The induction of former Bahujan Samaj Party leader Babu Singh Kushwaha is a sign of the Bharatiya Janata Party's nervousness on the Uttar Pradesh battlefield. It is also the result of the BJP's intra-party tensions, analyses Sheela Bhatt
Senior leaders of the Congress party lashed out at the Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday after BJP's newly inducted member Babu Singh Kushwaha was raided by the Central Bureau of Investigation.
State BJP president Surya Pratap Shahi has alleged that the raids on Babu Singh Kushwaha were guided by the central government.
Justifying the induction of tainted former minister Babu Singh Kushwaha into the Bharatiya Janata Party, vice-president Vinay Katiyar on Saturday said he was brought in as an approver, like a government witness. "Like a government witness, Babu Singh Kushwaha has been brought in as a witness," Katiyar told reporters. Katiyar said that if there were allegations against Kushwaha, he has to reply to them. "BJP will not help him on this," he said.
A girl wearing hijab will become the prime minister of the country one day, All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen chief Asaduddin Owaisi has said amid the controversy over Muslim women's headscarves.
Owaisi has said the AIMIM respects the people's verdict in the northern state and continues to make efforts to win people's confidence in the future.
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.
The Central Bureau of Investigation has examined former Uttar Pradesh Minister Babu Singh Kushwaha's wife in connection with alleged swindling of funds in the National Rural Health Mission.
The Central Bureau of Investigation on Tuesday filed its first chargesheet in connection with alleged irregularities in the upgradation of 134 hospitals in Uttar Pradesh under the National Rural Health Mission accusing five former government officials, two companies and two others in the case.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday alleged that the arrest of former Uttar Pradesh minister Babu Singh Kushwaha in connection with the National Rural Health Mission was an example of the Congress misusing the Central Bureau of Investigation to serve its ends. Kushwaha, who was the family welfare minister in Chief Minister Mayawati's cabinet, is one of the prime accused in the Rs 8,000-crore NRHM scam. He was arrested on Saturday by the CBI.
The Central Bureau of Investigation claimed to have unearthed money trail of Rs 40 crore in the National Rural Health Mission scam in Uttar Pradesh which was routed back in the state through Kolkata-based companies with the alleged involvement of family members of accused.
Former minister in the Bahujan Samaj Party government in Uttar Pradesh Babu Singh Kushwaha has alleged that he is being trapped into the National Rural Health Mission scam as a part of a conspiracy hatched by senior bureaucrats.
Pushed on the back foot, Bharatiya Janata Party President Nitin Gadkari on Sunday formally accepted tainted former Uttar Pradesh minister Babu Singh Kushwaha's offer to keep his party membership in suspension till he is cleared of all the "malicious" charges levelled against him.
An apparently embarrassed Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday said it will not give ticket to tainted former Uttar Pradesh Minister Babu Singh Khushwaha, against whom Central Bureau of Investigation conducted raids on Wednesday in the national Rural Health Mission scam case, and made it clear that he will not be its star campaigner.
Hours after he joined the Bharatiya Janata Party, ousted Bahujan Samaj Party minister and former Mayawati confidante Babu Singh Kushwaha was raided by the Central Bureau of Investigation early on Wednesday morning.
After taking on Mayawati on National Rural Health Mission irregularities, the Bharatiya Janata Party in a surprise move on Tuesday, inducted into the party Uttar Pradesh chief minister's former confidant Babu Singh Kushwaha, who is facing Central Bureau Investigations inquiry in the scam.
Former cabinet minister Babu Singh Kushwaha, widely known as Mayawati's virtual bell-boy, is all set to now give sleepless nights to the state government.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati on Thursday reportedly sacked two ministers in her cabinet; though the state government maintained that Family Welfare minister Babu Singh Kushwaha and Health Minister Anant Kumar Misra had resigned from their posts voluntarily.Kushwaha and Misra tendered their resignations after taking responsibility for the multi-crore scams unearthed in their respective departments during the investigations in the murder of Lucknow CMO Dr B P Singh.
The Central Bureau of Investigation has arrested a former director of an Uttar Pradesh PSU and an alleged middleman in connection with its probe in National Rural Health Mission scam in which the then minister Babu Singh Kushwaha is the main accused.
Former Uttar Pradesh minister Babu Singh Kushwaha has alleged that he was "tortured" in the Central Bureau of Investigation custody during interrogations. "The CBI tortured us during interrogations for ten days," said the sacked Bahujan Samaj Party minister, while he along with another accused, former BSP MLA Ram Pratap Jaiswal, were being taken to Dasna prison on Tuesday.
A special Central Bureau of Investigation court in Ghaziabad on Tuesday remanded former Uttar Pradesh minister Babu Singh Kushwaha and former Bahujan Samaj Party Member of Legislative Assembly Ram Pratap Jaiswal in judicial custody for 14 days in the multi-crore National Rural Health Mission scam.
