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.
During her campaigning, Priyanka halted at a village in the parliamentary constituency represented by her mother Sonia Gandhi and sat down with some snake charmers.
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.
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
Voting will be held on Thursday for the first phase of Gujarat Assembly elections in 89 seats spread across 19 districts in Saurashtra-Kutch and southern parts of the state where 788 candidates are in the fray.
Besides the SAD, the SP, the AIADMK and the TRS supported the idea; while the AAP, the TDP, the JD-S, the AIFB, the DMK, the TMC, the GFP and Left parties opposed it.
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.
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.
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.
The first encounter took place when a police team was approaching to arrest Vikas Dubey, a history-sheeter facing 60 criminal cases, in Dikru village under the Chaubeypur police station on the intervening night of Thursday and Friday, police said.
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.
With about 18 weeks to go for the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, the state is being barnstormed by one notable politician after another.
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.
The NCP on Saturday steered clear of the issue of admission of sulking Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh into the party.
The FIR lodged at Chandpa police station in Hathras district against 'unknown persons' mentioned alleged attempts to foment cast conflict, promoting enmity between groups and tarnish the image of the government and invoked section 124A of the Indian Penal Code -- the serious charge of sedition.
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.
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.
The decision was announced by Ghulam Nabi Azad in New Delhi at a press briefing.
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.
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.
'Gehlot is right now doing things, which are not appreciated by the Gandhis.' 'The Gandhis have realised that their writ does not run in Rajasthan, therefore they have deflected the issue to Kharge.'
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.
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.
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.
"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.
Dynasties rule: A look at some children who have won in Election 2009.
The rebels have formed a separate outfit, the Loktantrik BSP, and sought its merger with the Samajwadi Party.
In an apparent reference to Salim Shervani and rebel SP Member of Parliament Shafiq-ur-Rehman Barq, SP general secretary Amar Singh said, "They have suddenly realised the virtue of opposing Kalyan Singh after being denied nomination for Lok Sabha elections."
As Congress and Samajwadi Party finalise an electoral alliance in Uttar Pradesh ahead of Lok Sabha polls, it could be a difficult task for both of them to decide candidates on over half a dozen constituencies in which they had a tough contest in 2004 general elections.
Samajwadi Party on Tuesday said that Kamal Farooqi has been expelled from the party and asked TV channels not to use the party's name while inviting him for debates.
Besides in-charges, the party has also named co-incharges for several states, a BJP statement said.
The decision to field the party chief from two constituencies taken by the SP Parliamentary Board
Cracks were visible in the Opposition unity ahead of Tuesday's meeting convened by Congress to ramp up attack on demonetisation and alleged "personal corruption" of the prime minister, with Left parties and the Janata Dal-United unlikely to attend it.
Singh has been alleging that the state government had acquired land from farmers for the Reliance Energy power project at dirt cheap prices and is leading a campaign on the issue.
The Allahabad High Court on Wednesday ordered the cancellation of the appointment of controversial Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission chairman Anil Yadav, who was accused of turning the state's highest recruitment body into a private fiefdom by handpicking largely Yadavs for all top jobs.
The Samajwadi Party on Friday termed its decision to support the government at the Centre, during last year's trust vote over the India-United States civil nuclear agreement, as a 'historical blunder'. On whether the Congress has betrayed his party, he said, "I don't want to use such strong words against the Congress, but we are disenchanted with it".Singh said he had received a lot of flak within his party for supporting the United Progressive Allaince.
While his main attack was on eminent veteran lawyer Shanti Bhushan and his activist son Prashant Bhushan -- both of whom are members of the Lokpal Bill draft committee -- he also trained his guns on Karnataka Lokayukta and former Supreme Court Judge Santosh Hegde and Magsaysay awardee Arvind Kejriwal.
"Mayawati had sent offers to me to join BSP and threatened that otherwise I will be left doing rounds of courts and made to languish in jail," he told reporters in Lucknow. The SP general secretary also alleged that independent MLA Mukhtar Ansari, accused in Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Krishnand Rai murder case, and BSP MP Akbar Ahmad Dampi conspired to kill him during the recently-held Lok Sabha bypolls in UP.
They said the filing of nomination papers will be a big show of strength and the top Congress leadership will be present.