Despite Mayawati's pre-poll claims that her Bahujan Samaj Party would spring a surprise in the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, the party was leading in only three of the 403 seats in the state, trends showed Thursday.
Dimple Yadav, who was elected to the Lok Sabha in a by-election in Mainpuri, Uttar Pradesh on December 9 -- an election caused by her father-in-law Samajwadi Party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav's death -- took the oath as a member of the House of the People on Monday, December 12, 2022.
The BSP has not entered into any alliances and has also been keen to shed the tag of being a 'B-team' of the BJP.
Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi on Tuesday asserted that Congress will not form alliance with Bahujan Samaj Party, Samajwadi Party or Bharatiya Janata Party in the event of a hung assembly in the state.
Elections in a democracy have their own sanctity and their process cannot be stalled, the Supreme Court said on Wednesday, after a lawyer alleged that voters of Rampur Sadar assembly constituency in Uttar Pradesh were beaten up by the police and forced to confine themselves to their homes during the bypoll held on December 5.
The stakes are significant for the BJP in this round as the party had in 2019 won an overwhelming majority of these seats, including all in Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, that will go to polls on May 7.
Majority of these constituencies are in Uttar Pradesh and the party that is on the third slot even as the counting is still underway on several seats is the Bahujan Samaj Party, a party neither with the National Democratic Alliance nor the opposition INDIA bloc.
Arvind Singh, who had come out in support of his brother after his resignation from all party posts despite being at loggerheads with him earlier, said the new party would neither be an imitation of the Samajwadi Party nor would it bear any resemblance to its name.
The parties which gave chief ministers and sent scores of MPs to Parliament, drew a blank this time.
It would be better if the Supreme Court takes cognisance of this 'extremely serious and worrisome' incident, which is being discussed across the country, the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister said.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday appointed Uttar Pradesh cabinet minister Bhupendra Chaudhary as the party's chief in the state.
As per practice, counting of votes will take place on November 9 evening after polling concludes.
While flaying the Mayawati government for rising incidence of rape and murder in Uttar Pradesh, Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav declared in Siddharth Nagar on Sunday that if his party were to be voted to power, he would ensure government jobs to every rape victim.
In a setback to Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan, a Rampur court on Thursday rejected his petition challenging his conviction in a hate speech case that led to his disqualification from the Uttar Pradesh assembly.
Akhilesh Yadav, Uttar Pradesh's new chief minister, will have to take some tough decisions to prove himself to be a good administrator and restore the law and order in the state, feels Congress-turned-Samajwadi Party politician Shahid Siddiqui
Polling on three graduates and two teachers constituencies of the council was held on January 30 and counting of votes by ballot began on Thursday evening and was completed on Friday.
SP to field Mulayam's daughter-in-law in bypoll
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.
The Gyanvapi issue has been at the centre of a long-drawn legal battle with the Hindu side arguing that the Gyanvapi mosque was allegedly built on the remains of a pre-existing temple, while the Muslim side has contested the claim.
She released the party's manifesto "Unnati Vidhan", which she termed as "Jan Ghoshna Patra'.
Jitin Prasada was once considered as among Rahul Gandhi's 'young Turks' and was a minister in successive Manmohan Singh governments but defected from the Congress to the BJP in 2021, where he has again established himself as a prominent Brahmin face of Uttar Pradesh.
Farmers from various parts of the country are protesting at Delhi borders against the three farm laws brought by the Centre, alleging that the legislations will hamper farming.
Police on Monday stopped the protest march taken out by the Samajwadi Party highlighting the issues in Uttar Pradesh before the monsoon session of the state legislature.
Mayawati said that in case of a tie-up with the Congress in the past, the party did not benefit.
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has said she is not the only face of the party for Uttar Pradesh assembly polls and her remarks at a press conference on Friday about being the face of the party were made in a 'slight exaggerated way' in response to repeated queries from the media on the issue.
Rajbhar, however, said he will not initiate any step to break ties with the Samajwadi Party.
The nodal officer for EVMs in Varanasi, a returning officer (RO) in Sonbhadra district and an additional election officer in Bareilly district have been pulled out from election duties, a day ahead of the counting of votes in UP.
Congress leaders Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Rahul Gandhi are likely to contest the Lok Sabha election from Rae Bareli and Amethi seats, respectively, sources said on Thursday.
Bachchan was disqualified in March following a complaint filed by a Kanpur-based Congress leader that she held an office of profit.
The AIMIM chief questioned whether the public will have any faith in the Constitution and law and order of the country after this incident.
An all out war has broken out after SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav replaced son Akhilesh with his brother Shivpal as the party's state unit chief.
Besides the national capital, polling for the sixth round of the marathon seven-phase elections will be held Saturday in 14 seats in Uttar Pradesh, all 10 seats of Haryana, eight seats each in Bihar and West Bengal, six seats in Odisha, four seats in Jharkhand and one seat in Jammu and Kashmir.
The Uttar Pradesh police on Thursday said they have arrested six sevadars (volunteers), including two women, of the organising committee in connection with the Hathras stampede that killed 121 people.
A bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar also indicated that it may not take up the pending scheduled petitions, heard earlier by a three-judge bench, during the day as it was sitting in a combination of two judges.
Opposition parties in India, led by the Congress, have demanded a detailed discussion in Parliament on alleged discrepancies in voter lists. Rahul Gandhi raised the issue in the Lok Sabha, highlighting concerns about the integrity of the electoral process. The opposition alleges large-scale duplication of EPIC numbers, which they claim undermines voter integrity and the electoral process. They have also pointed out instances of inflated voter lists in states like Maharashtra and Haryana. The Election Commission has acknowledged discrepancies but maintains that these are not widespread and that corrective measures are being taken. The opposition, however, insists on a comprehensive discussion on the matter to ensure the integrity of elections in India.
The BJP stormed back to power in the crucial state of Uttar Pradesh, trouncing its main rival SP, with Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath asserting that people have buried the politics of caste and religion.
Scindia also said that as far as talks for alliances are concerned, "like-minded parties should also think in a like-minded way".
'There is a huge constituency that upholds this ideology.' 'Hindutva will remain relevant in our public life in the near future as an ideology and in politics as well.'
The SP has offered 11 seats to the Congress and seven seats to the RLD for the upcoming parliamentary elections.
'This government puts poor people behind bars, demonises women after their death, puts out the call records of deceased raped victims and robs her of her dignity.'
