With several political stalwarts of Uttar Pradesh no longer on the scene, it will be keenly watched how their children lead at the hustings this time without their formidable presence.
What some of our leaders were up to on the weekend.
Shiv Sena MP Shrikant Shinde on Tuesday tore into the Uddhav Thackeray faction for 'abandoning' Hindutva and Bal Thackeray's ideology and even recited the Hanuman Chalisa in Lok Sabha as his party opposed the no-confidence motion against the Modi government.
613 candidates are in the fray on 54 seats, including those falling in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's parliamentary segment Varanasi.
Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday met senior party leader Azam Khan at Delhi's Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, a meeting that came amid speculations of a rift between both leaders.
What some of our leaders were up to on Wednesday, October 19.
What were our political leaders up to on the weekend?
Espousing an aggressive pro-backward and Dalit stance synchronising with the Maurya controversy, the SP has thrown down the gauntlet with Akhilesh upping the ante on the burning topic, reports Virendra Singh Rawat.
Bharatiya Janata Party chief Amit Shah on Tuesday took a dig at Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav over his meeting with Amar Singh, saying Samajwadi Party will not get revived by bringing the former party leader back but by reaching out to people.
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.
Rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt speaks with Vishwanath Chaturvedi, a petitioner in the disproportionate assets case against Samajwadi Party supreme Mulayam Singh Yadav and his family who says that the CBI may shut the case prematurely
Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav attacked the Congress over the food security ordinance, accusing it of indulging in vote bank politics and said its intentions were not good.
With controversial Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Azam Khan in the line of the Election Commission's (EC) fire for his comments, Uttar Pradesh (UP) Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav today came out in his support, accusing the poll body of taking action without going through his explanation.
YSR Congress party chief YS Jaganmohan Reddy will meet Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and his father and Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav on Tuesday evening in Lucknow, to garner political support for a united Andhra Pradesh.
Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav on Wednesday suggested that if Lalu Prasad Yadav takes initiative, he does not mind joining hands with Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party in Uttar Pradesh.
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.
The TMC also announced it would hold talks with other regional parties in their bid to take on the BJP in the crucial 2024 elections but at the same time denied that it was planning a third front, separate from the Congress-led front.
The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court on Thursday ordered a CBI probe against tainted Noida official Yadav Singh, whose disproportionate assets were exposed in a raid by the Income Tax department several months ago.
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.
Under attack from the Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial nominee Narendra Modi, Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav on Monday hit back at him asking whether education and irrigation had been made free in Gujarat like Uttar Pradesh, and charged his party with instigating riots to impede growth.
The Varanasi versus Azamgarh story is about the fears and insecurities of two of our strongest leaders, Narendra Modi and Mulayam Singh Yadav, says Sheela Bhatt.
In a dig at Rahul Gandhi, Dubey said that the former Congress president was expected to initiate the debate but did not do so last minute as "probably he got up late".
Can Nitishbabu create an anti-BJP phalanx like Jayaprakash Narayan did in 1977 or will his efforts come undone by Opposition leaders' political ambitions and, of course, the BJP's agency-aided campaign of intimidation?
The SBSP has six MLAs in the Uttar Pradesh legislative assembly.
Taking a cue from the massive victory of the Grand Alliance against the Bharatiya Janata Party in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh CM Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday said such a tie-up was possible in the state where assembly elections are due in early 2017.
Adityanath on the occasion praised the Centre's 'Agnipath' scheme and highlighted its benefits.
The ruling BJP in UP, however, lost Khatauli to Samajwadi Party ally Rashtriya Lok Dal.
'The BJP would like to build a 'rainbow' coalition of different castes and communities buttressed by the appeal of nationalism and Hindutva.'
Samajwadi Party leader Mohammed Farooq Ghosi has been suspended after stirring a controversy by requesting party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav to nominate 1993 Mumbai serial blasts convict Yakub Memon's wife as a Rajya Sabha MP.
The Thiruvananthapuram MP, who was speaking at the Kerala Literature Festival in Kozhikode on Friday, said while he concedes the BJP's dominance, it is also a fact that they have lost many states and them losing the central government is not impossible.
Rita Bahuguna Joshi had fought the 2017 elections and defeated Aparna Yadav, the then SP candidate from Lucknow Cantonment.
Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister and former state BJP president Keshav Prasad Maurya had also dropped a hint in a recent tweet, saying Yaduvanshi (Yadavs), Ravidasiyo (Jatavs) and Pasmanda Muslims will be brought closer to the BJP so that the lotus 'blossoms' in every booth in UP.
Azam Khan is currently a member of Parliament from Rampur Lok Sabha.
Notwithstanding Congress' reprimand, Union Steel Minister Beni Prasad Verma on Saturday intensified his attack on his friend-turned foe Mulayam Singh Yadav accusing him of conniving with the Bharatiya Janata Party to flare up communal passions and dared the Samajwadi Party leader to a public debate on Babri issue.
"NDA is a beautiful rainbow of regional aspirations... So nation's development through the development of states... At a time when we are working for a developed India, NDA is taking the lead in showing the spirit of sabka prayas," he said.
SP chief Akhilesh Yadav had on Thursday announced an alliance with his uncle Shivpal Singh Yadav's PSPL after a meeting between them.
Congress's chief ministerial face Sheila Dikshit offered to step aside in favour of a young Akhilesh Yadav.
Yadav also promised caste census in the state after the formation of the SP government and equal representation and honour to all castes.
These include key constituencies held by Opposition parties such as Uttar Pradesh's Rae Bareli (Sonia Gandhi, Congress) and Mainpuri (Mulayam Singh Yadav, SP); Maharashtra's Baramati (Supriya Sule, Nationalist Congress Party); West Bengal's Jadhavpur (Mimi Chakraborty, TMC); Telangana's Mahabubnagar (Srinivas Reddy, TRS) and Madhya Pradesh's Chhindwara (Nakul Nath, Congress).
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