'It's the same problem with all six of us. Behenji (Mayawati) is not to be blamed, but the coordinators have acted in a manner which has depressed us and we thought what is the use of remaining with such a party'
Naidu met Congress president Rahul Gandhi and discussed with him the possibilities of all opposition parties uniting and forging a joint opposition alliance.
Amid the raging feud in Samajwadi Party, its senior leader Shivpal Yadav reached Delhi on Wednesday evening to invite 'like-minded' socialists for the party's 25th anniversary celebrations on November 5, a move seen as an attempt to stitch an alliance for the state assembly polls.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath appeared to make a pitch in the assembly for a temple where a mosque stands now in Mathura, saying that Krishna Kanhaiya wouldn't have it any other way.
"I am a five-time legislator and it has been allotted to me as a senior member of the state assembly," he said.
This is dil ka alliance, mil ke jeetenge (It is an alliance of heart, we will win together)... says Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi while addressing a joint press conference with Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav.
Leaders of several Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) parties met on Saturday to take stock of the opposition's preparations leading up to the June 4 counting of votes polled in the Lok Sabha elections, and claimed they will get more than 295 seats, enough for them to form the next government.
In an open rebellion that could split the ruling Samajwadi Party, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on Thursday night "declared" his own candidates for 235 seats against the official list announced by his father and SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav for the upcoming assembly polls.
On Thursday, November 3, Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav will launch his Samajwadi Rath Yatra. The official launch of the party's election campaign, but also a way of assessing how much traction he has among the people.
Banerjee made it clear that she expected the seat-sharing formula to give priority to regional players in areas where they were strong.
The Samajwadi Party on Monday struck a defiant note on the issue of suspension of IAS officer Durga Sakhti Nagpal, saying officials are punished whenever they do something wrong and the Centre can withdraw IAS officers from the state.
Sources said the opposition parties would look to avoid the prickly leadership question as of now and emphasise on building a common ground.
The wait continues for the naming of a new Uttar Pradesh lokayukta as a meeting on Sunday to decide on the same failed to do so with the Allahabad high court chief justice questioning the validity of the process.
'Outside the core voter base of upper caste Hindus, there is a large section unhappy with the performance of the BJP.'
A day after Bharatiya Janata Party released a video attacking Congress president Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav defended Vadra and accused the BJP of blowing the issue of the land deals out of proportion. He also slammed the BJP's prime ministerial candidate, saying Narendra Modi's name meant model of diving India.
Umesh Pal's family thanked Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and the police.
State deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya among 692 candidates are contesting on 61 seats spread across 12 districts in the fifth phase.
The much speculated expansion of the Uttar Pradesh cabinet will take place on Thursday. Chief Minister Aklhilesh Yadav, who gave indications to that effect on Tuesday, is all set for enlarging the size of his 56-member council of ministers.
Sources in various parties suggest that two lakh votes of the Patel community, locally known as OBC kurmi, for which mother-daughter led Apna Dal (S) and Apna Dal (K) are competing and over one lakh of OBC Rajbhars would be crucial in deciding the outcome of the assembly seats in Varanasi.
'The Congress in the past backed the demand, but will not support it now since the SP opposes any division of UP.'
Raut also said that all the opposition parties will discuss whether a delegation should be sent to Lakhimpur Kheri.
'Scores of important BJP MLAs are in touch with Akhileshji, but he has very humbly said that the SP's doors are now closed to BJP MLAs and leaders.'
SP-Congress alliance is likely to consolidate Muslim vote in their favour.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union home minister Amit Shah, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, and Nationalist Congress Party-Sharadchandra Pawar supremo Sharad Pawar were among the famous faces who queued up at the polling booths on Tuesday to caste their votes in the third phase of the Lok Sabha elections.
Leaders of several like-minded opposition parties are likely to attend the swearing-in ceremony of Karnataka chief minister-designate Siddaramaiah and deputy chief minister D K Shivakumar on Saturday in Bengaluru.
The state government will bring a law for population control 'at the right time,' Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said on Tuesday.
The electoral battle in Varanasi, according to locals and political experts, is not about whether the PM will win for a third successive occasion, but if he will increase his share of the votes polled and his win margin.
A station house officer was arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl who was left outside his police station in Uttar Pradesh's Lalitpur by four men after they raped her for three days, officials said on Wednesday.
'There was a strong undercurrent of deprivation, and also frustration against misuse of power and authority.' 'This election was an opportunity for the manifestation of this discontentment.'
While the Samajwadi Party largely banks on its Muslim-Yadav support base, the Bharatiya Janata Party is trying to counter it with the Modi-Yogi combo in the state assembly polls.
The districts where polling is being held on Thursday are Ambedkar Nagar, Balrampur, Siddharth Nagar, Basti, Sant Kabir Nagar, Maharajganj, Gorakhpur, Kushinagar, Deoria and Ballia.
Mulayam in his address to party workers once again trained his guns at cousin Ramgopal accusing him of conspiring to break the party.
At least four Opposition leaders on Tuesday claimed to have received messages from Apple warning them of "State-sponsored attackers trying to remotely compromise" their iPhones and posted the purported screenshots on their X handles.
Electioneering ended in Madhya Pradesh at 6 pm except in Naxalites-hit districts of Balaghat, Mandla and Dindori, where campaigning drew to a close early at 3 pm.
In a statement that expressed the unrelenting stand of the Samajwadi Party government over the IAS officer's suspension, UP minister Ahmed Hasan in the presence of Yadav and his cabinet colleagues said the issue was being "highlighted unnecessarily".
Urdu journalist cum politician Shahid Siddiqui, who made waves recently when he was sacked by the Samajwadi Party for interviewing Gujarat CM Narendra Modi for his paper, spoke to Neerja Chowdhury on Uttar Pradesh, the goings on in the SP and the government led by it, of which he has had more than a ringside view.
'We worked hard, brought a very positive manifesto saying this is what we have done and this is what we will do.' 'But people liked something else.' 'They didn't like expressways, they want a bullet train.' 'I have realised that in a democracy, the poor doesn't know what they want.'
SP leader Akhilesh Yadav reacted quickly to the allegation, tweeting that the red caps are a 'red alert' for the Bharatiya Janata Party itself as they will oust that party from power.
The Congress is planning to call a meeting of Opposition parties in May. It is possible to keep all possibilities open in case Karnataka yields a hung House, leading to a recalibrated Opposition.
The meeting came after a letter of Khatik to Union Home Minister Amit Shah offering to quit surfaced on social media.
