A visibly upset Shivpal Yadav said, "I was never called to any meeting (of the SP) and no information was given to me."
Leaders of 38 parties have confirmed their participation in a meeting of the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) to be held in the national capital on Tuesday, Bharatiya Janata Party president J P Nadda said.
While Yadav began to tour different constituencies and address public meetings to mobilise the SP rank and file, he has concurrently started the tedious process of cobbling up an alliance of smaller outfits representing a mlange of castes and sub-castes, reports Virendra Singh Rawat.
The SP's bid to dent the BJP's formidable social equation is playing out in a big way in the Poorvanchal or eastern region of Uttar Pradesh as the ruling party is working overtime to keep its caste equation unharmed.
The ruling BJP is confident of bettering its 2017 performance, especially with the new UP party chief, Bhupendra Chaudhary, at the helm of affairs, reports Virendra Singh Rawat.
The people of Amethi want to rectify their 'mistake' of 2019 and Congress workers as well as leaders are demanding that Rahul Gandhi contest from the constituency in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the party's Uttar Pradesh chief Ajay Rai said.
Voting for the seventh and final phase of the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections covering 54 seats, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi's parliamentary constituency Varanasi, will be held on Monday to decide the phase of 613 candidates.
'People tell us openly that in 2024 we will vote for Modi.'
Despite Mayawati's pre-poll claims that her Bahujan Samaj Party would spring a surprise in the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, the party was leading in only three of the 403 seats in the state, trends showed Thursday.
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.
Voting for the seventh and final round will be held on March 7 for Varanasi and its eight adjoining districts.
While the Apna Dal said it was 'free to make its own decision', the SBSP went a step ahead asserting that its option to join the SP-BSP alliance.
Candidates contesting from Kunda (in Pratapgarh), Malhani (in Jaunpur), and Rasara (in Ballia) failed to secure enough votes to prevent forfeiture of their deposits.
Sources in various parties suggest that two lakh votes of the Patel community, locally known as OBC kurmi, for which mother-daughter led Apna Dal (S) and Apna Dal (K) are competing and over one lakh of OBC Rajbhars would be crucial in deciding the outcome of the assembly seats in Varanasi.
On chances of taking uncle Shivpal Yadav's Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party Lohia along in the polls, he said, "I dont have any problem in this. He and his men will be given due honour".
The BJP and its allies won all assembly seats in Modi's Varanasi and Adityanath's Gorakhpur, and the SP bagged all 10 segments in Yadav's Azamgarh Lok Sabha constituency.
As many as 10 ministers in the Yogi Adityanath government failed to win their seats in the 2022 assembly elections, despite the BJP registering an impressive victory.
The curtain came down on rumbustious electioneering over the last two months when assembly polls were also held in four other states - Goa, Uttarakhand, Punjab and Manipur.
The bypolls were conducted for two Assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh, one each in Meghalaya and Odisha and the Jalandhar Lok Sabha constituency in Punjab.
Accompanied by Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, Chaudhary reached Uttar Pradesh assembly premises in the morning to file his nomination.
While the BJP has the numbers to send its eight candidates to the Upper House, its ally, Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party, which has four MLAs in the 403-member UP assembly, holds key to the fate its ninth nominee.
SP chief Akhilesh Yadav had on Thursday announced an alliance with his uncle Shivpal Singh Yadav's PSPL after a meeting between them.
In the backdrop of the ongoing farm protests, back into public consciousness in the aftermath of the recent Lakhimpur Kheri episode, smaller parties are expected to not only enliven the election theatre, but also queer the pitch for the Opposition.
Many factors like women, caste combination, education qualification, age and performance of the legislators will be taken into consideration before the formation of the Yogi government 2.0, sources said on Thursday. Several rounds of meetings have taken place within the party after the poll results came out on March 10.
In his maiden foray in the state election, Yadav won from the Karhal assembly seat by a margin of 67,504 votes.
A day after meeting Rashtriya Lok Dal chief Jayant Chaudhary, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday held talks with AAP leader Sanjay Singh and Apna Dal (K) chief Krishna Patel in the run-up to the 2022 assembly polls.
When the BSP formed a government in Uttar Pradesh in 2007, it had bagged 206 seats and a vote share of 30.43 per cent.
RLD sources said that the party chief was "taken aback" by the SP's delay in announcing his name as the candidate for the Rajya Sabha elections.
The BJP campaign highlighted Yogi's persona as a tough-as-nails leader and an incorruptible man with no nest to feather; Modi's charisma which was turned on full blast in the penultimate phases; Amit Shah's ground work; a well-oiled party organisation, and the RSS's back-up.
"We got a lot of confidence from our success in Bihar, and we will continue that momentum," Owaisi told reporters after their meeting in Lucknow.
Adityanath also recommended that all other SBSP members holding the rank of minister of state be removed immediately.
Asaduddin Owaisi's AIMIM, which is going to contest next year's Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls on the promise of creating leadership among Muslims, has created unease in the political parties that so far considered the members of the minority community as their core "vote bank".
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday accused the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party of attempting to "steal" votes and said exit polls were meant to create a perception that the saffron party will emerge victorious in the Uttar Pradesh election.
On possible alliances for the upcoming state polls, the SP president said, "Doors of our party are open for all small parties. Many smaller parties are already with us. More will come with us."
'I don't think there is a wave in favour of the Samajwadi Party, or against the BJP.' 'This election is largely about which party is able to build a larger social and political coalition.'
Meanwhile, key BJP ally skips event to mark first year of Yogi govt.
"Prime Minister Modi is not a leader, he is an actor. It would have been better if Amitabh Bachchan was made the prime minister," she said at an election meeting at the end of her roadshow in Mirzapur.
It is likely that small parties would be given very few seats to contest, but these parties believe that they would be able to swing the result in favour of bigger alliance partners by transferring their vote bank.
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 decision came a day after the Allahabad high court asked the Centre and the state government to file counter affidavits within a week on a petition challenging the decision to rename Allahabad as Prayagraj.
