Uttar Pradesh deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma has said the issue of the state's next CM is already 'settled' with the BJP top brass making it clear that the coming assembly elections will be fought under the leadership of Yogi Adityanath.
The induction of Shiv Pratap Shukla, a Brahmin face in the BJP, is being seen as a well-calculated move to keep the upper caste in good humour.
"Kalyan Singh is making a very late beginning and if he was so apologetic he should have done it exactly 14 years ago," BJP spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy told reporters.
'We were expecting at least they would be held guilty, but instead they have gone scot-free'
It may be a little late in the day, but Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav had apparently realised the futility of shaking hands with his one time sworn political foe and Bhartiya Janata Party rebel, Kalyan Singh. Mulayam, who had struck a alliance with Kalyan apparently in the hope of building a new backward axis in a caste-ridden Uttar Pradesh, had finally decided to dump the latter.
Former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Kalyan Singh was on Tuesday appointed governor of Rajasthan as the Centre named three more Bharatiya Janata Party leaders for the Raj Bhavans in Maharashtra, Karnataka and Goa.
In an apparent reference to Salim Shervani and rebel SP Member of Parliament Shafiq-ur-Rehman Barq, SP general secretary Amar Singh said, "They have suddenly realised the virtue of opposing Kalyan Singh after being denied nomination for Lok Sabha elections."
President Pranab Mukerjee was on Thursday accorded a warm welcome as he arrived in the state for his five-day sojourn amid the serene climes of 'The Retreat', surrounded with thick pine forests near Shimla.
He is the fourth chief minister from the saffron party to head the northern state. Before Adityanath, Kalyan Singh, Ram Prakash Gupta and Rajnath Singh of the BJP had served as Uttar Pradesh chief ministers.
The SC asked special judge to control the proceedings in accordance with law so that inordinate delay that is beyond the time-frame is no longer breached.
Applying balm on the wounds of the two religious groups is a better course of action for the rulers. Common sense dictates the verdict be accepted in good grace by all sides, suggests Virendra Kapoor.
In a stern message to Congress, Samajwadi Party Chief Mulayam Singh said on Sunday that it had "no moral right" to comment on the bonhomie between his party and former BJP leader Kalyan Singh as the grand old party was in power at the Centre when Babri Masjid was demolished in 1992.
The 1992 Babri Mosque demolition was an "act of planned sabotage" and not a by frenzied mob of Hindu outfits, a news portal claimed on Friday on the basis of a sting operation it had carried over a period of two years.
The 266-page report, submitted by the PWD to Uttar Pradesh government on Thursday, extrapolates that most of the disfigurement in the state property was caused to tiles, sanitary and electrical equipment fitted in the house.
'The central BJP has worked out an arrangement -- Yogi manages the state while Modi manages the Centre.'
Bharatiya Janata Party veterans like Murli Manohar Joshi, Kalyan Singh and V K Malhotra may be accommodated as governors as their names are doing the rounds for appointment in gubernatorial posts in key states like Karnataka, Maharashtra and Haryana.
Ayodhya Nagar Nigam corporator Haji Asad hoped that Kashi and Mathura issues will not be raked up after the CBI court ruling.
The seat-share progression should worry the BJP. From the previous assembly polls of 2017, through the assembly segments in its favour in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and now in 2022, the BJP's seat-share has come down from a high 312 to 275 to 255. N Sathiya Moorthy reads the political tea leaves after the UP and Punjab election verdicts.
Fifty-eight-year-old Soundararajan, the Tamil Nadu BJP chief and the party's national secretary, moves to Raj Bhavan in Telangana.
Top BJP leaders hailed the special CBI court order acquitting all the accused and described it as a victory of truth and justice.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday urged dialogue between the protesting farmers and the Centre while addressing a meeting of Bharatiya Janata Party office-bearers, during which he also invoked the border clashes with China and the construction of the Ram temple.
It is not immediately clear if they have to be present in court or can appear through a video conference due to restrictions imposed to fight the spread of coronavirus.
Kalyan Singh's counsel B B Saksena cited a statement by the then Human Resources Development Minister Arjun Singh while making this allegation before Justice Liberhan.
This is the second time this month that the EC has imposed a ban on him. The fresh ban will come into force at 6.00 am on Wednesday.
The accused include former deputy prime minister Advani, former Union ministers Joshi and Uma Bharti, former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Kalyan Singh, besides Vinay Katiyar and Sadhvi Rithambara.
They are likely to meet again on Sunday in the presence of RLD leader Ajit Singh and Congress leader Jagdambika Pal to discuss means to topple the Mayawati government.
The top court had on May 7 held that former chief ministers of Uttar Pradesh cannot retain government accommodation after demitting office.
The judge said the CBI's case became weaker or "forceless" in view of the fact that it did not probe and ruled out the Pakistan angle to the demolition to make the criminal conspiracy charge stand the judicial scrutiny.
The Bahujan Samaj Party has resisted giving up the bungalow on 13-A, Mall Avenue, saying that it had been converted into a memorial to Kanshi Ram in 2011, and the BSP leader occupied just a small portion of it.
The father-son duo had earlier moved the UP government seeking two years' time to vacate their official residences and shifting to their private accommodations in Lucknow.
Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh has lashed out at Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, accusing him of trying to evoke Muslim sentiments on the controversial Babri Masjid demolition issue, to garner votes.
The 61-year-old saffron clad BJP leader is the 19th accused to depose before the court in the over 27-year-old case. 13 other alleged accused, including former deputy prime minister LK Advani and senior BJP leaders MM Joshi and Kalyan Singh are yet to be examined at this stage.
"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.
Senior advocate Aishwarya Bhati, appearing for Uttar Pradesh, told the bench that they have complied with the top court's direction and extended the tenure of the special judge till he delivers the judgment in the Ayodhya demolition case.
The incident took place on Sunday when a pandal fell on the people due to strong winds and heavy rains during a religious programme.
In a respite to L K Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi and 19 others in the Babri Masjid demolition case, the Allahabad High Court on Thuursday dismissed the Central Bureau for Investigation's revision petition challenging a special court decision to drop criminal proceedings against them.
In an obvious bid to win back his Muslim supporters, Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav on Thursday publicly tendered an apology for his political liaisons with former Bharatiya Janata Party leader Kalyan Singh.Singh was the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh when the Babri Masjid was demolished by angry karsevaks on December 6, 1992.Without referring to Kalyan directly, Mulayam issued a personally signed press statement saying, "I must confess that it was a blunder."
With just 10 days left for the court verdict on Ayodhya title suits, political leader Kalyan Singh said he would visit the disputed site on September 16 to have "darshans" of Lord Ram and discuss with saints and VHP leaders the issue of building a temple there.