News Analysis India

Tag: Samajwadi Party

  • Samajwadi Party workers briefly detained, were planning protest at PM Narendra Modi’s event

    By PTI

    SHAHJAHANPUR: Police briefly detained around 70 Samajwadi Party workers who were on their way to stage a protest at the venue of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s programme here on Saturday.

    The prime minister addressed a rally here after laying the foundation stone of the 594-km-long Ganga Expressway.

    According to former SP MLA Rajesh Yadav, the SP workers were planning to go to Rauza ground before the arrival of the prime minister and UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to protest against the government for not declaring the district as calamity-affected following floods.

    Circle Officer (city) Saravanan T said that around 70 SP workers were detained by the police and taken to police lines.

    After the public meeting was over, they were released.

    “Owing to floods, the crops of the farmers have been destroyed, and in this scenario, the district should have been declared calamity-affected. But, this was not done. And, the prime minister and chief minister are holding public meetings here. The Samajwadi Party workers were going to show black flags, and register our protest,” SP’s Rajesh Yadav said.

    He claimed the SP workers had gathered at the party office in Khirnibagh and were moving on foot towards the venue of PM’s programme when the police detained “around 600 SP workers”‘ near Nishat talkies and took them to Police Lines.

  • ‘Red alerts for the BJP’: SP chief Akhilesh Yadav reacts to PM Modi’s remark ahead of Uttar Pradesh polls

    By PTI

    LUCKNOW: Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday asserted that the people wearing red caps, a trademark headgear of his party members, are “red alerts” also for the BJP as they will oust it from the power in the next UP assembly polls.

    Yadav made the retort soon after Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in a dig at the Samajwadi Party, said in Gorakhpur that those wearing red caps are after red beacon and are a red alert to Uttar Pradesh.

    Reacting to Prime Minister Modi’s dig at his party, Akhilesh too, in a tweet in Hindi, listed some “red alerts for the BJP”.

    “For the BJP, there is a red alert of inflation, of unemployment, of the bad plight of farmers and labourers, of Hathras and Lakhimpur Kheri (incidents) of the oppression of women and youths, of a destroyed education system, business and health, besides the red cap, which will oust the BJP from power,” said former UP chief minister in his tweet.

    “There will be an ‘inquilab’ (revolution) of red and change in 2022,” he added.

    Addressing a public meeting in Gorakhpur earlier after dedicating to the country three megaprojects, including an AIIMS and a fertiliser plant, Modi said, “Today, the entire UP very well knows that those wearing red caps are concerned about red beacon (‘laal batti’) and they are not bothered about your pain and sorrows.”

    “The red cap people want the power to commit scams, fill their coffers, indulge in illegal grabbing (of resources) and to give complete freedom to the mafia,” he said.

    “The red cap people want to form the government to show favour to terrorists and to free them from jail.

    Hence, you should remember that those wearing red caps are red alert for UP, in other words, alarm bells,” Modi said.

  • UP polls 2022: Mamata Banerjee likely to visit Varanasi, support Akhilesh Yadav

    By PTI

    LUCKNOW: Trinamool Congress president Mamata Banerjee is expected to visit Varanasi next month amid indication that her party will support Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party in the upcoming Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls.

    “Didi has already said in Delhi that if Akhilesh Yadav needs our help, we are ready to extend help. The gesture of senior SP leader Jaya Bachchan seeking votes for the TMC during the West Bengal Assembly elections will be reciprocated in Uttar Pradesh,” said Laliteshpati Tripathi, who recently joined the TMC.

    “The target is the same and we have to leave no stone unturned to ensure that these forces (led by the BJP) are defeated. We are also with SP chief Akhilesh ji in his fight,” Tripathi said on Sunday.

    He said Banerjee would visit Varanasi probably around the second week of January.

    “The TMC is holding meetings and deliberating how to strengthen itself in Uttar Pradesh. As far as party chief Mamata Banerjee’s visit to Varanasi is concerned, we have not finalised the dates. We were planning to organise her visit in December, but owing to her previous engagements, we could not get the dates,” Tripathi said.

