UP Polls

Cong will publish poll expense details: Digvijaya

Digvijaya Singh said that the Congress will share its expense details with the EC not with Team Anna. ...

Don't blame Rahul if party fails: UP Cong chief

New Delhi: Uttar Pradesh state Congress chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi on Monday tried to shield Rahul Gandhi, saying that she will take full responsibility if the party does not do well in the Assembly elections. "Party and candidates are responsible for the results, not Rahul Gandhi," she said. Speaking to CNN-IBN, she said, "Rahul Gandhi was just a campaigner. He wasn't involved in ticket distribution, strategising of elections. Full responsibility...  

SP won't need support to form govt: Akhilesh

Lucknow: With the exit polls suggesting that the Samajwadi Party will get a simple majority in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, young leader Akhilesh Yadav has said that he was always confident of the party getting the maximum number of seats. In an exclusive interview to CNN-IBN, the leader said, "I don't think there will be a situation where we will need any support from any other party. I am...  

Disclose Rahul Gandhi's poll expenses: Team Anna

New Delhi: Team Anna Member Arvind Kejriwal on Monday dared Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi to disclose his election expenses. Kejriwal asked Congress leader Digvijaya Singh to make Rahul's helicopter and the party's other election expenses public. He said it was the Congress' turn to publish expenses and sources of funding for each helicopter trip and rally, just like Team Anna had published its accounts within 24 hours of being...  

Assembly polls: Counting of votes tomorrow

New Delhi: Counting of votes in the Assembly elections in the five states of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Manipur and Goa, considered "mini general elections", will be taken up on Tuesday. The counting will begin at 0800 hours and first results are expected in an hour or two and all the results by evening. The results will decide the fate of candidates in a total of 690 assembly seats --...  

Team Anna to chalk out its next strategy today

Anna Hazare said that any party government come into power in UP, they must think in the interest of the nation. ...

UP: Akhilesh Yadav, the new face of the SP

All eyes are on Akhilesh Yadav in UP who has emerged as the new face of the Samajwadi Party. ...

Political leaders beat the blues ahead of D-day

Lucknow: After days of gruelling campaigning and with just 24 hours left for the vote counting to begin, political leaders are keeping themselves busy in myriad ways. While some are praying for divine intervention, others are simply relaxing and waiting for the D-day. Senior BJP leader Kalraj Misra was out for a quick power walk when CNN-IBN caught up with him. He said he started the day with a silent...  

Maya's move: What will the UP Guv do now?

New Delhi: In a seemingly well-calculated move, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati on Sunday recommended dissolution of the state Assembly. The BSP chief presided over what could be the last Cabinet meeting on Sunday night and got the order passed by the Cabinet seeking the dissolution of the House, a decision taken just two days before counting. The recommendation will be sent to the Governor on March 6 once counting...  

Beni Prasad stumps Cong by favouring tie-up with BSP

New Delhi/Lucknow: With exit polls predicting a hung assembly in Uttar Pradesh, Beni Prasad Verma, Union Minister and senior Congress leader from the state, on Sunday caused a flutter in the party by favouring a tie-up with Mayawati's BSP, a comment from which the party quickly distanced itself. Verma, who quit Samajwadi Party in 2007 following differences with Mulayam Singh Yadav, said he would personally prefer BSP to SP, which...  

Mayawati calls for dissolution of UP Assembly

Lucknow: The Mayawati government on Sunday recommended the dissolution of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly, marking a deviation of the normal practice as it comes just two days before the counting of votes. The decision to dissolve the Uttar Pradesh Assembly was taken by circulation, which is a practice adopted when most Cabinet ministers are absent and the Chief Minister has to take a decision. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati had...  

Top leadership to decide on alliance: Khurshid

Noida: Congress leader Salman Khurshid on Sunday said the party's top leadership would decide on the issue of post-polls tie-ups in Uttar Pradesh. When asked about Beni Prasad Verma's comment, in which he had favoured the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) as a better option for coalition than the Samajwadi Party (SP), Law Minister Salman Khurshid refrained from commenting and said "directions of the top leadership will be followed after two...  

Cong speaks in different voices on post-poll ties

New Delhi: A day after exit polls across channels a majority for the Samajwadi Party, the Congress on Sunday spoke in different voices on the possibility of post-poll alliance in Uttar Pradesh. The biggest surprise came from Union Minister Beni Prasad Verma, who said that the BSP would be a better ally than the Samajwadi party for the Congress. He said, "We are going to tie up with BSP rather...  

Exit polls best for entertainment channels: Quraishi

New Delhi: Amid a flurry of exit polls predicting the outcome of Assembly elections ahead of the March 6 results, Chief Election Commissioner SY Quraishi on Sunday said such surveys should at best be on entertainment channels. "Opinion and exit polls should at best be on entertainment channels!," Quraishi tweeted this afternoon, taking a dig at the surveys. The reaction of the CEC, who made his Twitter debut on February...  

BJP will not form coalition govt in UP: Rajnath Singh

Rajnath Singh said that if the BJP does not get a clear majority in the UP Assembly polls, it will not form a coalition government in the state. ...

UP polls: RLD still with Congress, says Ajit Singh

RLD chief Ajit Singh has said that the party will keep Congress in loop for any talks on coalition. ...

UP polls: Mulayam Singh is our CM candidate, says SP

Samajwadi Party leader Shivpal Singh has said that there is only one leader in the party and that is Mulayam Singh. ...

Mayawati is a better ally than SP, says Cong

Lucknow: In possibly the first hint at a post-poll alliance, the Congress on Sunday indicated that it considered BSP supremo Mayawati "a much better ally" than Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav. The CNN-IBN-The Week exit polls had revealed a clear victory for the SP in the state Assembly elections. However, the Congress had earlier ruled out any post-poll alliance with either the SP or the BSP. "We would prefer...  

Cong would get at least 100 seats in UP: Digvijaya

Bhopal: Congress General Secretary Digvijaya Singh on Sunday said that he did not believe the exit polls' prediction that his party would win less than 40 seats in the Uttar Pradesh assembly election. "We all know that exit polls have gone wrong in the past, and this will happen now again," he said. Asked how many seats he expected Congress to win, Singh said, "At least one hundred." He added...  

UP govt begins uncovering of Maya's statues

New Delhi: The Uttar Pradesh government on Sunday started uncovering Chief Minister Mayawati's statues in Lucknow. The statues were covered on January 7 upon the Election Commission's orders, after several opposition parties raised a hue and cry about her statues being in the open in poll season. The parties alleged that the BSP would have an unfair advantage in the elections because of them. In Lucknow, nine statues of Mayawati...