On Thursday, the state government will face a trial of strength in the assembly.
Handing a warning to the United Progressive Alliance, Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav on Saturday said the Centre should immediately implement the Sachhar Committee recommendations for the welfare of Muslims, failing which it will have to go out of power.
Under attack for his controversial comment on the Women's Reservation Bill, Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav on Thursday justified his remark, that a separate quota for women would help only those belonging to elite families, whom 'youths would whistle at'.At a meeting of party workers at the SP headquarters in Lucknow, Yadav asserted that his statement was not a slip of tongue but was made after evaluating all aspects, to initiate a debate on the issue.
A young Indian man was arrested in Pakistan after illegally crossing the border to meet a Facebook friend he wanted to marry. However, the woman told police she was not interested in marrying him. The man, Badal Babu, was arrested in the Mandi Bahauddin district of Pakistan's Punjab province on December 28. He had crossed the border to meet his Facebook friend, Sana Rani. Rani, in her statement to police, said she had been friends with Babu for the past two-and-a-half years but was not interested in marrying him. Babu's family has appealed to the Indian government to intervene for his release.
Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav on Saturday showered praise on Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani and used his comments to lash out at his son Akhilesh Yadav's government in Uttar Pradesh.
He spoke of the possibility of all non-Congress parties, including the BJP coming together under a common programme and asked the Left parties to lead such an alternative.\n
The feud in Uttar Pradesh's first family has ended, with Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday night restoring all but one portfolios of Shivpal Yadav and promising to support him as SP's state unit president, a post from which he was himself removed three days back triggering the power tussle with his uncle.
On the last day of Samajwadi Party's statewide agitation against the Mayawati government, party state president Akhilesh Yadav was arrested on Wednesday at the Amausi airport as soon as he landed in Lucknow from New Delhi.
A day after high drama at a key meeting of the ruling Samajwadi Party, its state unit chief Shivpal Yadav on Tuesday said all was well in the party as he visited Mulayam Singh Yadav's residence and was joined in later by Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday discussed the candidature of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, A P J Abdul Kalam and Somnath Chatterjee, floated by the Trinamool Congress and the Samajwadi Party.
United Progressive Alliance Presidential nominee Pranab Mukherjee spent the whole of Tuesday in Lucknow, meeting not only Congress legislators but also those belonging to the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party.
Hitting out at Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav for favouring a Third Front, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday dared him to first cut off ties with the United Progressive Alliance government, of which his party has been a "part and parcel". BJP spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy claimed that Yadav is "showing a lot of desperation" about a Third Front, though he himself is supporting the "corrupt" UPA government.
Samajwadi Party President Mulayam Singh Yadav on Saturday pointedly accused the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government at the centre of attempting to grab Waqf properties across the country through an executive order.
The BJP is leaning on Yogi's 'batenge to katenge' theme to weave a unifying narrative that transcends caste and communal lines.
'People who speak English fear taking on powerful people. We don't have fears because I don't have much to lose,' says Vishwanath Chaturvedi.
In an interview to CNN-IBN, the SP chief denied that Amar Singh was gaining out of party and also reaffirmed his charge that a Mumbai-based business tycoon was conniving to kill him.
Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh will meet Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav, Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad and Janata Dal-United leader Sharad Yadav on Tuesday morning over the Women's Reservation Bill.
Terming the proposed legislation on SC/ST quota in promotion as anti-national, Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav on Saturday said his party would review its stand on supporting the UPA government from outside, if the Bill is passed.
Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav on Wednesday indicated his party can support Congress in Uttar Pradesh after the assembly polls if he sees the Bharatiya Janata Party coming to power to stop "communal" forces.
The counsel, while repeatedly harping on the arguments that courts have no power to order a CBI probe, suggested that a "via media solution" could be worked out by ordering a judicial inquiry into the "disproportionate" assets.
Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav said on Monday that the decision to support the Congress-led government at the Centre on the civilian nuclear deal issue was taken in the national interest.
Faced with dramatic developments in the presidential race after its allies proposed fresh names, the Congress top brass, including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and party chief Sonia Gandhi, will meet on Thursday evening to strategise a response
Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav on Tuesday flatly denied pressurising his son Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, on whom he had entrusted the reins of the SP government 14 months ago.
In line with his plan for a complete makeover of the Samajwadi Party, Akhilesh Yadav, the party general secretary and son of chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, on Tuesday expelled a functionary for indulging in vandalism and showing black flags to Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi in Aligarh earlier in the day.
Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav's talk of early Lok Sabha polls to his party cadres shocked Congress leaders engaged in backroom talks for the last two weeks to rope in his party to join the United Progressive Alliance government at the Centre for giving it a stability to carry on till 2014.
In a damage control move, while party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav on Tuesday roped in a large number of Maulanas to give himself a clean chit, his second-in-command Amar Singh flew down to the well-known Islamic seminary, DarulUloom Deoband in Saharanpur district to woo the clerics there.
The Samajwadi Party on Tuesday attacked the Central Bureau of Investigation over the probe into the disproportionate assets case against party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and demanded an examination of the status report filed by the investigating agency in the Supreme Court.
However, the withdrawal of support would not make any difference to the state government. The Congress has only 15 members in the UP state assembly out of 403, while RLD has 15.
In his address to the joint sitting of the state legislature, Rajeswar, while outlining the priorities of Mayawati government, said that an atomosphere of "anarchy" prevailed in UP during the last four years.
Raking up the issue of the misuse of the Central Bureau of Investigation, Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav on Thursday said fighting with the government is not easy as it can use Central Bureau of Investigation and put one in jail. Yadav had earlier also attacked Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government blaming misuse of CBI by it.
Urdu journalist cum politician Shahid Siddiqui, who made waves recently when he was sacked by the Samajwadi Party for interviewing Gujarat CM Narendra Modi for his paper, spoke to Neerja Chowdhury on Uttar Pradesh, the goings on in the SP and the government led by it, of which he has had more than a ringside view.
In the backdrop of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam withdrawing support to United Progressive Alliance, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and Samajwadi Party state president Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday said his party's support to the UPA would continue and final decision would be taken by SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav.
Earlier, a Uttar Pradesh court refused to recognise 40 rebel Bahujan Samajwadi Party legislators, plunging the state into a political crisis.
The new ministers will be sworn in at the K D Singh Babu stadium at 1530 hours.
The reports of Sachar and Ranganath Misra committees on minority welfare on Thursday generated heat in the Lok Sabha, with RJD chief Lalu Prasad and his SP counterpart Mulayam Singh Yadav charging the government with being anti-Muslim and leading walkout by their party members.
Accusing the Congress party of doublespeak, Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav on Monday demanded that the party either sack general secretary Digvijaya Singh or take action against Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Home Minister P Chidambaram on the Batla House encounter case.
Mulyama's remarks came against the backdrop of marathon meetings Congress' poll strategist Prashant Kishor had with him in Delhi and Lucknow.
Many feel that the government does have a special regard for the Bachchan family.