'In an alliance, you are forced to overlook loyal workers.' 'It sends a negative message and workers turn against the party.' 'I have forbidden this alliance.'
The seat sharing formula reached between the BSP and SP is not on the basis of who emerged stronger in the previous election.
Voting for the seventh and final round will be held on March 7 for Varanasi and its eight adjoining districts.
Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav will face Union Minister SP Singh Baghel on Karhal seat of Mainpuri where both of them filed nominations on Monday.
"It is not where the party president says something and the next day the exact opposite of what he had said happens. This gives out a bad image of party because it affects political credibility of the party," Singh told PTI in an interview.
Two months after a 22-year-old Dalit woman went missing from Unnao, her decomposed body was recovered from a vacant plot near an ashram constructed by a former minister in Samajwadi Party government Fateh Bahadur Singh, police said on Friday.
The issue of division of Uttar Pradesh had been lying dormant till now with major political parties including the BSP preferring silence so far.
Samajwadi Party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav died in Medanta hospital of Gurugram on Monday. He was 82.
Out of the 403 seats up for grabs, the BSP had prepared a final list comprising 97 Muslim candidates (12 more than 2012), 87 Dalits and 106 other backwards castes, besides earmarking 113 seats for upper castes -- Brahmins 66, Kshatriyas 36 and others 11.
With Bollywood connections of Amar Singh not a secret, the SP could well take a lead in bringing stars during the electioneering.
Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav was on Tuesday not allowed to unveil the statue of Ram Manohar Lohia in Lucknow following which he had a scuffle with the police personnel.
Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati termed PM's programme 'ridiculous and a betrayal of national sentiments'.
'Rahul Gandhi is going to turn 54 and in India political leaders peak when they are around 60.' 'This 'bhai-behen ki jodi' has done a wonderful job for the Congress.' 'Priyanka Gandhi was a very effective campaigner.'
With the Yogi Adityanath government taking credit for cracking down on criminals and making it an election issue, political parties are now having a rethink on aligning with those who have a criminal background but also enjoy influence in their areas.
'It's the same problem with all six of us. Behenji (Mayawati) is not to be blamed, but the coordinators have acted in a manner which has depressed us and we thought what is the use of remaining with such a party'
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.
According to the findings of the CSDS-Lokniti survey, the BJP saw a marginal increase in its support among the Muslim voters as compared to the 2017 assembly elections.
Till 5 pm, Agra recorded 56.61 per cent polling, Aligarh 57.25 per cent, Baghpat 61.35 per cent, Bulandshahr 60,52 per cent, Gautam Buddh Nagar 54.77 per cent, Ghaziabad 54.77 per cent, Hapur 60.50 per cent, Mathura 58.51 per cent, Meerut 58.52 cent, Muzaffarnagar 62.14 per cent and Shamli 61.78 per cent, an EC report said.
Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati and other senior politicians on Sunday cast their votes in the third phase of Uttar Pradesh elections and claimed that their parties will form the next government.
'They were very vocal on the defence of the Constitution, reservation, SC/ST Act and democratic rights.'
Smarting under poll debacle, the Bahujan Samaj Party on Sunday expressed fears about return of 'goondaraj' in Uttar Pradesh and said it would not contest the upcoming local body polls, apprehending that the ruling Samajwadi Party might target its candidates.
Projecting a united face on the eve of vice presidential poll, all constituents of United Progressive Alliance and those supporting it from outside including arch rivals Mulayam Singh Yadav and Mayawati attended a lunch hosted by Congress chief Sonia Gandhi.
For the first time, Akhilesh is leading the SP almost single-handed into a major election, but he is not the only one running the show Shikha Shalini reports.
Besides the national capital, polling for the sixth round of the marathon seven-phase elections will be held Saturday in 14 seats in Uttar Pradesh, all 10 seats of Haryana, eight seats each in Bihar and West Bengal, six seats in Odisha, four seats in Jharkhand and one seat in Jammu and Kashmir.
Leaders of several like-minded opposition parties are likely to attend the swearing-in ceremony of Karnataka chief minister-designate Siddaramaiah and deputy chief minister D K Shivakumar on Saturday in Bengaluru.
Ahmed Patel, who was undergoing treatment at a Gurugram hospital after testing positive for COVID-19, breathed his last after multi-organ failure in the wee hours of Wednesday, his son Faisal confirmed.
"We particularly want Bajrang Bali because he is linked to my own Dalit caste," Mayawati said.
UP Power Minister Shrikant Sharma stirred up a hornet's nest with his tweet terming the Congress president a 'coward and impotent'.
He said the BJP is leaving a "culture", which may be used against it in the future.
Meanwhile, the Congress said that that it is ready to go it alone in Uttar Pradesh in the Lok Sabha election.
The 36-year-old businessman had died after being allegedly assaulted by the police at a Gorakhpur hotel which they had raided on Monday night.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has announced financial assistance of Rs 2 lakh to the kin of each of the deceased and Rs 50,000 to the injured.
Eighteen people were killed and 19 injured when a double-decker sleeper bus headed for Delhi hit a milk tanker on the Agra-Lucknow Expressway in Unnao on Wednesday, officials said.
Mayawati added that the BSP's relationship with the SP is never going to end and she will try to ensure that their relationship stays intact.
Acting on Speaker Manohar Joshi's directive, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said she had spoken to Deputy Prime Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani and he had sought a day's time to collect relevant information from the state government.
The response was tepid in other parts of the country even as several INDIA bloc parties as well as other non-BJP outfits extended their support to the bandh.
'Outside the core voter base of upper caste Hindus, there is a large section unhappy with the performance of the BJP.'
At a hurriedly convened press conference, the former Uttar Pradesh said, "All deposits are as per norms and party rules and the money was collected before note ban. Should we have thrown it?"
Congress o Tuesday sought to take some credit for Samajwadi Party's victory in Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, saying Rahul Gandhi had made "immense contribution" to creating atmosphere against the "misrule" of Mayawati which benefited Mulayam Singh Yadav.
