After two years of muted festivities due to COVID-19, crowds thronged churches across the country this Christmas on Sunday for special prayers as people celebrated the birth of Jesus Christ.
'I really wish I knew how to arouse love in the hearts of people, how to make them understand that religion comes later, first we are all humans.'
The Bharatiya Janata Party hit out at him and claimed that people often ask why maturity, wisdom and responsibility have not come to the Congress leader despite the passage of 51 Julys, a reference to his age.
French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday enjoyed a boat ride with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the Ganga with a glimpse of the rich cultural heritage of the temple city.
India has become world's 2nd largest mobile phone: Modi
Several people had taken shelter under the recently constructed structure while it rained. The dead, all of them men, were mostly relatives or neighbours of Jai Ram, who was being cremated at that time, officials said.
Days after Jayant Chaudhary's terse 'not a coin, won't flip' response to the BJP's apparent attempt to woo him, Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said the Rashtriya Lok Dal chief was a 'kid with little knowledge of history'.
Addressing the party's national executive, Nadda also reached out to Sikhs, who are in majority in poll-bound Punjab, by listing a number of measures the Modi government has taken for the community, including expediting action against 1984 riots accused, facilitating foreign grants to gurudwaras and keeping langars outside the review of the Goods and Services Tax.
Azam Khan, the Uttar Pradesh minister for urban development and minority affairs, has sought intervention of the United Nations to what he terms as "Prime Minister Narendra Modi's bid to turn India into a theocratic majority nation."
Kumar recommended Sahani's expulsion from the cabinet to the governor in the evening, after a written submission to the effect by the BJP, hours after the minister for fishery and animal husbandry was given the ultimatum to withdraw forthwith a recent notification.
Vandana Raghuvanshi, secretary of the Poorvanchal Jan Andolan Samiti, went to the Varanasi bus stand around 11 am and boarded a state-run Volvo bus that ran between the city and Lucknow, said Dinesh Kumar Singh, superintendent of police (city).
The stage is set for Narendra Modi's rally on the outskirts of Gorakhpur on Thursday, with the Bharatiya Janata Party claiming that it will be the "greatest of all" rally addressed by the party's prime ministerial candidate in Uttar Pradesh so far.
"This TMC government is anti-people, anti-democratic and have compromised with national security," Adityanath said.
The accident occurred in the Kisan Nagar area when a speeding bus hit a loader, which fell on the other side of the highway, while the bus also overturned and fell into a ditch.
The event brings to fruition the Bharatiya Janata Party's 'mandir' movement that defined its politics for three decades and took it to the heights of power.
Greetings from all quarters, including his political rivals, poured in on Monday for Prime Minister Narendra Modi who celebrated his 68th birthday in his parliamentary constituency Varanasi.
'The BJP is scared it may lose the Delhi municipal elections where they have been in power for the last 15 years.'
'For the BJP to lose this virtual pocket borough of the saffron brotherhood demonstrates how resolutely the people of Gorakhpur have turned against the party,' says Amulya Ganguli.
'For short-term gain, the BJP makes extraordinary promises, they take extraordinary decisions, but in the long term it is going to impact both them and the country.'
'Reports of hitherto 'atmanirbhar' breadwinners having to stand in line for a plastic bag of khichdi or, travelling thousands of kms with nothing but packets of biscuits, have not moved the prime minister,' observes Jyoti Punwani.
Sources in various parties suggest that two lakh votes of the Patel community, locally known as OBC kurmi, for which mother-daughter led Apna Dal (S) and Apna Dal (K) are competing and over one lakh of OBC Rajbhars would be crucial in deciding the outcome of the assembly seats in Varanasi.
'The Covid situation is like demonetisation.' 'People were upset with the government initially, but eventually they voted for the BJP again.'
Congress general secretary and chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala accused the BJP of pushing India into a dark age of religious polarisation to "subserve its parochial political agenda in the short term".
Here are 5 BJP MPs who have taken up cudgels against their party leadership for its handling of Dalit issues.
'Today in Uttar Pradesh all big parties like Samajwadi Party, BJP or even Bahujan Samaj Party are out to woo smaller parties as they know the Hindu votes are getting divided.'
'The tally of Muslim MLAs has increased. They know they can make themselves count in the electoral system.'
Modi is scheduled to arrive in the city to lay the foundation of the Raja Mahendra Pratap Singh State University.
"We particularly want Bajrang Bali because he is linked to my own Dalit caste," Mayawati said.
Making an intervention during the discussion on the motion for granting constitutional status to the national commission for backward classes, Modi highlighted that there are sections among Muslims, who are backward, adding that they should be included in the discussion over backward classes.
Amit Shah requested Adityanath to tighten the reins of the HYV's activities, now that he was CM. But Adityanath is not prepared to let go so easily.
While, projects, including Rs 23,000 crore Purvanchal Expressway, totalling Rs 60,000 crore have already been launched, the Yogi Adityanath government is fast paving the way for laying the foundation of the remaining projects before the general election dates are announced.
The bricks were sent by devotees of Lord Ram from around the world in 1989. There are 2,75,000 such bricks, out of which 100 bricks with 'Jai Shri Ram' engraving have been taken.
'After Modi, Yogi is the most popular face of Hindutva, but it's too early to say that he is someone who could succeed Modi.'
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.
In his maiden foray in the state election, Yadav won from the Karhal assembly seat by a margin of 67,504 votes.
'So we had Akshay Kumar dressed up like Robert Vadra on his offday, and trying to not look fan-struck...'
The Samajwadi Party, the Rashtriya Lok Dal and some smaller parties will contest the 2022 Uttar Pradesh assembly polls together, and an announcement in this regard would be made soon, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav said on Tuesday.
The gross expenses made by the party, including by the central headquarters and the state unit between the announcement and completion of the elections, stood at nearly Rs 71.73 crore, while the gross receipts during this period were to the tune of Rs 35.83 crore.
The pressure on Delhi mellowed Lucknow's ruling dispensation's initial enthusiasm to try and draw electoral mileage from the developments in Afghanistan.
'Even if the government does not implement an all-India NRC before 2024, it will be part of the party's long-term project.'
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