this is not Orissa or West Bengal or Haryana or any other part of India where villagers are protesting against acquisition of farmland for industry or special economic zones. This is Mayawati's Uttar Pradesh -- where the chief minister wants around 400 hectares from four villages to create the mother of all gardens. The strategic location of the green belt, locally referred as "picnic spot", will ensure that Mayawati's farmhouse, which she hasn't visited even once, wil
Mayawati's assets were amassed possibly only when she conceived and decided to auction her solid chunk of trusting Dalit votes to the most suitable bidder. Rather, than the most opportunist politician in exchange for her transferable Dalit vote bank during polls.
Apparently sending a strong signal to the minorities, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati has said that despite sharing power with the Bharatiya Janata Party three times, she always kept the saffron party on tenterhooks.
She had shown some cash and other assets as gifts from party men "given to her out of love and affection", an argument the department rejected.
Indian democracy is fast turning into by the elite, for the elite and of the elite, says M R Venkatesh.
Naidu is keen to enrol BSP into the 'Third Front', known as UNPA to fill the gap left by the departure of Mulayam Singh Yadav's Samajwadi Party recently to join hands with the UPA.
As the street battle erupted, Mulayam Singh Yadav and Chief Minister Mayawati traded charges with the SP chief accusing the police of targeting his party workers at her behest and the BSP supremo charging SP with fomenting trouble in league with criminals.
Bahujan Samajwadi Party chief Mayawati has threatened to withdraw support to the United Progressive Alliance government after January 15.
Mayawati said she would announce her party's stand in New Delhi on Tuesday.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati on Wednesday accused the Centre of being solely responsible for the spurt in terror activities in the country, saying the militants sneak in due to lack of alertness on the border areas.
"I welcome private investment in all sectors of the economy. Corporate retailing will not be stopped," the UP chief minister said in an interview.
"The BJP will study the case (action of the Governor)... permission of the Governor is not required to prosecute the chief minister."
In an obvious reference to the allegations made by UP Congress chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi who had earlier in the day charged the UP chief minister of amassing huge amounts of wealth and property, UP Cabinet Secretary Shashank Shekhar Singh told a press conference in Lucknow on Tuesday, "The UP chief minister does not own an inch of land anywhere."
Mayawati's party holds the key in the presidential poll given the fact that the candidate of the ruling alliance can succeed only with the full backing of the Left and the BSP.
"I will be able to open my cards (on the presidential polls) only after consultations with party MPs, MLAs and other leaders," she said addressing her first press conference in Delhi after taking over the reins of UP for the fourth time.
Five persons were injured when three blasts rocked the temple city of Gorakhpur on Tuesday evening in the busy Golghar area.
Former Uttar Pradesh minister Jamuna Prasad Nishad was arrested on Tuesday in connection with a shoot-out in Maharajganj town in eastern Uttar Pradesh on Saturday night, in which a police constable was killed.Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati had sacked Nishad, who was the fisheries minister in her cabinet, on Sunday.Mayawati had summoned the minister to her residence and asked him to step down, following which he readily submitted his resignation.
Mayawati expressed serious resentment at the poor condition of the walls and floors of the park, the dirt there and the broken tiles.
Highly placed sources said in Lucknow that Chief Minister Mayawati had written a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh demanding that the film be banned all over the country.
Congress leader and Union minister Kapil Sibal said at a press conference that the government has told the court that it had no clue about the source of income of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati and how she accumulated this wealth. They could order a probe into the source of her money.
As if demolition and re-construction of her favourite structures were not enough, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati got her own statue removed from a prominent spot in Lucknow, where she herself had unveiled the same 45 days ago. The operation, that took everyone by surprise, was carried out on Sunday night in the cover of darkness, with lights in the vicinity being switched off.
"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.
"The terror attacks are yet another proof of the failure of central intelligence agencies. We were not given any sort of prior warning about the imminent terror attack. No information was shared with the state police," Mayawati told a press conference in Lucknow.
In a move that is bound to irk Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi once again joined a Dalit family for dinner in a village in Amethi on Friday night.
