'The BJP is racing against its opponents by putting a chain on their legs.'
Blaming Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati for the violence over land acquisition in Noida and adjoining areas, Samajwadi Party on Monday alleged that the Bahujan Samaj Party government had ignored farmers' interests while taking over their land.
As his old adversary Mayawati confronts the anti-incumbency factor in the Uttar Pradesh assembly election, Mulayam Singh Yadav expects a fresh lease of political life as the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh. An exclusive interview!
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati on Wednesday vehemently refuted Union Home Minister P Chidambaram's claim that the Centre had forewarned the Uttar Pradesh government against a possible terrorist strike in Varanasi.
BSP president Mayawati on Monday said her party will not contest the zila panchayat chairpersons' elections so that it can focus on next year's assembly polls, drawing accusations from the Congress that she is pulling out to help the ruling BJP.
The century-old Lucknow medical college, whose name was changed by former Chief Minister Mayawati from King George's Medical University to Chattrapati Shahuji Maharaj Medical University, may soon be back with its original tag.
Chief Minister Mayawati congratulated the farming community saying it was an achievement by 22.5 million farmers' families of the state.
Slamming Tarun Gogoi for the police firing in Guwahati on June 22 in which a 9-year-old boy was killed, social activist Swami Agnivesh on Thursday said that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should 'embarrass' the Assam chief minister by taking out a padayatra in Guwahati. "Just as Rahul Gandhi has undertaken a padayatra in Uttar Pradesh to embarrass (Chief Minister) Mayawati, the prime minister who represents Assam in Parliament should go on a padayatra here".
The Bahujan Samaj party on Tuesday demanded dismissal of the Samajwadi Party government in Uttar Pradesh over the deteriorating law and order situation and staged a walkout in the Rajya Sabha.
This appears to be a common refrain in Uttar Pradesh's Lakhimpur Kheri Lok Sabha constituency where farmers want better prices for their produce and respite from the stray cattle menace and others want political leaders to talk about job creation instead of issues like the Ram temple and Article 370.
"Mayawati has indulged in self-glorification by receiving garlands made of currency notes in utter disregard to the condition of majority of her political constituency -- the Dalits," Ramdev told media persons in Gangtok.
Three of the fence-sitters rule fairly large states Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Odisha that together send 63 members to Lok Sabha -- where the Congress or other opposition parties have been pushed to the margins.
As controversy raged over Yati Narsinghanand's objectionable remarks against Prophet Muhammad, his supporters on Sunday alleged that the Dasna temple head priest is being illegally kept in detention by police, which denied the claim.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati has had a change of heart as far as Anna Hazare's campaign for the Jan Lokpal Bill is concerned. Singing the same tune as the anti-corruption crusader, Mayawati said on Tuesday that the prime minister, the Central Bureau of Investigation and all section of government employees should be brought under the ambit of the Lokpal.
Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday clarified that he had "never ever" said he would prefer Narendra Modi over Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati for the prime minister's post.
Sources said the opposition parties would look to avoid the prickly leadership question as of now and emphasise on building a common ground.
She also termed the trust vote won by Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav in the assembly on February 28 as "illegal and immoral." \n
A satirical play, depicting the extravagant lifestyle of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati, has been banned by her government.
"TRS welcomes the decision of the UP Chief Minister. It is a bold step. It is very good for democracy. She has also reiterated her support to the formation of Telangana. For her act of kindness, I thank her," TRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao told media persons in Hyderabad before leaving for Delhi to attend the Parliament session.
She launched a frontal attack on her arch rival, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav, and left no stone unturned to woo the state's 17 per cent Muslim electorate.
Taking strong exception to Congress General Secretary Digvijay Singh's criticism of Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati's fad for her personal statues and monuments, the ruling Bahujan Samaj Party in Uttar Pradesh has termed the tirade as a "reflection of the Congress party's anti-dalit mentality."
