Atique Ahmed is one of the most feared dons of Uttar Pradesh today. There was another don who preceded Atique and had he survived, Atique wouldn't have been around today, recalls Sudhir Bisht.
Nishad party president Sanjay Nishad, who had demanded deputy chief minister post but settled with his nomination as an MLC, thanked the BJP on Monday and said his party will ensure the NDA's victory in next year's Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls.
The win in UP is especially significant because UP assembly members carry the maximum value of votes in a Presidential election, given the fact that the state is India's most populous.
All the parties fielded women candidates after the Lucknow mayoral seat was reserved for women.
The Commission, sources said, will have to decide on who commands the majority in SP before January 17 when the notification for the first phase of assembly polls is issued.
Rediff.com gives you a look at newbies in the Council of Ministers
Mayawati was outmanoeuvred by the BJP in the race for the Rajya Sabha in Uttar Pradesh just days after she helped the Samajwadi Party snatch two Lok Sbaha seats from the saffron party in bypolls.
Many political watchers give their prediction quite confidently of a coalition government. But nobody's certain on the nature of the coalition.
Leaders from 26 opposition parties, in power individually or in alliance in Delhi and 10 states, are meeting in Bengaluru to discuss strategy to take on the Narendra Modi-led NDA in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
The Jat vote is crucial in winning at least 40 assembly seats in Western UP, which has been in the grip of a widespread farmer movement, reports Nitin Kumar.
Modi will address the rally at village Nagla Chandrabhan in Mathura of Uttar Pradesh, which is Upadhyay's birth place.
The Allahabad high court has rejected the bail plea of a reporter accused of abetting a suicide, saying a journalist is not expected to dramatise sensational incidents and create news by putting a person's life in danger.
UP and Bihar contributed 105 seats to the BJP's tally in 2014. It has now lost 8 Lok Sabha by-polls in the last four years, including three successive losses in UP and two seats in Rajasthan.
The Election Commission on Tuesday ordered the delisting of another 86 'non-existent' registered unrecognised political parties, raising the number of such organisations red flagged by the poll panel for failing to comply with electoral rules to 537.
The coming weeks are sure to have a lot of drama unfolding in Maharashtra, predicts N Sathiya Moorthy.
In the event of the BJP's poor performance in the assembly polls this year and in early 2025, Modi's hold will get further weakened because he will no longer remain the invincible electoral persona tightly controlling the machine at his disposal, asserts Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
A Bharatiya Janata Party legislator in Uttar Pradesh assembly on Tuesday demanded 'Y' security cover for legislator Suresh Rana, accused of inciting Muzaffarnagar riots, citing security threat to him.
Explaining the rationale behind his statement, Chaudhary said, "Lord Ram's wife, goddess Sita, was abducted by Ravan, but Lanka was burnt by Hanumanji. It's injustice being done to someone by someone and the third person does not know either of them. This is the nature of Jats... they intervene whenever any injustice is done to anybody."
Some important simple truths about the issue may be more helpful than high sounding debates, asserts Mohammad Sajjad.
Kumar recommended Sahani's expulsion from the cabinet to the governor in the evening, after a written submission to the effect by the BJP, hours after the minister for fishery and animal husbandry was given the ultimatum to withdraw forthwith a recent notification.
Never before has the BJP faced such a crisis over the nomination of the Chief Minister as it is facing now, discovers Prakash Bhandari, veteran observer of Rajasthan politics.
Leader of Opposition in the Uttarakhand Assembly Indira Hridayesh passed away after suffering a cardiac arrest in New Delhi on Sunday.
Polling in Phase II of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections consists of 67 constituencies spread across 11 districts.
Parties like the Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party, Mahaan Dal, and Janvadi Party-Socialist had distanced themselves from the SP after its defeat in the 2022 state assembly elections.
To counter PM Narendra Modi's aggression, Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav will hold a joint road show on March 4 in PM's constituency, reports Amit Agnihotri.
In the caste-based politics of Uttar Pradesh, Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav felt it necessary to bring in a strong leader to retrieve the party's eroding Thakur support base. Sharat Pradhan reports
Union Home Minister Amit Shah and chief ministers of some BJP-ruled states were among those present at the Raj Bhavan ceremony.
The BJP is seeking backdoor entry for Yogi and four of his ministers to the state legislature.
'Commentators have said that dealing with allies as equals will make Modi more sensitive.' 'Remember that the people Modi is dealing with are equally autocratic in their own lairs.' 'Further, Modi always has handy the threat of dissolving Parliament and calling for fresh polls.' 'Most of his own party, and certainly his allies and opponents having blown their budgets of efforts and resources in the just concluded elections, have no stomach for this.' 'They are all greatly looking forward to the loaves and fishes of office on offer.' 'That gives Modi an unbeatable advantage in any push-comes-to-shove situation,' explains Shreekant Sambrani.
In the past five years, UP's Opposition remained passive and defensive against the BJP, a trend that does not augur well for the impending battle.
In the event that like in the 17th Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi again gets locked out of the House, the Congress needs a second-in-command who will keep the momentum going inside Parliament, notes Saisuresh Sivaswamy.
The team will go into all the aspects and probe the incident till the CBI takes over the probe, the officer said.
The Congress expects Rahul Gandhi to take over as its chief this year, Jairam Ramesh said on Monday.
President Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday said the country was ashamed over the Delhi gangrape incident and stressed on the need for a culture that respects women.
Congress leader Sachin Pilot on Friday stressed that the party would fight the Rajasthan assembly polls "unitedly" and said that a decision on who would lead the next government would be taken by the high command after consultations with the newly-elected MLAs.
Students from the northeast on Sunday staged a candlelight vigil for Arunachal Pradesh youth Nido Tania and demanded an anti-racism law to ensure the safety of the people from the region.
In the five years in politics Priyanka Gandhi has undeniably emerged as a thorn in the BJP flesh, notes Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay. It is time that this thorn is twisted a wee bit more when the elections have become far more uncertain than what it was when the Election Commission announced the poll schedule.
'The central BJP has worked out an arrangement -- Yogi manages the state while Modi manages the Centre.'
Some members of the group want to join the ruling BSP.
The case caused a huge embarrassment to the BJP government
