Taking on the Bharatiya Janata Party over the induction of tainted former Bahujan Samaj Party minister Babu Singh Kushwaha, Rahul Gandhi on Saturday claimed that he wanted to join the Congress after being sacked by Chief Minister Mayawati, but the party closed the doors on him. Addressing election meetings in Gorapkhpur, the All India Congress Committee general secretary also said the BJP has inducted a person who is part of the "corruption race" in the state.
"We have not received any letter from Bachchan. When he is not the owner of the land (in Barabanki), how can he donate it," Mayawati remarked at a press conference in New Delhi.
Over 60 per cent voter turnout was recorded on Monday in 49 constituencies in six states and two Union territories in the fifth phase of Lok Sabha elections, with Baramulla in Jammu and Kashmir recording its highest-ever voting percentage.
Mayawati's party holds the key in the presidential poll given the fact that the candidate of the ruling alliance can succeed only with the full backing of the Left and the BSP.
Disappointed by Mayawati's stand, the families requested her to ensure that they get the relief announced by the previous government led by Mulayam Singh Yadav.
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.
Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati are among the four Indians named in the Financial Times list of '50 People Who Shaped the Decade.'
Statues of Bhimbaro Ambedkar were vandalised by unidentified persons at three places in Uttar Prdaesh's Azamgarh district, triggering protests from Bahujan Samaj Party workers who blocked roads and staged demonstrations.
Six years after she was expelled for indiscipline, firebrand leader Uma Bharti on Tuesday rejoined the Bharatiya Janata Party at a crowded press conference at the party headquarters at 11 Ashok Road on Tuesday.
Bahujan Samaj Party president Mayawati's fad for building memorials and parks with umpteen statues of Dalit icons and elephants, the party symbol, has a dark side too. Clearly, there appears to be a huge scam behind every dream project of the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister.
Giving in to opposition parties' protests on withdrawal of National Security Guard cover, the government on Thursday announced that the security cover provided to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati, Bharatiya Janata Party leader Murli Manohar Joshi, Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad will not be reduced.
Terming Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani's yatra a "political gimmick", Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati on Friday said the exercise was aimed to promote himself as the party's prime ministerial candidate.
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.
"Ask Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to contest an election," chanted thousands of supporters of activist Anna Hazare as they marched down the streets of Lucknow on Saturday. This was their reaction to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati's recent statement challenging Hazare to contest the next Lok Sabha election. Their sentiments were echoed by scores of other speakers, who converged at Lucknow's Jhulelal Park that has become symbolic with Delhi's Ramlila Maidan.
After storming back to power eight months ago, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati on Tuesday celebrated her 52nd birthday with great fan-fare, launching the Rs 40,000 crore Ganga Expressway project to link Noida and Ballia besides a host of other schemes.
The Uttar Pradesh Engineers Association on Friday postponed their state-wide strike in protest against the murder of senior engineer M K Gupta allegedly by a Bahujan Samaj Party legislator after Public Works Department Minister Naseemuddin Siddiqui assured them of stern action.
The film opens in theatres tomorrow.
Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh tried to scuttle Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati's bid to name the Dudhwa national park after Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, urging her that it would be better rechristen it as Billy Arjan Singh Tiger Reserve as a mark of tribute to the legendary conservationist.
The Supreme Court order is considered to be a setback to state Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav who had scrapped nine districts and commissioner divisions created during 1995-97 by Mayawati government.
In a significant move, Uttar Pradesh's most powerful bureaucrat Shashank Shekhar Singh relinquished his power on Saturday.
Welcoming Das into the party, the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister announced that the veteran Congress leader will be the party's candidate from Lucknow parliamentary in the next year's Lok Sabha polls. Mayawati also appointed the forty-six-year-old leader as the BSP's national general secretary.
'It is an existential crisis. We cannot recover lost ground through social media. We need to forge alliances and reshape our ideological contours.'
Union Minister Kapil Sibal on Friday questioned Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati's silence on the mysterious death of yet another man connected with the National Rural Health Mission scam and demanded a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into all related cases to bring out the truth.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and Bahjan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati's fad for building memorials and the obsession for installing her own statues has put her in a tight spot.
Uttar Pradesh government on Thursday dismissed as baseless Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi's allegations about burning of people and rape of women in Bhatta Parsaul, rocked by farmers' agitation on land acquisition issue, and said preliminary forensic reports of ashes collected from the area have ruled out presence of any human remains.
Uttar Pradesh top cop Brij Lal has been named as the state's new director general of police.
Expressing shock at volleyball player Arunima Sinha being thrown out of a train in Bareilly, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday held both Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati responsible for the incident.
Rumours of a live power line having snapped triggered the stampede. The injured have been rushed to a local hospital, a BSP spokesperson said.
The success story written by Nitish Kumar in Bihar has not gone unnoticed in the neighbouring Uttar Pradesh where his counterpart chief minister Mayawati appears to be getting serious about governance.
A powerful IAS officer of the 1979 batch, Pandey was also divested of the additional appointments of principal secretary (secretariat administration) and the state's food and drug authority. He has been moved to the insignificant position of a member in the board of revenue.
Among the other major decisions announced at the meeting was special development plan for Ambedkar villages -- identified on the basis of high dalit population.
Two dozen MPs belonging to the Bahujan Samaj Party on Wednesday called on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to reiterate UP Chief Minister Mayawati's plans for an international airport at Jevar village in Greater Noida.
In a sharp retort to the Congress party's tirade against the flaunting of a currency note garland by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati at a recent Bahujan Samaj Party rally in Lucknow, state Public Works Department minister Naseemuddin Siddiqui on Thursday fished out a photograph of Congress president Sonia Gandhi wearing a currency note garland.
The Supreme Court on Friday restrained the Uttar Pradesh government from carrying out building and construction activities for the installation of statues and memorials of Dalit icons, including Chief Minister Mayawati, at a park in Noida adjacent to the national capital.
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.
A local court in Moradabad could not take up on Friday morning the hearing of the bail application of Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi, who is currently in judicial custody for allegedly making derogatory remarks against Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati.
Training his guns simultaneously at social activist Anna Hazare, Bharatiya Janata Party and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati, Congress General Secretary Digvijay Singh on Sunday sought to pep up the morale of his party men, 135 of whom have been awarded tickets for the forthcoming 2012 election to the 403-member UP state assembly.
A court in Barabanki on directed the Mumbai police commissioner on Friday, to serve summons on Bollywood star Sanjay Dutt after he failed to turn up before it in a case relating to alleged derogatory remarks against Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati.