Terming the spat between Rahul Gandhi and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati as "part of democracy", Minority Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid on Friday said the Congress leader's movement has "energised" the functioning of democracy.
Led by the state party chief Surya Pratap Shahi and the party's veteran local MP Lalji Tandon, BJP's mayors and other elected representatives of local bodies were not only disallowed to proceed towards the Governor's House, but also subjected to cane charge.
Naresh Agarwal, who defected from Samajwadi Party, on Wednesday joined the BSP which declared him as its candidate for the Lok Sabha polls from Farrukhabad seat, a day after another SP leader Dhaniram Verma was inducted into Mayawati-led party. Agarwal, who was transport minister in the erstwhile Mulayam Singh Yadav government, was inducted into the party by chief minister Mayawati.
He said he would continue to support the ruling coalition.
Union minister Raosaheb Danve has caused a flutter by saying if the Bharatiya Janata Party needs victory in the Aurangabad Lok Sabha constituency in Maharashtra in 2024, then it must ensure that All India Majlis e Ittehadul Muslimeen leader and sitting MP Imtiaz Jaleel contests the election next year.
A day after the apex court ordered a CBI inquiry into alleged rape of a girl by Banda Bahujan Samaj Party MLA, Mayawati government in Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday recommended handing over to the agency the sensational Lakhimpur case in which body of a 14-year-old girl was found hanging from a tree in a police station.
The electoral battle in Varanasi, according to locals and political experts, is not about whether the PM will win for a third successive occasion, but if he will increase his share of the votes polled and his win margin.
With the SP leadership already known to be looking for an opportunity to shake hands with Congress, Mayawati's decision was bound to propel the Congress leadership to respond at last -- even though the withdrawal was not likely to even remotely affect the fate of the UPA government. Political compulsions are bound to bring the two adversaries to a negotiating table since both have a tougher task ahead of them -- to tackle the visibly increasing might of the BSP.
Unprecedented security arrangements have been made for the Bahujan Samaj Party workers' national convention, which will be held on August 9 in Lucknow.Over 5,000 policemen will be deployed across the 42 - acre Rama Bai Ambedkar Maidan, where Chief Minister Mayawati held her first mammoth rally, after assuming power for the fourth time last year. The authorities have decided to tighten security measures after serial blasts recently rocked Ahmedabad and Bengaluru.
Bhartiya Janata Party's all time favourite Ayodhya Ram Mandir issue has clearly taken a backseat in the party manifesto for the forthcoming Uttar Pradesh assembly elections. However, what appears to have taken Ayodhya's erstwhile prominent position were the multi-billion rupee monuments and parks erected by UP Chief Minister Mayawati.
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.
Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati on Friday trained her guns on Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi for allegedly refusing to have a meal in a Dalit's home, where he spent Thursday night, during the course of his four-day old padyatra in parts of Western Uttar Pradesh.
While lambasting the Union government for not paying heed to the state's requirement of Central para-military forces, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati said in Lucknow late on Wednesday evening that the Centre alone would be responsible for any violence that might spark off as a fallout to the much-awaited verdict in the long pending Ayodhya case on Thursday afternoon.
Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati on Saturday said she has decided on her heir outside her family who is also a Dalit. It would be disclosed at an appropriate time, she said addressing the party's National Workers' meet in Lucknow.
Reversing yet another decision taken during Mayawati regime, the Uttar Pradesh government on Tuesday decided to discontinue two schemes in the name of Dalit icon Bhimrao Ambedkar and launch a fresh one in the name of socialist leader Ram Manohar Lohia.
Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati on Friday ruled out extending any kind of support to the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance government in the event of the party coming to power after the Lok Sabha polls.
Those whose cover has been reduced include Samajwadi Party chief and former Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav, leaders Shivpal Yadav and Azam Khan, Dimple Yadav and Ram Gopal Yadav, and Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati.
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?"
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati on Wednesday charged the Centre with misusing the Central Bureau of Investigation against her in the disproportionate assets case.