Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati on Friday declared that the legal proceedings against state Congress Committee president Rita Bahuguna Joshi, who was arrested on Wednesday night for allegedly making inflammatory comments against the Bahujan Samaj Party chief, would continue."Even if Joshi manages to get bail like Varun Gandhi (who is facing charges under the National Security Act clamped by the UP police), her crime cannot be forgiven," said the UP CM.
The Bahujan Samaj Party office in Ghaziabad caught fire late on Thursday night in a suspected attack in the wake of the arrest of Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi, who had made derogatory remarks about Chief Minister Mayawati, but the police attributed the blaze to short circuit.
Congress leaders Digvijay Singh, Sachin Pilot and Rita Bahuguna Joshi were arrested by the Uttar Pradesh Police at the Delhi border on Tuesday, when they were going towards state Chief Minister Mayawati's village to protest against the 'coercive' acquisition of land.The leaders were prevented at the Delhi-UP border by the UP police from going towards Badalpur, the village of Mayawati, where the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee has organised a 'Kisan Sangharsh Rally'.
Congress MP from Faizabad Nirmal Khatri was made the new Pradesh Congress Committee chief of Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday in a bid to revive the organisation in the key state after the party's debacle in the February assembly elections.
Smelling a major scam in the recent sale of four sugar mills by the Uttar Pradesh government, the Congress on Thursday accused Chief Minister Mayawati of large-scale bungling and manipulation in palming off the mills to handpicked buyers.
It has taken Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi a month to recover from the poll debacle in Uttar Pradesh, inflicted on his party by his own partymen. A month later, he has decided that he should get to the bottom of the UP mystery.
Singh, who represents the Bikapur assembly constituency in Faizabad district, had said that jobs in the BSP government were up for sale and that there was a price tag on every new appointment. "It is no secret that jobs in the present government go only to those who are ready to shell out money", he told a local gathering in Sohawal town of his constituency on Tuesday evening.
Lashing out at Team Anna for its anti-Congress propaganda, Uttar Pradesh Congress Chief president Rita Bahuguna Joshi
The Congress and the Samajwadi Party on Tuesday slammed Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati for her proposed move to split Uttar Pradesh into four smaller states.
Under attack by the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee Chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi for using helicopters to hand over cheques to rape victims in the state, the state government has decided that instead of director general of police, the job would be now done by concerned district magistrates.
Bollywood actor and suspended Samajwadi Party MP Raj Babbar would formally join the Congress in New Delhi on October 5. Babbar, who had snapped ties with former Prime Minister V P Singh-led Jan Morcha after the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, has invited Congress General Secretary and in-charge of UP Digvijay Singh and UP Congress President Rita Bahuguna Joshi for a public rally in Agra on Sunday. The MP's representative Upendra Singh confirmed the rally on October 5.
Releasing a 16-page chargesheet Ek Saal Mein Badhaal Pradesh Bana Uttar Pradesh, UP Congress president Rita Bahuguna Joshi told media persons that it was a compilation of election promises made by Mayawati and ground realities. She alleged law and order in the state had become bad to worse under Bahujan Samaj Party's rule and atrocities against women, Dalit and poor have gone up drastically.
Infighting in Congress in the wake of its electoral debacle in Uttar Pradesh came out in the open on Thursday with Pradesh Congress Committee chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi saying there was a "lot of sabotage" at the local level in the party which is in a "crisis" at this moment.
Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi on Tuesday asserted that Congress will not form alliance with Bahujan Samaj Party, Samajwadi Party or Bharatiya Janata Party in the event of a hung assembly in the state.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi sought to nip in the bud a possible controversy on Tuesday, when he made it clear that he did not force the helicopter pilot to land in zero visibility conditions in Sitapur on Monday evening.
All India Congress Committee general secretary Rahul Gandhi on Friday took potshots at the Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party government in Uttar Pradesh, saying there is place for statues and elephants but not development, and spoke of the need for Congress to come to power in the state. On a thanksgiving visit to his constituency Amethi, the first after his victory in the Lok Sabha polls, he avoided any comments on the raging row.
Besides Singh, who makes his electoral debut from Noida, Rita Bahuguna Joshi's name also featured in the list.
In an obvious reference to the allegations made by UP Congress chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi who had earlier in the day charged the UP chief minister of amassing huge amounts of wealth and property, UP Cabinet Secretary Shashank Shekhar Singh told a press conference in Lucknow on Tuesday, "The UP chief minister does not own an inch of land anywhere."
'The Congress may have made mistakes, but their ideology is not wrong. India will not function if you do not believe in unity in diversity,' declares filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt. Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com reports from Lucknow.
Yadav said she initially felt like Eklavya in the BJP family but now (with this responsibility) she hopes to work like Arjuna.
A day after a group of Congress MLAs met Sachin Pilot, another party legislator on Friday expressed support for the dissident leader as trouble brewed again in Rajasthan's ruling party.
Maneka Gandhi will contest from Sultanpur and Varun Gandhi from Pilibhit.
While she slammed the Congress for politics over the Indian Army's surgical strikes, Twitterati did what it does the best -- dig up her old tweets on her new party.
With the counting for the high-stakes assembly elections is on in five states - Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Manipur and Goa, here's a look at some of the big names and where they stand.
The Samajwadi Party on Sunday declared that party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav's youngest daughter-in-law, Aparna Yadav, will contest the 2017 Uttar Pradesh assembly polls. S
What some of our leaders were up to on the weekend.
Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf Ahmed were shot dead by men posing as journalists on April 15 night this year, while they were being taken for a medical examination in Prayagraj.
Newly-appointed chief ministerial candidate Sheila Dikshit and state chief Raj Babbar came out all guns blazing against the SP, BSP and BJP.
Earlier, the UP Women and Child Welfare Minister Rita Bahuguna Joshi admitted there had been laxity at the district level in not shutting down the Deoria shelter even after a closure order last year.
During the Rath Yatra, Lord Jagannath, his elder brother Balabhadra and younger sister Subhadra are carried from their home temple to another temple, located in what is believed to be their aunt's home.
Here's a recap of events that occurred in India in the past 24 hours.
Addressing an election meeting on what once was the home turf of slain gangster-politician Atiq Ahmed, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Tuesday appeared to invoke nature as a great leveller -- a force that delivers justice.
Keeping in view the approaching Lok Sabha elections, the All Indian Congress Committee has appointed a battery of high-profile spokesmen for the Congress to showcase the achievements of the last 10 years of United Progressive Alliance government and publicise the various sectors where the UPA has performed. Renu Mittal reports
Congress leader Rita Bahuguna Joshi talks about her chances against BJP chief Rajnath Singh for the Lucknow seat
The BJP's top leadership will drop its MPs found to be facing anti-incumbency, according to its internal surveys -- a pivotal tactic to ensure the party achieves its target of winning 370 seats.
Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav's daughter-in-law Aparna Yadav joined the Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday.
His son and party chief Akhilesh Yadav lit the funeral pyre. The former Uttar Pradesh CM had died aged 82 at a private hospital in Haryana's Gurugram on Monday.
The Congress said it wanted Madhya Pradesh Governor Ram Naresh Yadav to "either resign or be dismissed" in the view of charges against him in the Vyapam scam, and questioned the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Centre's reluctance in removing him from the post.
Over 14,000 policemen were deployed across the city for the security of Adityanath.
Samajwadi Party government exempts Dedh Ishqiya from tax ; Mulayam and Akhilesh camp in Saifai to welcome Madhuri-Salman