Uttar Pradesh minister Sanjay Nishad threatened to resign if the Nishad community is not granted Scheduled Caste status. He made the announcement during a rally in Gorakhpur, where he also criticised previous governments for neglecting the community.
A 16-year-old boy in Kanpur, India, allegedly stabbed his 15-year-old classmate to death at a wedding venue over an unpaid debt of Rs 500.
As it gains commercial viability, the food will likely become a powerful political currency.
Attempting to defuse the controversy, the Nishad Party chief said the comment, made in Hindi and labelled misogynistic and crude, was light-hearted and made casually.
'Without our support Nitish Kumar wouldn't have become chief minister.' 'After the government was formed we became ministers, but our agenda remained the same: Amit Shah had promised reservation for Nishads.' 'He wouldn't listen, so we went to UP and contested 52 seats in the 2022 elections. He didn't like the idea of rebellion.' 'He saw that this man, coming from Bombay, is very sharp. He's made four MLAs now, tomorrow he'll make 40. A time will come when they will make it 125.' 'They bought our MLAs and ousted us from the government.'
The remark triggered sharp reactions from opposition leaders, who accused the minister of being insensitive to the plight of those affected by floods.
Vikassheel Insan Party (VIP) announced its support for a rebel RJD candidate in Bihar, who is contesting against its own national president, creating confusion within the INDIA bloc.
His inheritance was a double-edged sword because the NDA was understandably interested only in highlighting that part of the RJD's tenure in government that evokes kidnapping, extortion, and lawlessness.
'If the Mahagathbandhan ignores Mukesh Sahni's demands as it did in 2020, he will be left with no option but to join hands with the BJP.'
Nishad party president Sanjay Nishad, who had demanded deputy chief minister post but settled with his nomination as an MLC, thanked the BJP on Monday and said his party will ensure the NDA's victory in next year's Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls.
"If any wrong words have been spoken about him, I apologise to God Shri Ram for it," Nishad told reporters in Fatehpur. "Lord Shri Ram has done a lot for our community and our community has played an important role in the construction of the Shri Ram temple," he said.
Raghopur assembly constituency in Bihar prepares for a high-stakes election where voters may be deciding the next chief minister. Tejashwi Yadav, the RJD's CM candidate, seeks a third term, facing a strong challenge from BJP's Satish Kumar.
Nishad said he will meet senior BJP leaders, including Amit Shah, in Delhi on Monday to finalise the constituencies where the party will field its candidates.
The Nishad Party is headed by Sanjay Nishad, the father of Pravin Nishad who had won the Gorakhpur parliamentary seat on an SP ticket in the 2018 by-polls.
The fisheries minister, who has often landed in controversies, said lakhs of people come to Prayagraj on the birth anniversary of tribal king Nishad Raj.
BJP president J P Nadda on Wednesday announced an alliance with Apna Dal and Nishad Party, two parties that draw their support primarily from sections of backward castes, for the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls.
The Nishad Party also demanded 160 seats for the 2022 state elections.
In a ghastly incident that has sent shock waves across Bihar, former state minister Mukesh Sahni's 70-year-old father was found stabbed to death at his native home in Darbhanga district, a top police officer said.
Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati on Friday slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party for playing the 'dalit card' to defend Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti over her controversial remarks and claimed she did not belong to the community.
The Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) gave a huge blow to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance by winning 43 seats out of total 80 Lok Sabha seats of Uttar Pradesh, as per the Election Commission.
'The opposition wants the country to run on the basis of Shariat but this cannot happen'
'Yogi Adityanath is working for one caste only and suppressing the others,' Bihar Minister and NDA ally Mukesh Sahni tells M I Khan.
The BJP is leaning on Yogi's 'batenge to katenge' theme to weave a unifying narrative that transcends caste and communal lines.
Don-turned-Bahujan Samaj Party member of Parliament Dhananjay Singh was arrested in Lucknow on Sunday evening in connection with his alleged involvement in a double murder case.
Ravi Kishan, the BJP's candidate, is an outsider. The BSP-SP candidate is from the powerful Nishad community. Yogi faces a tough task in ensuring that the Gorakhpur seat, which he represented from 1998 to 2017, stays with the BJP.
A vistarak is assigned to convince voters of the 'far-reaching benefits' of the schemes and doles handed out by the Centre and the UP government.
Yogi will stay in Gorakhpur till May 19 and will address at least three rallies every day in the region, reports Siddharth Kalhans.
'The Mallahs may remain divided between the two competing coalitions in Bihar,' says Mohammad Sajjad.
BJP candidate Kedar Prasad Gupta defeated Manoj Singh Kushwaha of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal-United by 3,645 votes in Kurhani.
The UP CM didn't deign to attend the actor's nomination.
The BJP ally Nishad Party, which represents the OBC fisher communities "welcomed" the court order, saying that the state government's previous notifications on the issue were flawed and "unconstitutional".
Prime Minister Narendra Modi would have got a tough fight in Varanasi had Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra contested against him as Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) candidate, feel party workers from the temple town.
The BJP is banking on development. The opposition is raking up caste identities and the dangers of hyper nationalism.
The two parties had fallen out with each other in October last year when the RJD unilaterally decided to contest by-elections for two assembly seats, evoking strong protest from the Congress which vowed to go it alone in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls and the assembly elections which will be held a year later.
Mukesh Sahni's move to contest 55 seats in the UP assembly polls antagonised top BJP leaders.
On Tuesday, Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti kicked up a storm when she used expletives during a campaign speech in Delhi. While campaigning for the Bharatiya Janata Party, she called the electorate to choose between Ramzadon and h********n.
The BJP took into consideration caste and regional aspirations while picking ministers in a bid to further consolidate its hold over the politically crucial state which sends the maximum of 80 members to Lok Sabha.
Joining hands with smaller parties with a political base in different castes was a part of the BJP strategy as it won big in Uttar Pradesh in the 2017 assembly polls and 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
SP supremo Akhilesh Yadav termed it as a 'ghaatey ka sauda' (loss-making deal) for the saffron party.
While 14 bodies have been recovered, five were still missing, they said.
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