"Just bargaining was going on over what he (Ajit) should be getting. As per our information, he has been given a promise of chief minister's post by pushing Eknath Shinde aside with the help of Assembly speaker's decision (on disqualification of 16 Shiv Sena MLAs)," the former CM claimed.
Incumbents Pushkar Singh Dhami and Pramod Sawant are the clear favourites but face some opposition
Returning officer and state principal secretary (assembly) R P Pandey said the polling was underway on a peaceful note.
Prashant Patel said 'Delhi Sarkar Ki Shaktiyaan aur Simayen' by S K Sharma, a former secretary in the Delhi legislative assembly -- released in June 2015, was the inspiration behind his petition.
Probodh Panda and Atul Kumar Anjaan are among 39 candidates declared by the Communist Party of India for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls as the party said that it would fight on 60 seats in 24 states.
Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati's close aide Naseemuddin Siddiqui and former minister Babu Singh Kushwaha were among the 19 people booked on Wednesday for their alleged role in the Rs 1,400 crore scam in the construction of Dalit memorials and parks in Uttar Pradesh.
Shiv Sena legislator Nitin Deshmukh, who had accompanied party rebel Eknath Shinde to Surat, on Wednesday claimed that some people had forcibly admitted him to a hospital there and he was administered injections though he never suffered a heart attack.
All 41 candidates from Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand and Telangana were elected unopposed on Friday after the biennial elections to 57 Rajya Sabha seats were announced recently.
Heavy police force was deployed at the Congress office in view of the march and roads leading to it were barricaded. However, many Congress workers reached the spot and started a public meeting.
In a relief to Mulayam Singh government in Uttar Pradesh, the Supreme Court Friday stayed an Allahabad high court order and said the breakaway BSP legislators will continue as a separate group in the Assembly.
Earlier, a Uttar Pradesh court refused to recognise 40 rebel Bahujan Samajwadi Party legislators, plunging the state into a political crisis.
Congress leader Charanjit Singh Channi was on Monday sworn in as the chief minister of Punjab, making him the first Dalit to hold the top post in the state.
The party's CM choice came as a surprise for many as the low-profile, first-time legislator was not seen to be among the top contenders for the post.
"Our party is stronger than the Congress in the state. While the Congress won 40 seats in panchayat polls, we scored a victory in 83 panchayats. AAP got over 40 lakh votes in these polls, where 1600 party candidates contested," Singh, AAP's UP in-charge and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh said.
"The government is afraid of oath ceremony of a student leader and is stopping me at the airport to prevent me from visiting Allahabad," the SP chief claimed.
Assembly elections to five crucial states will take place in a few months and the results will be decisive for the BJP, which is eyeing a third successive term at the Centre, in the forthcoming the Lok Sabha polls in 2024.
Enthused over Congress' victory in three out of four Assembly seats in Rajasthan, state party president Sachin Pilot on Tuesday said people have rejected the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party for brutal "misuse" of power.
A bench comprising Justice Pinaki Chandra Ghose and Justice Amitava Roy, while allowing the plea of the Pooja Pal, wife of slain leader, asked the probe agency to conclude the probe in the case preferably within six months.
A vacation bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and Bela M Trivedi said that prima facie the Allahabad high court's bail condition imposed on Khan is disproportionate and sounds like a decree of a civil court.
Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister and former state BJP president Keshav Prasad Maurya had also dropped a hint in a recent tweet, saying Yaduvanshi (Yadavs), Ravidasiyo (Jatavs) and Pasmanda Muslims will be brought closer to the BJP so that the lotus 'blossoms' in every booth in UP.
The BSP is contesting on 20 seats in Karnataka election with an alliance with Janata Dal-Secular while the SP is contesting on 27 on its own.
Less than half the ministers in Team Yogi are not long-term BJP members. Many old-timers have been dropped.
The confidence vote in the UP assembly is scheduled for September 8.
The Congress, which wanted to contest as many as 121 seats, has reportedly now settled for 105 seats.
The SP-Congress campaign will see Akhilesh Yadav and Rahul Gandhi criss-cross the seats held by either party.
Ajay Kumar Lallu said the party has emerged as the main challenger to the "oppressive" UP government and the 'winds of change' were blowing in the state.
They alleged that the BSP was getting a 'bad name' because of the 'huge sums' being demanded for party tickets.
A lot is riding on the Rajya sabha polls that are scheduled for Saturday. Major parties are whisking away candidates of other parties, while protecting their own, MLAs are being sent to 'camps' in the final countdown to the polls for 57 seats. Here is a state-by-state look:
Polling will be held in all 13 seats in Punjab and an equal number of seats in Uttar Pradesh, nine in West Bengal, eight seats each in Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, four in Himachal Pradesh, three in Jharkhand and the lone seat Chandigarh.
The Samajwadi Party is unwilling to cede ground to the BJP, especially in Amethi, since the Congress is too weak to counter the BJP's well-oiled election machinery.
Both the BJP and Congress understand that coalitions and alliances are not just about numbers, but have symbolic value.
Jailed Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan's spokesperson accuses Akhilesh Yadav of ignoring Khan and the Muslim community, sparking speculation over another rift in the party.
The letter was posted by Shinde on his Twitter handle, claiming these were the sentiments of the Sena MLAs.
The BJP wants to win a state where it has been out of power for 15 years. The Congress wants to make its mark in a state where it has been a bit player for nearly 30 years. And the BSP wants to recapture power it lost 5 years ago.
These self-appointed well-wishers of AMU are basically for the control or police model of university governance. They have no faith whatsoever in the democratic functioning of the universities, observes Faizan Mustafa, former dean, Faculty of Law, and Registrar, Aligarh Muslim University.
The recently held presidential election and the historic victory of Droupadi Murmu are likely to create political ripples in Kerala as the NDA candidate received an unexpected vote from the southern state.
When asked whether Sonia will be present at the day-long convention, Congress spokesman Shaktisinh Gohil told reporters that Rahul had led the agitation against demonetisation and he would preside over it.
'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.
It's a relief for inter-faith or inter-caste couples who often face threat to their lives due to their relationship
Stating that at least 16 people of different political parties have lost their lives in the post-poll violence in West Bengal, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party, saying unable to digest defeat in the state elections they were sending central ministers to incite unrest in Kolkata.