Polling for the final and seventh phase of Uttar Pradesh assembly elections covering 60 seats spread over 10 districts would be held tomorrow that would decide the fate of 962 candidates including Samajwadi Party's Muslim face Mohammad Azam Khan.
Union minister Sriprakash Jaiswal on Thursday said if Congress fails to get a majority in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls he sees a possibility of President's rule, a statement that came under attack from rivals, forcing him to go for damage control.
Youngsters were seen to be coming out in large numbers to cast their vote, reports Sharat Pradhan from Lucknow
The National Election Watch and the Association for Democratic Reforms states in it report and analysis that out of the 248 candidates 76 candidates or 31 per cent declared criminal cases against them. In 2007 assembly elections for Uttar Pradesh, 27 per cent candidates had declared criminal cases against themselves. Vicky Nanjappa reports.
Bharatiya Janata Party president Nitin Gadkari has predicted that the saffron party would emerge as a "dark horse" in Uttar Pradesh polls saying the elected legislators there would pick up the next chief minister among themselves.
SP leader Akhilesh Yadav reacted quickly to the allegation, tweeting that the red caps are a 'red alert' for the Bharatiya Janata Party itself as they will oust that party from power.
The first list put out for the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections has a total of 77 candidates with a criminal background. Topping this list are both the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party who have 13 candidates each with serious criminal charges against them.
The combine of the Congress and the Rashtriya Lok Dal will emerge as the single largest party in the forthcoming Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, according to yet another survey commissioned by the party. The survey also indicates that the real battle will be between the Congress and the BJP, with the latter making considerable gains since the last election and winning in 113 constituencies.
Sources in the Congress Party have said that the Rashtriya Lok Dal leader is likely to be given the civil aviation portfolio and will contest 45 to 50 seats in western UP. Renu Mittal reports.
This probably in the last Parliamentary Party meeting as the Budget Session is likely to conclude tomorrow instead of May 22 as originally scheduled.
'Today in Uttar Pradesh all big parties like Samajwadi Party, BJP or even Bahujan Samaj Party are out to woo smaller parties as they know the Hindu votes are getting divided.'
In an interview to CNN-IBN, the SP chief denied that Amar Singh was gaining out of party and also reaffirmed his charge that a Mumbai-based business tycoon was conniving to kill him.
"Our party will contest 16 seats. We appeal to all secular parties to support us. Elsewhere, we will support the strongest secular candidate against the BJP," party Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechury said.
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.
'There is a famous saying here that 'the way to Delhi passes through Lucknow'.' 'If the BJP loses UP in 2022, Modi's premiership in 2024 will be in doldrums.'
Given the worsening security scenario in Kashmir, we cannot afford to have a restive Punjab with its peasantry up in arms against the central government, argues Virendra Kapoor.
'People are questioning these highways and expressways in UP because ultimately, they want to get bread and butter first.'
The BJP's bucket list this time includes districts such as Sultanpur, Aligarh, Firozabad, Deoband, Ghazipur, Basti and Mirzapur -- to rename a few. Virendra Singh Rawat reports.
"Our party is stronger than the Congress in the state. While the Congress won 40 seats in panchayat polls, we scored a victory in 83 panchayats. AAP got over 40 lakh votes in these polls, where 1600 party candidates contested," Singh, AAP's UP in-charge and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh said.
Mayawati's eventful tenure in Uttar Pradesh seems to be heading for a change in the upcoming assembly elections, expected to be held in February-March next year.
In an exclusive interview with NDTV that was telecast on Thursday night, Mayawati said she liked to wear pink because she wants to see pinkish smiles on the faces of the Dalit community, which had been suffering for a long time.
He also said the governments of the Bharatiya Janata Party, the BSP and the SP that have ruled Uttar Pradesh in the last 32 years, when Congress was not in power, failed to live up to the expectations of the people and the Congress was set for a comeback in the state.
The first phase drew a turnout of about 46 per cent and the second 47 per cent.
Stalin, like his father M Karunanidhi did in 2004, may play the king-maker in a way -- not the king, unless the 2024 post-poll circumstances throws up a situation where he alone becomes acceptable to the rest, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
In a terse message to the ruling party, Priyanka in a Hindi tweet said, 'The goons of the BJP involved in 'cheerharan' of the democracy should hear that women will become pradhans, block pramukhs, MLAs, MPs and prime minister, and defeat the government, which gives patronage to those committing atrocities against women.'
For the first time in seven years the prime minister finds himself at his most vulnerable, observes Virendra Kapoor.
The BJP would want that by March 2022, when UP votes, the economy starts looking up and it heads into the polls with no other issue distracting from its main poll plank of the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya.
The RLD has aligned with the Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party in UP and is attacking the state government on farm distress and the outstanding sugarcane dues.
Against the backdrop of the opposition closing ranks on the CAA issue and the BJP faring poorly in several state elections recently, the 2022 electoral battle is unlikely to be a cakewalk for the BJP in Uttar Pradesh, reports Virendra Singh Rawat.
The ruling alliance partner sought to know what prevents the BJP from making use of its absolute majority in the Lok Sabha to start construction of the temple in Ayodhya.
After resorting to quirky measures like debarring party spokespersons from news channel debates, the opposition parties are now overhauling their organisational set-ups and purging respective executives, committees and wings to weed out non-performers and deadwood. Virendra Singh Rawat reports.
In Maharashtra, where the 'Mahayuti' alliance of BJP, Shiv Sena and smaller parties is against the 'Maha-agadhi' led by the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party whereas the ruling BJP is locked in a contest with the opposition Congress and the fledgling Jannayak Janata Party for the 90 assembly seats in Haryana.
After Rajnath Singh and Uma Bharti, another union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi feels the same.
"If election is held in the country today, the BJP would draw a nought," the RJD chief said.
Statistics show the BSP has always gained from pre-poll alliances, reflecting in the party winning more seats in subsequent elections and largely retaining the vote share too. Virendra Singh Rawat reports.
Congress leaders are confident that Priyanka would act as a catalyst for the party and boost the sagging morale of cadres to put up a spirited fight against the BJP and also the SP-BSP pre-poll alliance which had already shut its door on the Congress, reports Virendra Singh Rawat.
Asserting that decision to earmark 4.5 per cent sub-quota for minorities in government jobs was not a "lolly pop" to gain votes in Uttar Pradesh, Minority Affairs Minister Salman Kurshid said the government was committed to all round development of backwards.
Her name figures among the 40 star campaigners that the Congress has finalised and forwarded to the Election Commission on Tuesday for the first phase of Uttar Pradesh polls.
A post-poll survey conducted by CNN-IBN, The Week and CSDS in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand and Manipur has revealed some interesting results. The Samajwadi Party will win 34 per cent of the total vote share of the UP polls, according to the survey.
In an exclusive interview to CNN-IBN's National Bureau Chief Bhupendra Chaubey, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati talks about her party's prospects in the assembly elections.
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