News Analysis India

Tag: Samajwadi Party

  • Those defaming ‘red cap’ forced to wear a cap: Akhilesh Yadav’s swipe at PM Modi

    By PTI

    JAUNPUR: Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav Saturday took a swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying those who were “defaming” the SP’s red cap have been “forced by people” to wear a cap, although of a different colour.

    Yadav made the comment at an election rally here apparently referring to Prime Minister Modi donning a saffron cap during his roadshow in Varanasi on Friday.

    This is also being seen as a response to Modi’s attack on the Samajwadi Party last December when he had said in Gorakhpur that people with red caps — the SP’s poll symbol — are “red alert” for Uttar Pradesh.

    Yadav said on Saturday, “Those who have been defaming our caps have been forced by the people of Uttar Pradesh to wear a cap. It is another thing that they have changed the colour of their cap.”

    Yadav was addressing the 2022 Uttar Pradesh polls’ last election meeting in Malhani constituency in favour of the Samajwadi Party’s Lucky Yadav.

    The two-month-long campaigning in Uttar Pradesh ended this evening.

    The seventh and final phase of voting in the state will be held on March 7.

    Counting of votes will be held on March 10.

    Attacking the BJP and PM Modi over the saffron colour cap, Yadav said they keep changing their colour.

    Appealing to people to vote for Lucky Yadav, the former chief minister said, “I feel that people of Malhani are going to vote for the Samajwadi Party in a big way, and demolish the rivals.”

  • UP polls: With heavyweights conducting rallies, Varanasi becomes last big battleground

    Express News Service

    VARANASI: With the long drawn, seven phase assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh set to end with voting for 54 seats of nine eastern districts on March 7, Varanasi — one of the oldest living cities of the world – turned out to be the last big battleground of all major political parties and their top leadership on Friday.

    While BJP’s top leader in the country, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi (who is also the two-time sitting MP from Varanasi) embarked on a long road show through the main city areas, BJP’s prime opponent, the Samajwadi Party chief and ex-UP CM Akhilesh Yadav too carried out a road-show in another part of the same religious city.

    And if that wasn’t all, the Congress party, which is eyeing a revival in its fortunes in these polls, had its two most charismatic leaders, the siblings Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, holding public rallies in rural area, where their candidates have turned the so far direct contest between BJP alliance and SP alliance into multi-cornered battle.

    The prime attraction of the day, however, was PM Modi’s massive road-show, which waded through an unending crowd of city residents and BJP supporters, while covering a distance of 8-odd km, from Maldahiya crossing to Lanka-BHU Gate.

    After reiterating at a public rally in Mirzapur district, the commitment of his government to safely evacuate every Indian stranded in war torn Ukraine at a time when the entire world was going through a very critical, the PM flew to his parliamentary constituency Varanasi at around 4 pm and embarked on the road-show around an hour and 45 minutes delay.

    After garlanding the statue of Sardar Patel, the PM’s road-show travelled to the Kashi Vishwanath Dham Corridor, traversing through various areas of Varanasi North, Varanasi South and Varanasi Cantt assembly segments, amid unending crowds of local residents and supporters, raising slogans in support of their two-time MP.

    The road-show which was dotted with floral welcome at various points by senior BJP leaders, took almost three hours in travelling 3 kms to reach the KV Dham Corridor, where the PM offered prayers at the world famous Kashi Vishwanath Temple, after playing the king size dumroo amid reverberating chants of Kashi’s signature slogan Har Har Mahadev.

    He subsequently travelled through the further crowded areas between Godowlia Crossing and Lanka-BHU Gate (covering major part of Varanasi South and Varanasi Cantt seats), but stopped in between to relish kulhad tea with BJP rank and file at the famous Pappu Tea Shop at Assi Crossing, which for long has been the most talked about political gossip point of the ancient city.        

    This was the PM’s fifth poll-related road-show in Varanasi since 2014, when he first won the LS polls, defeating AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal. The Friday’s roadshow was a re-run of the 2017 polls campaigning, when Modi had carried out two back-to-back road-shows in response to UP Ke Ladke Akhilesh Yadav and Rahul Gandhi’s road-shows. It was largely aimed at galvanizing the party’s rank and file and appealing the electorate in three urban seats, Varanasi South, Varanasi North and Varanasi Cantt, to vote for sitting BJP MLAs (including two ministers) who are facing high anti-incumbency.

