A short circuit caused a brief moment of panic during a press conference held by BSP president Mayawati in Lucknow. Samajwadi Party Chief Akhilesh Yadav called it a security lapse and demanded an investigation.
'Although Rahul's energy and commitment are to be acknowledged, there is no alternative to good party organisation at the grassroots, and this the Congress lacks. If they set their organisational house in order, combined with an enlightened leadership, the Congress will go far in many states.'
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati ordered a ban on Prakash Jha's multi-starrer across the state, Punjab soon followed suit.
Yet another minister in the Uttar Pradesh government, on Monday, was sacked by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati. The UP CM has been on a firing spree since the past ten days. The number of sacked UP ministers went up to 11 on Monday.
She was administered the oath of office by and secrecy by Governor T V Rajeswar at the Raj Bhavan lawns.
The Congress general secretary said that the Bahujan Samaj Party, Samajwadi Party and Bharatiya Janata Party was responsible for corruption in the state and flayed them for pilfering funds sent by the Centre. Sharat Pradhan reports
The BJP protesters, carrying placards and raising slogans, slammed the Congress and its leader, Rahul Gandhi, calling them "traitors" for allegedly tarnishing the nation's image.
The Supreme Court's stay on the UGC equity regulations aimed at preventing caste-based discrimination on campuses has been met with mixed reactions. Opposition parties welcomed the decision, while some expressed concern over the implications for marginalized communities.
Netas in Uttar Pradesh are using Rajkumar Hirani's film PK to play the politics of polarization.
To a question whether his party will not forge a coalition with any political party, Azad said, "If any political party is willing to accompany the Congress, and the Congress feels that it can fight the BJP, then it will be definitely accommodated."
Sending mixed signals in Uttar Pradesh, Congress on Sunday hinted at a possible alliance with the Samajwadi party against the Bahujan Samaj Party and accused the state government of corruption saying Chief Minister Mayawati cannot be expected to give a 'transparent' administration.
Tall claims about her government's achievements and heavy bashing of the Congress-led UPA regime at the Centre remained Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati's mainstay at a press meet in Lucknow on Thursday to mark completion of her three years in office.
Over 53 lakh poor families are expected to avail the health insurance cover provided under this scheme, reports Sharat Pradhan
Congress has criticised the Mayawati government in Uttar Pradesh for allegedly misusing grants from the Centre and blamed it for rising crime and corruption in the state.
73 constituencies will vote on Saturday.
It was clearly Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati's day in the state assembly on Monday when she bulldozed her way to achieve the near impossible -- passing the resolution for division of the country's most populous state into four smaller states in a matter of minutes. Evidently, that marked the success of the second part of her pre-election action plan. When she formally mooted the idea, she stole the thunder from her bete noire Rahul Gandhi.
Last week, Nazarwala, our columnist who correctly predicted the 2007 Uttar Pradesh election outcome, said Chief Minister Mayawati's tally in the current assembly election would fall to double digits. Here he outlines what awaits the BJP in UP.
Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati paid tribute to the party founder, late Kanshi Ram, on his 91st birth anniversary. She emphasized the BSP's commitment to action over words, highlighting the party's focus on the upliftment of backward classes. Mayawati also referred to herself as the "iron lady" and emphasized the importance of understanding the power of one's vote.
''Women are coming into public spaces in larger numbers than ever before. They are educated, capable, opinionated, and determined.' 'But the more women push for access to public space, the harder they are pushed back -- through attacks like this, through discrimination, through the glass ceiling, through the deliberate denial of recognition.'
"I thank the high command for imposing their trust on me and assigning me this big responsibility," she said soon after the announcement.
The two parties named the seats distributed among them in a statement signed by SP president Akhilesh Yadav and BSP chief Mayawati.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati on Friday jumped on the bandwagon demanding the creation of smaller states, declaring that carving Harit Pradesh and Bundelkhand from parts of UP was a 'feasible' idea.In the wake of the Centre's decision to create Telangana by dividing Andhra Pradesh, the UP CM said that her party will back the demand for the creation of smaller states."We back the demand for Harit Pradesh. Smaller states can be better administered," she said.
