A short circuit caused a brief moment of panic during a press conference held by BSP president Mayawati in Lucknow. Samajwadi Party Chief Akhilesh Yadav called it a security lapse and demanded an investigation.
The petitioner alleged this hurt his religious sentiments as the BSP supremo compared herself to Lord Rama.
Mayawati comes to the battle field armed with a Dalit-Brahmin-Muslim combination once again. She has given around 10 seats to Other Backward Classes and three each to the Baniya and Thakur communities. If she wins impressively, it will be because of her "inclusive politics".
The bench made it clear the tentative view was expressed by it as the matter would take some time for hearing.
Sirsa MP Kumari Selja will campaign for the Congress and address a public meeting in Narwana this week, party general secretary Randeep Surjewala said on Monday after the Bharatiya Janata Party targeted the grand old party over alleged infighting amid reports that she was sulking.
Women politicians bring to politics and policy a sensitivity that most of their male counterparts, at least until a generation back, lacked.
'A class antagonism of rich versus poor took the colouring of a communal confrontation,' says Sunil Sethi.
Political strategist Prashant Kishor, who played a key role in victories of Narendra Modi-led BJP in general elections and the Janata Dal-United-Rashtriya Janata Dal-Congress alliance in Bihar, on Wednesday attended a meeting with Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi to craft the party's strategy for Uttar Pradesh polls.
The PM appealed to politicians, members of the film fraternity, sportspersons, businessmen, spiritual leaders and members of the media to encourage increased voter participation and urged them to inspire more people to come out and vote during the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
'In this resurgent India, class is the new caste. We are shaken up only occasionally, and briefly, when a battered, tribal teenager from Jharkhand looks us in the eye from our closet,' says Shekhar Gupta.
'Usually, the Left backed the Congress and other 'secular' parties on the justification of keeping the BJP out. In Bengal, the alliance targets a truly secular rival,' says Shekhar Gupta.
In Yogi Adityanath's Uttar Pradesh wayward Romeos would all be in the lock-up, says Sunil Sethi.
'There was an overt campaign and there was a covert campaign. The overt campaign may be development, government, and all this nonsense. But the covert campaign, which Mr Amit Shah was doing, was far more important with the help of RSS cadres. This has been an RSS election. From day one I have been saying, this is not Congress versus the BJP, this is Congress versus the RSS,' says Jairam Ramesh, one of the key strategists of the Congress party.
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