With another relative of SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav joining the BJP after Aparna Yadav, Akhilesh Yadav took a swipe at the ruling party, thanking it for ending “parivarvaad”.
Tag: Samajwadi Party
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UP polls: Akhilesh Yadav to contest elections from Mainpuri’s Karhal seat, say sources
By ANI
NEW DELHI: Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav will contest the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections from Mainpuri’s Karhal constituency, informed sources on Thursday.
However, the SP chief on Wednesday said that he will contest Assembly elections after taking permission from Azamgarh residents. Yadav is currently a Lok Sabha MP from Azamgarh.
Elections to the 403 assembly constituencies in Uttar Pradesh will be held in seven phases starting February 10.
The polling in Uttar Pradesh will be held on February 10, 14, 20, 23, 27, and March 3 and 7 in seven phases. The counting of votes will take place on March 10.
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Winning Muslim voters’ trust biggest challenge for BJP in second phase of UP polls
By PTI
LUCKNOW: The ruling BJP might face a tougher battle on the 55 seats that will go to polls in the second phase of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly election compared to the first round since the region has a high concentration of Muslims, influenced by the religious leaders of the Barelvi and Deoband sects.
The polling in the second phase of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly election will be held on February 14 and a notification for the same will be issued on January 21.
Both the important seats of the Barelvi and Deobandi sects — Bareilly and Saharanpur respectively — will go to polls in this phase.
The 55 Assembly segments of the western districts of the state — Saharanpur, Bijnor, Amroha, Sambhal, Moradabad, Rampur — and of the Rohilkhand region’s Bareilly, Budaun and Shahjahanpur districts will go to polls in the second phase.
Of the 55 seats, the BJP had won 38 in 2017, while the main opposition Samajwadi Party (SP) bagged 15 and the Congress two.
The SP and the Congress contested the last Assembly election in an alliance.
Of the 15 seats won by the SP, Muslim candidates emerged victorious in 10.
Of the 58 seats that will go to polls in the first phase, the BJP had won 53, the SP and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) got two each and the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) bagged one.
Maulana Tauqir Raza Khan, the president of the Ittehad-e-Millat Council (IMC) and the religious guru of Barelvi Muslims, has announced his support to the Congress candidates in the five poll-bound states, including Uttar Pradesh and Punjab.
Keeping in mind the large Muslim population, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi has also fielded candidates in some of the seats in the region.
Uttar Pradesh BJP vice president and MLC Vijay Bahadur Pathak told PTI that his party will win more seats than before in the second phase too because “ever since the BJP government was formed at the Centre and in the state, all sections of the society have developed and this is clearly felt by all”.
“The aggrieved public will not give a chance to parties like the Congress that headed the government for long, or the SP and the BSP, which have been in power in the state continuously for 15 years, during which loot and corruption continued unabated,” he said.
SP chief Akhilesh Yadav had formed alliances with both the Congress and the BSP for different elections and people have taught him a lesson, Pathak said.
The SP had formed an alliance with the Congress in the 2017 Assembly polls and with the BSP and the RLD in the 2019 Lok Sabha election.
In both the elections, the politics of the alliance worked as compared to that of the BJP’s in this region.
But this time, with the SP, the BSP and the Congress going it alone, critics claim that there will be a split of votes and the BJP can benefit from it.
The BSP has fielded Muslim candidates in the area and a split of the Dalit and Muslim votes is also expected.
The Mayawati-led party has become active and apart from its MPs, its national general secretary Satish Chandra Mishra has also toured this region extensively.
In the 2017 Assembly polls, the SP-Congress alliance had won 17 seats in the area and in the Lok Sabha election, of the 11 seats, seven had gone to the SP-BSP alliance with the BSP getting Saharanpur, Nagina, Bijnor and Amroha and the SP winning Moradabad, Sambhal and Rampur.
The formula of an alliance of Muslim, Jat and Dalit voters was successful in this region.
