The SP also alleged that it was the BJP people who got Umesh Pal, a key witness in the 2005 killing of then BSP legislator Raju Pal, murdered.
Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com gives the lowdown on the 59 seats spread across seven states and one Union territory going to polls in the last and final phase of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections on May 19, 2019.
'Benares has always encouraged healthy debate where disagreement and dissent was never frowned upon. Today, the people are faced with a situation where a political opponent is not being allowed to give election speeches and is being physically attacked.' 'We are going to hand over power to a person who has a reputation of being dictatorial, who does not brook dissent and is known to be vindictive to his opponents,' author Kashinath Singh tells Rediff.com contributor Anita Katyal.
Yogi will stay in Gorakhpur till May 19 and will address at least three rallies every day in the region, reports Siddharth Kalhans.
In her brief but impassioned speech, she said, "No outside leader is required. Every single youth of the state can become a leader.... Every single youth here will work for UP and make the state progress by leaps and bounds. This is the wish of Rahulji and Akhileshji."
Doubts are being raised in the Bharatiya Janata Party about its fate in the prestigious constituencies of Lucknow (East) and Noida by-poll, where the voting percentage was as low as 34 and 32 respectively.
From invoking the 'Saptarishi' (Ursa Major) constellation, seven basic notes of Indian classical music to 'saat phere' (seven circumambulations) -- parties give different reasons and logic to claim that they will emerge victorious in the polls.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to flag off the train soon, which will ply between Delhi and his Lok Sabha constituency.
The kisan is as integral a part of the BJP's master plan for the 2019 polls as the Dalit because it surmised that the farmers and Dalits were as restive in UP as in much of the country, and if it had to cut its losses, its reflexes must kick in fast. Radhika Ramaseshan reports.
'Why were they silent when over 128 temples and shrines including Shivlings were broken down at the time of the construction of the Kashi Vishwanath corridor?' a Varanasi resident asks Rashme Sehgal.
"It is the most frivolous petition," a bench headed by Chief Justice Y K Sabharwal said dismissing the petition filed by a Varanasi-based advocate and some others.
The party is using the two year occasion to launch its election campaign in the state, which was key to them reaching simple majority in the Lok Sabha in 2014.
Yadav, a former Uttar Pradesh chief minister, was slated to travel to Kannuaj, around 125 km from the Uttar Pradesh capital, for a tractor rally as part of the 'Kisan Yatra' in support of farmers protesting against the Centre's new agri laws and the 'Bharat Bandh' called by them on Tuesday.
The Congress chief will also be contesting from Amethi in Uttar Pradesh.
Will Priyanka contest against Modi in Varanasi? Will Rahul also contest from Karnataka? Rasheed Kidwai -- Sonia Gandhi and the Congress party's biographer -- reveals what is churning in the Congress.
India has around 600,000 villages spread across the country.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi incurred a total poll expenditure of a little over Rs 50 lakh in Vadodara, one of the two Lok Sabha seats from where he contested and won.
The prime minister's gifts to the temple are estimated to cost Rs 4.09 crores!
The Congress is a dismal third in 17 of the 19 constituencies where the party's general secretary (east) campaigned in Uttar Pradesh.
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Rahul Gandhi's experiment of choosing Congress candidates for Lok Sabha polls through the 'primary' system appears to have suffered initial hiccups with two constituencies being dropped from the list of 16.
'Yeh dil maange more' seems to be mantra for over two dozen former chief ministers of various states who are contesting upcoming Lok Sabha elections on different party tickets.
The Yogi Adityanath government on Wednesday transferred 20 senior IAS officers, shunting out Principal Secretary-Information Navneet Sehgal and others who wielded considerable influence under the Akhilesh Yadav dispensation.
Bharatiya Janata Party Vice-President Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi on Monday claimed the National Democratic Alliance will win 300 plus seats in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections as the people want a stable alternative.
From the dusty roads of Delhi and Varanasi to flying business class to Dubai and United States, Arvind Kejriwal's flight to fame has seen his 'well-crafted' image of an Aam Aadmi take a hit in recent times.
The Indore-3 legislator and son of senior party leader Kailash Vijayvargiya was recently jailed for thrashing the municipal officer, on an anti-encroachment drive, following a heated argument.
SP has gained a majority in the 100-member Uttar Pradesh legislative council. The party had earlier faced difficulty pushing through its legislative in the upper house due to lack of numbers.
The inaugural Sangamam turned out to be a political Hindutva function than a gathering on the Hindu religion, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
The second and third positions in the category were grabbed by Surat and Navi Mumbai respectively.
The Congress chief, however, said he was not expecting any cooperation from the prime minister and the BJP-led central government for the development of Wayanad and Kerala.
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.
The prime minister's tough talk assumed significance in view of protests against the CAA in various parts of the country.
The rift within former prime minister H D Deve Gowda's family over the Hassan ticket for the May 10 assembly polls widened on Tuesday, with Janata Dal-Secular leader H D Kumaraswamy invoking the battle of 'Kurukshetra' in the epic Mahabharata to allege that some 'Shakunis' were trying to brainwash his brother H D Revanna.
Jailed MLA of Quami Ekta Dal Mukhtar Ansari will withdraw his candidature from Varanasi against BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, "to strengthen secular forces and avoid division of votes".
Saisuresh Sivaswamy tells us what we must know from the election news in the print and television media.
Controversial Uttar Pradesh legislator Mukhtar Ansari was on Saturday released on custody parole from Central Jail in Agra for a day to campaign in Lok Sabha election.
It is too early to write Narendra Modi's political obituary, asserts Virendra Kapoor.
Modi's NDA is good enough to give a psychological boost to the once 'untouchable' BJP and Modi but if the NDA doesn't get a majority on its own, then walking the last mile will be the greatest challenge of this election for Modi, says Sheela Bhatt/Rediff.com
The ruling alliance partner sought to know what prevents the BJP from making use of its absolute majority in the Lok Sabha to start construction of the temple in Ayodhya.
Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu on wednesday said that track washout due to a swollen Machak river led to the derailment of Kamayani Express and Janata Express at Harda in Madhya Pradesh.
