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.
Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav on Thursday said people of the country want change of power, but evaded a direct reply on whether his party would join an opposition alliance to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Notwithstanding former Samajwadi Party general secretary Amar Singh's claims that his "illness" had forced to step down, party sources said it was a deliberate sideline by SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav's son Akhilesh Yadav that prompted Singh to withdraw in anger.
It was becoming difficult for him to continue working in the Samajwadi Party, he told reporters, without elaborating.
Samajwadi Party general secretary Amar Singh has blamed the party's loss in the Firozabad Lok Sabha bypoll on the overconfidence of its chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and said Yadav "behaved symbolically like Mayawati" while campaigning in the constituency.
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.
Samajwadi Party general secretary Amar Singh and his party colleague Ram Gopal Yadav along with eight other new members of Parliament were administered oath by Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari on Wednesday.
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.
Samajwadi Party general secretary Amar Singh, who was instrumental in his party's volte-face on supporting the United Progressive Alliance government and the India-United States nuclear deal, recently visited the United States to meet with the presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton who he says is a good friend. In this interview, he speaks about the nuclear deal and the post-poll scenario
Samajwadi Party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav died in Medanta hospital of Gurugram on Monday. He was 82.
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.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi slammed the UP government over the incident 'Another proof of 'goondaraj' (hooliganism) in UP. When police is not safe how can people be?. My condolences are with family of martyrs and I wish speedy recovery of injured,' he said in a tweet.
On Wednesday, December 29, Priyanka reached out to women voters through a Shakti Samvaad in Firozabad asking them to make their elected representative more accountable and steer clear of voting on lines of caste and religion.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to entertain a plea by 14 political parties led by the Congress alleging arbitrary use of central probe agencies against opposition leaders, asserting that laying down guidelines without facts of a criminal case will be "dangerous".
He spoke of the possibility of all non-Congress parties, including the BJP coming together under a common programme and asked the Left parties to lead such an alternative.\n
Nishad party president Sanjay Nishad, who had demanded deputy chief minister post but settled with his nomination as an MLC, thanked the BJP on Monday and said his party will ensure the NDA's victory in next year's Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls.
'I want to ask the Congress only one question: What is more important than election management in politics?'
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.
Bhartiya Janata Party General Secretary Arun Jaitley, of who is leaving for a holiday after masterminding the party's victory in the Karnataka assembly election, is convinced that an alliance between the Congress and the Samajwadi Party is sure to make L K Advani prime minister of India.
In a major development in the ongoing Samajwadi Party feud, Mulayam Singh Yadav has postponed the national convention of party called by him on January 5.
Terming his one-time blue-eyed party general secretary Amar Singh as a part of history, Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav on Monday made it clear that the disgruntled leader's exit will have no bearing on his party.Reacting to a barrage of queries related to Amar's resignation at a press conference in Lucknow, a visibly relaxed Mulayam said, "Why do you talk about the past; I don't believe in looking back. Think about what is lying ahead and not history."
'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,".'
Police said sensitive pockets, where trouble can erupt, are on high alert. Cinema theatres have also been provided security as one of the movie halls, showing a Bhojpuri film, was targeted on Saturday.
The Enforcement Directorate will now, along with the Uttar Pradesh police' Economic Offences Wing, investigate the Rs 500-crore fraud alleged to have been played by Samajwadi Party general secretary Amar Singh.
Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh on Wednesday said the Dehradun court sentencing party member Amarmani Tripathi to life in the Madhumita murder case was not the 'ultimate' decision as he can approach higher courts. "I am simply saying that this is not the ultimate decision. There are many courts left for clarifications as far as Tripathi is concerned and he should be given that opportunity," the party general secretary said.
The meeting between Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and Amar Singh is a "good beginning" and if Singh gives any proposal to rejoin the party it will be considered, senior party leader Shivpal Yadav said on Tuesday.
Jayalalithaa also said that in her letter to a newspaper on Saturday, she had pointed out that Left parties did not invite her party to take part in a protest rally in Delhi against India's joint naval exercises with other nations, including the US.
The BJP said that since the payment made by Amar Singh was in US dollars and was a substantial amount, RBI clearance should have been sought as per the legal guidelines.
Abhishek and the Big B drop Ash home on the day of their engagement.
The Congress on Thursday virtually ruled out any grand alliance in poll bound Uttar Pradesh including with Samajwadi Party insisting that Rahul Gandhi wanted to set things right in the state which is in bad shape for past 27 years in non-Congress rule.
A day after Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi backed Manmohan Singh's candidature for prime ministership after the Lok Sabha polls, two United Progressive Alliance allies on Sunday said that they would not be averse to accepting the top job if given a chance."Right now, we have Manmohan Singh as the leader. But in case Sharad Pawar gets a chance or Mulayam Singh gets a chance, they will not oppose each other," Samajwadi Party general secretary Amar Singh said.
The upcoming Opposition meet in Patna scheduled for next week will not discuss a possible prime ministerial candidate and will focus on deciding the common agenda for the parties to work on in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections.
Electoral setbacks and thwarted ambition can have an unpredictable effect on leaders,, observes Aditi Phadnis.
A Delhi court will on Tuesday decide the interim bail plea of Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament Amar Singh, who is currently in lodged in Tihar Jail following his arrest in connection with the 2008 cash-for-vote case. Special Judge Sangita Dhingra Sehgal on Monday reserved her order after hearing senior advocate Ram Jethmalani, who argued the case of the 55-year-old former Samajwadi Party general secretary. Singh "is not going to die but is really sick," Jethamalani pleaded.
The bail plea hearing of former Samajwadi Party general secretary Amar Singh, in connection with the 2008 cash-for-votes scam, was on Friday deferred till September 12 by a Delhi court. The court also ordered Tihar Jail medical staff to conduct another round of tests on an ailing Singh, who had earlier requested for bail on health grounds, as he is suffering from kidney-related problems. Singh, who was arrested on Tuesday, is presently lodged at Delhi's Tihar Jail.
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.
The visits come against the backdrop of complaints from the Khan camp that Akhilesh Yadav has been 'ignoring' the party veteran and the Muslim community, though it backed the SP in the recent assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh.
What some of our leaders were up to on Wednesday, October 19.
Kharge said the leaders of INDIA parties have come together as democracy is under threat under the Bharatiya Janata Party government.
