Congress Member of Parliament Mohammad Azharduddin on Friday courted arrest, along with his supporters in Moradabad, to protest against the ransacking of Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi's residence in Lucknow. Azharuddin, after offering Friday's namaz at the Jama Masjid in Moradabad today afternoon, took out a march along with his supporters from Jama Masjid despite prohibitory orders.
Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi on Tuesday asserted that Congress will not form alliance with Bahujan Samaj Party, Samajwadi Party or Bharatiya Janata Party in the event of a hung assembly in the state.
Smelling a major scam in the recent sale of four sugar mills by the Uttar Pradesh government, the Congress on Thursday accused Chief Minister Mayawati of large-scale bungling and manipulation in palming off the mills to handpicked buyers.
52-year-old Nafisa, who is in Lucknow, was seen campaigning alongside Congress state president Rita Bahuguna Joshi for party candidate from Lucknow (West) Assembly constituency, Shyam Kishore Shukla, for the byelections on November 7.
Shergill said the primary reason was that "the ideology and the vision of the current decision makers of the Congress is no longer in sync with the aspirations of the youth and modern India".
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 Uttar Pradesh government on Sunday announced a Crime Branch-Crime Investigation Department inquiry into the arson at Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi's home following her derogatory remarks against Chief Minister Mayawati, but the Congress leader demanded a Central Bureau of Investigation probe.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati on Friday declared that the legal proceedings against state Congress Committee president Rita Bahuguna Joshi, who was arrested on Wednesday night for allegedly making inflammatory comments against the Bahujan Samaj Party chief, would continue."Even if Joshi manages to get bail like Varun Gandhi (who is facing charges under the National Security Act clamped by the UP police), her crime cannot be forgiven," said the UP CM.
The Bahujan Samaj Party office in Ghaziabad caught fire late on Thursday night in a suspected attack in the wake of the arrest of Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi, who had made derogatory remarks about Chief Minister Mayawati, but the police attributed the blaze to short circuit.
Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee president Rita Bahuguna Joshi was on Thursday remanded to judicial custody for 14 days for allegedly making derogatory remarks against Chief Minister Mayawati.The state police, who took her into custody late on Wednesday night while she was on her way from Ghaziabad to New Delhi, produced her before Moradabad's chief judicial magistrate, who ordered her to be sent to 14 days judicial custody. She was then sent to the Moradabad jail.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday expressed concern over the safety of Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi whose house in Lucknow was burnt allegedly by the Bahujan Samaj Party supporters recently.
"By providing security to our leader, the state government that orchestrated the attack just wants to win the support of the people as it has come under attack from various sections," he added.
Under attack by the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee Chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi for using helicopters to hand over cheques to rape victims in the state, the state government has decided that instead of director general of police, the job would be now done by concerned district magistrates.
In her petition, Joshi squarely blamed state Chief Minister Mayawati and her henchmen for the arson attack.
Bahujan Samaj Party leader Intezaar Ahmad Abdi, allegedly involved in the arson at Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi's house in Lucknow, has been appointed the chairman of state sugar corporation by the Mayawati government, a move that has invited the ire of the Congress.
A local court in Moradabad could not take up on Friday morning the hearing of the bail application of Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi, who is currently in judicial custody for allegedly making derogatory remarks against Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati.
Congress leaders Digvijay Singh, Sachin Pilot and Rita Bahuguna Joshi were arrested by the Uttar Pradesh Police at the Delhi border on Tuesday, when they were going towards state Chief Minister Mayawati's village to protest against the 'coercive' acquisition of land.The leaders were prevented at the Delhi-UP border by the UP police from going towards Badalpur, the village of Mayawati, where the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee has organised a 'Kisan Sangharsh Rally'.
Raju Srivastav says, "I have been approached by Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee President Rita Bahuguna to contest from Allahabad-Phulpur and she has also briefed me about the demography of the constituency." "I was shocked when I first heard about the offer. I thought it was another joke, better than the ones I crack. But I was told that it was a serious offer and I should consider it seriously," the 45-year-old stand-up comedian told PTI in Mumbai on Sunday.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi sought to nip in the bud a possible controversy on Tuesday, when he made it clear that he did not force the helicopter pilot to land in zero visibility conditions in Sitapur on Monday evening.
