Campaigning came to an end on Saturday for the single-day election in Uttarakhand and Goa, two states known for political volatility where the Bharatiya Janata Party is attempting to retain power, and for the second phase of assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh on February 14.
BKU leader Mahendra Singh Tikait, accused of making casteist remarks against Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati, was granted bail after he surrendered in the district court in Bijnore. Tikait, whose arrest attempt by police had sparked violence in Sisauli, the headquarters of the BKU on Monday, later regretted his comments and said it was a slip of tongue.
The National Commission for Scheduled Castes has decided to summon BKU leader Mahendra Singh Tikait for allegedly making casteist remarks against Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati at a rally in Bijnore district on March 30. The Commission had issued a notice to the BKU leader on the basis of the FIR report as the district administration failed to provide the full text of Tikait's speech.
Asaduddin Owaisi's AIMIM, which is going to contest next year's Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls on the promise of creating leadership among Muslims, has created unease in the political parties that so far considered the members of the minority community as their core "vote bank".
Tanzil Ahmad was shot dead by two motorcycle borne persons when he was returning after attending a marriage ceremony with his wife Farzana.
The Bharatiya Janata Party's historic Lok Sabha election success in Uttar Pradesh has influenced its two main rivals in the state, the Samajwadi Party and Congress, to field fewer Muslim candidates for the 11 assembly seats that go to the by-polls on Saturday.
The 1,113 arrested include social activist and Congress worker Sadaf Jafar and noted theatre artist Deepak Kabir who are being kept in a Lucknow jail.
Director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr Fauci said that India made the "incorrect assumption" that they were finished with COVID-19.
Babbar was elected from Agra as its Lok Sabha MP twice -- in 1999 and 2004. However, following delimitation in 2008, the Lok Sabha seat became reserved for the scheduled castes.
The party renominated Shashi Tharoor from the Thiruvananthapuram seat.
Priyanka said she has highlighted each and every "police excess" in her lengthy memorandum to Uttar Pradesh Governor Anandiben Patel during her previous visit to the state.
UP police on Tuesday claimed to have solved the case of murder of NIA officer Tanzil Ahmed by arresting two persons and contended that domestic dispute was the motive behind the crime.
Emotions ran high as the farmers performed ardas (prayers) and havan to thank the almighty and started their 'victory march' from Singhu, Tikri and Ghazipur protest sites to Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh in convoys of tractors, bedecked with colourful flowers and lights and blaring songs of jubilation.
"Just because some political figures are involved, you will not investigate, we will not allow this," said the court adding that it would have appreciated if the police had enquired into specific allegations levelled against each person and then filed the report.
The initiative comes after the ATS recently arrested four suspected terrorists from the Islamic State Khorasan module.
Eleven deaths have been reported in Saharanpur followed by 10 in Meerut, six in Agra, four in Mainpuri, three each in Muzaffarnagar and Kasganj, two each in Amroha, Bareilly, Baghpat and Bulandshahr and one each in Kanpur Dehat, Mathura, Ghaziabad, Hapur, Rae Bareli, Jalaun, Jaunpur, Pratapgarh, Banda, Firozabad, Amethi, Kanpur and Pilibhit, they said.
The Uttar Pradesh government suspended two policemen in Muzaffarnagar and Bijnor districts on Tuesdayand issued warning to others for getting into border disputes over bodies of Uttarakhand flood victims recovered from the River Ganga, a senior official said in Lucknow.
At least 28 people have so far lost their lives in rain related incidents in Uttar Pradesh whereas a population of five lakh in some 600 villages of the state has been affected because of it.
Taking note of the "revenge" remark made by Narendra Modi's close aide Amit Shah while campaigning in riot-affected areas of Uttar Pradesh, the Election Commission on Monday issued notice to him for prima facie violation of the Model Code of Conduct.
The intense cold wave snuffed out 15 more lives in Uttar Pradesh taking the toll to 155 as mercury continued to plunge with Muzaffarnagar recording a low of 0.2 degree Celsius.
The Congress general secretary said that the country was in trouble and voices of dissent were emanating from different corners.
The fate of 720 candidates will be decided by 2.28 crore voters
The Samajwadi Party on Saturday distanced itself from Shahid Siddiqui, saying he is no longer a part of the party two days after his interview with Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi made waves.
Mufti Shameem Kazmi, a key Team Anna member who was expelled from the group for allegedly recording secretly the proceedings of a core committee meeting, on Tuesday said the charges against him were "fabricated".
Motorcycle-borne assailants had pumped 24 bullets into 45-year-old Ahmad and four into his wife Farzana Khatoon in April last.
The entire north India shivered on Saturday as icy winds lashed the region, claiming five more lives and pushing the country-wide death toll this winter to 128. All the fresh deaths occurred overnight in Uttar Pradesh which has so far accounted for 88 fatalities. Chilly winds swept the state as mercury plunged to a low of 0.5 degrees Celsius in Najibabad area in Bijnor district. The national capital witnessed the coldest day of the season.
The FIR lodged at Chandpa police station in Hathras district against 'unknown persons' mentioned alleged attempts to foment cast conflict, promoting enmity between groups and tarnish the image of the government and invoked section 124A of the Indian Penal Code -- the serious charge of sedition.
Polling in Phase II of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections consists of 67 constituencies spread across 11 districts.
At present, the state has 81 such courts. Of the new 218, 144 will be for rape cases, 74 for POCSO cases.
The most strident criticism of UP's anti-conversion ordinance has come from the judiciary with several retired Supreme Court and high court judges having described it as being violative of Article 14 (Right to Equality), 15 (Prohibition of discrimination on grounds of religion), 21 (Right to Life) and 25 (Freedom of conscience) of the Constitution, points out Rashme Sehgal.
Mr Modi and Mr Shah will need him if they want to win UP again in 2022 and India in 2024. This signals a Yogi Adityanath-sized change in BJP politics, even under Mr Modi, Shekhar Gupta.
The Uttar Pradesh police has alerted their counterparts in Uttarakhand about the possible presence of suspected terrorists associated with the banned outfit Students Islamic Movement of India in that state.
Actor-turned-politician Jaya Prada on Thursday said she wants to join the Bharatiya Janata Party as she is impressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's leadership.
Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) supporters stayed put on the Delhi-Meerut Expressway on Friday as the crowd swelled there, notwithstanding the Ghaziabad administration's ultimatum to vacate the UP Gate protest site where security force in large numbers was re-deployed.
In Jaffrabad, Maujpur, Yamuna Vihar, Chand Bagh, Mustafabad and Bhajanpura, which were among the areas worst hit by the communal violence, there were more vehicles and people on the roads than in the last five days.
Slumdog Millionaire has received tremendous international recognition and highlighted Mumbai's underbelly. While some hail it as a grand endorsement for the city, others think of it as a sorry stereotype.
rediff.com correspondents met children in Mumbai's slums to find out what life really means for them.
The field operations are on in the sub-Himalayan terai region stretching from the Gorakhpur district in eastern UP to Bijnore district in western UP. The two companies were given prospecting licences sometime back, he informed. The licence allows the licence holder to undertake mineral substance prospecting works within a specific area.
Cops are also investigating whether personal enmity or property dispute was a reason behind the murder.
Bharatiya Janata Party leader Amit Shah on Wednesday moved the Allahabad high court challenging the FIRs lodged against him by the Uttar Pradesh government for alleged hate speeches made by him at election meetings in Bijnore and Shamli districts.
Kamlesh Tiwari, 45, was earlier associated with a faction of the Hindu Mahasabha, they said.
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