UP Elections

Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati on Saturday accused the BJP and Samajwadi Party (SP) of being "hand in glove" in the run-up to the November 13 bypolls to nine Assembly constituencies in Uttar Pradesh in which the BSP is going solo on all seats. Addressing a press conference here, the former UP chief minister also slammed the two parties for their "misleading" slogans -- BJP's 'Batenge toh Katenge' (divided we fall) and SP's 'Judenge toh Jeetenge' (united we win) -- and said these are designed to divert people's attention from the real issues. Comparing the rule of BSP, SP and now the BJP in Uttar Pradesh, Mayawati pitched her regime (2007-2012) as the best in terms of law and order. "BSP se Judenge toh Aage Badhenge, Surakshit Rahenge (people will progress and remain safe in BSP's company)," Mayawati said, as she reiterated her "BJP-SP together" charge to blunt SP's claim of BSP being "BJP's B team". "Ever since the bypolls were announced and the BSP decided to go solo on

Samajwadi Party MP Dharmendra Yadav has accused Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath of spreading hatred with his "batenge toh katenge (divided we fall)" remark and said such attempts to divide voters would be rejected in the upcoming byelections. He said that the "PDA people" -- Pichhade' (backward classes), 'Dalit' and 'Alpsankhyak' (minorities) -- are standing firmly with Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and will ensure his party's victory in the November 13 bypolls to nine assembly seats. "The chief minister has forgotten that the PDA people were ignored by his government and the Centre but they are united and are not going to be divided by his speeches. "PDA people are standing unitedly with Akhilesh Yadav and when election results come, you will see what people have decided," Yadav told reporters here on Monday evening. On party leader Shivpal Yadav's statement that those who make '"batenge toh katenge statements, woh pitenge' (those who make such statements will

Weight of leadership? With Mayawati's throne in peril, a churn in Dalit politics in UP, and allegations the BSP had become 'BJP's B-team', could eventually turn the tide

An INDIA bloc storm is arriving in Uttar Pradesh, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said on Friday and asserted that Narendra Modi will not become the prime minister of the country. Addressing a rally in Kannauj, from where Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav is contesting the Lok Sabha elections, Gandhi said, "Take it in writing, Narendra Modi will not become the prime minister of India." The Congress and the Samajwadi Party, both constituents of the INDIA bloc, are contesting the Lok Sabha elections in an alliance in Uttar Pradesh. Speaking on the opposition bloc, Gandhi said, "An INDIA bloc storm is arriving in Uttar Pradesh. The BJP is going to face its biggest defeat in the state." Yadav and senior AAP leader Sanjay Singh also addressed the rally. Kannauj goes to the polls on May 13.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Thursday said Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav and all four members of his family contesting the Lok Sabha polls will lose and the opposition party will not be able to open its account in the state. The chief minister addressed election rallies in Gola in favour of the BJP candidate from the Kheri Lok Sabha seat Ajay Mishra and in Lakhimpur Kheri's Mohammadi for the party's Dhaurahra Lok Sabha candidate Rekha Verma. "The defeat of the Samajwadi Party chief's family members on all five seats is certain. The SP's account will not be opened in Uttar Pradesh in the Lok Sabha election," Adityanath said in Gola. While SP chief Akhilesh Yadav is contesting from the Kannauj Lok Sabha seat, his wife Dimple Yadav is contesting from the Mainpuri constituency. Akhilesh Yadav's cousins Akshay Yadav, Aditya Yadav and Dharmendra Yadav are in the fray from the Firozabad, Budaun and Azamgarh parliamentary seats respectively. The Samajwadi Par

Polling began Tuesday morning for 10 seats in Uttar Pradesh, including high-profile Mainpuri, in the third phase of the Lok Sabha elections. Over 1.89 crore voters will seal the fate of 100 candidates in parliamentary constituencies of Sambhal, Hathras (SC), Agra (SC), Fatehpur Sikri, Firozabad, Mainpuri, Etah, Budaun, Aonla and Bareilly, where polling began at 7 am and will go on till 6 pm, according to the Election Commission. It is an important phase for Uttar Pradesh's Yadav family. The Samajwadi Party's (SP) Dimple Yadav is aiming to retain the Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat, which she won in the bypolls following the death of her father-in-law and party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav. Akshaya Yadav, the son of SP national principal general secretary Ram Gopal Yadav, will try to reclaim the Firozabad seat. Aditya Yadav, the son of SP national general secretary Shivpal Yadav, is making his electoral debut from the Budaun constituency, which was won by his cousin Dharmendra Yadav in ...