This time, the SP has formed an alliance with the RLD and the Mahan Dal, which has influence among the voters of western Uttar Pradesh, and both parties are believed to hold considerable sway over the Jat, Shakya, Saini, Kushwaha, Maurya and Koiri fraternities in the region.
Akhilesh Yadav and his uncle Shivpal Yadav have their own influence in the Yadav community.
The SP is also trying to capitalise on the issue of arrest of Rampur MP and former minister Azam Khan, who has been in the Sitapur jail for nearly two years now in land-grabbing and other criminal cases.
Akhilesh Yadav has accused the BJP of implicating Khan in fake cases.
SP’s national secretary and chief spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary told PTI that his party’s alliance is very strong in the areas going to polls in the second phase.
“BJP’s ground has slipped from under its feet and its lies and fraud have been exposed. This time, the people of Uttar Pradesh will send the BJP on an exile,” he said.
Another SP leader pointed out that Swami Prasad Maurya and Dharam Singh Saini, who resigned as ministers recently and joined the SP, will add strength to the SP-RLD alliance and along with Keshav Dev Maurya of the Mahan Dal, they will ensure that the BJP is “wiped out” from the region.
Swami Prasad Maurya’s daughter Sanghamitra Maurya is a BJP MP from Badaun.
The Congress has also started working out equations to strengthen its ground.
On Monday, Maulana Tauqir Raza Khan, the religious guru of Barelvi Muslims, announced his support to the Congress candidates in the in the five poll-bound states.
He made the announcement at a joint press conference with state Congress chief Ajay Kumar Lallu.
Expressing his gratitude to Khan, Lallu said in the coming days, the party will form the government in Uttar Pradesh.
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Rebel SP MLA, elected as UP assembly deputy speaker on BJP support, quits his party
By PTI
LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh assembly’s Deputy Speaker Nitin Agarwal, a Samajwadi Party MLA who had been elected to the House’s post on the BJP’s support, formally quit the SP’s membership.
The SP MLA from Hardoi Sadar assembly seat said he has also quit as the MLA and deputy speaker of the House.
“I have sent my resignation from the SP to its national president Akhilesh Yadav. I have also resigned from the assembly membership and from the post of deputy speaker,” Nitin Agarwal told reporters here.
Agarwal, who was elected the assembly deputy speaker on the BJP’s support had not formally joined the party and was technically still an SP MLA.
Agarwal, who shared the dais with Union Home Minister Amit Shah during the BJP’s Jan Vishwas rally, is likely to contest the assembly polls from his Hardoi Sadar seat on a BJP ticket.
Political observers say resignation is a mere formality as he has already gone with the BJP.
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Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav’s daughter-in-law Aparna Yadav joins BJP
By PTI
NEW DELHI: Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav’s daughter-in-law Aparna Yadav joined the BJP on Wednesday.
She joined the party in the presence of Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya and and its state chief Swatantra Dev Singh.
She is married to Prateek Yadav, son of Mulayam Singh Yadav’s second wife while SP president Akhilesh Yadav is his son from the first marriage.
Aparna Yadav said she has always been impressed with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and added that the nation’s interest has always been her priority.
There had been much speculation about her joining the BJP, and the development highlights the rift in the SP’s ruling family at a time when Akhilesh Yadav has been working to rally the party’s base in the run up to the state assembly polls.
The BJP may field her in the polls, sources said.
Aparna Yadav had contested the 2017 assembly polls on the Samajwadi Party ticket from Lucknow Cantt but had lost to BJP’s Rita Bahuguna Joshi, now a Lok Sabha member.
Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh will be held in seven phases beginning from February 10.
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UP polls: Political parties locked in battle of songs as campaigning intensifies
By PTI
LUCKNOW: In the battle for the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, a musical war has broken out between political parties which are resorting to catchy campaign songs to promote their policies and ideologies.
The Election Commission has imposed restrictions on poll rallies till January 22 in the wake of rising COVID-19 cases in the five poll-going states.
After the BJP, Congress and Samajwadi Party, the Aam Aadmi Party too has released its theme song for the elections.