The Central Bureau of Investigation on Saturday arrested former Uttar Pradesh family welfare minister Babu Singh Kushwaha and Bahujan Samaj Party Member of Legislative Assembly Ram Prasad Jaiswal. Incidentally, the agency arrested the two leaders, who have been under its scanner for their role in the Rs 8,000 crore National Rural Health Mission scam, minutes after the seventh and last phase of state elections came to an end.
Notwithstanding the controversy over his joining the party, the Bharatiya Janata Party feels that tainted former Bahujan Samaj Party leader Babu Singh Kushwaha's support to it could bolster its prospects in the elections in Uttar Pradesh.
Expelled Bahujan Samaj Party minister Babu Singh Kushwaha, currently facing a Central Bureau of Investigation probe for his alleged involvement in the Rs 8000 crore National Rural Health Mission scam, finally came out in the open against his one-time mentor Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati on Thursday.
Under attack from within and outside, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday came out with an apparent face-saver by accepting tainted former Uttar Pradesh minister Babu Singh Kushwaha's offer to keep his party membership in suspension. "I do not want that as a result of the malicious charges against me, BJP should be made a target of unnecessary controversy," he said.
Taking on the Bharatiya Janata Party over the induction of tainted former Bahujan Samaj Party minister Babu Singh Kushwaha, Rahul Gandhi on Saturday claimed that he wanted to join the Congress after being sacked by Chief Minister Mayawati, but the party closed the doors on him. Addressing election meetings in Gorapkhpur, the All India Congress Committee general secretary also said the BJP has inducted a person who is part of the "corruption race" in the state.
Prominent Bhartiya Janata Party leaders on Friday came out openly against their party leadership's decision to induct tainted and ousted Bahujan Samaj Party minister Babu Singh Kushwaha into the party fold.
"Joining of Kushwaha against whom there are serious allegations of corruption, which are being probed by CBI in BJP raises suspicion. It seems that there was a financial deal of crores for his inclusion in the BJP...this should be probed by CBI", Singh told reporters.
Not everyone in the BJP is happy with the tainted ex-minister entering the party. BJP MP from Gorakhpur, Yogi Adityanath, blamed the BJP leadership for bringing Kushwaha into the party. Sharat Pradhan reports.
A special Central Bureau of Investigation court on Tuesday extended till June 26 the judicial custody of former Uttar Pradesh minister Babu Singh Kushwaha and nine others in a case related to the multi-crore National Rural Health Mission scam in the state.
The Bahujan Samaj Party on Monday expelled former Family Welfare Minister Babu Singh Kushwaha, once a close confidant of Mayawati who was removed from her cabinet in the wake of the killing of two chief medical officers and the National Rural Health Mission scam.
The Central Bureau of Investigation on Monday sought a report from the Lucknow police on the alleged suicide by Sunil Verma, a key accused in National Rural Health Mission case who is believed to have carried "vital information" even as it continued questioning of senior officials as part of its probe into the scam.
Sunil Verma, an accused in the multi-crore National Rural Health Mission scam, allegedly committed suicide on Monday at his Vikas Nagar residence in Lucknow by shooting himself with his licenced revolver, police said.
Bhartiya Janata Party leader and former president of Yuva Morcha Ramashish Rai on Monday alleged a deal was struck between some leaders of the party and former Bahujan Samaj Party leader Babu Singh Kushwaha for his induction in BJP.
The Congress on Friday saw a tacit understanding between the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party in the induction of tainted former Uttar Pradesh minister Babu Singh Kushwaha in the saffron party saying the two parties were birds of the same feather who flock together.
The Bharatiya Janata Party has come under fire for the induction of tainted Uttar Pradesh minister Babu Singh Kushwaha from within the party itself as well as from its allies.
The induction of tainted former Uttar Pradesh minister Babu Singh Kushwaha on Thursday continued to create tensions within the Bharatiya Janata Party, which attracted more controversy by giving a ticket for assembly elections to a former MP who was expelled from Rajya Sabha over the cash-for-query scam.
Six days after he dared to sound the bugle of revolt against Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati, former UP minister for family welfare and mines, Babu Singh Kushwaha, was served a notice of eviction from the ministerial bungalow he has been occupying in Lucknow.
A local court in Bahraich, Uttar Pradesh, has directed the police to register a criminal case against five ministers (of the ruling Bahujan Samaj Party) and five other persons on account of their association with a monthly journal that carried an allegedly blasphemous article in its May issue.
Two days after former Uttar Pradesh minister Babu Singh Kushwaha was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation in the multi-crore NRHM scam, his bail petition was withdrawn on Monday from a court in Ghaziabad.
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