The communal violence in Sambhal that claimed four lives and left over 20 people injured has now sparked a debate over a purported rivalry between the Turk and Pathan communities, with political and administrative figures weighing in on the cause of the unrest.
Curbs under Section 163 (power to issue an order in urgent cases of nuisance or apprehended danger) of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), which were set to expire on Sunday, have now been extended till December 31 in Sambhal.
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday alleged a 'well-planned' conspiracy by the Bharatiya Janata Party for the violence in Uttar Pradesh's Sambhal, where a team of Congress MPs led by Rahul Gandhi is scheduled to visit on December 4 amid restrictions imposed by the district administration.
Senior Superintendent of Police, Lucknow, Akhil Kumar said the speeding Safari was being driven by 20-year-old Kashif Abbas, son of SP MLA from Gazipur Sadab Fatima. Kumar said three people have been killed in the incident while seven others have been admitted to the Trauma Centre with serious injuries.
Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi along with the five other Congress MPs from Uttar Pradesh will visit violence-hit Sambhal on Wednesday, party's state unit chief Ajay Rai said.
This has invited sharp reaction from the Opposition, with the Samajwadi Party saying that the BJP was afraid of its defeat in Milkipur due to which it moved the court for "stalling" polls on the assembly seat.
Ajit Pawar also said he was "not interested" in contesting elections anymore.
Despite this setback, Pandey emphasised that discussions regarding ticket distribution are ongoing and solutions will be found through timely communication.
Thakur College of Science and Commerce, post the controversy, said the event aimed to encourage students, particularly first time voters, to participate in the upcoming general elections but added "the matter", possibly a reference to students being forced to attend, was "under review".
Bypolls to 10 assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh will be a litmus test for the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA)'s unity after the group's success in the recent Lok Sabha polls when they won more than 40 seats, significantly contributing to the Bharatiya Janata Party's failure to win a simple majority in parliament.
Pradhan, who had filed his nomination on Wednesday, said he accepts the decision of party national president Akhilesh Yadav, who he met in the morning.
An eighth BJP candidate on Thursday filed his nomination for the Rajya Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh, setting the stage for a contest with the Samajwadi Party on February 27.
Two months after a 22-year-old Dalit woman went missing from Unnao, her decomposed body was recovered from a vacant plot near an ashram constructed by a former minister in Samajwadi Party government Fateh Bahadur Singh, police said on Friday.
The Samajwadi Party and Congress have announced that they will contest together under the INDIA bloc.
Congress, the main Opposition party in the BJP-ruled state, had left the Khajuraho seat for SP as per the seat-sharing arrangement within the INDIA bloc.
A total of 161.30 acres of land, plant, machinery and building of the Kannad Sahakari Sakhar Karkhana Limited (Kannad SSK) located in Kannad village of Aurangabad district has been provisionally attached under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the ED said in a statement.
A senior SP leader requesting anonymity said that the party chief had called a meeting to brief the MLAs about the voting process of the Rajya Sabha elections.
Bypolls are due in Bihar, Gujarat, Haryana, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Telangana, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu
A government counsel in the case said the special court accepted the appeal filed against Khan's sentence.
Apna Dal-K leader Pallavi Patel made it clear that the party was no longer an ally of the SP which is a member of the INDIA bloc.
Besides Defence Minister Singh (Lucknow), Minister of Women and Child Development Irani (Amethi), those in the fray are Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs Kaushal Kishor (Mohanlalganj) and Minister of State of Consumer Affairs Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti (Fatehpur).
'They know that if they do not tie up with the Congress, then the minorities will move to the Congress.'
The notable names in the BJP's first list include Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Varanasi, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh from Lucknow, Hema Malini from Mathura, Ajay Mishra Teni from Kheri, Smriti Irani from Amethi, Lallu Singh from Faizabad (Ayodhya) and Mahendra Nath Pandey from Chandauli among others.
Maurya had the right to give his own independent explanation different from explanations of many scholars but he cannot use such language which may disturb the religious feelings of a community, the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court said.
Voting for by-elections to seven assembly constituencies of six states, including Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Kerala, Tripura, West Bengal, and Jharkhand, started on Tuesday at 7 am.
Besides the picture of Akhilesh Yadav, the poster also carries the picture of party state spokesperson Fakhrul Hasan 'Chand', who earlier in July on the birthday of the SP chief had put up a similar banner outside the SP office.
The Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly is all set to pass a new set of rules under which members will not be able to take their mobile phones inside the House, tear documents or stand or sit with their backs towards the Speaker.
Khan, who was recently released from Sitapur Jail, is in Rampur and could not attend the meeting due to health reasons, SP leaders said.
Members from the Jayant Chaudhary's Rashtriya Lok Dal too were part of the group, their participation seen as another indication that the party is all set to switch sides from the SP to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.
Rajesh Shukla, the lone SP MLA in Madhya Pradesh, along with an MLA of the Bahujan Samaj Party and an independent legislator joined the BJP in Bhopal on Tuesday in the presence Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.
The SP chief said, "If the Congress behaves like this, who will stand with them."
Irfan, who represented Bilari assembly seat, was on his way to attend the marriage of son of senior cabinet minister Shivpal Singh Yadav in Saifai in Etawah district when his vehicle overturned and fell into a ditch on Thursday.
Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav on Tuesday pointedly accused Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati of hounding his party MLA Vijay Misra, prime accused in the life attempt on UP Registration and Stamps Minister Nand Gopal Gupta Nandi in Allahabad three month ago.
The school will now be renamed as 'Avicenna International School'.
Samajwadi Party Member of Legislative Assembly Abu Asim Azmi on Saturday stirred up another controversy by meeting the family of a suspect in the ONGC terror plot on 'humanitarian grounds' and said he was ready to face any inquiry by police. "I met the family of Riyaz Ali on humanitarian grounds, after a request from my party corporator in suburban Bandra. I am a people's representative and there is nothing wrong in meeting families," he said.
Nawajish Shahid, the son of SP MLA and former minister Shahid Manzoor, was picked up from Meerut and arrested subsequently, a police officer said.
The results for bypolls to seven assembly seats in six states will be declared on Friday in what is being seen as a major test for the opposition's Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance against the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance ahead of the polls in five states later this year and Lok Sabha elections in 2024.
A Samajwadi Party member of Legislative Assembly's son, who was accused of misbehaving with a female teacher, was rusticated from the Amity University, official sources said in Lucknow.
The Supreme Court on Monday reserved its verdict on a plea by a former Samajwadi Party member of Legislative Assembly seeking to set aside the directions issued against him by the Allahabad high court in a case of alleged illegal confinement of a girl in which Rahul Gandhi's name was dragged.
Rampant corruption in the Uttar Pradesh police is an open secret. But how blatant it has become has been spelt out by none other than widely known ruling Samajwadi Party Member of Legislative Assembly Ravidas Mehrotra.
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