to Sharad Pawar, Mallikarjun Kharge, Mamata Banerjee, Akhilesh Yadav and Naveen Patnaik, sources said.
"We don't agree with the ideology of the Congress. But we will support it to keep the BJP out of power," Mayawati said.
Samajwadi Party tops the chart of crorepati candidates and its nominees' average assets are also the highest compared to others with Rs 87 lakh.
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.
Gangster-politician Mukhtar Ansari's alleged aide Sanjeev Maheshwari Jeeva was shot dead on Lucknow court premises on Wednesday, the police said.
No answer for the time being, will see later, Vadra said.
A day after OBC leader Swami Prasad Maurya resigned from the Uttar Pradesh cabinet citing apathy towards the backward classes, Dara Singh Chauhan too resigned as minister in the Yogi Adityanath government.
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Friday said his party would pull off a spectacular victory in the state assembly elections, but evaded a direct reply to a question whether he would be the chief minister for the fifth time, as he just said 'Bharatiya Janata Party Zindabad'.
The outgoing Lok Sabha had 23 Muslim MPs, the most being from Congress and TMC. The highest number of Muslim MPs were in 1980 when as many as 49 MPs from the community which constitute nearly fifth of Indian population present in the Lok Sabha.
Samajwadi Party General Secretary and MP Shahid Siddiqui speaks on his party's relations with the Congress, the Indo-US nuclear deal and Muslim votes.
Senior Janata Dal-United leader Dhananjay Singh pitched for Opposition unity ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls and said party workers in Uttar Pradesh want Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to contest the elections from the state's Phulpur constituency.
"Their (SP's) people tried to create terror and a number of goons were (involved) in that," she alleged adding, her government will not tolerate any kind of disturbance to the peace in the state.
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