Welcoming Das into the party, the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister announced that the veteran Congress leader will be the party's candidate from Lucknow parliamentary in the next year's Lok Sabha polls. Mayawati also appointed the forty-six-year-old leader as the BSP's national general secretary.
Despite being criticised over the currency garland controversy, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati on Wednesday defied the authorities by appearing again with a second currency garland.
In a major blow to the Samajwadi Party, Ranjana Bajpai, chief of the SP's women's wing, joined hands with the party's avowed rival Bahujan Samaj Party on Saturday.The move comes in the wake of SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav's decision to withdraw her ticket as the party nominee for the Sitapur Lok Sabha seat.Attributing her decision to the 'neglect of Brahmins in the Samajwadi Party', Bajpai pointedly accused SP general secretary Amar Singh of having "hijacked the party."
The inimitable 52-year old dalit leader who had already got two imposing statues of herself installed in Lucknow, has now decided to "gift" three more of her statues to the state capital.
Rising from the shock and dismay of the devastating defeat at the March state assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, Bahujan Samaj Party supremo and former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati is trying to put her party back into gear."We must show the Samajwadi Party its place in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, in which we must retain our last tally of 20 seats at all costs," Mayawati told a gathering of her party leaders in Lucknow last week.
Bidhuri's responsibility will be akin to the party's poll in-charge of the district, sources said.
Three women, including a Bahujan Samaj Party leader, who levelled some allegations against two ministers and staged a demonstration in front of Uttar Chief Minister Mayawati's cavalcade during her surprise visit in Aligarh, have been arrested, a senior police official said.
A statue of Bahujan Samaj Party supremo and former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati in the heart of Lucknow was attacked by vandals on Thursday. The statue was attacked with a hammer, beheaded and its hands were chopped off.
"Nobody is sympathising with Atiq Ahmad because a criminal should be punished. But anyone who will see this video will question if we are a democracy. Every criminal has the right to be heard in court and be convicted there. But you can see they were killed in police custody in the open," he said.
With the SP leadership already known to be looking for an opportunity to shake hands with Congress, Mayawati's decision was bound to propel the Congress leadership to respond at last -- even though the withdrawal was not likely to even remotely affect the fate of the UPA government. Political compulsions are bound to bring the two adversaries to a negotiating table since both have a tougher task ahead of them -- to tackle the visibly increasing might of the BSP.
The Congress on Thursday attacked Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati for dubbing Rahul Gandhi's dharna in Greater Noida as "mean theatrics", saying she was acting out of "frustration".
The Samajwadi Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party appeared to take early leads in Uttar Pradesh where counting of votes began after a seven-phased elections concluded on Saturday.
A yoga guru has been detained by the Delhi crime branch in connection with the murder of Bahujan Samaj Party leader Deepak Bhardwaj, officials said in Indore.
A torrent of issues ranging from price rise to demand for dismissal of Mayawati government and immediate execution of Ajmal Kasab and Afzal Guru drowned the second day of the Monsoon session of Parliament on Tuesday.
In a frontal attack on the ruling Bahujan Samaj Party, the Congress on Saturday pointedly blamed the Mayawati government for the prevailing backwardness and poverty in Bundelkhand area.
Uttar Pradesh's Chief Minister-designate Akhilesh Yadav has said he will seek an election to the state's Legislative Council instead of contesting an Assembly by-poll.
Around twelve people have been questioned in connection with the murder of local Bahujan Samaj Party leader Deepak Bhardwaj with police on Wednesday saying that it was probing whether any contract killers from Haryana's Sonepat area were involved.
A statue of Dr B R Ambedkar was found desecrated in Gyanpur district on Tuesday morning, leading to tension in the area, police said.
The Supreme Court on Monday declined to stay the order of the Uttar Pradesh assembly speaker disqualifying five Bahujan Samaj Party legislators under the anti-defection law.
Virtually stroking the fire on the suddenly hyped issue of reservation to the Jat community, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati on Wednesday blamed the Congress-led central government for its continued dilly-dallying.
Leader of Opposition in Vidhan Sabha and BSP state president Swami Prasad Maurya said, "the government is overlooking the transfer policy and within 70 days of its formation 90 per cent IAS, IPS, PCS and PPS officers have been transferred".