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Ramping up efforts to forge Opposition unity, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday met Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav and said work is on to bring together as many parties as possible to remove the BJP from power in the next general elections. No welfare work is being done by the present dispensation which is only relying on publicity, the JD(U) leader said attacking the BJP after meeting Yadav at the SP office here, hours after he held talks with his West Bengal counterpart and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee in Kolkata. "I am not looking for any position for myself. My endeavour is to work for country's good," Kumar, who was accompanied by RJD leader and Bihar's Deputy Chief Minister Tejaswi Yadav, told reporters. He alleged that efforts are being made to change the history of the country. Akhilesh Yadav raised the issue of price rise and said there was a need to remove the BJP government without any delay. The Bihar chief minister had come to Lucknow a

Samajwadi Party candidate Dimple Yadav is leading in the Mainpuri Lok Sabha constituency, while RLD and BJP candidates are leading in the Khatauli and the Rampur Sadar seats respectively, according to trends for the bypolls in Uttar Pradesh. While in Mainpuri, Yadav has taken a lead of over 15,000 votes over her nearest rival BJP candidate Raghuraj Singh Shakya, RLD candidate Madan Bhaiya is leading by over 1,000 votes in Khatauli over BJP's Rajkumar Saini, the Election Commission website showed. Samajwadi Party candidate Asim Raja is leading from Rampur Sadar, while BJP's Akash Saxena his trailing, source said. The bypoll on these seats were held on Dec 5.

Ahead of the December 5 bypolls in Uttar Pradesh, the Samajwadi Party on Saturday submitted a memorandum to the state chief electoral officer seeking action to stop fake voting, while the BJP has approached the official, alleging that its rival is "threatening" people. While the Samajwadi Party (SP) in a memorandum has sought concrete action to safeguard against fake voting in the Rampur Sadar assembly segment, the BJP has urged the chief electoral officer (CEO) to put a check on "anarchic elements" of its rivals in the Mainpuri Lok Sabha constituency. The Uttar Pradesh BJP in a statement said the party's state general secretary JPS Rathore has written to the CEO mentioning a "list of miscreants in the Mainpuri Lok Sabha constituency and demanded strict action against them". In its letter, the ruling party in the state has also demanded tight security at highly sensitive polling booths to prevent miscreants from capturing them. The BJP has alleged that the Model Code of Conduct has

UP AIMIM president Shaukat Ali said that the party will contest all the seats in future elections in the state, while also claiming that many SP leaders will join in the future

Union minister Jitendra Singh asserted on Tuesday that the BJP will win the Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat in the 2024 parliamentary election. Talking to reporters here, Singh said, "We are going to win the Mainpuri seat in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls and our target is to win all the 80 parliamentary seats in Uttar Pradesh." The Union minister's reply came to a reporter's question on whether the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will win the Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat in the next general election. At present, Mainpuri is represented by Samajwadi Party (SP) patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav in the Lok Sabha. In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP had won 62 seats in Uttar Pradesh, while its ally Apna Dal (Sonelal) had won two seats. The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) had won 10 seats, the SP had won five and the Congress had won one seat. Singh said over the last eight years, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's welfare schemes have reached everyone, without any vote-bank consideration. Addressing back-to-back meet

Senior SP legislator Azam Khan and sulking socialist leader Shivpal Singh Yadav on Sunday skipped the party MLAs' meet ahead of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly session. Shivpal had earlier too skipped the party MLAs' meeting amid differences with his nephew and Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav. Shivpal had parted ways with Akhilesh in 2017 Assembly polls and had formed his own outfit, Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party-Lohia. He, however, contested this year's Assembly polls on the Samajwadi Party symbol. Azam Khan, who was released for the Sitapur jail on Friday after the Supreme Court granted him bail in a cheating case, didn't attend the meeting due to health reasons, according to a party leader. However, Khan was seen visiting the district jail in Rampur with his son Abdullah Azam to meet his supporters lodged there in various cases. Earlier, people close to Khan had accused the party chief of ignoring him and the Muslim community, sparking speculations of a rift in the ...

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