The former Uttar Pradesh chief minister claimed that prayers were being offered in the park since 2013 and questioned the logic behind banning them ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

Rao will meet Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik in Bhubaneswar on December 23 and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in Kolkata the next day, a release from his office said.

"But it is essential that fundamental reforms need to be evolved in all defence related deals in order to address the doubts and perceptions among the common people," she said in a statement.

"Even though we don't agree with many of Congress's policies we have agreed to support them in Madhya Pradesh and if need be in Rajasthan," Mayawati said.

The poor sections of upper castes should also get reservation, she said.

Criticising the Congress, Yadav said its policies were responsible for the rise of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Elaborate security arrangements including use of helicopters and drone have been put in place for the polls to take place at over 19,000 polling booths and over a lakh security personnel have been deployed.

In a snub to the Congress, the BSP had announced its decision to contest the state election in alliance with the JCC, declaring Jogi as the chief ministerial face of the coalition.  

Elaborating on his point, the state Congress chief said of the seats reserved for the Scheduled Caste (SC) category, the Congress had won just one in the 2013 Assembly polls, while the BJP had emerged victorious on nine.

Lok Sabha elections 2019: The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) was part of the NDA till March this year. It pulled out of the ruling coalition at the Centre alleging the government's refusal to grant special category status to Andhra Pradesh.

The party had declared its first list for the upcoming Madhya Pradesh assembly elections last month.

According to the alliance agreement, the JCC (J) will contest 55 seats, the BSP 33 and the CPI will contest the Sukma and Dantewada seats.

The official bungalow at 6, Lal Bahadur Shastri Road of BSP supremo Mayawati in Lucknow has been allotted to Samajwadi Secular Morcha president Shivpal Yadav

Non-Gujaratis, especially those hailing from UP and Bihar, were targeted in several parts of the state following the arrest of a Bihar native, police said.

Om Prakash Chautala said his father had a dream that the countrymen should have enough food, shelter, good education and access to affordable health.

Earlier this week, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati dumped Congress as she decided to not forge an alliance with the grand-old party for the upcoming assembly polls in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.

 Mayawati's decision has come as a big setback for the proposed 'mahagathbandhan' (grand alliance) of non-BJP parties for the coming assembly polls and next year's Lok Sabha polls.

Mayawati's decision has served a body blow to the Congress' aim of stitching a Grand Alliance or Mahagathbandhan against the BJP ahead of 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

Lok Sabha elections 2019: “Digvijaya Singh who is also a BJP agent is giving statements that Mayawati ji has a lot of pressure from Centre so she doesn’t want this alliance. This is baseless,” BSP chief clarified.

Giving details of the seat-sharing agreement, Mayawati said that the BSP will contest 35 seats while Ajit Jogi’s Janata Congress will put up candidates on 55 seats.