Amidst barbs flying back and forth, Rediff.com's Aslam Hunani lists all that you need to know about the fourth phase of the UP assembly elections, which will take place on February 23.
The Allahabad high court on Thursday stayed with immediate effect caste-based rallies throughout Uttar Pradesh, while issuing notices to central and state governments, the Election Commission and four major political parties. "We stay caste-based rallies throughout the state of UP," the Lucknow bench of the court comprising justices Uma Nath Singh and Mahendra Dayal said on a PIL filed by a local lawyer Motilal Yadav.
The salary hike for government employees is likely to put an additional burden of Rs 24,000 crore on the state excheque.
BSP chief Mayawati removed her nephew Akash Anand from all party posts and said that she will not name her successor till she is alive. In a slew of other significant changes in the BSP leadership announced at a high-level meeting of the party's office-bearers from across the country, Mayawati appointed her brother Anand Kumar and Ramji Gautam as national coordinators. Mayawati also criticized the budgets of both the central and Uttar Pradesh governments, saying they were "unrealistic" and detached from ground realities.
Following the alleged molestation of two Australian women cricketers in Indore, a Madhya Pradesh minister advises players to inform local authorities when going out due to their popularity in India.
Following the alleged molestation of two Australian women cricketers in Indore, a Madhya Pradesh minister advises players to inform local authorities when going out due to their popularity in India.
Political Pundit R Rajagopalan lists his big takeaways from the election results.
The polarisation politics seems to have succeeded in western UP much to the delight of the BJP. However the non-BJP parties are hoping that the polarisation will not be as intense and they will be able to hold on to majority of their vote banks, says Girish Nikam.
The polarisation politics seems to have succeeded in western UP much to the delight of the BJP. However the non-BJP parties are hoping that the polarisation will not be as intense and they will be able to hold on to majority of their vote banks, says Girish Nikam.
Bhim denotes Dalit icon Bhimrao Ambedkar, while Mim denotes the letter 'M' in the Urdu alphabet; the party used the slogan effectively in the 2014 Maharashtra assembly elections
The kings of the ruling family of India's heartland -- father Mulayam Singh Yadav, the Samajwadi party supremo, and son Akhilesh Yadav, the UP chief minister -- are at war. And as on any chessboard, the queens have emerged as the power centres. Meet Dimple Yadav and Aparna Yadav.
On the eve of the sixth and penultimate phase of the marathon Uttar Pradesh elections, Rediff.com's Aslam Hunani reports on what's at stake.
According to political observers, the AIMIM sees a catchment area in Bihar, where Muslims are more than 17 per cent of the total population but have never got a proportionate representation in the state legislature.
From putting up a decent performance in the last Lok Sabha polls in Uttar Pradesh winning 10 seats stitching an alliance with arch rival Samajwadi Party, Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party drew a blank in the current general elections, dealing a severe blow to its reputation of representing the voice of Dalits in the state.
AIMIM's Bihar state president Akhtarul Iman, the party's lone MLA in the state, has written to RJD president Lalu Prasad, formally requesting inclusion in the grand alliance.
The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in Uttar Pradesh is reviving its 'brotherhood committees', a strategy used successfully in the 2007 elections, to bolster its support among Other Backward Castes (OBCs) ahead of the 2027 state assembly elections. These committees, to be formed in all 403 constituencies, aim to connect with 100 people from OBC communities in each village, acting as ambassadors of the party at the booth level. The BSP sees these committees as a counter to the Samajwadi Party's PDA pitch and a means to consolidate its scattered rural vote bank. The party is also highlighting the 'anti-Dalit' and 'anti-OBC' tactics of the Congress, BJP and SP, hoping to capitalize on perceived grievances and reposition itself as a champion of marginalized communities.
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