Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav hit out at the Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday over the Muzaffarnagar riots, accusing it of vitiating the atmosphere ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, and promised stern action against all those found guilty.
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.
With numbers on its side -- the ruling NDA has about half the votes of the electoral college -- and the possible support of fence-sitters like the BJD, the AIADMK and the YSRCP, the NDA candidate will likely sail through the contest.
The nodal officer for EVMs in Varanasi, a returning officer (RO) in Sonbhadra district and an additional election officer in Bareilly district have been pulled out from election duties, a day ahead of the counting of votes in UP.
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.
'Gehlot is right now doing things, which are not appreciated by the Gandhis.' 'The Gandhis have realised that their writ does not run in Rajasthan, therefore they have deflected the issue to Kharge.'
After sharing the dais with SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav earlier this month, former party leader Amar Singh on Monday had a closed door meeting with the national president again at his residence.
The ceremony on Friday will be attended by Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and chief ministers of Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled states.
OBC leader Dharam Singh Saini on Thursday became the third minister to resign from the Uttar Pradesh cabinet this week, giving yet another jolt to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in the run-up to the assembly polls.
While Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao has made his national ambitions amply clear, even rechristening his party to aid the process, his Tamil Nadu counterpart M K Stalin insists he is already in the national scene and used his birthday rally on March 1 to not only strongly pitch for the Congress as a force to reckon with in the efforts to dislodge the Narendra Modi-led dispensation at the Centre, but also sought to shoot down the prospects of a Third Front.
The 80-year-old leader is admitted to the Medanta Hospital in Gurgaon.
The conference was seen by many as a show of strength by the Opposition with Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, his Jharkhand counterpart Hemant Soren and Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav joining in to raise their voice against oppression of backward classes.
Samajwadi Party founder and former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav's younger daughter-in-law Aparna Yadav, who contributed Rs 11 lakh to the Ram Temple fund, has refused to 'take responsibility for her family's past actions'.
The BJP campaign highlighted Yogi's persona as a tough-as-nails leader and an incorruptible man with no nest to feather; Modi's charisma which was turned on full blast in the penultimate phases; Amit Shah's ground work; a well-oiled party organisation, and the RSS's back-up.
"If you look at newspapers, you will see that Modi Ji was the first to greet Yogij Ji (on birthday). In fact, we are of the view that Yogi ji is the most competent implement to fulfil the dreams of Modijee," he said.
His father Somappa Rayappa Bommai was the state chief minister during 1988-1989.
Opposition leaders on Saturday lauded the Congress for its victory in Karnataka and thanked the people of the state, saying that this win has showed that 'Modi is not invincible'.
The two chief ministers had lunch together and discussed various issues, including the current political situation in the country.
A summary of all the action from Day 1 of the Ranji Trophy matches played on Tuesday.
'Outside the core voter base of upper caste Hindus, there is a large section unhappy with the performance of the BJP.'
Angry protesters allegedly forced the two vehicles to stop and set them on fire.
A clerical error compounded by callousness of the higher bureaucracy has raised a storm over the already vexed Ayodhya issue.
The SP's bid to dent the BJP's formidable social equation is playing out in a big way in the Poorvanchal or eastern region of Uttar Pradesh as the ruling party is working overtime to keep its caste equation unharmed.
Jayant Chaudhary has plenty of time to make his own mistakes. But this election is a crucial test of his leadership.
Uttar Pradesh's deputy chief ministers on Thursday assured strict action against the culprits in the rape and murder of two Dalit girls in UP's Lakhimpur Kheri and urged the opposition to "console the family instead of politicising the matter".
The four doctors are on the run and police have fanned out teams to nab them, a senior police officer said.
Gandhi is scheduled to visit Amethi from October 4-6.
The Lakhimpur violence, in which the son of senior BJP leader and Union minister of state Ajay Mishra Teni are accused of trampling four protesting farmers to death, has opened another front for the CM to deal with, after the mysterious death of Akhara Parishad president Mahant Narendra Giri last month and the death of a Kanpur-based trader in Gorakhpur recently.
Counting began at 8 am under multi-tier security cover. At first, postal ballots will be counted and then EVMs opened.
Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party (SBSP) president Om Praksh Rajbhar on Thursday said his alliance with the SP will support jailed BSP MLA Mukhtar Ansari in the upcoming 2022 Uttar Pradesh assembly polls.
Mobs hurled bombs and pelted stones at each other as violence erupted in Kanpur after groups of people tried to force shopkeepers to down shutters over an alleged insult to Prophet Mohammed on a television show.
Campaigning for the fifth phase ended on Friday evening, and all necessary arrangements have been completed, state Chief Election Officer Ajay Kumar Shukla said in Lucknow on Saturday.
The Bharatiya Janata Party in Uttar Pradesh will be reduced to its 2012 tally of 47 or thereabouts as the wind is blowing in favour of the Akhilesh Yadav-led coalition this election, says Swami Prasad Maurya who left the saffron party to join the Samajwadi Party last month.
The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court on Thursday ordered a CBI probe against tainted Noida official Yadav Singh, whose disproportionate assets were exposed in a raid by the Income Tax department several months ago.
Heavy overnight rains in Uttar Pradesh on Friday led to the deaths of at least 22 people, including nine labourers who were buried alive under the debris when an under-construction wall in the state capital collapsed on their huts.
State deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya among 692 candidates are contesting on 61 seats spread across 12 districts in the fifth phase.
With controversial Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Azam Khan in the line of the Election Commission's (EC) fire for his comments, Uttar Pradesh (UP) Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav today came out in his support, accusing the poll body of taking action without going through his explanation.
Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra Wednesday met the family members of farmers killed in the violence in Lakhimpur Kheri and promised them all assistance.
The son of a farmer killed in the Lakhimpur Kheri incident allegedly involving Union minister Ajay Mishra Teni's son says he has declined the offer of the Samajwadi Party and the Congress to contest in the assembly polls and instead has asked them to field him in the 2024 Parliamentary election against the minister himself.
The eligible bachelor said 'I-do' at a farm house in Delhi, in the presence of his parents Lalu Prasad Yadav and Rabri Devi, his eight siblings and their families
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