Giving a new twist to the cash-for-vote scam, Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh on Tuesday claimed that a BSP worker demanded Rs 5 crore to change his version before a Parliamentary panel probing the matter.
The Bharatiya Janata Party President said that it is difficult to make a guess who will win in Punjab.
Reacting to the results, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said that in the by-elections held on 13 seats in seven states, the people of the country have given their support to the INDIA bloc.
"Mayawati had sent offers to me to join BSP and threatened that otherwise I will be left doing rounds of courts and made to languish in jail," he told reporters in Lucknow. The SP general secretary also alleged that independent MLA Mukhtar Ansari, accused in Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Krishnand Rai murder case, and BSP MP Akbar Ahmad Dampi conspired to kill him during the recently-held Lok Sabha bypolls in UP.
Lucknow has turned into a 'Blue Fortress' for Tuesday's Bahujan Samaj Party sponsored Savdhan raho, Aage Barho rally with people started to throng the capital in hordes while unprecedented security arrangements have been made for the occasion. BSP members from other parts of the country, including West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh have started pouring in the city since Monday morning. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati will address the crowd.
'The opposition wants the country to run on the basis of Shariat but this cannot happen'
Party chief and Uttar Pradesh chief minister said the Bahujan Samaj Party will extend support to the Union government from outside.
In a letter to the prime minister, Ali also demanded that he be provided enhanced security in view of an "escalation of threats" against him.
Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju said the police had initiated action in the case.
Forty-two of the 102 Lok Sabha seats going to polls in the general election's first phase are constituencies that have three or more candidates facing criminal cases, according to a poll rights body.
Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati on Sunday said that her party has given maximum number of tickets to Muslims and they should vote unitedly in favour of her party to save the country from the "fascist forces and dynasty rule".
Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday said the United Progressive Alliance government at the Centre was on a "ventilator", supported by Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party, which were always talking about mid-term polls. BJP leader M Venkaiah Naidu said the UPA government was the "worst and corrupt government," and the country hadn't had such a government since independence.
BJP sources suggest that the upcoming elections will likely revolve around the renewed enthusiasm for the temple unless another theme with religious and nationalist undertones emerges.
SP president Akhilesh Yadav and RLD chief Jayant Chaudhary announced the tie-up on social media for the elections later this year.
While reserving the verdict, the Bench also comprising Justices H K Sema, A R Lakshmanan, P K Balasubramaniyan and D K Jain, asked the contesting parties to file written submissions by Friday.
The parties which gave chief ministers and sent scores of MPs to Parliament, drew a blank this time.
Aiming at a repeat of its success in the recent Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections in which it secured a majority on its own, the Bahujan Samaj Party has now started preparations for the Lok Sabha polls.
'Just today a shopkeeper I went to was saying how bad business is. He must have been a BJP supporter.' 'He finally said, "It's a good thing there's an NDA government, not a BJP government, 'they' had become too big for their boots,".'
Singh, who represents the Bikapur assembly constituency in Faizabad district, had said that jobs in the BSP government were up for sale and that there was a price tag on every new appointment. "It is no secret that jobs in the present government go only to those who are ready to shell out money", he told a local gathering in Sohawal town of his constituency on Tuesday evening.
The July 5 'Bharat Bandh' to protest fuel price hike is unlikely to get the support of all non-Congress non-United Progressive Alliance parties with Bahujan Samaj Party, Rashtriya Janata Dal, Lok Janshakti Party and Rashtriya Lok Dal so far maintaining a silence on which side of the political divide they are.
With Bidhuri expressing regret, sources said, the committee was likely to bring closure to the matter and send its report to the speaker.
A senior SP leader requesting anonymity said that the party chief had called a meeting to brief the MLAs about the voting process of the Rajya Sabha elections.
Accusing opposition parties of anti-dalit mentality, ruling Bahujan Samaj Party in Uttar Pradesh today claimed that its president Mayawati's statues were installed as per the "written will" of party founder Kanshiram.
The electoral battle in Varanasi, according to locals and political experts, is not about whether the PM will win for a third successive occasion, but if he will increase his share of the votes polled and his win margin.
Mayawati has accused the Mulayam Singh government of extreme laxity in the matter.
After a photo finish in Uttarakhand, Congress, which emerged as the single largest party, is making a serious bid to rope in independents and Bahujan Samaj Party MLAs to achieve the magic tally.
With exit polls predicting a hung assembly in Uttar Pradesh, Beni Prasad Verma, Union Minister and senior Congress leader from the state, on Sunday caused a flutter in the party by favouring a tie-up with Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party, a comment from which the party quickly distanced itself.
Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra on Thursday pleaded innocence to the 'cash-for-query' allegation levelled against her and told a parliamentary committee that the charge is motivated by animus of advocate Jai Anant Dehadrai after she broke off her personal relations with him, sources said.
On Tuesday, 49 opposition MPs were suspended for the remaining part of the session for disrupting proceedings, taking the total tally of suspended MPs in Lok Sabha to 95.
Close to half of the total 543 Lok Sabha seats are bracing for multi-cornered fight this time, making the contest way more interesting and intense than it was in the 2019 elections.
The former UP chief minister said at this juncture that she and the entire party were in deep sorrow and could not think of anything else.
Appealing to party workers to treat Bahujan Samaj Party's victory in Uttar Pradesh assembly elections as her birthday gift, Chief Minister and party supremo Mayawati on Sunday released a list of candidates for all 403 seats in the state.
The case pertains to the issuance of mining leases in alleged violation of e-tendering process. The Allahabad High Court had ordered the probe.
'The water crisis is so obvious that people see no point begging for it from politicians.'
Action will be taken against such MLAs, he said.
With the political scene hotting up towards an early Lok Sabha election, both the ruling Samajwadi Party and its sworn rival, the Bahujan Samaj Party were desperately vying for the Brahmin vote.
Meanwhile, the Congress said that that it is ready to go it alone in Uttar Pradesh in the Lok Sabha election.
Banda chief judicial magistrate Bhagwan Das Gupta appointed Garima Singh, additional chief judicial magistrate (MP-MLA Court Banda) as the investigating officer in the case, the official said.
She claimed that the BSP had always increased its vote bank and its base wherever the party had fought elections independently.\n
A video had surfaced on social media which purportedly showed SP leader Mukesh Siddharth making the controversial statement.
