The BJP got the benefit of a split in Muslim votes in some seats of western UP, and its candidates registered wins from Muzaffarnagar, Kairana, Meerut, Bulandshahr, Baghpat and Aligarh Lok Sabha seats.
Voters include 8.4 crore men, 8.23 crore women and 11,371 from third gender. There are as many as 35.67 lakh first time voters, besides 3.51 crore young voters in the age group of 20-29 years.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday dubbed the electoral bonds as the 'world's biggest extortion scheme' and alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the 'champion of corruption'.
'In Western UP, last time a lot of Dalits voted for the BJP.' 'This time, there is a rethink among Dalits about the extent of their support for the BJP.'
Chaudhary's jibe comes in the wake of his allegations the BJP has been trying to woo RLD leaders as well as the party chief into the saffron fold ahead of Uttar Pradesh assembly polls.
President Droupadi Murmu on Saturday conferred Bharat Ratna, the country's highest civilian honour, on former prime ministers P V Narasimha Rao and Chaudhary Charan Singh, agriculture scientist M S Swaminathan and two-time former Bihar chief minister Karpoori Thakur, posthumously at a ceremony held at the Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi.
'The BJP is racing against its opponents by putting a chain on their legs.'
The Congress president during his year at the helm of the party has repaired the citadel for far more challenging years ahead, and played a crucial role in shaping the Opposition alliance.
The local, district and police administration are reaching out to meat traders to ensure this, officials said.
Vehicles entering Delhi were being checked and pickets were increased at Delhi-Ghazipur, Tikri and Singhu borders.
The Shiv Sena has plans to field 50 to 100 candidates in Uttar Pradesh, including in Ayodhya and Mathura and made it clear that the party will not be part of any alliance.
'He only promotes those leaders who will never show any resistance to him in future.'
Uttar Pradesh BJP Minority Morcha President Kunwar Basit Ali has compiled 12 episodes of the prime minister's radio programme for the year 2022.
Nawajish Shahid, the son of SP MLA and former minister Shahid Manzoor, was picked up from Meerut and arrested subsequently, a police officer said.
More than 100 senior leaders and functionaries have been deployed to work as district in-charges in 44 assembly segments in Western Uttar Pradesh to coordinate and streamline campaigning and booth management, BJP leaders in New Delhi said.
Unprecedented rains and floods in the northern region in the past few days have not only caused extensive damage to lives and property but have also impacted business and commercial establishments. Vegetable prices have gone through the roof in the national capital and many other parts of the country since rains started pouring earlier this month. Traders say vegetable prices would come down only after roads open and skies clear, even as water in the fields will take time to recede.
While the RLD has fought the just-concluded polls in tie up with the Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party, the office-bearers of the BKU, which was part of the anti-farm laws protest against the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Centre, insists it is an 'apolitical' group.
Singh said the lumpy skin disease has spread to animals in 14 states of the country and it is "fatal to animals like coronavirus" is to human.
This is the third earthquake to hit seismically-active Nepal in a week.
BJP leaders from a dominant farming community in Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh held separate meetings on Wednesday to chalk up an outreach to members of the Jat community and caste councils (khaps) to counter the narrative against the Centre's three farm laws.
"I don't want Z category security. I want to be an A-category citizen, at par with you all. Why was UAPA not invoked against those who fired at me? ...I want to live, to speak. My life will be safe when the poor are safe. I will not get scared of those who shot at my car," he said in Parliament.
The seats held by the non-BJP parties in the state are Bijnor, Amroha, Moradabad, Sambhal, Raebareli, Ghosi, Lalganj, Jaunpur, Ambedkarnagar, Ghazipur, Shravasti, Mainpuri, Saharanpur and Nagina. Of these, Raebareli is held by Sonia Gandhi of the Congress.
The Bharatiya Janata Party faces an uphill task of repeating its performance of the last assembly election of winning 53 out of 58 constituencies in western Uttar Pradesh where polling will be held in the first phase on February 10.
The impact of the explosion was so intense that the roofs of some of the factories located in the vicinity were damaged.
The marches will also register the farmers' protest against non-fulfilment of various promises by the government, farmer leaders said.
Farmers participating in the ongoing protests against newly enacted three agri laws were not summoned by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), the government told Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.
Leaders from 26 opposition parties, in power individually or in alliance in Delhi and 10 states, are meeting in Bengaluru to discuss strategy to take on the Narendra Modi-led NDA in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
According to the police, a Special Task Force team retaliated when the gangster, recently released from prison on bail, opened fire at them after being cornered. His car had crashed into a pole.
Tiwari said that all the preparations have been made for the first phase of the polls and all the polling parties have left for their respective polling centers.
As many as 586 candidates are in the fray in this phase with the seats spread across Saharanpur, Bijnor, Moradabad, Sambhal, Rampur, Amroha, Budaun, Bareilly and Shahjahanpur.
The top court said the seriousness of the alleged offence has not been considered by the high court.
Prime Minister Modi last week called for optimal grain storage, fire audits and mock drills in hospitals as preparations for the harsh summer forecast by the meteorological department.
Mercury hovered around 40 degrees Celsius in large parts of the country on Monday as the Indian meteorological department predicted heat wave conditions in parts of east India over the next four days and the northwest region over the next two days.
A coordinated multi-agency search operation is underway to locate the two, even as Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath ordered setting up a three-member committee to probe the incident and submit a report in a week.
Police said that that the accused were hurt by Owaisi's 'anti-Hindu' statements.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday targeted the Samajwadi Party, saying five years ago musclemen and rioters used to be a law unto themselves in Uttar Pradesh.
"Now it is necessary to investigate whether there is a lapse in the security or the anger of the farmers!" Tikait tweeted in Hindi on Wednesday.
Two suspected beef smugglers from western Uttar Pradesh were arrested near the Delhi border after a gunfight with the Noida police on Thursday morning, officials said.
A win for SP could provide some consolation for Akhilesh Yadav after the defeat in the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections early this year and the loss of Azamgarh and Rampur Lok Sabha seats to the BJP in June bypolls.
The Noida Traffic Police has advised commuters travelling to Delhi to avoid using the Chilla route and instead take the DND or Kalindi Kunj route.