Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Wednesday called for a "main front" of all non-BJP parties to take on the ruling alliance in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls and asserted that the decision on its leadership can be taken later.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday hailed the Union Budget as an "all-inclusive" document while the Opposition dismissed it as "anti-people" and mere rhetoric lacking the vision for creating jobs and taming inflation.
Can you imagine that in the upcoming Uttar Pradesh assembly election Bharitya Janta Party can get almost 24 per cent votes to come second in the four-cornered contest between ruling Bahujan Samaj Party, Samajwadi Party, Congress and BJP?
Tharoor said Rahul Gandhi's disqualification from Lok Sabha following his conviction in a 2019 defamation case has generated a 'surprising wave of Opposition unity' with many parties having begun to feel the truth of the adage -- united we stand, divided we fall.
The Constitution (116th Amendment) Bill was defeated in the Lok Sabha by a determined Opposition, helped by the absence of parties supporting the government from outside like the Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party and the Rashtriya Janata Dal
Chidambaram also stressed that there were lessons to be learnt by the Congress from the Gujarat loss, saying there is no such thing as a "silent" campaign in a hard-fought election.
Senior leaders of the Samajwadi Party, which had on January 8 given a five-day ultimatum to the United Progressive Alliance government to act against Pakistan, on Wednesday met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi. Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and general secretary Amar Singh said they discussed ways to work together and keep the communal Bharatiya Janata Party from coming to power after the coming general election.
Samajwadi Party Chief Mulayam Singh Yadav on Sunday accepted the resignation of his close associate Amar Singh from all party posts including that of general secretary and the parliamentary board.
"Had there been no demolition, probably the courts too would have ordered status quo," he said then. And his last wish, he said, was to live till the temple comes up.
True, Azam Khan is being targeted rather disproportionately and also because of his Muslim identity. That must be protested and resisted. But to say that he is a big messiah, and his profit-making educational enterprise is an issue concerning all Muslims of India, is absolutely unjustified, assert Mohammad Sajjad and Md Mohammad Zeeshan Ahmad.
'Priyanka did draw huge crowds and eventually all of those ended up voting for the Samajwadi Party.' 'The voters today are smart enough to vote for the party which they know is going to win or they know this party will come second, but no way will they vote for a party which will come third or fourth.'
Mobs hurled bombs and pelted stones at each other as violence erupted in Kanpur after groups of people tried to force shopkeepers to down shutters over an alleged insult to Prophet Mohammed on a television show.
In a dramatic turn of events, Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist Centre chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda' was appointed as the new prime minister of Nepal by President Bidya Devi Bhandari on Sunday.
Citing the Samajwadi Party's electoral victory in Uttar Pradesh, the Communist Party of India Marxist on Saturday revived the idea of a Third Front, pitching for the unity of Left and democratic forces to give the people another alternative to the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party.CPI-M general secretary Prakash Karat said people wanted an alternative to the Congress and the BJP as both of them had been defeated in the UP elections.
'Our leader is Modi and everyone has been saying Modi hai to desh hai'
Amid murmurs of formation of a third front, Samajwadi Party and the Communist Party of India-Marxist on Tuesday sought to bridge the gap between the two following their bitter parting of ways with the SP inviting top Left leaders for the swearing-in of Akhilesh Yadav as Uttar Pradesh chief minister.
Terming Amar Singh and Jaya Prada as 'intruders,' Samajwadi Party today expelled them from the party on grounds of indulging in anti-party activities and denting its socialist image.
Yadav had contested and won from Mainpuri in the just concluded parliamentary polls.
The Samajwadi Party government in Uttar Pradesh on Monday renamed eight districts, which had been earlier named by Mayawati, leaving the Bahujan Samaj Party supremo fuming. The decision to change the names was taken at a cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav.
Ansari said the Muslim community is now shedding the 'illusion' created by opposition parties like the Samajwadi Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Congress.
Those whose cover has been reduced include Samajwadi Party chief and former Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav, leaders Shivpal Yadav and Azam Khan, Dimple Yadav and Ram Gopal Yadav, and Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati.
Rahul Gandhi being assigned a major role in connection with next Lok Sabha election has made the Opposition talk of Congress advancing the polls to cut losses, a contention vehemently denied by the party and the government.
Before filing her nomination papers at the Collectorate Rae Bareli, the UPA chairperson held a roadshow and offered puja at the Congress central office.
Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav's craving to get the country's top job once again came to the fore on Tuesday, when prominent Uttar Pradesh minister Azam Khan openly called upon madrasas of the state to strive towards making the Samajwadi Party supremo the next prime minister.
The Congress and the Samajwadi party continued their search for an agreement on sharing of seats from Uttar Pradesh in the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls at a meeting between their top leaders on Sunday, but the gap between Congress demand for 25 seats and SP's offer of 15 remained unbridged.
For the BJP, the RSS' organisational heft is a prized asset, considering the slew of elections it faces this year, ahead of the Lok Sabha election in 2024.
He is learnt to have discussed the formulation of a joint opposition strategy on the issue of Lakhimpur Kheri violence and the detention of prominent leaders including Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.
Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi's dramatic act of tearing up a paper with a list of election promises of political opponents at a poll rally drew a sarcastic reaction with the Samajwadi Party saying he may now jump from the stage to vent his anger.
A day before her scheduled appearance before the Enforcement Directorate in the Delhi excise policy case, Bharat Rashtra Samiti leader K Kavitha led a hunger strike here on Friday seeking the passage of the long-pending Women's Reservation Bill in this Budget session of Parliament.
Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh talks to Kavita Chowdhury about his role as AICC in-charge of Uttar Pradesh in the run-up to the 2012 assembly polls.
Congress' star campaigner Rahul Gandhi on Saturday pointedly blamed both Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav and Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati for "gross neglect" of Muslims in Uttar Pradesh. Sharat Pradhan reports.
The leaders attacked the BJP, accusing it of trying to create "Hindu-Muslim disturbances" to benefit politically and making false claims and promises.
613 candidates are in the fray on 54 seats, including those falling in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's parliamentary segment Varanasi.
A remark made by a Samajwadi Party leader on the use of the Hindi word 'hamara' by Mamata Banerjee on Friday triggered speculation whether Mulayam Singh Yadav's party was still with Trinamool Congress in putting up A P J Abdul Kalam as a Presidential candidate.
'He told senior journalists a few days after the Babri Masjid demolition, 'Jo hua theek hua. Maine isliye hone diya ki BJP ki rajniti hamesha ke liye khatam ho jaye.'
Opposition leaders on Saturday lauded the Congress for its victory in Karnataka and thanked the people of the state, saying that this win has showed that 'Modi is not invincible'.
The 'AIADMK symbol issue' may be a fit case for the courts and the legislature to provide for a new law for application in similar fluid, dynamic political situations, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Notwithstanding calls against any rapprochement with him, Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav on Sunday ruled out accepting the resignation of Amar Singh from key party posts and said differences will be sorted out soon.
Mayawati appeared to be opting for a wait-and watch-policy till the Lok Sabha election results are announced on May 23.
The representatives of thousands of agitating farmers, who are sitting on various borders of the national capital since November 26 demanding repeal of the three agri laws, have said that the countrywide strike on Tuesday would be observed with full force.