Although, the custom of resorting to songs during elections is old, with the campaign going virtual due to the Covid pandemic, the competition among parties to grab the attention of voters has only intensified.
While the ruling BJP refers to the party’s “Hindutva pride” and the “development” done under the Yogi Adityanath government, the opposition Samajwadi Party echoes the socialist sentiments and the achievements of the previous government led by Akhilesh Yadav.
BJP MPs and Bhojpuri actors Ravi Kishan and Manoj Tiwari have come out with various songs and some more are in the pipeline.
Among these, ‘damru jab bajega to dekhna nazara kya hoga’ — apparently referring to the damru of lord Shiva, is quite popular while similar songs like ‘jo Ram ko laye haye, hum unko layenge’ (those who have brought lord Ram, we will bring them to power) and ‘mandir banne laga hai, bhagwa rang chadhne laga hai’ (construction of temple has begun, saffron colour is on the rise) are testament to BJP leveraging on the upcoming Ram temple in Ayodhya.
“The Election Commission has banned election rallies and meetings till January 22. In such a situation, BJP wants to make a place in the hearts and minds of voters through songs. The party will take these songs to every voter through its social media team,” BJP’s state media in-charge Manish Dixit told PTI.
Meanwhile, the SP’s songs promise to end all “woes” of the people if it is voted to power while emphasising on how the socialist ideology ensures welfare of all sections of the society.
Some of the songs like ‘hunkara’, ‘janata pukarti hai’ (people are calling) and ‘jai-jai samajwadi’ (hail samajwadi) are all about the work done by the previous SP government and giving hope to the people to solve their problems if it comes to power again.
SP national spokesperson Ashutosh Verma said the songs strike a chord with the unemployed youth, farmers, labourers, women, exploited and downtrodden sections and the party intends to “heal their wounds”.
These songs will resonate in every village and town of the state and will remind the people of how important the SP government is for the development of all, he said.
The theme song of Congress, which claims it is fighting the elections to bring women into mainstream politics, also revolves around them.
Congress’s media convener Lalan Kumar said the party’s election campaign is being overseen by general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and her thoughts are clearly reflected in the songs.
The AAP, which is contesting on all 403 seats in Uttar Pradesh has released its song ‘rajniti ko badalne AAP ayaa hai, pehli baar jhadu chaap aaya hai’ (we have come to change politics) written by the party’s Bihar cultural cell president Lokesh.
AAP MP and UP in-charge Sanjay Singh said the song is about the party’s promise of free electricity, education, unemployment allowance and Rs 1,000 per month.
He said that the party will soon come up with another song — ‘subah subah ghar se nikal ke line lag jayega, jhanse mein nahi aayega’ (we will join the queue for voting, will not be swayed by anyone) A song for the people of Purvanchal is also coming soon, he added.
Singh said, the AAP has formed a minimum of 20 teams in each assembly constituency and party functionaries and workers will use social media platforms, including WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, to convey the party’s message through these songs.
According to political analyst Parvez Ahmed, whether it was the freedom movement or any fight fought for change, songs play a very important role in uniting people.
“In the movements held from time to time, songs have been considered as a very effective medium of conveying the point of view of the people participating in them,” he said.
Whether it was the Lok Nayak Jayaprakash Narayan movement or any other campaign, songs were used effectively and aggressively on all occasions.
It is human nature to get attracted towards songs and music and this is why songs are crucial even during elections.
More often than not, they do the job of getting into the hearts and minds of the voters, he said.
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Won’t tie-up with Samajwadi Party even for 100 seats now: Chandrashekhar Azad
By PTI
NOIDA: The Aazad Samaj Party on Tuesday said it will no longer approach the SP for a tie-up for the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections even if Akhilesh Yadav offers it 100 seats.
Aazad Samaj Party (ASP) chief Chandrashekhar Azad said his party is open to stitching an alliance with others and maintained that his fight has always been with the RSS and the BJP.
