'Nitish Kumar wouldn't have won Bihar without Lalu. He needed a voter base and Lalu has a much bigger voter base than Nitish.'
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.
The two parties have fielded 33 candidates each belonging to the Jat community for the December 7 polls.
'These people are not concerned about Hindu, Muslim, Sikh or Christian -- they are only concerned about being in power,' Akhilesh Yadav tells Rediff.com's Archana Masih in his first interview after the election results.
Predicting a tough time for Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav, the newly-formed Peoples Democratic Front on Tuesday indicated that it might contest in 147 seats in the next Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh.
Opposition leaders asked all secular forces to field a joint candidate for presidential elections and have common minimum programme to challenge the Bharatiya Janata Party, reports Archis Mohan.
The Samajwadi Party stormed to the power with 224 of the 403 assembly seats.
Boosting the morale of their supporters and signalling unity, the two leaders atop the 'UP Vijay Rath' started the road show from the GPO park in Hazratganj after garlanding the statue of Mahatma Gandhi.
Days after the Uttar Pradesh government denied the Vishwa Hindu Parishad permission for the yatra, the row has gained a religious-political colour.
'Nitish has no future in state politics.' 'Nitish harassed the Yadav community no end in his earlier tenure as chief minister. So who will the Yadav community vote for in the coming state elections?'
What does someone from Uttar Pradesh on the streets of Mumbai think of the results back home?
Verma, a Kurmi who recently formed the Samajwadi Kranti Dal (SKD) after breaking away from Yadav, has fielded candidates in almost all seats in the area and appears set to corner a large chunk of votes from his community.
Participating in the debate on the budget, leaders of parties like the Congress, Bahujan Samaj Party, Aam Aadmi Party and Left launched an all-out attack on the BJP government for allegedly selling off the country's assets and PSUs to big industrialists.
Extending support to communal violence Bill, Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav on Friday said he was disheartened that it was "put on hold" in Parliament by the Congress, which buckled under the pressure of communal forces like the Bharatiya Janata Party.
"Governance, governance, governance," was what Nitish Kumar said were his three priorities when he took the helm of Bihar in 2005.
With the Bahujan Samaj Party keeping out and the Congress being in the fray only for namesake, Saturday's bye-election for 11 state assembly constituencies and for one Lok Sabha seat will determine the supremacy between Samajwadi Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party.
He was suspended from Gorakhpur's BRD Medical College after several children died there in 2017, apparently due to the lack of oxygen cylinders at the government hospital.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday said the government has no other option but to extend President's Rule in Jammu and Kashmir as the Election Commission wants to hold assembly elections in the state by the end of 2019.
The Congress wants the 28 seats it won in 2012 plus 20 seats where the party was runner-up plus 57 seats where it was ahead of the SP in 2012.
The Allahabad high court on Monday asked the district administration of Allahabad to explain the rationale behind repeatedly denying permission to All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen leader Asaduddin Owaisi for addressing public rally in the city.
Shahi Imam of Jama Masjid Syed Ahmed Bukhari on Friday declared his support to Congress saying it will "strengthen" secularism and termed communalism as "bigger threat" to the country than corruption.
The nationwide ban comes into force at 6 am Tuesday, the poll panel said.
Can you even imagine the fear that must have passed through Kiran Rao's mind, asks Syed Firdaus Ashraf.
'It is for the first time that Modi has chosen someone as CM who happens to be a mass leader, a polarising figure, a vote catcher, a powerful orator and a Hindu mascot all at once -- qualities usually associated with Modi,' points out Rajeev Sharma.
Outside Rampur, Azam Khan's name may be an alias for controversy. But Rampur's voters believe that all the improvements in their constituency has been accomplished only by the man they have elected 8 times to the state assembly.
India's Muslims need to assert their educational and economic upliftment and political empowerment rather than be provoked by communal remarks, says Mohammad Sajjad, reflecting on the Malda riot.
All you need to know about the Winter session of Parliament.
Poll arithmetic and ground reports give an edge to Lalu Prasad's RJD over Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal-United in the coming Lok Sabha polls. Mayank Mishra reports
Challenging the verdict is a deterrent to future peace and harmony and a socially irresponsible act, argues Vivek Gumaste.
With less than two months to go for the Lok Sabha election, the expected process of political realignments has begun, reports Anita Katyal.
Governor Ram Naik and UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav greeted people on the occasion at Eidgah.
A fresh case has been lodged against controversial Uttar Pradesh minister Azam Khan for his alleged 'hate-speech' in Shamli district. A case was registered against Khan in Thana Bhawan police station on Saturday for his remarks at an election rally in Jalalabad area of the district on April 8, District Magistrate NP Singh told mediapersons.
'At least 6,000 people attended a meal at Shahabuddin's residence in a feast to celebrate his bail. As if the community has no other priorities of channelising such funds for better purposes!,' says Mohammad Sajjad.
Amit Shah's meticulous planning and Modi's charisma will turn the tide in the BJP's favour, says Nazarwala.
'A class antagonism of rich versus poor took the colouring of a communal confrontation,' says Sunil Sethi.
'For Nitish Kumar the message is to be democratic. With the support of the BJP, he had suppressed criticism in Bihar. He would also need to change his highly authoritarian way of governance.' 'The Grand Alliance, given the decisive mandate in its favour, cannot afford to fail the people. They have a duty to make it a model for the rest of India,' says Apoorvanand.
The Samajwadi Party on Thursday pulled out of the 'grand alliance' in poll-bound Bihar, saying it felt "humiliated" as it was not consulted while deciding seats and would contest the assembly elections in the state on its own.
The marathon meeting, spread over two sessions and kept under wraps, came a day after top leaders of socialist-leaning parties attended SP's silver jubilee meet here -- a move seen as an attempt by Mulayam to forge an alliance ahead of the assembly polls hardly a few months away.
Dropping clear hints about joining Aam Aadmi Party, expelled Samajwadi Party leader Kamal Farooqui on Sunday met Arvind Kejriwal and said "everybody is interested" in joining the nascent party.
Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra visited Bijnor district where she met families of two persons killed in the violence. Internet services have been suspended in several areas till Monday, while prohibitory orders remained in force across the state.
