The 'Group of 23' leaders who participated included Ghulam Nabi Azad, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Anand Sharma, Mukul Wasnik, Prithviraj Chavan, Manish Tewari, Shashi Tharoor, besides Sibal who hosted the post-birthday dinner for them.
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 Bharatiya Janata Party's victory in the assembly polls on Thursday has put the party on a stronger wicket for the election for the post of President expected later this year.
Before filing her nomination papers at the Collectorate Rae Bareli, the UPA chairperson held a roadshow and offered puja at the Congress central office.
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.
While Brijlal Khabri, former BSP MP from Jalaun, is UP Congress Committee chairman, former UP cabinet minister and Mayawati's once close confidant Naseemuddin Siddiqui heads the party's state media department. Completing the ex-BSP troika, Nakul Dubey, former UP cabinet minister in the Mayawati dispensation (2007-12), is one of the six UP Congress regional presidents. He is reckoned among the most active of the three.
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.
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.
While many exit polls have given either the Bharatiya Janata Party or Congress a majority in Uttarakhand, several of them have predicted a close fight between the two major players or a hung assembly -- a scenario in which the role of winning independents and candidates of regional outfits like the Aam Aadmi Party, the Samajwadi Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Uttarakhand Kranti Dal will become significant in government formation.
"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.
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.
Two days after Amar Singh resigned from all Samajwadi Party posts, a senior leader of the party has questioned the timing of the decision and said making public about SP's functioning was 'most immoral.'
Senior Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh on Monday slammed the Congress for fielding Raj Babbar against Mulayam Singh Yadav's daughter-in-law in the Ferozabad Lok Sabha bypolls, but said he had nothing against Rahul Gandhi for campaigning for the party's candidate in the constituency.
Blaming the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Samajwadi Party for neglecting the plight of Bundelkhand, Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said the Centre took the initiative and provided a Rs 8,000-crore package to the region despite it being the responsibility of the state government.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhikesh Yadav's decision to boycott the prestigious Harvard event followed a call that was made from Boston to his father and Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav.
Alleging that the Bahujan Samaj Party and Samajwadi Party have failed to live up to the expectations of the people, Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi on Thursday said a change was needed by forming a government which works for all.
Mayawati appeared to be opting for a wait-and watch-policy till the Lok Sabha election results are announced on May 23.
'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.'
The BJP is focusing on 160 seats 'we have never won, seats where we have reasonable support, and those we lost narrowly.'
He came to power with a huge mandate in 2012, but Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav has now forfeited the voters' trust.
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.
"It is all your imagination and guess work," a senior leader said when asked about reports of Sasikala taking over from Chief Minister O Panneerselvam.
The meeting saw archrivals TMC and CPI-M coming together on a common platform against the government.
In an apparent rebuff to Amar Singh, Congress on Monday dismissed the sulking Samajwadi Party leader's claim suggesting that his 'DNA was Congress.'
Attacking the Bahujan Samaj Party, the Samajwadi Party said on Tuesday that the Mayawati-led party was a "B-team" of Bharatiya Janata Party and the two parties were hand in glove with each other.
The Samajwadi Party may be bitterly opposed to the Bharatiya Janata Party but it is not happy over the rumblings within that party as it feels that disintegration of the main opposition party will not augur well for the country's polity.
Two Union ministers and two senior Uttar Pradesh Congress legislators got together and roughed up a handful of Samajwadi Party activists who attempted to stage a black flag demonstration against Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi on his arrival in Allahabad on Monday afternoon.
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.
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.
Taking forward its probe in the cash-for-vote scam, the Delhi police is all set to grill Rajya Sabha member Amar Singh on Friday for his alleged role in the sensational case.
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.
Rajbir Singh, the son of former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Kalyan Singh, joined the Samajwadi Party on Wednesday. His decision comes just a day after his father quit the Bharatya Janata Party, giving a jolt to the saffron party ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.
The Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi's key confidants -- general secretaries Madhusudan Mistry, P C Joshi and Mohan Prakash -- were clearly among the most notable absentees. Rediff.com contributor Anita Katyal reports
Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav behaved entirely in character when he broke ranks with the Congress and backed the Bharatiya Janata Party in the monsoon session, says Aditi Phadnis
SP to field Mulayam's daughter-in-law in bypoll
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.
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.
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.
The oath taking took place as the House witnessed a virtual slogan-shouting contest between treasury and opposition benches.