    Uttar Pradesh is not the immediate focus of the TMC, he said.

    For the TMC, Goa and Tripura are the states of immediate focus, Tripathi said, adding his party is not in the fray in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly election due early next year.

    Asked whether Banerjee is visiting Varanasi since it is represented by PM Narendra Modi in the Lok Sabha, and possibly because she wants to send across a message, Tripathi said, “No. According to the initial roadmap of the TMC, the party’s Purvanchal unit office was to be based in Varanasi, and Mamata ji wanted to have a darshan (of temples).”

    Tripathi also reasoned that she chose Varanasi as the first phase of the joining of new members in the TMC was to be held in the holy city.

    Laliteshpati Tripathi, ex-vice president of the state Congress and great-grandson of former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Kamlapati Tripathi, and his father Rajeshpathi joined the TMC in the presence of Banerjee in Siliguri on October 25.

    Asked what made him and his father join the TMC, the 43-year-old-leader said Banerjee has the capacity to fight Prime Minister Modi.

    Meanwhile, SP’s national vice-president Kiranmoy Nanda told PTI Sunday, “We have supported her (Mamata Banerjee) in the West Bengal Assembly elections. I myself have campaigned for her in the elections.”

    “We welcome the gesture (of offering support) by Didi. We want to defeat the BJP, and Didi also wants to defeat the BJP. If Didi supports us, we are happy, and we welcome it.”

    When asked as to how he views Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who is trying to mobilise the party cadre (ahead of the polls), Laliteshpati Tripathi said, “Politics is not a game, which is started two-three months before the elections. If I take the example of Mamata Banerjee, she fought the Communists in the state continuously for three-four years by being there. The Congress, too, needs the same thing”.

    “The Congress seems to be fighting now, and for the candidates it is good that the star campaigners are active. Whosoever can take advantage of it, will do so. But, as far as the revival of the party is concerned, it should have been started in 2019,” he said.

    Commenting on the announcement made by Priyanka Gandhi that the Congress will give 40 per cent of tickets in Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls to women, and whether it could be possibly a game changer, Tripathi said, “If this was to be made a game changer, this should have been introduced in states like Uttarakhand, Goa and Punjab, where they could have guaranteed the win of their candidates, and it could have been a strong initiative towards women empowerment.

    “This is a welcome move, but based on it alone, you cannot win the polls as there are a host of other factors,” he said.

    “Didi has shown that she can take on Narendra Modi and defeat him as well,” Tripathi said and added that the 2022 Uttar Pradesh Assembly election has become Akhilesh Yadav versus Yogi Adityanath.

    “If Akhilesh is seen on a strong footing, then the prime minister would have to come here and lead the (BJP’s poll) campaign,” Tripathi said.

    Tripathi claimed that BJP’s tally of seats in the 2022 Assembly elections will decrease from its 2017 total of 312, as there is “anger in the society, farmers are worried in absence of proper purchase of paddy and due to non-availability of fertilisers”.

    He also claimed that the BJP will lose seats in the rural areas of Varanasi in the Assembly polls.

    Tripathi said that he and his father have not taken any designation in the TMC and are working to strengthen it in the state.

  • Akhilesh Yadav and Jayant Chaudhary meet to discuss seat-sharing in Uttar Pradesh

    Express News Service

    NEW DELHI:  Akhilesh Yadav and Jayant Chaudhary virtually made it official on Tuesday that their parties, the Samajwadi Party and the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), respectively, had sealed the deal to contest the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections in alliance. 

    The two leaders met in Lucknow, apparently to discuss seat-sharing. They both later tweeted that they were moving together towards change. “Shri Jayant Chaudhary ji ke saath badlav ke ore (With Jayant Chaudhary for change,” the SP chief said in his twitter post. The RLD leader, too, posted a photograph of his meeting with Akhilesh and tweeted, “Badhte Kadam.”