More politicians are getting "Z-plus" security and the new entrants include Union Minister Beni Prasad Verma and Bahujan Samaj Party MP Brajesh Pathak months after the list of VIPs in this category was pruned during P Chidambaram's tenure as home minister.
The ruling Bahujan Samaj Party in Uttar Pradesh on Saturday decided to get rid of all the criminal elements in the party by April 30.An announcement to this effect was reportedly made at a day-long meeting of the party's district chiefs and coordinators, addressed by party supremo and UP Chief Minister Mayawati's close confidant and minister Naseemuddin Siddiqui, on Friday.The party chief has resolved to rid the BSP of all criminal and anti-social elements in the party.
The Bahujan Samaj Party will support the bill for creation of a separate Telangana state if it was introduced in the Parliament, the party supremo and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Mayawati, said in Hyderabad on Saturday.
Bahujan Samaj Party president Mayawati's fad for building memorials and parks with umpteen statues of Dalit icons and elephants, the party symbol, has a dark side too. Clearly, there appears to be a huge scam behind every dream project of the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister.
Opposition parties in Uttar Pradesh on Thursday demanded a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into the mysterious death of a deputy chief medical officer in Lucknow jail, alleging that the ruling Bahujan Samaj Party was shielding the guilty as its leaders were involved in the case.
Indicating further closeness with the Mayawati-led party, the Communist Party of India-Marxist has asked its cadre to vote for "non-Congress secular parties like Bahujan Samaj Party" in the coming state elections where the party and the CPI are not contesting.
Efforts to give a final shape to a national alternative to the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party continued on Sunday with Communist Party of India-Marxist general secretary Prakash Karat meeting Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati in Delhi. Karat drove to the Uttar Pradesh chief minister's residence in Delhi and held discussions with her for around three hours.
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.
Justifying the demand for SPG security cover to Mayawati, senior Bahujan Samaj Party leader and leader of opposition in the Uttar Pradesh state assembly Swami Prasad Maurya on Friday said it was necessary because of the "prevailing goonda raj" of the Samajwadi Party.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati has refused to respond to the questionnaire on provisions of the Lokpal Bill, saying that seeking opinion of her party before tabling the bill in the Lok Sabha was contradictory to Parliamentary traditions.
Talking tough, Chief Election Commissioner S Y Quraishi on Wednesday said Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati should think before criticising the EC order to cover her statues and Bahujan Samaj Party's poll symbols in government parks.
Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati on Tuesday received support from unexpected quarters on the issue of covering elephant statues in poll bound UP with Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi terming the decision as 'ridiculous'.
Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati on Sunday alleged that the "failure" of Congress to alleviate poverty and unemployment among the SCs, STs and OBCs has driven many to Naxalism.
All major functionaries of the party are expected to attend the function, but government officials have been told to keep away from the event. Sharat Pradhan reports from Lucknow.
Petty-minded infighting, ego clashes, lack of finances, failed poll planks/issues, ineffective leadership, confused and demotivated cadres, and acute casteism are some of the causes dragging this national party down in UP.
Hours after the work of draping the statues of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati and Bahujan Samaj Party's election symbol elephant was completed, the parks in which they were installed in Lucknow have been closed for the public till the assembly polls get over. There are nine such parks including Manyavar Kanshiramj Green Eco Garden at VIP Road, Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar Samajik Parivartan Sthal, Gomtinagar and Smriti Upvan, Ashiana Kanshiram Smarak, Jail Road.
Dozens of statues of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati and numerous that of elephants (which also happens to be ruling Bahujan Samaj Party's election symbol) in and around parks and memorials built by her in Lucknow and Noida were being hurriedly veiled from Monday morning by officials in pursuance of the Election Commission's order.
Trying to warm up to Mayawati, rebel Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh said on Saturday that the Bahujan Samaj Party supremo has proved herself against all odds and he can understand her "pain" when she was "humiliated" by Mulayam Singh Yadav.
In a surprise move, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati sacked two more of her ministers on Wednesday evening, taking the number of dropped ministers over the past two months to six.