    The PM, who would camp in Varanasi for two days, will address a rally at Khajuri (located on the junction of two rural Pindra and Sewapuri seats) where both the BJP candidates are having a tough time against high anti-incumbency.

    The BJP is pinning high hopes on the PM’s two day stay in Varanasi, as a similar campaign by him in the city in 2017, had helped the party not only win all eight seats of Varanasi district, but several seats of adjoining districts also.

    Meanwhile, the Congress leader siblings Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, addressed poll rally in Pindra assembly constituency, where the party’s ex-MLA Ajay Rai (who was a minister in erstwhile BJP government in the past) is strongly contesting against sitting BJP MLA Avdhesh Singh and BSP candidate Babulal Patel.

    Knowing well that the BSP candidate could benefit from division in upper caste votes between the BJP and Congress candidate, Rahul was highly critical of the BSP, terming the elephant symbol party the B Team of the BJP. He also lashed out at the Samajwadi Party for fostering an atmosphere of violence and anarchy during its past rule in UP.

     The last big ticket campaign of the day was a road-show by SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, who had to travel 1.5 km between Rathyatra Crossing and Girjaghar Crossing, covering parts of Varanasi Cantt and Varanasi South seats. The road-show was on at the time of filing this news report.

  • Mafia will be set free if Samajwadi Party voted to power: Amit Shah

    By PTI

    AZAMGARH: The mafia serving time in jail will be released if the Samajwadi Party comes to power in Uttar Pradesh, Home Minister Amit Shah said on Thursday, adding that the Akhilesh Yadav-led party and the BSP have “tasted defeat” in the first five rounds of polling.

    Shah also announced free electricity to farmers, gas cylinders to women on the eve of festivities and scooters to young women, if voted to power again in the state.

    “I had promised that the rule of mafia will end in Uttar Pradesh, and in five years, all mafia have been finished. Atiq Ansari and Mukhtar Ansari are in jail under the Yogi Adityanath government. It will not be the same if the SP comes to power in UP and such elements will be released,” Shah said during an an election rally here.

    The SP and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) have been defeated in the first five rounds of polling and now the BJP needs votes to ensure that it gets more than 300 seats, the home minister said.

    Hitting out at Akhilesh Yadav, Shah said the SP chief is wearing black glasses so he can see only darkness.

    Hailing the Yogi Adityanath government, he said there has been a sharp decline in the crime rate in the last five years.

    In order to woo women voters and farmers, Shah announced that a free cylinder will be given to every house on the occasion of Holi and Diwali and that free electricity will be provided to farmers for five years if the BJP reassumes power.

    He also announced that jobs will be given to the youth on basis of their qualification while he promised free scooters for young women.

    Hitting out at political rivals, Shah said the opposition parties kept Article 370, which gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir, for over seven decades.

    “Our government withdrew it and nobody dared to throw a single stone (in protest),” he said.

    Azamgarh will go to polls in the last phase of the ongoing Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections on March 7.

  • BJP is ‘losing’ in Uttar Pradesh: Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee while campaigning for Samajwadi Party

    By PTI

    VARANASI: Describing herself as a “fighter”, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday alleged that she was attacked by BJP workers after she arrived for campaigning in Uttar Pradesh in support of the Samajwadi Party.

    “I was coming from the airport yesterday and going to the (Dashashwamedh) ghat. Midway, some BJP workers, who have nothing in their brain except violence, stopped my vehicle. They hit my car, pushed me and told me to go back,” Banerjee claimed.

    “It was then that I thought, they are going out (of power). They are completely gone, their defeat is imminent,” the Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief said.

    Banerjee said she was in Uttar Pradesh for a political meeting and wondered why the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was so bothered about it.

    “I am not a coward, I am a fighter. I have fought for a long time. The CPM attacked me in the past, I was attacked with sticks and shots were fired at me several times in the past. But I never bowed down,” she added.

    Banerjee said when “abuses were being hurled” at her on Wednesday, she got down from the car and stood silent for some time to see what the attackers could do.

    “I wanted to see what you can do. How much strength you have. But you are a coward. I saw it and thanked them. They attacked my car, pushed me. I said thank you because I knew the message is clear that the BJP is losing, why else attack me,” she claimed.

    She said if her coming to Uttar Pradesh once can ensure BJP’s defeat, she would come to the state a thousand times.

    “It’s not so easy, Khela hoga,” Banerjee said, referring to the Hindi variation of the Bangla phrase which was the poll anthem of the TMC in West Bengal elections last year in which it defeated the BJP.

