"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.
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.
'The 16th and 17th Lok Sabha and the 2017 assembly election show that Dalits and OBCs are moving towards the BJP.'
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 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.
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.
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.
In a significant move, Uttar Pradesh's most powerful bureaucrat Shashank Shekhar Singh relinquished his power on Saturday.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Polling in 70 constituencies began at 8 am and will conclude at 5 pm, except in nine polling booths in the Maoist-affected Bindranawagarh seat in Gariaband district, where voting began at 7 for security reasons, a poll official said.
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.
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.
She expressed confidence that a three-way alliance is very much possible in West Bengal between her Trinamool Congress, Congress and the Left.
Ahead of the crucial third round of discussions, the opposition INDIA bloc on Wednesday exuded confidence that it would provide a formidable alternative to bring political change in the country and asserted that it has several prime ministerial faces against BJP's only one.
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.
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.
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.
Among the other major decisions announced at the meeting was special development plan for Ambedkar villages -- identified on the basis of high dalit population.
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.
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.
The BSP chief said Uttar Pradesh, which is India's largest state, will decide who will be the next prime minister.
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.
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.
The Uttar Pradesh government on Sunday announced a Crime Branch-Crime Investigation Department inquiry into the arson at Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi's home following her derogatory remarks against Chief Minister Mayawati, but the Congress leader demanded a Central Bureau of Investigation probe.
The Bahujan Samaj Party office in Ghaziabad caught fire late on Thursday night in a suspected attack in the wake of the arrest of Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi, who had made derogatory remarks about Chief Minister Mayawati, but the police attributed the blaze to short circuit.
Taking serious note of the alleged rape-and-murder of a minor girl at a police station in Uttar Pradesh, Union Women and Child Development Minister Krishna Tirath on Monday accused the state government of being "insensitive" and said the Centre must intervene.
Santosh Singh is waging a battle to retrieve his 12.1 acre-land in Chittoni village in Uttar Pradesh's Varanasi district that was usurped by his cousins after declaring him dead.
The Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court has dismissed a public interest litigation seeking a CBI probe into alleged expenses of about Rs 200 crore, including the Rs 5 crore garland worn by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati during a recent BSP rally.
As a controversy rages over land acquisition in Uttar Pradesh, the Centre on Thursday said it has plans to introduce a bill in this regard in the next session of Parliament as there appears to be consensus on the issue.
Congress on Thursday dubbed as 'vulgar display of money' in politics the garlanding of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati with currency notes.
Uttar Pradesh Cabinet Secretary Shashank Shekhar Singh, considered close to outgoing Chief Minister Mayawati, on Tuesday took premature retirement from service with effect from March 9, official sources said in Lucknow.
The was a lot of drama on Thursday at the court of acting chief justice Amitabh Lala at the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court. A battery of lawyers vehemently opposing an application for withdrawal of a Public Interest Litigation seeking prosecution of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati for her alleged involvement in the Rs 175 crore Taj Heritage Corridor scam.
Lucknow DIG of Police D K Thakur said there was no reason for villagers to be worried as the tiger had been around for many weeks and had not attacked human beings. Sharat Pradhan reports.