Friendly fights, however, are more complicated for the MVA, especially since smaller parties who are part of the INDIA bloc are also in the mix.
The Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Congress's alliance in Uttar Pradesh came under scrutiny as both parties did not hold a single joint campaign for the bypolls to nine assembly seats. While both parties maintained that the alliance is strong, BJP ally Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) claimed a crack in the alliance. The Congress opted out of the bypolls and announced coordination committees for all nine seats to support the SP. However, the absence of joint rallies raised questions about the alliance's strength. The SP campaign was spearheaded by its chief Akhilesh Yadav, while the Congress cited its leaders' busy schedules in Maharashtra and Jharkhand for the lack of joint campaigns. The bypoll results will be announced on November 23.
The Gandhi-led yatra will pass through Amethi on Monday. It will then enter Raebareli, where the Samajwadi Party chief had earlier said he would join.
Uttar Pradesh Women Welfare Minister Baby Rani Maurya has proposed renaming the Mughal-era Shahjahan Garden in Agra after the Malwa Kingdom queen Ahilyabai Holkar, citing her contributions to women's empowerment. The proposal has sparked debate, with opposition parties criticizing it as a tactic to divert attention from pressing issues. The UP government has already renamed Allahabad as Prayagraj and Faizabad as Ayodhya.
At the customary meeting ahead of the session beginning Monday, the opposition raised various issues, including voter roll revision in Bihar, the Pahalgam terror attack and Trump's 'ceasefire' claims.
In a major upset in the Faizabad parliamentary constituency, where the temple town of Ayodhya is situated, Samajwadi Party candidate Awadhesh Prasad defeated sitting Bharatiya Janata Party MP Lallu Singh by a margin of 54,567 votes.
The Samajwadi Party (SP) said through a post on its official Twitter handle that the premises of its MLC Pushpraj alias Pampi Jain in Kannauj, Uttar Pradesh, have been raided.
The Uttar Pradesh government has accorded 'Y' category security to Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) president Om Prakash Rajbhar, an alliance partner of the Samajwadi Party, officials said on Friday.
Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Friday said 'there is no need for socialism in India', adding 'secularism is not the core of our culture'.
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav took a holy dip in the Sangam at Maha Kumbh on Sunday, urging the BJP to bathe with "patience." He criticized the BJP for splashing water on each other after bathing in the Sangam, saying people come to Kumbh for virtue and charity, not for water sports. Yadav, who had earlier taken a dip in the Ganga river in Haridwar on Makar Sankranti, said he had always visited the religious congregation. The latest official figures show that 1.17 crore people took a dip in the Sangam till late Sunday afternoon, bringing the total number of 'snan' (bath) in Maha Kumbh since its start to 11.47 crore.
Daughter of three-time MP Toofani Saroj, Priya Saroj, 26, is a first-time MP from Uttar Pradesh's Machhlishahr. constituency.
Several petitions were filed in the apex court challenging the Act, contending that it was discriminatory towards the Muslim community and violated their fundamental rights.
'I dreaded meeting him these days because every time he'd say: We have to fight this government, even if it means going to jail.' 'He'd been in jails run by the British, he'd also been in jails in independent India, now he was ready to go to jail under this government.'
The highlight of Tuesday's debate on Operation Sindoor was the speech by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with the rebuttal by Congress's Wayanad MP Priyanka Gandhi coming a close second.
For Adityanath, it's not just a chance to reaffirm his dominance in Uttar Pradesh, it's an opportunity to solidify his narrative as a vote-winner.
The Allahabad high court on Friday stayed the arrest of Samajwadi Party MP Ziaur Rahman Barq in connection with violence in Uttar Pradesh's Sambhal district during a survey of a Mughal-era mosque.
Yadav took to social media and shared video clips and pictures of the deployment of security personnel, including police and rapid action force, with barricades near his house here, a stone's throw away from the Samajwadi Party headquarters.
Yadav said in a post in Hindi on X, 'The BJP is warned not to come in the way of the public. Preventing voters from casting their votes is also a crime. The public has come to know about the conspiracy hatched by the BJP to prevent people from casting their votes by misusing power. BJP supporters are bent on violence...'
Leaders of several INDIA bloc parties met the Election Commission over the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in Bihar and raised concerns over its timing, alleging that over two crore voters of the state may be disenfranchised by this mammoth exercise being done just ahead of assembly elections.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath slammed the opposition Samajwadi Party over the 2013 Kumbh Mela arrangements, accusing the then chief minister Akhilesh Yadav of appointing a "non-Sanatani " as the in-charge of the religious congregation in Prayagraj. Adityanath highlighted the presence of dignitaries, including the President, Prime Minister, and heads of state from 74 countries, at the recent Maha Kumbh, contrasting it with the "chaos, corruption, and pollution " of the 2013 event. He also criticized the opposition's criticisms of the Maha Kumbh arrangements, arguing that everyone found something in accordance with their nature and character. Adityanath refuted allegations of discrimination against any community at the Maha Kumbh, emphasizing the unity and inclusivity of the event.
