The Union Cabinet reshuffle may have been designed to create an impact in Uttar Pradesh where Assembly elections are due next year, but the changes are unlikely to change the dwindling fortunes of the party in the state.

Congressmen in Uttar Pradesh are a worried lot. Those wanting to contest the next Assembly elections are even more upset.
“The spiralling prices and the recent petrol hike could spell disaster or the Congress in the UP Assembly elections that are exactly a year away. The common man is

Congress MP Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday asked party leaders to shift the blame for price rise on the state government and approach the voters with fresh enthusiasm.
“The Centre is certainly not responsible for the increase in prices of vegetables and fruits. It is for the state government to check hoarding and black-marketing,” he said at the concluding session of the two-day meeting of the UP Congress coordination committee here.

In a move that is bound to widen the rift between the Mayawati government and the Centre, the UP chief minister has withdrawn all protocol privileges normally accorded to Union ministers visiting the state.

In a move that is bound to widen the rift between the Mayawati government and the UPA government, the UP chief minister has withdrawn all protocol privileges that are normally accorded to visiting Central ministers.

The two-day meeting of the UP Congress coordination committee that begins on Monday in Lucknow will finally decide the action plan for the state assembly elections, scheduled to be held early 2012.

Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati marked her 55th birthday on Saturday by dedicating to the people around 600 projects and welfare schemes worth over `4,000 crores.

The 17-year-old girl who was implicated in a theft case after she accused a ruling Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) legislator from Banda of raping her, was released from jail Saturday, officials said.

It was around 11 pm on Friday night that the crowds outside an ice-cream shop in Hazratganj were rudely herded on to the pavement.

The Thakur community in Uttar Pradesh is now divided over the issue of supporting Raja Bhaiyya, the man who — till not so long ago — was hailed as a modern-day icon of the community.