Who would be footing bill for what was supposedly a "family affair" could be anybody's guess.
It may be a little late in the day, but Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav had apparently realised the futility of shaking hands with his one time sworn political foe and Bhartiya Janata Party rebel, Kalyan Singh. Mulayam, who had struck a alliance with Kalyan apparently in the hope of building a new backward axis in a caste-ridden Uttar Pradesh, had finally decided to dump the latter.
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.
The CM flew to Allahabad on Saturday morning and reached the Triveni Sangam -- confluence of Ganga, Yamuna and mythical Saraswati rivers -- to personally see the arrangements there.
Rajya Sabha member of Parliament Amar Singh has "admitted" that he facilitated the purported conversation between Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and noted lawyer Shanti Bhushan, which is contained in the controversial CD, the Delhi police has told a court in New Delhi.
Home to several Yadav family bastions, Phase III of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly Elections is especially crucial for the Samajwadi Party.
Keen to regain lost ground after the drubbing in Lok Sabha polls, Samajwadi Party supreme Mulayam Singh Yadav on Sunday met UP Ministers and asked them to ensure the party's victory in bypolls to 12 assembly seats.
The rift between Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav and his party colleague Azam Khan, who also happens to be a prominent minister in the state cabinet, appears to be widening.
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.
Lucknow's Hazratganj police station on Saturday refused to register an FIR by IPS officer Amitabh Thakur, who was allegedly threatened by Samajwadi Party supremo and former chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav.
The occasion, which brought Yadav, a former chief minister, and the Bahujan Samaj Party supremo together was a meeting convened to finalise nominees for the State Human Rights Commission. The arch rivals had parted ways following the collapse of their coalition government in 1995 and have been bitter critics attacking each other and rarely acknowledging even the presence of the other at public functions.
Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee and Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav have taken A P J Abdul Kalam into confidence before naming him as one of the Presidential candidates on Wednesday evening.
0After committing support to the United Progressive Alliance, Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav on Saturday ruled out his involvement in formation of third front before the next Lok Sabha polls even though he had an intriguing meeting with Sukhbir Badal, President of national Democractic Alliance's key constituent Akali Dal.
Shivpal Yadav on Friday held talks with defiant nephew Akhilesh at his residence on a "compromise formula" for a possible patch-up.
'We will extend or take support on the basis of issues,' he said after meeting Harkishan Singh Surjeet and George Fernandes.
Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (Lohia) chief Shivpal Yadav on Monday said that his party's priority is to form an alliance with the Samajwadi Party for the upcoming Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections and that it should be allotted 100 seats.
A crucial meeting of Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, Janata Dal-United chief Sharad Yadav and Rashtriya Janata Dal supremo Laloo Prasad Yadav along with Rashtriya Lok Dal leader Ajit Singh took place at 8.30 am on Thursday at the JD-U chief's residence at 7, Tughlaq Road in New Delhi.
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.
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.
Congress reached out to Samajwadi Party Supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav for his support for passage of the Food Security Bill which is expected to be introduced in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday coinciding with the birth anniversary of Rajiv Gandhi.
Swami Prasad Maurya, who recently stirred controversy over his remarks on Ramcharitmanas, and veteran leader Azam Khan are also among the 14 national general secretaries.
Union Minister Beni Prasad Verma, who has been attacking Mulayam Singh Yadav, on Monday hit out at at the SP leader over communal violence in Uttar Pradesh and claimed there was threat to his life as he was the only Congress leader speaking against Mulayam.
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.
Mulayam Singh's bid to get a third front on his side is to get into a position where he can barter for the prime minister's job with the support of either the BJP or the Congress, says Seema Mustafa.
The PIL alleged that the chief minister and his family members, including his son Akhilesh (a parliamentarian), acquired wealth in crores through illegal means.
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.
Amid the raging feud in Samajwadi Party, its senior leader Shivpal Yadav reached Delhi on Wednesday evening to invite 'like-minded' socialists for the party's 25th anniversary celebrations on November 5, a move seen as an attempt to stitch an alliance for the state assembly polls.
The demand comes in the backdrop of the UPA government granting a special Rs 3,225 crore package to Bihar, ruled by key UPA constituent Rashtriya Janata Dal, in the Union Budget 2004-05 ahead of the assembly elections in the state.
Slamming Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav for his rape remarks, the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday said that he should immediately apologise and take back his words.
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.
Prolonged parleys with different power centers led to several hiccups before Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav could induct four new faces in his team in Lucknow on Thursday. The total tally of council of ministers is now 60.
Some factories in Ghaziabad, from where Amar Singh had resigned six years ago, were also raided, he said.\n\n\n\n
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.
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.
Mulayam Singh Yadav moved SC on Monday seeking review of its judgment directing preliminary inquiry by the CBI into allegations that he and his family members have amassed wealth disproportionate to their known sources of income.
Earlier, a Uttar Pradesh court refused to recognise 40 rebel Bahujan Samajwadi Party legislators, plunging the state into a political crisis.
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.
Uttar Pradesh's powerful minister Azam Khan will host a gala event on the occasion of Samajwadi Party founder and president Mulayam Singh Yadav's 75th birthday in Rampur on Friday and Saturday.
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