An eunuch is threatening to break the BJP’s unbroken 22-year stint in Ayodhya Assembly seat, which goes to polls on Wednesday.

“Chah piha ke samay aayal to hotel banawae ke baat karat hain (when the time came for tea, they talk of building hotel),” said Mohammed Hassan in Kulheria Hisampur village in Balrampur.

The NDA ally JD(U) threatens to make the going tough for the BJP in Tulsipur Assembly seat in the terai belt of Uttar Pradesh.

Though projected as the OBC mascot of the Congress, Union minister Beni Prasad Verma appears to be facing a tough fight on his home turf in Gonda. Even though Mr Verma is said to have been given a free hand in picking Congress candidates in the area, the Samajwadi Party appears to have made a strong comeback in the political arena, apart from the BSP still holding grounds here.

After having backed the BSP strongly in 2007, Barabanki appears to hint at a clear anti-incumbency undercurrent against the ruling party in Uttar Pradesh. The people on the ground indicate that Barabanki is set up for a tough triangular contest but at the same time suggest that they would have local factors in the mind while casting their votes.

Finally waking up to the threat posed to India’s rich biodiversity from bio-terrorism and the inflow of dangerous pests from outside, the Centre is drafting the Biodiversity Bill, on the lines of similar legislation in the United States, Australia and New Zealand. This bill will seek to establish an authority replacing the existing plantation protection advisers.

Though politically written off, former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Kalyan Singh appears to have pushed behind both the BJP and Samajwadi Party in the seven Assembly constituencies of Bulandshahr, wit

In the land of Deoband, while the Congress is counting on izzat of Qazi Rashid Masood, the Samajwadi Party is making all-out efforts to take revenge on him for having quit the party on poll eve.

While the BSP is hopeful that its dalit constituency remains largely intact, the party is wary that it could be losing the minority space with the Congress and Samajwadi Party making attempts to outbid each other on quotas for Muslims.

Apparently miffed at team Anna’s poser to party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav on whether he would tie up with the Congress or BJP after the UP elections, Samajwadi Party plans to tell Mr Anna Hazare “not to dictate the democratic process” in a letter to be sent on Tuesday.