Voting for the seventh and final phase of the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections covering 54 seats, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi's parliamentary constituency Varanasi, will be held on Monday to decide the phase of 613 candidates.
'In Western UP, last time a lot of Dalits voted for the BJP.' 'This time, there is a rethink among Dalits about the extent of their support for the BJP.'
As many as 586 candidates are in the fray in this phase with the seats spread across Saharanpur, Bijnor, Moradabad, Sambhal, Rampur, Amroha, Budaun, Bareilly and Shahjahanpur.
Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati on Tuesday slammed Narendra Modi for his statement vowing to cleanse Parliament from criminal elements, saying it was a case of the pot calling the kettle black.
There was more to him than he let on, asserts Aditi Phadnis.
Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati on Sunday said that her party has given maximum number of tickets to Muslims and they should vote unitedly in favour of her party to save the country from the "fascist forces and dynasty rule".
"NCP president Sharad Pawar, Loktantrik Janata Dal president Sharad Yadav, DMK chief MK Stalin, Bihar's former deputy chief minister and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, SP president Akhilesh Yadav, BSP chief Mayawati and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal among other opposition leaders will attend the oath-taking ceremony in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh on December 17," said well-placed sources.
'The SP-BSP have almost come to an understanding that the BSP will take the larger share of parliamentary seats and take care of national politics.' 'The SP in future assembly elections will take larger seats and take care of state politics.'
Faced with one of the worst showing in Lok Sabha elections in which her party failed to open its account, BSP chief Mayawati on Saturday said the parties which had supported the UPA at the Centre faced the anger of the people towards the Congress-led alliance.
'They have no incentive to be part of either the NDA or INDIA at this stage, but they may hedge their bets towards the winning coalition in the post-poll setting.'
Congress veteran Kapil Sibal had on Wednesday filed his nomination as an SP-backed Independent candidate for the Rajya Sabha polls.
'She should review her strategy of social engineering and get back to the BSP's initial plank of social change.'
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 Bharatiya Janata Party-backed Samajwadi Party rebel candidate Nitin Agarwal was elected deputy speaker of the Uttar Pradesh assembly on Monday, defeating Narendra Verma, the official candidate of Akhilesh Yadav's party, by 244 votes.
Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati dismissed as "drama" Samajwadi Party's demand for special category status for Uttar Pradesh, saying they are raising the issue with an eye on the forthcoming general elections.
'It is an existential crisis. We cannot recover lost ground through social media. We need to forge alliances and reshape our ideological contours.'
The rapprochement could open the door to an anti-saffron alliance for the 2019 general elections, reports Archis Mohan.
Under Election Commission guidelines, campaigning has to end 48 hours before the close of polls for each phase.
BSP chief says Ambedkar talked of separate electorates for Dalits; didn't believe in Hindutva.
The Samajwadi Party released its list of 40 star campaigners in which there was no mention of Mulayam Singh Yadav.
A case has been registered against Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and 20 party workers in connection with alleged assault on some journalists in Uttar Pradesh's Moradabad, police said on Saturday.
Uttar Pradesh, unlike almost any other Indian state, is ruled and run on caste. There are more than 60 castes in the state and all compete with each other for political patronage and benefits. In some ways, caste is a bigger player in the state than either religion or national issues, says Faisal Kidwai.
The last day of the campaigning in Lucknow brought all political rivals to converge on the streets of the state capital, throwing normal life out of gear.
In the past five years, UP's Opposition remained passive and defensive against the BJP, a trend that does not augur well for the impending battle.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi would have got a tough fight in Varanasi had Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra contested against him as Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) candidate, feel party workers from the temple town.
Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati on Saturday said her party would contest the upcoming Lok Sabha elections on its own.
Lok Sabha constituencies that sprung a surprise in the 2024 polls.
Amid suspense over Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA)'s prime ministerial face for the 2024 general elections, Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar on Wednesday said the 1977 Lok Sabha polls were fought by the opposition without projecting Morarji Desai as the PM candidate.
So who cost the SP more seats in UP? Hemantkumar Shivsaran does a deep dive to find out.
The body of the 22-year-old woman, who had gone missing two months ago, was recovered from a vacant plot near an ashram built by Fateh Bahadur Singh, a minister in the erstwhile Samajwadi Party government, police had said on Friday.
'Modi 3.0 will have more balanced policies like one saw in Modi's first term.'
Praising the Uttar Pradesh police for sternly handling the Samajwadi Party's anti-government street demonstrations across the state, Chief Minister Mayawati on Thursday issued a fresh warning to all opposition parties to refrain from indulging in such agitations. "Let the SP as well as other opposition parties be warned that they would be severely dealt with in case they choose to disrupt law and order in this state," Mayawati declared.
As many as 624 candidates are in the fray in this round of voting being held in Pilibhit, Lakhimpur Kheri, Sitapur, Hardoi, Unnao, Lucknow, Rae Bareli, Banda, and Fatehpur districts.
The curtain came down on rumbustious electioneering over the last two months when assembly polls were also held in four other states - Goa, Uttarakhand, Punjab and Manipur.
The Samajwadi Party on Thursday announced Dimple Yadav as its candidate for Mainpuri parliamentary seat, which fell vacant after the death of party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav.
Electioneering ended in Madhya Pradesh at 6 pm except in Naxalites-hit districts of Balaghat, Mandla and Dindori, where campaigning drew to a close early at 3 pm.
A full majority might be difficult, but Mayawati is in a commanding position this time.
The Samajwadi Party is unwilling to cede ground to the BJP, especially in Amethi, since the Congress is too weak to counter the BJP's well-oiled election machinery.
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.