  • UP elections: Mamata shown black flags in BJP stronghold Varanasi

    Express News Service

    GORAKHPUR: West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, who landed in Varanasi on Wednesday to campaign in support of Samajwadi Party, was shown black flags while on her way to Dashashwamedh ghat from airport.

    As soon as Mamata proceeded to Dashashwamedh ghat, she was faced protests at several places when BJP supporters showed her black flags first in Chetganj locality and then at Godowliya.

    In Chetganj, on seeing the black flags by a crowd shouting Jai Shree Ram, the west bengal CM lost her cool, stopped the car and came out on the road.

    Pushing the protestors, Mamta dared the BJP workers to come forward with black flags. 

    “You all are losing the elections. These are not black flags but your fear of losing elections,” she shouted on the mike.

    The west bengal CM also shouted the slogan : “Jai UP, Jai Hind.”

    Subsequently, as she proceeded further, she was shown black flags at Gowdowliya. However, the district police pushed the protestors aside.

    On getting the information about protests, SP workers gathered at Godowliya crossing in retaliation. Both the groups of protestors came face to face to be sent away by the cops.

    Then Mamata Banerjee reached Dashashwamedh ghat and paid obeisance at Ganga Mandir. She also watched the famous Ganga Arti while sitting on the stairs of the ghat.

    Mamata is expected to address a couple of rallies along with SP chief Akhilesh Yadav in and around Varanasi which will vote in final phase on March 7.

    Mamata is scheduled to stay in Varanasi for the next two days.

    However, in the wake of protests against the west bengal CM, the district administration has beefed up the security.

  • Ex-UP minister Swami Prasad Maurya’s son taken for questioning by police

    By PTI

    GORAKHPUR: The son of former UP minister Swami Prasad Maurya, fighting from the Fazilnagar assembly constituency as a Samajwadi Party candidate, was on Wednesday taken to the police station for questioning on the allegation that he was distributing money to people on the eve of polling.

    Kushinagar District Magistrate S Rajalingam gave this information while denying Mauray’s claim that his son Ashok Maurya was arrested in a “false” case of instigating violence against BJP supporters.

    DM Rajalingam denied the allegation saying Maurya’s son has been taken to the police station only for questioning after allegedly being found distributing money to voters on the eve of voting in the area.

    “The information of arrest is totally wrong. We got information in the evening that Swami’s son is distributing money and campaigning and he along with some others were found on the spot in three vehicles and police took him to the police station,” the DM said.

    “He is not a voter of the area and what he was doing there within 48 hours of the poll is a clear violation of the Model Code of Conduct,” the DM said, adding he has been taken to the police station only for questioning.

    “The information of arrest is wrong. A probe has been initiated in the matter,” the DM said.

    Maurya, a former Cabinet colleague of UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, made the claim of his son’s arrest in a social media post soon after two cross-FIR were lodged by the Kushinagar police on Wednesday on complaints by his party supporters and those of BJP candidate Surendra Singh Kushwaha.

    In the FIR and the counter-FIR, each of the two sides has alleged attack on it by the other side.

    The FIR lodged on the complaint of the BJP side accused former UP minister Maurya, his daughter Sanghmitra Maurya, a BJP MP, and son Ashok Maurya of leading and instigating their supporters to attack the participants of a saffron party’s poll procession, police said.

    The second FIR lodged by Maurya’s supporters made similar allegations against Kushwaha, block head Vashisht Rai alias Guddu Rai and others, police said.

    The two FIRs together named 39 people from both side and hundreds of other unidentified people in them, the police said.

    Both sides accused each other of a planned attack and based on their written complaints, FIRs were lodged against 39 named people, including 25 of Maurya’s side and 14 belonging to the BJP side besides hundreds of other unnamed people of both sides, police said.

    “Based on written complaints from both sides, FIRs have been lodged under sections 147, 148, 171-F, 308, 323, 352, 392, 427, 504, 506 of the Indian Penal Code,” Kushinagar Superintendent of Police Sachindra Patel said.

    These sections respectively pertain to rioting, rioting using deadly weapons, exercising undue influence during elections, attempting culpable homicide, causing injury, using criminal force, committing robbery, causing mischief, breaching the peace and issuing threats.

  • UP polls: Akhilesh Yadav as CM protected terrorists, alleges Nadda

    By PTI

    MIRZAPUR/JAUNPUR: BJP president J P Nadda on Monday alleged that Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav protected terrorists during his tenure as the CM of Uttar Pradesh, which is witnessing a rule of law today.

