Dr Mohamed Ayub Ansari, the founder-president of the Peace Party, hopes to make waves in the Uttar Pradesh elections. Having fielded 240 candidates, and with a wide spectrum of allies in all the remaining seats, Dr Ayub expects to be the new kingmaker in Lucknow. In the first of a two-part interview with Saisuresh Sivaswamy and Sharat Pradhan in Lucknow, he elaborates on his views.
Inclement weather on account of night-long rain which continued until Wednesday noon has led to a poor turnout of voters in large parts of eastern Uttar Pradesh, where 55 state assembly constituencies are going to polls today. Sharat Pradhan reports from Barabanki.
Party functionaries at Amethi, who met Priyanka Vadra said that she was upbeat and exuded confidence about a spectacular performance by the Congress party in the Uttar Pradesh polls. Sharat Pradhan reports from Amethi.
The sacking of 10 ministers over the past 10 days by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati has not only created a record of sorts, but more importantly, it is now being seen as her image makeover exercise ahead of the state assembly elections next month.
Sharat Pradhan examines how Mulayam Singh Yadav's foreign-education son is transforming the Samajwadi Party.
The race for the next state assembly in Uttar Pradesh may be largely four cornered. But it is increasingly evident that the electoral battle slated for February in the country's most populous state is bound to largely remain Mayawati vs. the rest, reports Sharat Pradhan.
becoming a TV baron and now inducted into the Union cabinet in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's second rshuffle, Rajiv Shukla's story has been that of rise and rise, writes Sharat Pradhan.
Vicky Nanjappa and Sharat Pradhan ask a few intellectuals on the campaign against the Bhushans and what happens next.
The prestige of Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav and that of Bhartiya Janata Party star campaigner Uma Bharti will be at stake during the fifth round of the seven-phased Uttar Pradesh state assembly elections on Thursday. Sharat Pradhan reports.
Youngsters were seen to be coming out in large numbers to cast their vote, reports Sharat Pradhan from Lucknow
Congress star campaigner Rahul Gandhi on Thursday stormed through different parts of the city in an unusual three-and-a-half-hour long road-show which ended in a damp squib. Sharat Pradhan reports.
One infant and 22 others, including some foreigners, were injured in a blast that rocked the crowded Shitla Ghat bank of the Ganga river in Varanasi , about 300 km from Lucknow on Tuesday evening.
A generation has passed and the demolition appears to be a story of a era gone by, says Rediff.com's Sharat Pradhan, who shares his experience as a witness in court in the Babri Masjid demolition case.
'We are against anything that is unconstitutional,' says Laxmikant Bajpai.
Hardcore right-wing outfit Hindu Yuva Vahini's hero-worship of Mahatma Gandhi's assassin Nathuram Godse has clear communal overtones.
The Samajwadi Party on Sunday declared that party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav's youngest daughter-in-law, Aparna Yadav, will contest the 2017 Uttar Pradesh assembly polls. S
Rumours about senior Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan's resignation from the Akhilesh Yadav cabinet kept doing rounds here Tuesday afternoon, soon after his abrupt departure from SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav's residence.
Uttar Pradesh Congress Legislature Party leader Pradeep Mathur has shot off a letter to Congress president Sonia Gandhi seeking her intervention. Sharat Pradhan reports from Lucknow
What did Amar Singh and Mulayam Singh Yadav discuss at breakfast?
'Any kind of political activity is not on our agenda.'
'It will be a grand alliance where they could get the Muslims, Dalits and Yadavs in one camp and pose a serious challenge to whatever the BJP might conjure up in the run-up to the 2019 election.'
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav seems to have taken a leaf out of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's all-out election campaign on social networking sites.
Voting is underway in three Lok Sabha and 33 assembly seats across 10 states where by-elections are being held on Saturday.
'I have tried to draw the UN's attention to the very obvious attempt of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to convert a secular India into a theocratic Hindu State.'
Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh will be over before any action would be taken against BJP president Amit Shah and MP Yogi Adityanath for their alleged hate speeches, says Sharat Pradhan
The Aam Aadmi Party leader took a dip in the Ganga, visited the Kashi Vishwanath temple before he declared war against Narendra Modi.
Bharatiya Janata Party's in-charge on Uttar Pradesh Amit Shah predicts that Narendra Modi's Vijay Shankhnaad Rally in Lucknow on Sunday will be a blockbuster.
A court dropped criminal proceedings against Ketan Desai after the CBI failed to obtain the mandatory permission from the government to prosecute him.
The goings-on at the three-day Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh conclave, which is being attended by 390 delegates, are shrouded in secrecy.
Five Congress ministers lose. Only Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi win.
Even as both the ruling Samajwadi Party and its bte noire, the Bahujan Samaj Party may swear in the name of secularism, neither of the two critical players in Uttar Pradesh politics is willing to go for a united nominee against their common political foe, Narendra Modi, who seemed cocking a snook at them from Varanasi. Sharat Pradhan reports
Congress MLA Ajay Rai was on Tuesday arrested along with 50 others in connection with violence and arson in Varanasi on Monday as the administration cracked down on miscreants in the holy city where the situation was peaceful amid continued police patrolling.
'Sharma was sent to Lucknow for a purpose, but he has merely been adjusted in the party hierarchy because the chief minister refused to induct him into his government. He was secretary in the Central government and was holding a much higher office than the state ruling party's vice-president' Virendra Singh Rawat reports.
The Lucknow-based St Joseph's Inter College has refused entry to a young girl student for wearing a hijab (head scarf) on campus.
The Election Commission gets cracking on caste, money and muscle power well ahead of the 2017 Uttar Pradesh elections.
A 30-year-old woman's body was found near a village school in Uttar Pradesh's Mohanlalganj area. Sharat Pradhan reports that the victim was brutally stabbed and then left to bleed.
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
Even though Mulayam Singh decided which ministers to drop and which ministers to lose their portfolios, the reshuffle is being projected as a reflection of Akhilesh Yadav's assertive self.
Pained at the pace of justice in our country, says Uma Kant Misra, who was acquitted in a case of embezzlement. Sharat Pradhan reports.
When the governor and chief justice objected to his choice, the UP chief minister just changed the law.
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