The SP chief said no MLAs or ministers quitting the BJP will be taken into his party anymore.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath attended a key BJP meeting in New Delhi on Tuesday as party leaders discussed the ongoing campaign for the state assembly polls ahead of the announcement of its candidates for the initial phases in a few days.
RSS General Secretary Dattatreya Hosabale met with the leadership of the UP BJP, including Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Deputy Chief Ministers Keshav Prasad Maurya and Brajesh Pathak, state BJP President Bhupendra Chaudhary and state BJP General Secretary (Organisation) Dharmapal.
Glimpses from all the action from the campaign trail.
Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel and Punjab Deputy CM Sukhjinder S Randhawa had announced that they would visit Lakhimpur on Monday.
While the results of the bypolls will not directly impact the composition of the 403-member state Assembly, the contest is being seen as a prestige fight between the BJP and opposition parties.
BJP president JP Nadda, Home Minister Amit Shah and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh were among those who attended the meeting.
Here's a recap of the events from the past 24 hours.
I learnt that Yogi was deeply unhappy with the BJP's choice of Lok Sabha candidates. He had proposed a list of names, but hardly any of his suggestions were accepted.
For Adityanath, it's not just a chance to reaffirm his dominance in Uttar Pradesh, it's an opportunity to solidify his narrative as a vote-winner.
'The people of Uttar Pradesh have already made up their mind to puncture the Samajwadi Party's cycle, kick away the Bahujan Samaj Party's elephant, and remove shadows of the already-vanished hand of the Congress.'
The BJP finalised its candidates for 172 assembly seats in UP and is likely to field both Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya who are currently MLCs.
"The killing of two BJP workers in Lakhimpur Kheri after a convoy of cars mowed down four farmers is a reaction to an action. I do not consider those involved in the killings as culprits," Tikait said in reply to a question asked during a press conference in New Delhi.
The chief ministers of the two Congress-ruled states, along with party leader Rahul Gandhi, have arrived in Lucknow, from where they intend to go to Lakhimpur Kheri to meet the families of the victims.
Dayashankar's wife Swati Singh, who is also the head of the BJP women's wing, had won the assembly poll from Sarojini Nagar seat of Lucknow.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday had granted eight-week interim bail to him in the 2021 Lakhimpur Kheri violence which claimed eight lives.
'Yogiji insisted to Venkaiah Naiduji that he needs two more strong arms to rule Uttar Pradesh.'
What some of our leaders were up to on the weekend.
In a message for the Congress, poll strategist Prashant Kishor on Friday said those looking for a quick revival of the grand old party-led opposition following the Lakhimpur Kheri incident are in for a big disappointment as there are no quick fix solutions to the "deep-rooted problems" of the party.
Bhartiya Kisan Union national president Naresh Tikait has asked BJP workers not to visit the rural areas of Uttar Pradesh, saying farmers are angry over the violence that broke out in Lakhimpur Kheri on Sunday.
As many as 10 ministers in the Yogi Adityanath government failed to win their seats in the 2022 assembly elections, despite the BJP registering an impressive victory.
The BJP is seeking backdoor entry for Yogi and four of his ministers to the state legislature.
Less than half the ministers in Team Yogi are not long-term BJP members. Many old-timers have been dropped.
Sachin Ahlawat, allegedly involved in the violence in Mahav village of Bulandshahr's Sayana area after rumour of alleged cow slaughter, has been appointed BJP's 'mandal president' of BB Nagar.
The govt said Rs 30,729 crore was required for waiving loans of small and marginal farmers.
"How can the judge go into postmortem report etc. We are hearing a bail matter, we do not want to prolong.This way of going into merits and going into wounds etc. is unnecessary for the question of bail," the bench observed.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah will be in the state this weekend, while his colleagues Gajendra Shekhawat, Sanjeev Balyan, Prahlad Patel, Arjun Munda and Mansukh Mandaviya will be visiting in the next few days, sources in the party said on Thursday.
Two days on, regular activities were witnessed near the Lakhimpur railway station and other market places where vendors and shops were operating as usual.
The monk-turned politician will take the reins of the most populous state for a second time in a row after completing his full five-year term.
The BJP appointed Sunil Bansal, one of the party's key election managers, as its national general secretary and in charge of three opposition-ruled states -- West Bengal, Odisha and Telangana -- in run-up to the Lok Sabha polls in 2024.
The ministers fanned out to different districts and interacted with officials and people to take stock of the implementation of government schemes at the grassroots level.
He also hit out at Akhilesh Yadav, saying the UP chief minister is neither with Backward Classes nor Dalits.
Curbs under Section 163 (power to issue an order in urgent cases of nuisance or apprehended danger) of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), which were set to expire on Sunday, have now been extended till December 31 in Sambhal.
Reacting to the development, Samajwadi Party leader Sanjay Lathar, who served as the Leader of Opposition in the legislative council before Yadav, said the leader of the second-largest party in the House gets the post.
The manifesto promises better drinking water facilities, better street lights, free community toilets, provision of pink toilets for women, grant of Rs 20,000 for construction of personal toilets, provision of adarsh nagar panchayat, e-tendering and provision of kanji house for stray animals.
In a major victory for the Hindu side, a Varanasi court on Wednesday allowed Hindu devotees to offer prayers inside the 'Vyas ka Tekhana' area inside the Gyanvapi mosque complex.
Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav tried hard to convince his daughter-in-law Aparna Yadav to not join the Bharatiya Janata Party, party chief Akhilesh Yadav said on Wednesday and expressed his happiness that the SP's socialist ideology is expanding its reach.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) held the core group meeting of five states on Saturday at the party headquarters in New Delhi.
Union Minister Ajay Mishra's son Ashish Mishra along with others accused in the case were also sent into judicial custody from police custody on Monday, the officials said.
They are believed to have discussed the evolving political situation in the state where opposition parties have joined hands to challenge the BJP.