Accusing the Mayawati government of foisting false cases on her, Uttar Pradesh Congress president Rita Bahuguna Joshi on Thursday said she was treated like a terrorist in the jail.
Additional District Judge Sudha Sharma passed the order and fixed July 29 as the next date of hearing.
Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi was on Saturday granted interim bail by a local court in a case relating to derogatory remarks against Chief Minister Mayawati. The release order has been sent to the district jail, where she has been lodged after she was arrested under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act for allegedly making derogatory remarks against Mayawati.
The names of Bahujan Samaj Party Member of Legislative Assembly Jitendra Singh and local party leader Imtizar Abdi have been added in the FIR filed in connection with the arson at the house of Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi in Lucknow. The names of the two have been added on Friday night on the basis of a complaint by Joshi and Congress general secretary Subodh Srivastava, police sources said on Saturday.
All India Congress Committee general secretary Rahul Gandhi on Friday took potshots at the Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party government in Uttar Pradesh, saying there is place for statues and elephants but not development, and spoke of the need for Congress to come to power in the state. On a thanksgiving visit to his constituency Amethi, the first after his victory in the Lok Sabha polls, he avoided any comments on the raging row.
Bollywood actor and suspended Samajwadi Party MP Raj Babbar would formally join the Congress in New Delhi on October 5. Babbar, who had snapped ties with former Prime Minister V P Singh-led Jan Morcha after the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, has invited Congress General Secretary and in-charge of UP Digvijay Singh and UP Congress President Rita Bahuguna Joshi for a public rally in Agra on Sunday. The MP's representative Upendra Singh confirmed the rally on October 5.
The Muzaffarpur court had on April 16 issued a notice to the Congress president on a petition alleging that that she had hurt the religious sentiments of Hindus by her alleged portrayal as 'Goddess Durga' in a poster at the party's Muradabad office in Uttar Pradesh.
Releasing a 16-page chargesheet Ek Saal Mein Badhaal Pradesh Bana Uttar Pradesh, UP Congress president Rita Bahuguna Joshi told media persons that it was a compilation of election promises made by Mayawati and ground realities. She alleged law and order in the state had become bad to worse under Bahujan Samaj Party's rule and atrocities against women, Dalit and poor have gone up drastically.
The 60-year-old Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee chief was arrested on July 15 for allegedly making unpalatable remarks against Mayawati.
Rita Bahuguna Joshi, who has been in the eye of storm over the on-going war between her party and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati, is not known for indulging in any kind of loose talk for which she has been charged by Mayawati.
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."
"You people say I don't know how to speak. Now let me show you how I speak." With these remarks, Congress MP Rahul Gandhi disarmed journalists at a media interaction in Lucknow when they tried to get answers from him but were zealously guarded by party general secretary Digvijay Singh and Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee chief Rita Bahuguna.
Asked about BJP's Gorakhpur (Urban) MLA Aggarwal, the Samajwadi Party chief told reporters in Lucknow, "If you (reporters) can establish contact with him and speak to him, the ticket will be announced and he will get the ticket."
'The Congress may have made mistakes, but their ideology is not wrong. India will not function if you do not believe in unity in diversity,' declares filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt. Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com reports from Lucknow.
With the counting for the high-stakes assembly elections is on in five states - Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Manipur and Goa, here's a look at some of the big names and where they stand.
Earlier, the UP Women and Child Welfare Minister Rita Bahuguna Joshi admitted there had been laxity at the district level in not shutting down the Deoria shelter even after a closure order last year.
The Samajwadi Party on Sunday declared that party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav's youngest daughter-in-law, Aparna Yadav, will contest the 2017 Uttar Pradesh assembly polls. S
While she slammed the Congress for politics over the Indian Army's surgical strikes, Twitterati did what it does the best -- dig up her old tweets on her new party.
Newly-appointed chief ministerial candidate Sheila Dikshit and state chief Raj Babbar came out all guns blazing against the SP, BSP and BJP.
Here's a recap of events that occurred in India in the past 24 hours.
In a discussion in Lok Sabha on the COVID pandemic, members called for ban on international flights in view of the outbreak of the Omicron strain and demanded that the government 'accept responsibility' for deaths of lakhs of people during the outbreak.