Yadav fought hard, but his party was well behind the BJP.
Thursday was the day results from the Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh assembly elections and by-elections in Bihar, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh were out, so what were some of our leaders up to?
In an apparent attack on the UPA government, Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav on Wednesday alleged that no other country in the world had seen the kind of deteriorating situation as India did in the last 10 years, saying people were now looking for an alternative.
Expelled Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan is all set to rejoin the party on December 9.Khan on Saturday told mediapersons, "Now that SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav has admitted his mistakes and taken suitable corrective action, I have decided to formally join the party on December 9."He said, "Mulayam Singh Yadav has been sincerely apologetic about expelling me from the party and now he has declared that he would offer me an appropriate position in the SP hierarchy."
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.
What some of our leaders were up to on Wednesday, October 19.
BJP sources suggest that the upcoming elections will likely revolve around the renewed enthusiasm for the temple unless another theme with religious and nationalist undertones emerges.
His father Somappa Rayappa Bommai was the state chief minister during 1988-1989.
The stranglehold of Mulayam's family on the party is at the centre of the debate.
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.
Samajwadi Party President Akhilesh Yadav on Monday alleged that the police and administration are preventing people from casting votes in Mainpuri parliamentary and Rampur Assembly constituency in the bypolls in Uttar Pradesh.
The stakes are significant for the BJP in this round as the party had in 2019 won an overwhelming majority of these seats, including all in Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, that will go to polls on May 7.
Political battles were decided not in boxing rings but in the court of the people, Bharatiya Janata Party leader Amit Shah said in Ballia, Uttar Pradesh on Sunday, responding to Samajwadi Party's counter to Narendra Modi's "56 inch chest" remarks.
Amid efforts to form a Third Front, several regional parties including the Left, the Janata Dal-United, All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, Bharatiya Janata Dal and United Progressive Alliance ally Nationalist Congress Party on Wednesday came together at a convention in New Delhi with their leaders pitching for unity among them to defeat the "threat" from fascist and communal forces.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday appointed Uttar Pradesh cabinet minister Bhupendra Chaudhary as the party's chief in the state.
Attacking Lalu Prasad for going to the Muzaffarnagar riot relief camps a few days after Rahul Gandhi's visit, Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav on Tuesday said the Rashtriya Janata Dal leader was a sycophant who was "licking the feet" of Congress leaders.
Exuding confidence that the Third Front will form the next government at the Centre, Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav on Thursday said his party would set no preconditions to join it and help form the alliance in national interest.
Trouble appears to be brewing for the beleaguered Mulayam Singh Yadav government with the Centre reportedly considering the option of imposing President's Rule in Uttar Pradesh.
Citing 'fundamental differences', the Bharatiya Janata Party has ruled out any alliance with the Mulayam Singh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party."There are fundamental differences between the BJP and the SP. It was Mulayam Singh Yadav who had got the Ram bhakts fired upon for the first time...Any alliance between SP and BJP is out of question," party spokesperson Ravishankar Prasad said. "Mulayam is one of the pioneers among those who have promoted pseudo secularism in India,"he said
SP has fielded Shivpal from Jaswant Nagar seat in Etawah district.
Udayveer Singh, a Samajwadi Party MLC and one of the closest aides of Akhilesh Yadav, was on Saturday expelled from the party for "undignified" conduct days after he wrote to SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav suggesting him to elevate the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister as the party's national president.
Dimple Yadav, Samajwadi Party leader and its candidate in the Mainpuri Lok Sabha bypoll, has declared movable and immovable assets worth over Rs 14 crore.
As the street battle erupted, Mulayam Singh Yadav and Chief Minister Mayawati traded charges with the SP chief accusing the police of targeting his party workers at her behest and the BSP supremo charging SP with fomenting trouble in league with criminals.
Congress on Thursday demanded its resignation saying since the parties which had helped form the government three years ago had withdrawan their support, this government has no moral right to continue.
Shivpal loyalists have been denied tickets.
How he hopes to retain his fort is anyone's guess, says Nazarwala, the man who called right the 2007 and 2012 UP elections.
"With Congress clearly failing to stop BJP in these two states, now a demand for third front has again gained ground in the country," he added.
The Uttar Pradesh Congress on Thursday morning handed over a letter to Governor T V Rajeswar withdrawing support to the three-year-old Mulayam Singh Yadav government.
Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav on Thursday took a dig at Narendra Modi over his remarks that Bharatiya Janata Party will turn Uttar Pradesh into a Gujarat, reminding the BJP's prime ministerial nominee that "atrocities and massacres" were carried out in the state ruled by him.
Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav might have repeatedly castigated his Chief Minister son Akhilesh Yadav for his loose grip over the administration.