Mayawati cold-shoulders Akhilesh Das at a felicitation ceremony held in Lucknow on Tuesday to mark the completion of her first year in office.
Uttar Pradesh Minister Anand Sen Yadav on Tuesday resigned following allegations of being involved in the kidnapping of a Dalit girl and the state government ordered a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into the whole matter.
The act to be named as Uttar Pradesh Organised Crime Control Act (UPOCCA) is aimed at controlling the activities of land mafia, professional criminals, kidnappers and drug racketeers.
Writing in the magazine, the 51-year-old Bahujan Samaj Party chief, who swept the assembly elections early this year with a rainbow coalition of Dalits, upper castes and Muslims, says her aim is to replicate the victory in the other states and prepare for the bigger struggle to capture power in New Delhi. Apart from Mayawati, others who write their success story include CEO of the French Energy Conglomerate 'Areva' Anne Lauvergeon and WHO Director General Margaret Chan.
Basically, the by-elections tell us that in UP now, the number one and number two slots are occupied by the BSP and SP. The two biggest national parties, the Congress and the BJP, are so out of the reckoning, they can be ignored. They have become irrelevant to the politics of the state.
High drama was witnessed in Jhansi in Uttar Pradesh on Friday when Rahul Gandhi was stopped by the police, while leading scores of farmers to meet the divisional commissioner, provoking the young Congress leader to sit on the road on a dharna.The general secretary of the Congress was on his way for a meeting with P V Jaganmohan in a carcade, which also included buses carrying the farmers, but could not proceed after the local administration barricaded all roads.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed an application challenging the order of Uttar Pradesh Governor T V Rajeshwar refusing sanction for the prosecution of state Chief Minister Mayawati in the Taj Corridor case. A bench comprising Justice S B Sinha, Justice S H Kapadia and Justice D K Jain dismissed the application filed by amicus curiae Krishan Mahajan, challenging the order of the governor.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati on Tuesday announced a whopping Rs 7,000-crore in financial schemes dedicated to late Bahujan Samaj Party founder Kanshiram and asked party workers to be ready for mid-term polls. Addressing a massive Savdhaan Raho, Aage Badho rally at Ramabai Ambedkar grounds near Lucknow, she cautioned the people against being induced by the 'media, mafia or money' which political rivals Samajwadi Party, Congress and the BJP could use against the BSP
Gandhi, who will be campaigning at a remote area in Tekamgarh in the region, is expected to inspect implementation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme among other things. The tour by Rahul is being looked at as an attempt by Congress at ascertaining Mayawati's claim to having delivered 'relief' to the region, sources said.
The agency had come in for severe criticism from the Supreme Court on November 27, 2006, for taking legal opinion in the case despite the fact that the entire investigating team favouring Mayawati's prosecution.
Reiterating her view for trifurcation of the state, Mayawati told her audience that she had once again written another letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh seeking creation of an independent Purvanchal (Eastern UP), a Western UP and Bundelkhand "to ensure comprehensive development of every part of an oversized Uttar Pradesh."
He said that he would be surprised if the Congress-led by Dr Manmohan Singh did not win. "Dr Manmohan Singh is a well known economist. He is a thorough gentleman. I would be surprised if Congress party led by him did not come back to power," Singh said. He ridiculed Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati's claim that she would be the future prime minister.
In a bid to send a strong message to the Bharatiya Janata Party against interfering in the internal affairs of the Bahujan Samaj Party, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati withdrew security cover provided to BJP leader Kalraj Misra with immediate effect.
Also killed was Dadua's right hand man Angad Patel, wanted in 75 cases. Patel carried a reward of Rs 50,000 on his head.
The BSP supremo, in an autobiographical book, has not taken Gandhi's name but said that inheriting a political legacy is a different thing, but leading a social change as a revolutionary mission was an unique thing.
"Their (SP's) people tried to create terror and a number of goons were (involved) in that," she alleged adding, her government will not tolerate any kind of disturbance to the peace in the state.
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