The party had said last week that efforts were being made to form a third front of several opposition parties, apparently after disagreement over seat sharing with Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party (SP).
“I have made it clear. The time was till today (Tuesday) for the leader whom I had approached for an alliance to stop the BJP. I announce this today that we are not going with them (SP). Now, even if they offer us 100 seats we will not tie-up with them because it’s a matter of self-respect,” Azad told reporters.
On Yadav saying he would extend support to the ASP, the flamboyant Dalit leader said he is a lawyer by education and understands well the difference in the language of support and taunt, in a veiled attack on the SP president who had offered two seats to the ASP recently.
He said workers and activists of the Bhim Army, a Dalit outfit he founded, and the ASP are strong enough to compete in the polls and have a reach at village level.
“It is true that we are open to forming tie-ups with other parties. Around 50 small outfits are sitting at our office now as we speak but we have come for the press conference here since it was pre-scheduled,” Azad claimed.
He added that ASP will not field candidates against the RLD, which has a tie-up with the SP for the UP polls because of respect for the Jayant Chaudhary-led party,which had offered the ASP the two seats that Yadav was talking about.
Elections to the 403 seats of the UP Assembly will take place in seven phases, beginning February 10.
The results will be announced on March 10.
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Samajwadi Party wants Mamata Banerjee to campaign for it in UP: Kiranmay Nanda
By PTI
KOLKATA: Samajwadi Party vice-president Kiranmay Nanda Monday said that the party wants West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to campaign for it in the upcoming Uttar Pradesh assembly election.
Nanda returned from Uttar Pradesh on Monday and is scheduled to meet Banerjee at her residence on January 18 evening when the subject would be discussed.
“The way Mamata Banerjee fought against BJP in the Bengal assembly poll was unprecedented. The entire nation saw the fight she had put up against the BJP’s juggernaut. The Samajwadi Party and our party president Akhilesh Yadav wants her to campaign for us in the UP Assembly poll. Banerjee had early communicated to Akhilesh Yadav that if needed she will campaign for the party,” he told PTI.
Akhilesh Yadav shares a very cordial relation with Banerjee and had attended the grand opposition meeting hosted by the TMC supremo in January 2019.
The election in all 403 Assembly seats of the politically most important state will be held in seven phases from February 10 to March 7.
Nanda said most of the campaign is being held virtually due to COVID restrictions.
Praising the TMC supremo, he said, “Mamata Banerjee is a strong leader and the way she fought against BJP is a lesson for the entire opposition. I am here to discuss with her the schedule for the campaign, be it virtual or in person. I will meet her on Tuesday”.
Banerjee had led TMC to a emphatic win in West Bengal for the third consecutive term in 2021 in the face of a stiff challenge by BJP.
One of the longest-serving fisheries minister of West Bengal during the Left Front regime, Nanda had merged his party – West Bengal Socialist Party with Samajwadi Party in 2010.
During the high octane West Bengal assembly polls in 2021, SP had decided against contesting and extended its support to the ruling TMC.
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Samajwadi Party candidates list starts with those in jail and ends with those on bail, says Anurag Thakur
Express News Service
BHOPAL: Hitting out at the Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party (SP), union minister Anurag Thakur said on Sunday, “If you see SP’s list of candidates, it starts from those in jail and ends with those out on bail.”
“The game of jail-bail is the real ‘khel’ (game) of the SP. One of their MLA and candidates Nahid Hasan (candidate from Kairana) is in jail, while the other legislator, Abdullah Azam Khan is out of jail on bail,” Thakur said in Lucknow just after 1994-batch IPS officer and former Kanpur police commissioner Asim Arun joined the saffron party.
Focusing on BJP’s prime poll plank – the improvement in law and order and crackdown against criminals and anti-social elements in the five years of Yogi Adityanath rule – the union minister (one of the three central BJP leaders appointed co-incharge for polls in UP) said, “Those who indulge in riots go to the SP, while those who catch the rioters, join the BJP.”