Yogendra Yadav, a founding member of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), believes the party's defeat in the Delhi Assembly polls is a setback for the entire opposition and raises questions about its future. He attributed the loss to factors like the liquor scam, the 'Sheesh Mahal' row, and the constant fights between the Delhi LG and the AAP government.
Samajwadi Party leader and Kairana MP Iqra Choudhary has moved the Supreme Court seeking effective implementation of the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991. This move comes amidst several petitions challenging the law's validity, including those filed by the Akhil Bhartiya Sant Samiti and lawyer Ashwini Upadhyay. The Supreme Court, in December 2022, had restrained all courts from examining fresh suits and passing interim orders in pending cases seeking to reclaim religious places. The Act aims to maintain the religious character of places of worship as they existed on August 15, 1947, but the dispute relating to Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid at Ayodhya was kept out of its purview. The court has listed Choudhary's plea with other pending pleas for February 17.
The high-level committee on 'one nation, one election' approached 62 parties out which 47 responded -- 32 in support of holding elections simultaneously, 15 against it.
The Congress' Uttar Pradesh chief Ajay Rai's symbolic gesture of hanging 'nimbu-mirchi' (lemon-chillies) on a toy jet, mocking the Centre's alleged inaction in the wake of the Pahalgam attack, has triggered a political storm. The BJP has condemned the act, calling it an insult to the armed forces. Rai, however, maintained that he was merely highlighting the government's delay in utilizing the Rafale jets. The controversy comes amidst a heated debate over the government's response to the recent terror attack.
"If the BJP had governed with the same intensity with which it is running the bulldozer of injustice, today its members wouldn't have to hide in their homes, fearing the anger of students," he said.
Days after the alleged caste-based tonsuring of a Bhagwat Katha preacher and his aide in Etawah's Dandarpur village, tensions escalated on Thursday as members of Yadav groups staged protests demanding the arrest of all accused and withdrawal of the case registered against the victims.
Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi along with the five other Congress MPs from Uttar Pradesh will visit violence-hit Sambhal on Wednesday, party's state unit chief Ajay Rai said.
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday alleged a 'well-planned' conspiracy by the Bharatiya Janata Party for the violence in Uttar Pradesh's Sambhal, where a team of Congress MPs led by Rahul Gandhi is scheduled to visit on December 4 amid restrictions imposed by the district administration.
The SP MP said when the mentality is bad, then instead of telling about the achievements of the army, people start talking about their own achievements.
The minority front of the Uttar Pradesh BJP will distribute 'Saugat-e-Modi' kit to 32 lakh poor Muslims on the occasion of Eid this year.
She was referred to King George's Medical University as the women's hospital in Ayodhya did not have the facility to provide adequate treatment, the district's chief medical officer Sanjay Jain said.
Khan, who was recently released from Sitapur Jail, is in Rampur and could not attend the meeting due to health reasons, SP leaders said.
Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister and Health Minister Brajesh Pathak has asserted that no cases of skin diseases were reported among pilgrims who took a dip in the holy Sangam during the Maha Kumbh. Pathak's statement comes in response to concerns raised by opposition leaders regarding the purity of the river water. He highlighted the cleanliness efforts undertaken during the event and the cultural significance of the Maha Kumbh.
The move comes days after Akhilesh's party said he would join Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra only if its seat-sharing proposal for the Lok Sabha polls is accepted.
Against the Samajwadi Party's decision to field actor Jaya Bachchan and retired IAS officer Alok Ranjan as its candidates for the Rajya Sabha polls, Apna Dal (Kamerawadi) leader and party MLA Pallavi Patel on Wednesday said she will not cast her vote.
Among the national parties, the Congress, Aam Aadmi Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Communist Party of India-Marxist opposed the proposal, while the Bharatiya Janata Party and the National People's Party supported it.
The government has moved to increase the strength of the joint committee of Parliament that will scrutinise the two bills proposing simultaneous elections from 31 MPs to 39, giving representation to more parties.
A severe traffic congestion extending for kilometers was witnessed on the routes to the Maha Kumbh Mela in Prayagraj on Sunday with Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav asking the government to make emergency arrangements for the stranded devotees.
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has decided to impose property tax on commercial establishments operating in slum areas and is also considering the levy of a Solid Waste Management (SWM) user charge in the future. The civic body is expecting to collect a total of Rs 5,200 crore in property tax during the next financial year. The BMC intends to levy an SWM charge on Mumbaikars in a phased manner though it would not be levied in FY 2025-26.
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