    Speaking to this newspaper over phone, SP spokesperson Manoj Rai confirmed that alliance with RLD was finalised. “The details on seat-sharing would be announced after proper discussion,” he said. Sources, meanwhile, said the seat-sharing was also finalised and the announcement would be made soon.

    Sources from the RLD said the party expected to contest over 36 seats in western UP as it had a strong base here. The RLD had reportedly demanded 50 seats from the SP. The SP is learnt to have agreed to offer 30-36 seats of its choice in western UP to RLD.

    According to sources, the deal between the two parties was earlier stuck over Charthawal assembly seat in Muzaffarnagar district, with Akhilesh adamant to field SP candidate Harendra Malik from there. The sources said the RLD agreed for alliance after the SP dropped its claimed on Charthawal, from which Jayant himself is considering to contest. BJP’s Vijay Kumar Kushwaha was elected in 2017 from the seat.

    The RLD is believed to have consolidated its electoral base in western UP during the farmers’ agitation. “With its strong support among Jats, it can give a tougher fight to the BJP in western UP than the SP,” said a political observer.

  • Both SP & BJP taking credit for work planned by previous BSP governments: Mayawati

    The former chief minister said the BSP does not release election manifestos like other parties as it believes more in “doing work than making tall claims.

  • UP polls: Shivpal Yadav says forming alliance with SP is PSPL’s priority, asks for 100 seats

    By PTI

    ETAWAH: Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (Lohia) chief Shivpal Yadav on Monday said that his party’s priority is to form an alliance with the Samajwadi Party for the upcoming Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections and that it should be allotted 100 seats.

    Referring to reports about a possible reunion between Shivpal Yadav and his estranged nephew and SP president Akhilesh Yadav on party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav’s 82nd birthday on Monday, the PSPL chief said that the people of Uttar Pradesh had hopes from today but the result was “shunya” (zero).

    Addressing a gathering at a ‘dangal’ (wrestling match) organised here on the occasion of his elder brother’s birthday, Shivpal Yadav said that in case the SP does not make a decision on the alliance within a week, the PSPL will hold a meeting in Lucknow to decide the future course of action.

    There was a falling out between Shivpal Yadav and Akhilesh Yadav in 2017.

    Allegedly upset over his diminishing stature in the SP, Shivpal Yadav broke away and floated the PSPL in 2018.

    The souring of their relationship was exacerbated with Akhilesh Yadav taking over the reins of the SP in 2017.

    “In 2022, we have to come to power. The entire state wants both parties (PSPL and SP) to contest the elections together. The people of the state had hopes from this day (Mulayam Singh’s birthday) but the result was ‘shunya’ (zero). Now again fake news will be run,” Shivpal Yadav said.

    Earlier this month, Akhilesh Yadav had said that he would be working to join hands with Shivpal Yadav on Mulayam Singh’s birthday.

    He had also said that he would give all respect to his uncle and the SP would enter into an alliance with the PSLP for the assembly elections.

    However, neither Akhilesh Yadav nor Mulayam Singh said anything to this effect during the birthday celebrations of the SP patriarch at the party headquarters in Lucknow on Monday.

    “We want unity as it has power. Our priority is to form an alliance with the SP. There is little time (left for the elections). Whatever decision has to be taken should be taken soon. I am saying for the past two years that elections should be contested unitedly,” Shivpal Yadav said.

    “I have accepted all conditions. He (Akhilesh) should become the chief minister,” he said.

    PSLP leaders who are in a position to win should be given tickets.

    The SP chief can get a survey done and decide, he added.

    “Give me 100 seats and we will contest (elections) together,” the PSPL leader said.

    “If a decision is not made (soon by the SP), the PSPL will organise a big conference in Lucknow after a week and take suggestions (from partymen) and a decision will be taken by the party’s parliamentary board,” he said.

    The elections for the 403-member Uttar Pradesh Assembly will be held early next year.

    Shivpal Yadav also claimed that had he wanted, he could have become the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh in 2003 but he let go of the position for Mulayam Singh despite the fact that “our own party and other leaders wanted to see me as chief minister”.

