Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi on Friday met Congress President Sonia Gandhi and offered to resign owning moral responsibility for the poll debacle.
Rita Bahuguna Joshi had fought the 2017 elections and defeated Aparna Yadav, the then SP candidate from Lucknow Cantonment.
Joining the BJP cannot have been an easy decision for former UP Congress chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi, who grew up with secular values and appears to be a victim of the party's durbar politics. Amit Agnihotri reports.
Additional District Judge Sudha Sharma passed the order and fixed July 29 as the next date of hearing.
The 60-year-old Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee chief was arrested on July 15 for allegedly making unpalatable remarks against Mayawati.
Bahuguna is said to be unhappy with the Congress leadership over projection of Sheila Dikshit as the party's chief ministerial face
Forget India, UP won't accept Rahul's leadership, says Rita Bahuguna Joshi while joining the BJP
Sudhir Bisht recalls the battle of 1984, in which UP's strongman H N Bahuguna was felled by Bollywood superstar turned political novice Amitabh Bachchan.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday expressed concern over the safety of Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi whose house in Lucknow was burnt allegedly by the Bahujan Samaj Party supporters recently.
'Welcoming her with glee reflects the BJP's desperation and bankruptcy in UP.'
Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi was on Saturday granted interim bail by a local court in a case relating to derogatory remarks against Chief Minister Mayawati. The release order has been sent to the district jail, where she has been lodged after she was arrested under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act for allegedly making derogatory remarks against Mayawati.
Prateek Yadav is the son of Mulayam Singh Yadav's second wife, Sadhna Yadav. His stepbrother and former chief minister, Akhilesh Yadav, currently heads the Samajwadi Party, the main opposition in Uttar Pradesh.
Ruling Bahujan Samaj Party leadership on Wednesday expressed pride in setting ablaze state Congress chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi's house in retaliation to her 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.
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.
Trying to insulate Rahul Gandhi from being targetted for any poll debacle in Uttar Pradesh, state party chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi on Tuesday said she will take responsibility for such eventuality if the party fails to convert Gandhi's presence into votes.
Bahujan Samaj Party leader Intezaar Ahmad Abdi, allegedly involved in the arson at Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi's house in Lucknow, has been appointed the chairman of state sugar corporation by the Mayawati government, a move that has invited the ire of the Congress.
Gandhi has expressed "deep pain and anguish" over what has happened in Uttar Pradesh, All India Congress Committee general secretary Janardan Dwivedi quoted her as saying. Dwivdei told media-persons that the party regrets the personal elements in reference to Chief Minister Mayawati in Joshi's remarks.
"By providing security to our leader, the state government that orchestrated the attack just wants to win the support of the people as it has come under attack from various sections," he added.
In her petition, Joshi squarely blamed state Chief Minister Mayawati and her henchmen for the arson attack.
Congress Member of Parliament Mohammad Azharduddin on Friday courted arrest, along with his supporters in Moradabad, to protest against the ransacking of Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi's residence in Lucknow. Azharuddin, after offering Friday's namaz at the Jama Masjid in Moradabad today afternoon, took out a march along with his supporters from Jama Masjid despite prohibitory orders.
The names of Bahujan Samaj Party Member of Legislative Assembly Jitendra Singh and local party leader Imtizar Abdi have been added in the FIR filed in connection with the arson at the house of Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi in Lucknow. The names of the two have been added on Friday night on the basis of a complaint by Joshi and Congress general secretary Subodh Srivastava, police sources said on Saturday.
Infighting in Congress in the wake of its electoral debacle in Uttar Pradesh came out in the open on Thursday with Pradesh Congress Committee chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi saying there was a "lot of sabotage" at the local level in the party which is in a "crisis" at this moment.
'I cannot be audacious to say I am winning, but the mood of the people is in our favour.'
Rita Bahuguna Joshi, who has been in the eye of storm over the on-going war between her party and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati, is not known for indulging in any kind of loose talk for which she has been charged by Mayawati.
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.
Rahul Gandhi on Monday met the teenaged girl, who was allegedly raped by a Bahujan Samaj Party MLA, in her village in Banda district of Uttar Pradesh and assured her of all possible help after the victim claimed that she was getting threats from the legislator's henchmen.
Singh, who represents the Bikapur assembly constituency in Faizabad district, had said that jobs in the BSP government were up for sale and that there was a price tag on every new appointment. "It is no secret that jobs in the present government go only to those who are ready to shell out money", he told a local gathering in Sohawal town of his constituency on Tuesday evening.
According to sources, Aparna has sought a ticket from the Lucknow Cantt assembly seat.
In an obvious reference to the allegations made by UP Congress chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi who had earlier in the day charged the UP chief minister of amassing huge amounts of wealth and property, UP Cabinet Secretary Shashank Shekhar Singh told a press conference in Lucknow on Tuesday, "The UP chief minister does not own an inch of land anywhere."
Under attack by the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee Chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi for using helicopters to hand over cheques to rape victims in the state, the state government has decided that instead of director general of police, the job would be now done by concerned district magistrates.
Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi on Tuesday asserted that Congress will not form alliance with Bahujan Samaj Party, Samajwadi Party or Bharatiya Janata Party in the event of a hung assembly in the state.
All India Congress Committee general secretary Rahul Gandhi on Friday took potshots at the Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party government in Uttar Pradesh, saying there is place for statues and elephants but not development, and spoke of the need for Congress to come to power in the state. On a thanksgiving visit to his constituency Amethi, the first after his victory in the Lok Sabha polls, he avoided any comments on the raging row.
Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee president Rita Bahuguna Joshi was on Thursday remanded to judicial custody for 14 days for allegedly making derogatory remarks against Chief Minister Mayawati.The state police, who took her into custody late on Wednesday night while she was on her way from Ghaziabad to New Delhi, produced her before Moradabad's chief judicial magistrate, who ordered her to be sent to 14 days judicial custody. She was then sent to the Moradabad jail.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati on Friday declared that the legal proceedings against state Congress Committee president Rita Bahuguna Joshi, who was arrested on Wednesday night for allegedly making inflammatory comments against the Bahujan Samaj Party chief, would continue."Even if Joshi manages to get bail like Varun Gandhi (who is facing charges under the National Security Act clamped by the UP police), her crime cannot be forgiven," said the UP CM.
Congress MP from Faizabad Nirmal Khatri was made the new Pradesh Congress Committee chief of Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday in a bid to revive the organisation in the key state after the party's debacle in the February assembly elections.
Pilot's statement came amid reports of his discontentment with the Congress leadership.
Allahabad has seen some interesting battles, such as the Congress's Amitabh Bachchan defeating H N Bahuguna in 1984 or the 1988 by-poll that marked V P Singh's emergence as the contender for the PM post.
The Crime Branch of the Criminal Investigation Department, which was entrusted with the probe into the sensational case, took BSP MLA Jitendra Singh 'Babloo' and UP State Ganna Sansthan chairman Intezar Abdi 'Bobby' into custody late Thursday night.