Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi held a virtual meeting on Friday evening with leaders of 19 Opposition parties, including the chief ministers of some Opposition-ruled states, amid efforts to boost Opposition unity and evolve a common strategy against the National Democratic Alliance government.
'Mayawatiji no more controls the bahujan vote in UP.' 'In this election more than 40 per cent of the BSP's core voters blessed the SP without the SP even asking for it.'
However, the national party count has gone down to six from 14 in over seven decades.
UP Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya said the BJP parliamentary board and its national leadership will decide under whom the upcoming state assembly elections will be fought.
Mayawati, a former Uttar Pradesh chief minister, said she is hopeful her nephew will emerge as a "mature" leader.
"We don't agree with the ideology of the Congress. But we will support it to keep the BJP out of power," Mayawati said.
Yadav asserted that he has always maintained that seat distribution should be decided considering which alliance partner is the strongest in a particular state.
The election campaign in Uttar Pradesh -- the most important election of the year -- is on.
The Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) gave a huge blow to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance by winning 43 seats out of total 80 Lok Sabha seats of Uttar Pradesh, as per the Election Commission.
Akhilesh Yadav's stock rose dramatically on Tuesday with his Samajwadi Party cutting the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party down to size in Uttar Pradesh.
'They have no incentive to be part of either the NDA or INDIA at this stage, but they may hedge their bets towards the winning coalition in the post-poll setting.'
The Bahujan Samaj Party will not enter into any alliance for Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand assembly polls, party chief Mayawati said.
Lodhi, who represented the Bada Malhera assembly seat in Chhatarpur district, joined the BJP at the ruling party's state headquarters in the presence of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.
His remarks came a day after the Samajwadi Party wrote to Rajbhar and Shivpal Singh Yadav that they are free to go wherever they feel they can get more respect.
BSP chief Mayawati removed her nephew Akash Anand from all party posts and said that she will not name her successor till she is alive. In a slew of other significant changes in the BSP leadership announced at a high-level meeting of the party's office-bearers from across the country, Mayawati appointed her brother Anand Kumar and Ramji Gautam as national coordinators. Mayawati also criticized the budgets of both the central and Uttar Pradesh governments, saying they were "unrealistic" and detached from ground realities.
Mayawati said both the BJP and the SP indulged in empty talks to win the votes of Dalits and Brahmins, but neither safeguarded their interests when in power.
A fuming Mayawati on Sunday accused Samajwadi Party government in Uttar Pradesh of political vendetta after hoardings installed by her Bahujan Samaj Party on B R Ambedkar's birth anniversary were allegedly removed and said SP "goons" will be "taught a lesson" when she returns to power.
Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh on Monday said that the Congress and Samajwadi Party are the main contenders in Uttar Pradesh assembly polls, as the ruling "BSP (Bahujan Samaj Party) is involved in corruption, while BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) is nowhere in the picture."
Strongly opposed to quota for government job promotions, Samajwadi Party on Monday asked the government to rethink on the bill, warning that it could have a very serious fall-out and may be challenged in court.
United Progressive Alliance Presidential nominee Pranab Mukherjee spent the whole of Tuesday in Lucknow, meeting not only Congress legislators but also those belonging to the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party.
Uttar Pradesh minister Azam Khan on Monday alleged that almost 90 per cent prime properties of the Waqf Board have been "sold to builders by previous Bahujan Samaj Party and Samajwadi party governments" and vowed to bring a legislation to restore them back to the board.
In a major blow to the Samajwadi Party, Ranjana Bajpai, chief of the SP's women's wing, joined hands with the party's avowed rival Bahujan Samaj Party on Saturday.The move comes in the wake of SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav's decision to withdraw her ticket as the party nominee for the Sitapur Lok Sabha seat.Attributing her decision to the 'neglect of Brahmins in the Samajwadi Party', Bajpai pointedly accused SP general secretary Amar Singh of having "hijacked the party."
Besides disclosing in their affidavits, candidates have to prominently declare criminal cases they are facing, if any, thrice in newspapers in print as well on television, he said, adding that political parties too have to publish within three days of nomination why a candidate with criminal background was selected. "You (political parties) have to tell the public whether you did not get any (other) candidate and why was it necessary to select them (those with criminal background)," he said.
Chandrashekhar said he would ensure that PM Modi is not re-elected to the Lok Sabha from Varanasi.
"We, the undersigned parties, wish to register our anguish and serious concern over the manner in which the Government is hurriedly passing legislations without any scrutiny by Parliamentary Standing or Select Committees. This is a fundamental departure from the established practice and healthy traditions of enacting legislations," the letter said.
With Bollywood connections of Amar Singh not a secret, the SP could well take a lead in bringing stars during the electioneering.
Even as Samajwadi Party Chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and his son Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav both preferred not to react to their bete noire Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati's threat to thrash SP goons, Mulayam's brother and multiple portfolio minister Shivpal Yadav has decided to do a tit for tat.
The Samajwadi Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party appeared to take early leads in Uttar Pradesh where counting of votes began after a seven-phased elections concluded on Saturday.
Under Election Commission guidelines, campaigning has to end 48 hours before the close of polls for each phase.
The party would consider aligning with any party after assessing the post-poll situation, she said.
Samajwadi Party tops the chart of crorepati candidates and its nominees' average assets are also the highest compared to others with Rs 87 lakh.
SP legislator from Swar Tanda (Rampur), Nawab Kazim Ali, and Ram Sewak Singh Patel, BJS MLA from Binawar (Badaun) joined the BSP in Lucknow.
Reacting to the development, Samajwadi Party leader Sanjay Lathar, who served as the Leader of Opposition in the legislative council before Yadav, said the leader of the second-largest party in the House gets the post.
Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati, who had drawn flak from the Supreme Court for wasting taxpayers' money by building parks and installing her statues, on Saturday warned the ruling Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh that any move to make changes in the memorials erected during her regime could create law and order problem.
Five Honourable MPs must be brought from their jail cells to Parliament, television cameras recording every move. It shall be an unsavoury beginning to the new alliance.
Jailed MLA of Quami Ekta Dal Mukhtar Ansari will withdraw his candidature from Varanasi against BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, "to strengthen secular forces and avoid division of votes".
Police in Palwal said the accident occurred at about 1.15 am when Hasan was travelling from Mathura to Delhi in a Scorpio vehicle, which collided with a truck coming from the opposite direction near Banchari village on National Highway 2.
There was an 8% decline in the BJP's vote share across six regions in UP, and that some OBC castes moved away from the BJP.
"Their (SP's) people tried to create terror and a number of goons were (involved) in that," she alleged adding, her government will not tolerate any kind of disturbance to the peace in the state.
Samajwadi Party General Secretary and MP Shahid Siddiqui speaks on his party's relations with the Congress, the Indo-US nuclear deal and Muslim votes.
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