The National Commission for Scheduled Castes has decided to summon BKU leader Mahendra Singh Tikait for allegedly making casteist remarks against Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati at a rally in Bijnore district on March 30. The Commission had issued a notice to the BKU leader on the basis of the FIR report as the district administration failed to provide the full text of Tikait's speech.
POTA was invoked against Raja Bhaiya by the previous government led by Mayawati.
If the party's members aren't sure what it stands for, see no path to wealth or power, and endure control by a dynasty, which, almighty as it is within the party, cannot get them the votes, they are likely to explore options, notes Shekhar Gupta.
Siddiqui, who hails from Banda, was earlier removed as the party in-charge of Uttar Pradesh and was appointed as the MP unit in-charge after the assembly poll debacle.
On May 2, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath will step into Bihar and challenge the Nitish-Lalu order in the state.
Notwithstanding Amitabh Bachchan abandoning claims on a farmland in Barabanki in Uttar Pradesh, the Uttar Pradesh government said it would pursue the forgery case against the Bollywood star.
Flaying the Mayawati government's decision to dedicate schemes worth Rs 7000 crore to the Bahujan Samaj Party founder Kanshi Ram, Samajwadi Party on Wednesday questioned the late Dalit leader's contribution to Uttar Pradesh and termed it as an attempt to 'Kanshimarise' state capital Lucknow.
The 36-year-old businessman had died after being allegedly assaulted by the police at a Gorakhpur hotel which they had raided on Monday night.
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.
'If Mayawati had performed better, then the BJP would have had a much tougher time to win UP.' 'The present gap in number of seats between the BJP and SP would have got reduced.'
Simultaneous raids on different jails across the length and breadth of Uttar Pradesh made shocking revelations.
'The BJP is racing against its opponents by putting a chain on their legs.'
Modi was accompanied by Uttar Pradesh Governor Ram Naik, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri and Delhi Metro Rail Corporation chief Mangu Singh during the ride.
"The day corruption charges are levelled against me, I would retire and sit at home," Singh said.
Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi's 24 hour-long 'secret' mission in Uttar Pradesh kept everyone on tenterhooks until he finally flew back to New Delhi from Lucknow on Thursday evening.
'The Congress's policy is it will take benefits from everybody, but when it gets an opportunity, it does not want to share it with others'
The best-case scenario is that the BJP will top out at around 50 seats in UP -- a drop of 12 from the 62 it had won in 2019. Taken in tandem with Maharashtra and Karnataka, this is what is likely to put paid to the BJP's ambitions of a third term for Modi, argues Prem Panicker.
In a virtual snub to the Mayawati government in Uttar Pradesh, the National Commission for Scheduled Castes on Thursday said the state had the "worst track record" across the country in terms of atrocities on Dalits.
The long-awaited, much hyped Samajwadi Party-Congress alliance in Uttar Pradesh is "99 per cent off" said a senior congress leader as the Congress is all set to release a list of 24 candidates in Uttar Pradesh in the absence of Mulayam Singh Yadav giving his nod to the alliance.
The ED has attached seven sugar mills worth over Rs 1,097 crore in a money laundering case against former Uttar Pradesh BSP MLC Mohammed Iqbal and his family, officials said.
Political strategist Prashant Kishor, who played a key role in victories of Narendra Modi-led BJP in general elections and the Janata Dal-United-Rashtriya Janata Dal-Congress alliance in Bihar, on Wednesday attended a meeting with Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi to craft the party's strategy for Uttar Pradesh polls.
Smarting under poll debacle, the Bahujan Samaj Party on Sunday expressed fears about return of 'goondaraj' in Uttar Pradesh and said it would not contest the upcoming local body polls, apprehending that the ruling Samajwadi Party might target its candidates.
The party office in Lucknow buzzed with activity as enthusiastic Congress workers gathered outside the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee building, even before she returned from an overnight stay in Jaipur.
A body of advocates in Prayagaraj have e-mailed a petition to the Chief Justice of Allahabad high court against the demolition of a house of the alleged mastermind of the June 10 violence in the city by the Prayagraj Development Authority.
Reaching out to the ruling party in Uttar Pradesh, which has 17 MPs in the Lok Sabha, Communist Party of India-Marxist General Secretary Prakash Karat drove to the Uttar Pradesh chief minister's residence in New Delhi to hold the first meeting after the Left parties withdrew support to the United Progressive Alliance government over the nuclear deal.
The Uttar Pradesh government has decided to entrust the anti-dowry case registered against Arjun Singh and his family members to the CBI.
After her attempts attract Brahmins and Dalits, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and Bahujan Samaj Party president Mayawati is now all set to woo Muslims, Kshatriyas and Vaishyas.
Polling in Phase II of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections consists of 67 constituencies spread across 11 districts.
UP Power Minister Shrikant Sharma stirred up a hornet's nest with his tweet terming the Congress president a 'coward and impotent'.
Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, who have extended support to the Congress to form the government in the state, were not present.
Campaigning came to an end on Saturday for the single-day election in Uttarakhand and Goa, two states known for political volatility where the Bharatiya Janata Party is attempting to retain power, and for the second phase of assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh on February 14.
Perhaps unwittingly, young Samajwadi chief minister Akhilesh Yadav has forgotten that it was the media campaign against Mayawati's undemocratic and despotic ways that helped him to romp home with a clear majority. Sharat Pradhan reports
The parties seem to have forgotten their two decade-old antagonism for a 'political revolution' which they hope would 'last long'.
Yogi Adityanath, who has been declared BJP candidate from Gorakhpur will be the second leader to contest from the district as a chief minister after Tribhuvan Narayan Singh, who lost in 1971.
Raising the pitch against the quota bill, thousands of Uttar Pradesh government employees on Monday marched down the streets of Lucknow, expressing their ire against Bahujan Samaj Party President Mayawati and Congress chief Sonia Gandhi. The agitators blamed them for pushing the constitutional amendment bill in the Parliament for introducing reservation in promotions in all government jobs.
With former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati voicing certain reservations over FDI policy in its present form, the government on Monday sought to keep the Bahujan Samaj Party in good humour by declaring its commitment to a Constitution Amendment Bill providing for promotions for SC/STs in government jobs.
In a jolt to former Chief Minister Mayawati, the Uttar Pradesh Lokayukta has said public money worth Rs 1,400 crore was siphoned off in construction of memorials during her regime and indicted 199 people including her close aide and former BSP minister Naseemuddi Siddiqui.
On the eve of the final phase of the Uttar Pradesh elections, Rediff.com's Aslam Hunani reviews the political landscape in the epicentre and beyond.