In the backdrop of the ongoing farm protests, back into public consciousness in the aftermath of the recent Lakhimpur Kheri episode, smaller parties are expected to not only enliven the election theatre, but also queer the pitch for the Opposition.
In his maiden foray in the state election, Yadav won from the Karhal assembly seat by a margin of 67,504 votes.
With the Yogi Adityanath government taking credit for cracking down on criminals and making it an election issue, political parties are now having a rethink on aligning with those who have a criminal background but also enjoy influence in their areas.
Amid raging controversy over Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav's claim -- that those living in relief camps in Muzaffarnagar were political activists and not riot victims -- his party went into fire fighting mode on Wednesday, saying his statement had been twisted.
Another meeting convened by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge at his residence in New Delhi on Wednesday with the floor leaders of the INDIA constituents in Parliament will, however, go ahead according to its schedule to formulate the opposition strategy for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
Why was Samajwadi Party Chief Mulayam Singh Yadav forced to cancel his trip to the Aligarh Muslim University on Monday? Rediff.com's Sharat Pradhan reports
An inadvertent slip by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav while declaring Bollywood hit PK as tax free has not only earned him criticism on the social media but a social activist has also moved an application for lodging an FIR, accusing him of piracy.
Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister and former state BJP president Keshav Prasad Maurya had also dropped a hint in a recent tweet, saying Yaduvanshi (Yadavs), Ravidasiyo (Jatavs) and Pasmanda Muslims will be brought closer to the BJP so that the lotus 'blossoms' in every booth in UP.
Opposition parties demanded that all elections in the future be held through ballot papers.
Asked whether he will join the BJP, he said, "Why not? Whatever Maharaj ji tells me, I will do."
In the pictures, Swati Singh is seen cutting a ribbon with a group of people, including some bureaucrats, standing alongside her.
The arms training camp of Bajrang Dal has triggered a war of words among political parties in Uttar Pradesh with Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati expressing concern over Governor Ram Naik's support to the "illegal exercise" and Samajwadi Party accusing the Bharatiya Janata Party of whipping up communal frezy with an eye on state assembly polls.
The Shiv Sena has spurned Congress' request to participate in the bandh.
The Lal Bahadur Shastri Bhawan, known as the secretariat annexe building which houses the chief minister's office as well as those of senior officials, is being painted saffron replacing the traditional white and blue.
With this, the ruling BJP has so far declared candidates for 136 seats. Earlier, the BJP had announced 79 candidates, including two lists of 39 each, and another list of one nominee.
Political blame game has begun over the violence in Saharanpur with Congress accusing the Uttar Pradesh government of "administrative lapse" while BJP alleged that Samajwadi Party was indulging in "vote-bank politics".
Meanwhile, the Congress said that that it is ready to go it alone in Uttar Pradesh in the Lok Sabha election.
The idea is to reinforce Mulayam's 'dhartiputra' or son-of-the-soil image, say party sources.
Former Indian Administrative Service officer A K Sharma was on Friday named a Bharatiya Janata Party candidate for the Uttar Pradesh legislative council polls a day after he joined the party, fuelling speculation that he will get a ministerial post.
The victim, Sami, who was passing by Kairana area in a rickshaw, was hit during the firing by SP workers on Sunday.
Samajwadi Party leader Mohammed Farooq Ghosi has been suspended after stirring a controversy by requesting party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav to nominate 1993 Mumbai serial blasts convict Yakub Memon's wife as a Rajya Sabha MP.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav has showered praise on the multiple and extravagant monuments and parks built by his bete noire -- Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati.
Attacking the BJP, Akhilesh Yadav said the specifications of the project had been lowered by the current government.
The Baharatiya Janata Party condemned Uttar Pradesh government's crackdown against VHP yatra from Ayodhya and accused it of playing vote bank politics while Samjwadi Party said it won't let the state "become another Gujarat" or a repeat of Dec 6, 1992, when the Babri mosque was demolished.
'We have learnt lessons from Mamata Banerjee who overcame the BJP's canard by reciting Chandi Path and playing up her Brahmin origins in her campaign. We need to adopt strategies like asking Muslims to lie low and distributing tickets prudently so that we are not accused of favouring one community.' Radhika Ramaseshan reports.
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat on Monday came under attack from political parties for his controversial remarks that India is a Hindu nation and Hindutva is its identity.
Voting will be held on Thursday in bypolls to seven assembly seats in six states -- a contest symbolic of the fierce turf war between the Bharatiya Janata Party and regional parties.
The dates selected by the organizers, particularly for Kanpur and Lucknow, could once again ignite communal trouble.
Targeting opposition parties, Adityanath alleged the agricultural land on which tribals used to practice traditional agriculture was registered "in the name of a Congress leader in a wrong way in 1955". He also claimed that the village head and his brother involved in the incident were associated with the Samajwadi Party.
After resorting to quirky measures like debarring party spokespersons from news channel debates, the opposition parties are now overhauling their organisational set-ups and purging respective executives, committees and wings to weed out non-performers and deadwood. Virendra Singh Rawat reports.
Akhilesh told his ministers and legislators that they should not worry about tickets.
The BJP's bucket list this time includes districts such as Sultanpur, Aligarh, Firozabad, Deoband, Ghazipur, Basti and Mirzapur -- to rename a few. Virendra Singh Rawat reports.
An uneasy calm prevailed on Sunday in violence-hit Saharanpur where 38 people were arrested as a political blame game erupted with BJP accusing Samajwadi Party of indulging in "vote-bank politics" and Congress blasting the UP government for "lapses".
A total of 3.32 crore voters will be eligible to cast their ballots at 36,269 polling booths and 11,389 polling stations.
Akhilesh Yadav confirmed in a television interview that the press conference is on the alliance in Uttar Pradesh, while parrying questions on the Congress.
The war in Samajwadi Party was far from over on Sunday with a defiant Ram Gopal Yadav declaring Akhilesh Yadav as party president at the national convention in Lucknow which was declared as "unconstitutional" by supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav.
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday accused the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party of attempting to "steal" votes and said exit polls were meant to create a perception that the saffron party will emerge victorious in the Uttar Pradesh election.
Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav might have repeatedly castigated his Chief Minister son Akhilesh Yadav for his loose grip over the administration.
Azad was taken into custody by police on Tuesday for violating the model code of conduct.
The new candidates fielded from these constituencies by the BJP are: SP Singh Baghel (Agra), Parameshwar Lal Saini (Sambhal), Raj Kumar Chaher (Fatehpur Sikri), Jai Prakash Rawat (Hardoi-SC), Ashok Rawat (Misrikh-SC) and Arun Sagar (Shahjahanpur-SC).
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