Welcoming the ex-IPS officer Asim Arun in the party fold, Thakur said, “Today’s development has made it clear that officials with clean image are joining the BJP, while those indulging in riots are joining the SP.
Importantly, the two-time sitting SP MLA from Kairana seat of West UP’s Shamli district, Nahid Hasan was sent into 14-days judicial custody by a special court on Saturday, after the state police invoked the stringent Gangsters Act against him. The other SP leader Abdullah Azam Khan (the son of ex UP minister Mohd Azam Khan who won from Suar seat in 2017 polls) was released on bail on Saturday from Sitapur Jail, after almost 23 months behind bars in 40-plus criminal cases ranging from extortion to forgery.
On Sunday, the 1994 batch IPS officer and former Kanpur police commissioner Asim Arun joined the BJP in Lucknow in presence of union minister Anurag Thakur and state BJP president Swatantra Dev Singh. Asim Arun is the son of former UP DGP Sriram Arun. His sister Rashmi Arun Shami is a senior IAS officer of Madhya Pradesh cadre, while his MP cadre IPS officer brother-in-law Sanjiv Shami has long been counted among one to the top anti-terror cops in the country.
Both Asim Arun and brother-in-law Sanjiv Shami have headed the anti-terror and counter terrorism wings of UP and MP police respectively in the past.
On January 10, the UP government had approved the voluntary retirement request of Kanpur police commissioner Asim Arun, who had applied for premature retirement amid speculation of his entry into active politics. As per informed sources within the ruling BJP, the 1994 IPS officer is likely to be fielded from one of the seats of Kannauj district.
Besides the former police officer, ex-IAS officer Ram Bahadur also joined the BJP, along with two SP MLAs Ghanshyam Lodhi and Shailendra Pratap Singh on Sunday. The former IAS officer Ram Bahadur had contested the 2017 polls in UP as BSP candidate from Mohanlalganj seat of Lucknow district, but lost by slender 530 votes margin.
On the other hand, ex-minister of Yogi Adityanath government and former BJP MLA from Madhuban seat of Mau district, Dara Singh Chouhan, who had quit the saffron party recently, joined the SP officially on Sunday.
Speculations are also rife about SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav’s younger daughter-in-law Aparna Yadav (wife of Pratik Yadav, who is the son of MSY’s second wife Sadhna Gupta Yadav) likely to join the BJP soon. Aparna, who is the daughter of veteran journalist Arvind Singh Bisht had lost by around 34,000 votes on SP ticket against BJP candidate Rita Bahuguna Joshi in the 2017 polls from Lucknow Cantt seat.
Akhilesh Yadav to complain ECI after ex-IPS Asim Arun’s BJP joining
Meanwhile, reacting to ex-IPS officer Asim Arun joining the BJP on Sunday, the SP chief Akhilesh Yadav said, “the development has exposed how police officers influenced by the BJP were holding senior police positions in the state. I’ll complain to the Election Commission, demanding that all those cops who worked with Arun in the last five years be removed from active posting, failing which they would work as BJP agents. If the EC doesn’t order removal of all such police officers, then the impartiality of the election body will come under doubt.”
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Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan’s son Abdullah Azam released from jail
By PTI
SITAPUR: Abdullah Azam, the son of senior Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan, was released from Sitapur jail late Saturday evening.
Abdullah Azam and his father were lodged in Sitapur jail after they were shifted from Rampur jail on 27 February 2020.
According to Sitapur jail superintendent Suresh Singh, Abdullah Azam’s release order was received earlier but there was discrepancy in it.
A fresh order was sent from a Rampur court paving the way for his release, he said.
Abdullah has as many as 43 cases registered against him in Rampur and the jail authorities got release orders in all the cases.
Several supporters had gathered outside the jail to receive Abdullah Azam who later headed to Rampur with family members in a car.
In brief interaction with mediapersons present there, he said that “oppression will end and the oppressor will be dethroned on March 10”, when the Uttar Pradesh assembly poll results will be declared.
Assembly polls in the state will be held in seven phases between February 10 and March 7.