    To celebrate Mulayam Singh’s birthday, Shivpal Yadav cut a large cake with his son Aditya Yadav and party workers at a stadium here and offered it to his brother’s photograph.

    In a tweet in Hindi, Shivpal Yadav described Mulayam Singh as a source of inspiration and the “flag-bearer of social justice” and wished him a long and healthy life.

  • SP to celebrate Mulayam Singh Yadav’s birthday in all districts of UP

    By PTI

    LUCKNOW: The Samajwadi Party has planned to celebrate party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav’s 82nd birthday in all districts of Uttar Pradesh on Monday.

    “The main function will be held at the party office in Lucknow’s Vikramaditya Marg, which will also be attended by SP chief Akhilesh Yadav. Instructions have already been issued by the party chief to hold the birthday celebrations of Netaji in all the districts of the state,” senior party leader and spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary told PTI.

    He, however, did not confirm if Mulayam Singh will be attending the event at the party office in Lucknow.

    The SP leader also evaded a reply on whether Shivpal Yadav, the president of Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (Lohia), will attend the celebrations.

    Shivpal is the brother of the octogenarian leader.

    On November 3, Akhilesh Yadav had stated that he would be joining hands with his uncle on the birthday of the party founder.

    He had said he would give all respect to Shivpal with whose party he would enter into an alliance for the upcoming assembly elections.

  • Former BSP MLA booked for provoking ‘religious enmity’ in Ghaziabad

    By PTI

    GHAZIABAD: Former Bahujan Smajawadi Party MLA Aslam Chaudhary has been booked here on charges of provoking enmity between religious groups owing to a video clip in which he was seen rebuking Loni MLA Nand Kishore Gurjar, police here said on Sunday.

    An FIR was filed against the ex-Dhaulana legislator – who recently joined the Samajwadi Party – at the Masuri Police Station in the district here.

    In a video which circulated on social media, Chaudhary was seen addressing a gathering of people and questioning the November 11 “encounter” in Loni in which seven Muslim men (including a juvenile, it has been alleged) received bullet injuries in leg during a raid conducted to nab “cow slaughterers”.

    The raid was conducted under Loni Border SHO Rajendra Tyagi, who has since been a subject of an inquiry for the alleged encounter.

    Chaudhary in the video accused Gurjar of giving patronage to Tyagi for the alleged encounter and of working to stop his transfer.

    In his speech, Chaudhary was also heard saying that he will exact revenge on Gurjar for the encounter.

    “If you want to take revenge, you (Muslims) have to educate your children to make them officers,” he also allegedly said.

    The FIR against Chaudhary was registered at the complaint of sub-inspector Lokesh Kumar posted in Dasna town under section 506, 505 C, and 153 of the Indian Penal Code, police said.

    Reacting to what was said in the video, Gurjar, a BJP MLA, allegedly called Chaudhary “an uneducated man” who shoots his mouth off.

    He also accused him of giving patronage to the cow smugglers and said he should be booked under the National Security Act.

    Gurjar has weighed in Tyagi’s favour since the probe began against him and has demanded cancelling of his transfer from the Additional Chief Secretary (Home) of Uttar Pradesh.

    He has also levelled allegations against unnamed police officers of conniving with cow slaughterers.

    Superintendent of Police, Rural, Iraj Raja said FIR would be registered against any person who will try to shatter communal harmony and try spreading hate in the society.

    He said the video in question has been secured in a pen drive and a probe has been launched against Chaudhary in the matter.

  • AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi in process of clinching alliances for UP polls 

    Express News Service

    LUCKNOW: With his ally Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) chief OP Rajbhar holding hands with Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi has been in the process of cobbling up some new alliances with smaller parties ahead of 2022 UP Assembly elections.

    While being determined to contest on 100 seats in UP, Owaisi on Sunday said his party was in talks with “one or two parties” for an alliance for the upcoming Uttar Pradesh assembly polls, However, he remained tight lipped over the names and nature of the parties.