    After 2017, the BJP government has taken strict action against such elements, he said.

    “It is the rule of law in the state now and not that of a family or an individual,” Nadda said addressing an election rally in Mirzapur.

    “Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav, during his tenure as the (Uttar Pradesh) chief minister, used to give protection to terrorists, withdraw cases against them and embrace them,” Nadda alleged.

    The BJP president also accused Yadav of instigating people by calling the Covid vaccine as the “BJP vaccine”.

    However, he did not stop from taking the jab when needed, Nadda said.

    In Jaunpur, the BJP president claimed, “The leaders of no party other than the BJP have the courage to go among people with the report card of their work as they have done what they had promised.”

    “If there is any party that cares for the poor, underprivileged, oppressed, exploited, women, youth and farmers, it is the BJP,” he said.

    The BJP president also elaborated on the development work undertaken in the area during the BJP government and spoke about various welfare schemes while seeking support for NDA candidates in Mirzapur and Jaunpur in the ongoing Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls.

  • 7 booked for allegedly raising ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ slogans at public meeting in UP’s Prayagraj 

    By PTI

    PRAYAGRAJ: The police have lodged an FIR against seven people for allegedly raising “Pakistan Zindabad” slogans during a public meeting at the Handia assembly constituency here, officials said on Monday.

    The police said prima facie, it appeared to be a public meeting of the Samajwadi Party.

    However, the party candidate is not visible in the video, they said.

    Taking cognizance of a video of a public meeting in which some people were seen shouting such slogans, the police identified the men and lodged an FIR, Handia’s Circle Officer Dr Bhim Kumar Gautam.

    The people who have been identified could not be arrested as voting was underway on Sunday.

    They will be arrested soon, he said.

    SP candidate from Handia assembly seat, Hakim Lal Bind, alleged that the video has been released after “being dubbed by the people from the BJP” with a motive of making the election “Hindu vs Muslim”.

    He said the police should have checked the veracity of the video before registering a report.

    The party is getting this video investigated at its level.

    “Nowhere in any of my meetings were such slogans raised,” he said.

  • Assembly Polls 2022 updates: All eyes on Lakhimpur as phase four of UP election gets underway

    By Online Desk

    Voting for 59 Assembly constituencies spread over nine districts in Uttar Pradesh began on Wednesday morning.

    The polling started at 7 am and will continue till 6 pm.

    This is the fourth phase of the Assembly polls in the state, where elections are to be held in seven rounds.

    As many as 624 candidates are in the fray in the fourth phase.

    According to the Election Commission, 2.3 crore people, including 1.14 crore men and 99.3 lakh women, are eligible to vote, for which 24,643 polling booths and 13,817 poling centres have been set up in this phase.

    The districts where the poling is being held are Pilibhit, Lakhimpur Kheri, Sitapur, Hardoi, Unnao, Lucknow, Rae Bareli, Banda and Fatehpur.

  • This is an election to save democracy: Akhilesh Yadav 

    By PTI

    PRAYAGRAJ: Samajwadi Party national president Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday said this is not an ordinary assembly election but polls to save the democracy and change the fate of Uttar Pradesh.

    Addressing a huge rally at Bhirpur in Yamunapar’s Karchana assembly constituency, 30 km from the city, he said, “We will work to implement the SP manifesto. Ever since the BJP government came, inflation and unemployment have increased” Taking a jibe at the BJP leaders, the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister said that small leaders of the BJP tell small lies, those who are big tell bigger lies and those who are “tallest” leaders tell the biggest lies.

    Turning to the competitive students of BEd and TET (Teacher Eligibility Test) examinations who came to the rally, the SP chief said, “You tell me whether the examinations were cancelled or not, whether the paper was out or not. Did you have to fight or not?” He said that the Samajwadi Party promises to help Shiksha Mitras and fill lakhs of jobs lying vacant in the education department.

    “If the SP government is formed, the youth will be given jobs by filling the vacant posts,” he promised.

    Yadav said under the BJP government, Baba (Adityanath) shows development by “changing the name of schemes”.

    This time an English newspaper has also changed his name to “Baba Bulldozer”. Earlier, the crowd became uncontrollable, broke the barricade and reached close to the stage.

    At the time of Yadav’s departure also, people reached near to his helicopter and the police had to use force to disperse them.