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.
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.
A woman, the niece of BSP chief Mayawati, has filed a complaint accusing the family of the Hapur Municipal Council chairperson of domestic violence, dowry harassment, and sexual assault. The complaint alleges that the woman's husband, son of the chairperson, used steroids, rendering him medically unfit for conjugal life, and the family demanded a dowry of Rs 50 lakh and a flat. The BSP has expelled the chairperson, her husband, and their son from the party for anti-party activities and indiscipline.
BSP supremo Mayawati has given her nephew Akash Anand "one more chance" to work for the party, hours after he issued a public apology for his actions. Mayawati said she is healthy and will not announce any successor. Akash's father-in-law, Ashok Siddharth, will not be taken back into the party for his "unforgivable" acts.
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.
Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati on Monday said she has expelled her nephew Akash Anand from the party 'in the interest' of the party.
'BSP will remain a player, but only a marginal player, as long as the BJP is extremely dominant in North India politics.'
The Union government has ordered the complete withdrawal of the counter-terrorist commando force NSG from VIP security duties and handing over its nine "high-risk" VIPs to the CRPF by next month, official sources said Wednesday.
Mayawati, a former Uttar Pradesh chief minister, said she is hopeful her nephew will emerge as a "mature" leader.
Akhilesh Yadav hit back, saying no one had any clue that the alliance was coming apart and that he had dialled the BSP chief to know why the tie-up ended.
The National People's Party, which rules Meghalaya, is another national party which received no donations through electoral bonds.
Sirsa MP Kumari Selja will campaign for the Congress and address a public meeting in Narwana this week, party general secretary Randeep Surjewala said on Monday after the Bharatiya Janata Party targeted the grand old party over alleged infighting amid reports that she was sulking.
Newly elected Samajwadi Party MP RK Chaudhary, one of the founders of the Bahujan Samaj Party, has claimed BSP chief Mayawati has been ignoring the Bahujan movement which has led to her party's rout in these Lok Sabha polls.
This appears to be a common refrain in Uttar Pradesh's Lakhimpur Kheri Lok Sabha constituency where farmers want better prices for their produce and respite from the stray cattle menace and others want political leaders to talk about job creation instead of issues like the Ram temple and Article 370.
The party would consider aligning with any party after assessing the post-poll situation, she said.
Amidst people queuing up to cast their votes, there were some famous faces too at different polling stations.
Despite Mayawati's pre-poll claims that her Bahujan Samaj Party would spring a surprise in the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, the party was leading in only three of the 403 seats in the state, trends showed Thursday.
Earlier in the day, BSP supremo Mayawati said her party will make efforts to not field 'bahubali' (strongmen) or mafia candidates in the upcoming polls and announced that Ansari, who is lodged in a jail in Banda, will not be given a ticket from Mau again.
Ill-health forced Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to cancel his scheduled visit to Chennai on Tuesday, where he was invited by his Tamil Nadu counterpart MK Stalin, a key aide of the Janata Dal-United leader said.
Terming the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government as 'anti-Dalit', the Bahujan Samaj Party on Friday demanded that a special session of Parliament should be called in August to clear the Bill for reservation in promotions for Scheduled Caste/ Scheduled Tribe employees.
As questions remained whether the killing of a police officer in which Raja Bhaiya has been booked was planned, a postmortem showed the victim was beaten up before being shot dead.
Neerja Chowdhury analyses why BSP supremo Mayawati is bargaining hard with the UPA government
In an interview with CNN-IBN Editor-in-Chief Rajdeep Sardesai, the West Bengal Chief Minister questioned the stability of the Centre saying Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati may bail out the government for now, but people won't bail them out in future.
Police on Wednesday arrested a man accused of urinating on a tribal youth in Madhya Pradesh's Sidhi district, an official said.
BSP supremo Mayawati may have used her plan to nominate a Dalit candidate for the post of President as a bargaining tool with the Congress, reports Sheela Bhatt.
Amid a political crisis in the wake of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam pulling out of United Progressive Alliance, Bahujan Samaj Party on Wednesday said it will continue to support the government from outside but will not join it. "We will not be part of the government. We did not join it earlier and even now, we will not be part of it. We will continue to support it from outside," BSP supremo Mayawati told reporters outside Parliament House.
Training his guns on the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Samajwadi Party, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday said corruption and scams were rampant during their regimes.
With Manmohan Singh all set to retain the country's top job, the prime ministerial ambitions of several leaders, including BJP heavyweight L K Advani and BSP supremo Mayawati, lay shattered on Saturday.
Giving a new twist to the race for power in Uttarakhand, Bahujan Samaj Party, whose three MLAs can tilt the balance, on Thursday said it was in touch with both Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party as the two rival contenders for power claimed they will form the next government.
BSP supremo Mayawati, AIADMK chief Jayalalithaa and Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee have been at the centre of intense debate in political circles on which way they will go after May 16, the day of election results.
Taking suo moto cognisance of the allegedly multi-crore currency note garland bestowed upon Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati at the party rally on Monday, the Income-Tax department issued notice to her, while her minister quoted the value of the garland at "just Rs. 21 lakh".
Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party (SBSP) president Om Praksh Rajbhar on Thursday said his alliance with the SP will support jailed BSP MLA Mukhtar Ansari in the upcoming 2022 Uttar Pradesh assembly polls.
The Left, the United National Progressive Alliance and the Bahujan Samaj Party on Wednesday said that they will launch a nation-wide campaign against the United Progressive Alliance government on the Indo-United States nuclear deal, price rise and agrarian issues and described the trust vote win in Lok Sabha as 'immoral'.The campaign will be launched against price rise, inflation, agrarian crisis leading to farmers suicides, Karat said.
A day after failing to topple the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government during the trust vote, leaders of the Left parties, the Bahujan Samaj Party and the United National Progressive Alliance met in New Delhi to chalk out their future course of action.The meeting, held at the residence of BSP supremo Mayawati, was attended by Communist Party of India Marxist General Secretary Prakash Karat, Communist Party of India leaders A B Bardhan and D Raja.
Sharma, who last weekend had attacked the Congress leadership accusing it of targeting BSP supremo Mayawati, came to Parliament House on Tuesday in the company of Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and said that he would vote for the Congress in the confidence motion. "Congress is my party, Sonia Gandhi is my leader. I was never against the party, I will vote in favour of the Congress," the MP from Karnal said when asked about his stand on the confidence vote.
613 candidates are in the fray on 54 seats, including those falling in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's parliamentary segment Varanasi.
With the Uttar Pradesh government set to conduct a survey of private madrassas, proprietors of the theological schools fear that their institutions may be declared illegal and 'run over by bulldozers'.
Mayawati said that in case of a tie-up with the Congress in the past, the party did not benefit.
Voting for the seventh and final phase of the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections covering 54 seats, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi's parliamentary constituency Varanasi, will be held on Monday to decide the phase of 613 candidates.
When the BSP formed a government in Uttar Pradesh in 2007, it had bagged 206 seats and a vote share of 30.43 per cent.