This phase will decide the fate of senior minister Bijendra Prasad Yadav of Janata Dal-United, Rashtriya Janata Dal legislature party leader Abdul Bari Siddiqui and RJD chief Lalu Prasad's 'Man Friday' Bhola Yadav among others.
Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu on Saturday accused the writers, who returned their awards, of double standards saying they were selective in attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi for "growing intolerance" in the country and overlooked the Congress wrongdoings including Emergency in the past.
According to BJP insiders, every Union minister has been given 3-4 seats to mentor and has been told to work hard on these constituencies in the next 20 months to ensure the party's victory.
The GMC poll was being seen as a litmus test for the BJP in the backdrop of its sudden and surprising decision to change the state's chief minister and the entire cabinet recently, ahead of the state Assembly polls due next year.
BJP president Amit Shah, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, and Union Minister Nitin Gadkari were among those who addressed public meetings in different parts of the state on Sunday.
In 2014, young Muslims became Owaisi fans. But five years of BJP rule and a weakening Opposition have drawn older Muslims too towards the AIMIM chief. Not enough, though.
The RJD leader, who is the Mahagathbandhan's chief ministerial face, said that if voted to power, providing jobs to unemployed youth would be his topmost priority.
About 2.34 crore voters, spread across 78 assembly segments of the 243-strong assembly, will decide the fates of 1,204 candidates, including the Speaker and 12 members of the state cabinet.
The Election Commission on Wednesday expressed "strong displeasure" over Shiv Sena Member of Parliament Sanjay Raut's remarks that Muslims should be stripped of voting rights and advised him to be more circumspect in future in his public utterance.
The students were booked under sedition charges after a complaint was filed by BJYM member Mukesh Lodhi.
The flyover was built over a period of about three years at a cost of Rs 600 crore.
The Bharatiya Janata Party's decision to appoint Hindutva hardliner Yogi Adityanath as Uttar Pradesh chief minister has drawn an avalanche of reactions from opposition parties.
External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said that India's High Commission in New Zealand is in touch with local authorities for more information.
The All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat is preparing a white paper on the state of Indian Muslims languishing in jails in various terror cases, which could convince the community to vote against the Congress party, reports Vicky Nanjappa
The tepid economy has hit most sectors, from automobile and pharmaceutical industries in the district to its tourist footfall, reports Archis Mohan
'The DMK may get a little more than 50% of the minority vote.' 'The AIADMK always gets over 10% of the minority vote.'
The plea filed by NGO Association for Protection of Civil Rights and others also sought a direction to the Centre to refrain from preparing the National Register of Citizens.
Nitish Kumar will be the chief minister only till the time the BJP wishes, points out Ramesh Menon.
Dr Zafarul Islam Khan, president, All India Muslim Majlis-e Mushawarat, a non-political body of prominent Muslim organiastions, and Lateef Mohammad Khan, general secretary, Civil Liberties Monitoring Committee, Hyderabad discuss hate speeches and their repercussions, in an interview with Vicky Nanjappa.
Congress's Mumbai unit president Sanjay Nirupam also told reporters that the party was planning to hold discussions with like-minded parties for a common candidate in mayor's election.
Rejecting the charge, Reddy termed it 'baseless and false' and said he would quit politics if Owaisi proved it.
It is likely that the party's allies in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, two of the five states going to the polls in April-May, might insist on allocating fewer seats than they did in 2016, reports Archis Mohan.
The BJP too described the Muslim rule in India as 'barbaric'.
Opposition parties ask the government to listen to the concern of the intellectuals returning awards.
The court also observed that late Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Ashok Singhal wanted to save the structure because Ram idols were inside.
Facebook -- which counts India among its largest markets with over 300 million users -- has been in the eye of a storm after a Wall Street Journal (WSJ) report alleged that the social media platform's content policies favoured the ruling party in India. The report had accused Facebook of ignoring posts containing hate speech by BJP MLA Raja Singh. Since then, the ruling BJP and Congress have been trading barbs over the social media giant's alleged political bias.
A petition seeking lodging of a case against All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen Chief Asaduddin Owaisi was filed in a court in Meerut by a member of Uttar Pradesh Bar Council who alleged his remarks on the youths held by the National Investigation Agency amounted to treason and promoted terrorism.
"Shouldn't those who killed 92 persons get death sentence?... when should capital punishment be awarded?" the 46-year-old controversial politician asked.
The alliance won 41 of the 48 seats leaving the Congress-NCP combine with just 5 seats.
Locals mistook them for child-lifters and started attacking them.
Cutting across party lines, all MPs slammed Pakistan for awarding death sentence to Kulbhushan Jadhav.
'We have learnt lessons from Mamata Banerjee who overcame the BJP's canard by reciting Chandi Path and playing up her Brahmin origins in her campaign. We need to adopt strategies like asking Muslims to lie low and distributing tickets prudently so that we are not accused of favouring one community.' Radhika Ramaseshan reports.
UP CM said 'it does not matter who built it and for what reason; it was built by blood and sweat of Indian labourers'.
The Lok Sabha on Tuesday passed the Constitution amendment bill to restore the power of states to make their own OBC lists after a thaw in the logjam as Opposition parties backed the legislation but demanded the removal of the 50 per cent cap on reservation, with many of them also calling for a caste-based census.
The Mahagathbandhan, or grand alliance, on Saturday reached a consensus on seat distribution with the JD-U and the RJD to contest 101 seats each while Congress will put up candidates in 41 seats for the October-November Bihar assembly poll.
Among the notable absentees were Congress president Rahul Gandhi, West Bengal chief minister and Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee, Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam's M K Stalin, Telugu Desam Party chief K Chandrashekhar Rao, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray and Delhi chief minister and Aam Admi Party convenor Arvind Kejriwal.
Left behind after elections will be the Biharis with their stagnant conditions of poor education, poor health infrastructure, poverty, unemployment, division of society and the aftermath of coronavirus. What will remain is the Bihari tenacity, observes Asmita Bihari.
'Thakur will not attend meetings of BJP parliamentary party during the session'
While the assembly elections are being seen as largely a contest between the NDA and the Grand Alliance, the state has been witness to mushrooming of "morchas" (fronts) which may queer the pitch for the lead players in a tight contest.
Bharatiya Janata Party's Fatehpur Sikri MP Babu Lal on Tuesday reiterated his comments he made against the Muslim community at a condolence meeting for VHP worker Arun Mahaur, who was killed last week allegedly by some Muslim youths.
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