    It may be recalled that Owaisi had joined the Rajbhar led Bhagidari Morcha, an umbrella outfit of around 10 smaller caste-based groups, looking to carve out their presence in the political landscape of Uttar Pradesh. 

    However, with Rajbhar clinching an alliance with SP, the Bhagidari Morcha slipped into disarray with many of the smaller political groups unwilling to go along with Rajbhar. Owaisi has been one of them.

    However, while interacting with media persons in Lucknow on Sunday, the AIMIM chief exuded confidence that is party would emerge victorious on the seats it would contest in the next year’s assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh.

    “Our party has decided to contest elections on 100 seats. We’re in talks with one or two more parties and time will tell if we form an alliance or not. We’re in a position to win the elections,” Owaisi said.

    Owaisi had earlier said his party was in talks with Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party leader Shivpal Yadav, and suggested he was in talks with the president of Azad Samaj Party Chandra Shekhar Azad.

    “We are in talks with Shivpal Yadav. I’ve also met Chandra Shekhar once. We are in talks with other parties too,” he had said last month.

    Owaisi also asserted that AIMIM’s candidates for the assembly polls won’t be from the Muslim community only, “but from across the communities”.

    The AIMIM, which fielded candidates on 38 seats in 2017 elections in UP, had drawn a blank while the Samajwadi Party bagged 47 seats, BSP won 19 and the Congress could manage to win only seven seats.

  • Samajwadi Party fears BJP will bring back three farm laws after assembly polls

    By PTI

    LUCKNOW: The Samajwadi Party on Sunday expressed apprehension that the three contentious farm laws will be brought again after the 2022 assembly elections, citing the statements made by Rajasthan Governor Kalraj Mishra and BJP MP from Unnao Sakshi Maharaj on them.

    Both Mishra and Maharaj told reporters on Saturday that the laws can be brought again, if needed On Friday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that the Centre will repeal the three farm laws after the nearly year-long agitation by a section of farmers, mostly from Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.

    Farmer leaders said the protesters will stay put at border areas of Delhi until the Centre formally repeals these laws in Parliament and indicated their stir for a statutory guarantee of MSP and withdrawal of the Electricity Amendment Bill will continue.

    In a tweet in Hindi, the Samajwadi Party charged, “It is absolutely clear that their heart is not clean, and after the elections, the bills will be brought again. Occupying the constitutional posts, Governor of Rajasthan Kalraj Mishra and BJP MP Sakshi Maharaj have said that the BJP government may bring the bill for farm laws.”

    “This is the truth of those tendering false apologies to farmers. The farmers will bring a change in 2022,” the SP said in the tweet.

    Mishra on Saturday said in Bhadohi that efforts were made to make the farmers understand the provisions of the farm laws, and positive aspects, but the farmers were demanding the withdrawal of the three farm laws and were protesting against them.

    Eventually, the government felt that the laws be withdrawn, and if there is a need to make the laws again, it will be done.

    “The farmers were continuously demanding that the farm laws be withdrawn, and it was done in a very civilised manner. It is a good step and appropriate decision,” Mishra said.

    Speaking to reporters in Unnao on Saturday, BJP MP Maharaj said, “Bills are made and repealed. They will come again, and will be made again. It hardly takes any time (Bills to bante rehte hai, bigarhte rehte hai…vaapas aajaayenge, dobaaraa ban jaayenge…koi der nahi lagtee hai). But, I would thank Modiji that he displayed a big heart, and he chose the Nation over the laws. And those whose intentions were wrong, those who had raised slogans of Pakistan zindaabaad and Khalistan zindabad, they have got a befitting reply.”

    He also categorically stated that there is no connection between the announcement of repealing of the farm laws with the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections 2022.

    “In the UP 2022 Assembly elections, the BJP will cross the 300 mark in the (403-member) UP Legislative Assembly. In India, there is no substitute of (Prime Minister) Modi and (UP Chief Minister) Yogi Adityanath. Their magic will stay,” he said.