Over 60 per cent voter turnout was recorded on Monday in 49 constituencies in six states and two Union territories in the fifth phase of Lok Sabha elections, with Baramulla in Jammu and Kashmir recording its highest-ever voting percentage.
Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati on Friday ruled out extending any kind of support to the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance government in the event of the party coming to power after the Lok Sabha polls.
The BSP supremo had disclosed Rs 64,700 as agricultural income in the Income Tax returns filed for the assessment year of 1997-98, the CBI said, citing an Income Tax department report.However, the CBI has informed the Supreme Court that most of the people, who were shown as having purchased the foodgrain, denied any such transaction.Mayawati has been accusing the CBI of being politically motivated.
Wooing Brahmins ahead of the assembly election in Uttar Pradesh, Chief Minister Mayawati on Sunday supported reservation for the poor and unemployed among upper castes.
'Mayawati and her dedicated band of anonymous workers are already fanning out in each one of the 545 parliamentary constituencies, making rapid inroads into traditional BJP and Congress domains.'
Vehemently opposing the Union government's move to withdraw the reservation facility for higher positions in select elite educational institutions , the fiery dalit leader on Wednesday shot off a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh , urging him to stall a bill , proposed to be tabled before the national parliament in this regard on Thursday.
This business of them [BJP leaders] going to the press with every little thing must stop, the UP chief minister said.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati on Wednesday sacked Small-Scale Industry Minister Chadradeo Ram Yadav, who was indicted by the state Lokayukta. "In consultations with the CM, Governor B L Joshi has relieved the minister from his post with immediate effect," a notification issued by the state government said. In his report submitted to the government on December 28 last year, the Lokayukta had indicted the minister for drawing salary from two places.
In a jolt to the Mayawati government in Uttar Pradesh, the Allahabad High Court on Friday restrained it from proceeding on the ambitious Ganga Expressway project aimed at connecting the state's eastern and western parts and directed it to obtain prior environmental clearance.The order was passed by a division bench comprising Justice Ashok Bhusan and Justice Arun Tandon, on a petition filed by a Varanasi-based social organisation 'Ganga Mahasabha'.
People had also started gathering at Mukhtar Ansari's residence in Ghazipur and there was a large deployment of security personnel around the house.
Holding s strong brief for her Rural Development Minister Daddu Prasad, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati on Thursday dismissed the accusation of rape against him as "false and baseless."
The former Uttar Pradesh chief minister said if indeed she was lodged in jail, the entire 'Bahujan Samaj' would fill the prisons of the country in protest.
Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati on Friday slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party for playing the 'dalit card' to defend Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti over her controversial remarks and claimed she did not belong to the community.
A combative Congress on Tuesday asserted that it will move the high court to seek quashing of the FIR lodged against Rahul Gandhi for alleged violation of the poll code, saying the action was taken at the behest of Chief Minister Mayawati. "Because of the successful election campaign of the Congress, this action has been taken on the direction of Mayawatiji," Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh told reporters.
The Congress and the Samajwadi Party on Tuesday slammed Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati for her proposed move to split Uttar Pradesh into four smaller states.
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.
Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati on Friday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of targetting her for raising a voice against alleged electronic voting machines tampering and said she was not averse to shaking hands with other parties in her fight against the saffron party on the issue.
BSP sources said that along with Mayawati, some other ministers could also be administered oath of office and secrecy.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati on Thursday reportedly sacked two ministers in her cabinet; though the state government maintained that Family Welfare minister Babu Singh Kushwaha and Health Minister Anant Kumar Misra had resigned from their posts voluntarily.Kushwaha and Misra tendered their resignations after taking responsibility for the multi-crore scams unearthed in their respective departments during the investigations in the murder of Lucknow CMO Dr B P Singh.
Slamming Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati for spending Rs 1,000 crore to install her own statues, Union Home Minister P Chidambaram has said the amount could have been used to provide basic amenities to the people of the state and wipe out poverty. "Of what use will be the statues in that state? The Rs 1000 crore could have helped wipe out the poverty of thousands of people and provided basic amenities and education," he said.
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.
Addressing media persons in Lucknow, Mayawati said, "The Congress is worried only about Rae Bareli, but I am worried about the whole of Uttar Pradesh." Denying allegations of Sonia that her government was against development, Mayawati alleged that the Congress had put impediments in state government's schemes like Ganga and Yamuna expressways.
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.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati on Thursday accused the Congress and other opposition parties of attempting to disturb law and order by spreading rumours on land acquisition and dubbed Rahul Gandhi's dharna in Greater Noida as "mean theatrics". She said the clashes in Bhatta Parsaul in Greater Noida had nothing to do with the issue of land compensation.
Evidently, she has a soft corner for Nishad, who will be now facing just a simple magisterial inquiry. Interestingly, Mayawati claimed , "I wanted to hand over this case to the CBI, as I do not want my adversaries to accuse my administration of bias; but considering that CBI had been consistently turning down all our recommendations, I chose to order a magisterial probe into the incident."
Bahujan Samaj Party president Mayawati today said the Lok Sabha elections could be preponed as the country is heading towards "political instability" due to corruption, inflation and unemployment.
Three women, including a Bahujan Samaj Party leader, who levelled some allegations against two ministers and staged a demonstration in front of Uttar Chief Minister Mayawati's cavalcade during her surprise visit in Aligarh, have been arrested, a senior police official said.
Former Congressman Akhilesh Das, who was formally inducted into the BSP in Lucknow Saturday, has already begun to sing paeans for his new political mentor - Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati. Das made it a point to repay Mayawati for the significant position of BSP's national general secretary that was conferred on him. "If there is anyone truly deserving to occupy the country's highest office of prime miniter, it is none other than Behen Mayawati," he said.
'The BJP is racing against its opponents by putting a chain on their legs.'
Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati on Saturday said she has decided on her heir outside her family who is also a Dalit. It would be disclosed at an appropriate time, she said addressing the party's National Workers' meet in Lucknow.
Sure enough, the two UP satraps would need to initiate steps to put their respective houses in order and to rejuvenate their badly disillusioned party ranks following the humiliating drubbing in the Lok Sabha elections. However, whether the two regional titans would care to introspect about their own failings remains a million dollar question. Sharat Pradhan reports.
The two are believed to have discussed strategies to be adopted in Uttar Pradesh and at the national level.
Continuing its crackdown against the recruitment of police personnel during the Mulayam Singh Yadav regime, the Mayawati government in Uttar Pradesh on Sunday sacked 7,400 more policemen and suspended seven senior Indian Police Service officers.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati on Thursday issued orders for the arrest of Bahujan Samaj Party member of Parliament Purshottam Naresh Dwivedi and his three aides after the Crime Branch submitted its preliminary report confirming that they gang raped a 17-year-old Dalit girl in Banda, about 180 km from Lucknow.
The chief minister said stern action would be taken against the guilty officials and added that she had ordered suspension of the construction activity much before Jagmohan intervened in the matter.
this is not Orissa or West Bengal or Haryana or any other part of India where villagers are protesting against acquisition of farmland for industry or special economic zones. This is Mayawati's Uttar Pradesh -- where the chief minister wants around 400 hectares from four villages to create the mother of all gardens. The strategic location of the green belt, locally referred as "picnic spot", will ensure that Mayawati's farmhouse, which she hasn't visited even once, wil
Terming Friday's Maharajganj incident in which ten people were charred to death, as an indicator of the prevailing jungleraj in the state, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday demanded Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati's resignation.
