The Samajwadi Party on Wednesday came down heavily on reported statement of Congress General Secretary Digvijay Singh on imposition of President's rule in Uttar Pradesh and termed it as an insult of the democratic practice.
While taking strong exception to the arrest and humiliation of Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade, Uttar Pradesh's all powerful Samajwadi Party leader and Urban Development Minister Azam Khan has offered her a party ticket to contest the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.
Apart from the two major parties (Cong: 98; BJP: 67) the Bahujan Samaj Party is leading in four seats, while the Janata Dal-United and the Communist Party of India-Marxist are ahead in one each.
Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh has lashed out at Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, accusing him of trying to evoke Muslim sentiments on the controversial Babri Masjid demolition issue, to garner votes.
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.
Out of the 403 seats up for grabs, the BSP had prepared a final list comprising 97 Muslim candidates (12 more than 2012), 87 Dalits and 106 other backwards castes, besides earmarking 113 seats for upper castes -- Brahmins 66, Kshatriyas 36 and others 11.
An FIR was lodged on Thursday at Babupurwa police station in Kanpur, accusing the SP general secretary and his wife of amalgamating companies for converting black money into white, Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) Brij Lal told PTI.
The Bharatiya Janata Party leaders on Saturday credited 'Modi wave' for the party's stong showing in the high stakes Uttar Pradesh elections.
The oath taking took place as the House witnessed a virtual slogan-shouting contest between treasury and opposition benches.
The Defence Minister should make a statement and clarify what is the reason and why it is being purchased after its price has been escalated 20 times," CPM leader Basudeb Acharia said in Lok Sabha. He was promptly supported by former Defence Minister and Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav.
Opposition parties on Monday slammed the government for ignoring the interests of farmers and said funds allocated in the General Budget for agriculture ministry were not sufficient.
Naresh Agarwal, who defected from Samajwadi Party, on Wednesday joined the BSP which declared him as its candidate for the Lok Sabha polls from Farrukhabad seat, a day after another SP leader Dhaniram Verma was inducted into Mayawati-led party. Agarwal, who was transport minister in the erstwhile Mulayam Singh Yadav government, was inducted into the party by chief minister Mayawati.
The Congress on Thursday dubbed as an instance of "Mayawati's jungleraj" the criminal case filed by Uttar Pradesh police against Union Ministers Jitin Prasad and RPN Singh for allegedly assaulting Samajwadi Party workers during Rahul Gandhi's rally in Phulpur recently.
'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.'
Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt may now play a role in politics with the Samajwadi Party on Thursday deciding to field him as its candidate from Lucknow in the Lok Sabha polls. Bhojpuri sensation Manoj Tiwari would be the SP's candidates from Gorakhpur
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.
Pitching for her son and Sultanpur member of Parliament, Union Minister Maneka Gandhi has said that Uttar Pradesh would have benefited had there been a Bharatiya Janata Party led government in the state with Varun Gandhi as its chief minister.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Four Sukhoi jets flew down from Bareilly and four Mirage 2000s from Gwalior and skimmed the six-lane highway in simulated landings, a first for any road inauguration event.
Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday blasted Samajwadi Party president Mulayanm Singh Yadav in the latter's pocket-burrow in Mainpuri.
Promising its allegiance to the Samajwadi Party and the Congress, the Shia Ulema-e-Hind on Thursday said the two parties have "struggled long" to help Muslims get their rights. Shia Ulema-e-Hind general secretary and Shia Personal Law Board convenor Maulana Ali Hussain Kumi also criticized Muslim leaders for making a beeline for Chief Minister Mayawati.
Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday pleaded before the Supreme Court that a case of perjury and contempt should be initiated against a former Samajwadi Party member of legislative Assembly from Madhya Pradesh who had alleged his involvement in a case of illegal confinement of a girl.
The NCP on Saturday steered clear of the issue of admission of sulking Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh into the party.
The BJP is focusing on 160 seats 'we have never won, seats where we have reasonable support, and those we lost narrowly.'
Samajwadi Party workers on Tuesday attempted to block the cavalcade of Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi, who has started his five-day tour of western districts of poll-bound Uttar Pradesh. "Nearly 50 to 60 members of SP attempted to block the cavalcade of Rahul Gandhi while he was proceeding towards Badaun after landing at Dhanipur airport," Senior Superintendent of Police Satyendra Veer Singh said. He said that nearly 15 SP activists were detained.
The Samajwadi Party on Wednesday stepped up its attack on the Congress accusing it of virtually adopting a 'use and throw' policy towards allies ranging from the Left parties to the Nationalist Congress Party, the Rashtriya Janata Dal and the SP itself.
Ahead of the visit of an all-party delegation to Jammu and Kashmir, political parties on Saturday pitched for holding dialogue with "all stakeholders", including Hurriyat, to douse the unrest and banning the use of pellet guns by security forces.
In a rebuff to the Samajwadi Party and the Trinamool Congress, the Congress on Thursday ruled out sparing Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for the Presidential race as it rejected the three names proposed by the two allies, sending signals that it was not in a mood to bow before them.
Reaching out to the ruling party in Uttar Pradesh, which has 17 MPs in the Lok Sabha, Communist Party of India-Marxist General Secretary Prakash Karat drove to the Uttar Pradesh chief minister's residence in New Delhi to hold the first meeting after the Left parties withdrew support to the United Progressive Alliance government over the nuclear deal.
613 candidates are in the fray on 54 seats, including those falling in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's parliamentary segment Varanasi.
The decision was announced by Ghulam Nabi Azad in New Delhi at a press briefing.
The occasion, which brought Yadav, a former chief minister, and the Bahujan Samaj Party supremo together was a meeting convened to finalise nominees for the State Human Rights Commission. The arch rivals had parted ways following the collapse of their coalition government in 1995 and have been bitter critics attacking each other and rarely acknowledging even the presence of the other at public functions.
The rebels have formed a separate outfit, the Loktantrik BSP, and sought its merger with the Samajwadi Party.
Despite being arch detractors on the home turf of Uttar Pradesh, Mulayam Singh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party and Dara Singh Chauhan of the Bahujan Samaj Party will have to sit next to each other in the first row in the Lok Sabha.
"He is the only secular leader of our country who has worked with Mahatma Gandhi, Jai Prakash Narain and Ram Manohar Lohia, and he is the only leader who can save the nation and its people in the coming years," the SP's Assam unit general secretary Ratul Kumar Choudhury said.
The Centre is likely to take up with the Uttar Pradesh government the issue of "security breach" during Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi's visit to Allahabad as initial report suggested that police "failed" to control protesters who tried to stop the Special Protection Group protectee's car.
Congress General Secretary Digvijaya Singh on Thursday expressed sympathy for the beleaguered former Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh who was arrested in the cash-for-vote case two days ago.
