'Modi 3.0 will have more balanced policies like one saw in Modi's first term.'
Over 50 people have been arrested after the communal violence in Maharajgaj town, officials said on Tuesday, as markets remained shut and people stayed indoors for a second day in a row amid heavy deployment of police and other security personnel.
AICC general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Monday brainstormed with senior Congress leaders from Uttar Pradesh on the preparations for next year's assembly polls, as the party resolved to hit the streets against the Bharatiya Janata Party government over issues such as unemployment, price rise and law and order.
'By calling names and using unparliamentary language, they are trying to divert people's attention from the issues of electricity, water, and income.'
The party was trounced in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh and is now left with only Himachal Pradesh in the north. It is ruling in only three states on its own and is in power in Bihar and Jharkhand as a junior partner in alliance with regional parties.
The Bihar unit of Samajwadi Party, which had protested over denial of seats in the grand alliance for Bihar Assembly polls, claimed to have fruitful talks with the alliance partners Rashtriya Janata Dal President Lalu Prasad and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar over seat sharing.
"We are just watching Amar Singh. We don't want to fall into his trap. He is not a 24-hour political worker and wants the ladder of the Rajya Sabha seat till alternative arrangements are made," party general secretary Mohan Singh told PTI.
At least 30 people were killed and 60 others injured in a pre-dawn stampede at the Sangam area of the Maha Kumbh early on Wednesday as crores of pilgrims jostled for space to take a holy dip on the occasion of one of the most auspicious days of Mauni Amavasya, officials said.
The suspense over whether Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will contest the polls from Amethi and Raebareli respectively continued.
As controversy raged over Yati Narsinghanand's objectionable remarks against Prophet Muhammad, his supporters on Sunday alleged that the Dasna temple head priest is being illegally kept in detention by police, which denied the claim.
'I want to ask the Congress only one question: What is more important than election management in politics?'
Ahead of the Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, two photos of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on a stroll with his hand on Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's shoulder has created quite a buzz.
Family members of those convicted alleged that an attempt has been made by the BJP to polarise the UP Assembly elections and questioned the timing of the judgment.
An Uttar Pradesh government spokesperson said a formal order for all eateries along the Kanwar Yatra route in the state was likely to be issued soon.
In line with his plan for a complete makeover of the Samajwadi Party, Akhilesh Yadav, the party general secretary and son of chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, on Tuesday expelled a functionary for indulging in vandalism and showing black flags to Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi in Aligarh earlier in the day.
Nineteen Opposition parties, including the Congress, the Left, the Trinamool Congress, the Samajwadi Party and the Aam Aadmi Party, came together to jointly announce the boycott, saying they find no value in a new building when the "soul of democracy has been sucked out".
With a significant number of Opposition leaders present at the swearing-in ceremony of the Congress government in Karnataka, Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal on Sunday said Opposition unity requires much more than optics of this nature and stressed the need for meeting of minds, a common agenda and sacrificing partisan interests.
Throwing his party's weight behind the Congress to ensure an Opposition win in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam president and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin on Wednesday said arguments by some favouring a front without the grand old party should be rejected.
The colourful rally galvanised the BRS workers who shouted slogans hailing the party-led regime's welfare schemes in Telangana and peppy political songs praised Rao's 'national' emergence.
Addressing an election rally in the family bastion of Saifai, Akhilesh Yadav also asserted that his party will register a historic win in the bypoll.
When the Bharatiya Janata Party's Mukesh Dalal was declared elected unopposed to the Lok Sabha from Surat on Monday, he became the first candidate to achieve the feat from Gujarat since its formation 64 years ago though the erstwhile state of Saurashtra saw a similar instance in 1951.
'How can Netaji forget Amar Singh called him names? He has come back to Netaji because he failed to gain entry in any political party.'
While Madhya Pradesh sends 29 members to the Lok Sabha, Uttarakhand accounts for 5 seats in the Lower House of Parliament.
'Just today a shopkeeper I went to was saying how bad business is. He must have been a BJP supporter.' 'He finally said, "It's a good thing there's an NDA government, not a BJP government, 'they' had become too big for their boots,".'
With two phases of voting already completed, political parties are busy with filing nominations, addressing roadshows and undertaking hectic campaigns for the constituencies that will vote this month.
Spread over 10 districts, polling in these constituencies will be held from 7 am till 6 pm on Thursday.
Consensus emerged on the appointment of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge as the chairperson of the opposition Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA), while Janata Dal-United chief Nitish Kumar's name was proposed for the convener's post, pending approval of parties absent at the alliance meeting on Saturday, according to sources.
Forty-two of the 102 Lok Sabha seats going to polls in the general election's first phase are constituencies that have three or more candidates facing criminal cases, according to a poll rights body.
Electoral setbacks and thwarted ambition can have an unpredictable effect on leaders,, observes Aditi Phadnis.
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.
Samajwadi Party on Wednesday appointed Mohan Singh as its general secretary and spokesman in place of Amar Singh and he lost no time in demanding the resignation of the dissenting leader from Rajya Sabha on moral grounds.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Saturday hinted that a meeting of opposition leaders may take place in Patna after the crucial Karnataka assembly polls were over as many would be busy electioneering there.
While the BJP and the Congress have always supported the bill, opposition by other parties and demands from some for quota for backward classes within the women's quota have been key sticking points.
The prominent faces among the 676 candidates for 57 seats spread across 10 districts in this phase included Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath from Gorakhpur Urban and state Congress president Ajay Kumar Lallu from Tamkuhi Raj.
Voting for the seventh and final round will be held on March 7 for Varanasi and its eight adjoining districts.
Kickstarting his party's 'Mission 2022' with a 'rath yatra,' Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday hit out at the Bharatiya Janata Party, saying it has 'crushed farmers' and on return to power in Uttar Pradesh would 'crush the Constitution' as well.
AICC general secretary KC Venugopal said eight former MLAs joined the party in Haryana two days ago, and lamented that such fresh developments were not getting prominence.
Her name figures among the 40 star campaigners that the Congress has finalised and forwarded to the Election Commission on Tuesday for the first phase of Uttar Pradesh polls.
Speaking to ANI, Mayawati said, "We have decided that to defeat the SP candidate in future MLC elections in UP, we will put all our force and even if we have to give our vote to BJP candidate or any party candidate, will do it. Any party candidate, who will be dominant over the SP's 2nd candidate, will get all the BSP MLAs' vote for sure."
