He will be one of the few in the audience for this year's Ramlila as general spectators will not be allowed to watch the show physically due to the COVID-19 restrictions. The nine-day enactment of the life of Lord Ram as per the epic Ramayana will be a virtual affair this year.
RSS General Secretary Dattatreya Hosabale met with the leadership of the UP BJP, including Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Deputy Chief Ministers Keshav Prasad Maurya and Brajesh Pathak, state BJP President Bhupendra Chaudhary and state BJP General Secretary (Organisation) Dharmapal.
The AIMIM chief also said Adityanath was speaking the language of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and that of the Bharatiya Janata Party and he was ignorant about history.
The Uttar Pradesh government has implemented a special crowd management plan called 'Operation Eleven' for the 'Amrit Snan' on Basant Panchami at Maha Kumbh. The plan, devised under strict instructions from Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, ensures a one-way traffic route for devotees and smooth movement on pontoon bridges. The heightened measures are in place following a stampede on Mauni Amavasya that claimed at least 30 lives. 'Operation Eleven' includes measures such as strict enforcement of a one-way route, enhanced security at key locations, crowd control at Tikarmafi Turn, special arrangements at Phaphamau and pontoon bridges, railway station and bus movement regulation, enhanced security at Prayag Junction, crowd management at GT Jawahar and Harshvardhan Chauraha, additional security and traffic control measures, and deployment of extra forces.
'In Yogi's Raj, Hindu festivals are State festivals.' 'He celebrates them, so does his police force, as he boasted in the assembly on Tuesday.' 'Eid, Christmas -- these can be observed, but expect nothing from the State to facilitate these celebrations,' says Jyoti Punwani.
While the Samajwadi Party largely banks on its Muslim-Yadav support base, the Bharatiya Janata Party is trying to counter it with the Modi-Yogi combo in the state assembly polls.
'No one has the right to take the law into their hands whether it is Sanjay Leela Bhansali or anyone else,' Adityanath said.
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.
The 45-day Maha Kumbh in Prayagraj concluded on Mahashivratri with a record-breaking number of pilgrims taking a holy dip at the Triveni Sangam. Over 65 crore pilgrims participated in the event, which took place once every 12 years.
Seventeen children died in the neo-natal ward, five in the acute encephalitis syndrome ward and eight in the general ward.
The accused, identified as Murtaza Abbasi, was arrested and has been sent to judicial remand for two weeks, police said and alleged that he tried to forcibly enter the temple, which was teeming with devotees during the Navratri festival, after raising the religious slogan of 'Allahu Akbar'.
'Sonia did not visit this place once since she won. Who's to say they won't lose this one, too?'
Against the backdrop of the opposition closing ranks on the CAA issue and the BJP faring poorly in several state elections recently, the 2022 electoral battle is unlikely to be a cakewalk for the BJP in Uttar Pradesh, reports Virendra Singh Rawat.
The prominent faces among the 676 candidates for 57 seats spread across 10 districts in this phase included Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath from Gorakhpur Urban and state Congress president Ajay Kumar Lallu from Tamkuhi Raj.
The objective of the entire programme will be to promote Ayodhya, the birth place of Lord Rama, as a tourist destination.
Meanwhile, key BJP ally skips event to mark first year of Yogi govt.
The incident sparked a political blame game in the state where bypolls to nine assembly seats will be held on November 20. Opposition parties blamed the BJP government in the state and said the deaths raise serious questions about the negligence of the administration.
Formidable challenges including funds for the farm loan-waiver, and law and order stare him at his face, with the opposition claiming the misses have outnumbered the hits.
Holi was celebrated with pomp and splendor across India on Friday, with people soaking in the festivities by smearing 'gulaal' on each other and exchanging greetings and sweets. Homes and streets wore a colourful look as the revellers splashed colours and feasted on traditional delicacies. Public transport did not ply in the morning in most major cities while metro services started functioning from noon. As Holi coincided with the second Friday prayers during the holy Islamic month of Ramzan, security -- including increased patrolling and picketing -- was beefed up in several states. In Delhi, more than 25,000 security personnel were deployed. Police closely monitored about 300 sensitive areas with CCTV cameras and drones.
The other BJP MLA, Shyam Prakash from Gopamau (SC) in Hardoi, posted a satirical poem on Facebook.
Some have been cherry-picked to assert the BJP's supremacy over its allies or, significantly, its leaders who charted an independent course in the recent past.
Addressing a public rally in his parliamentary constituency of Varanasi, Modi said the schemes earlier were meant for a select few and the past governments did not get seek feedback from the ground.
Few in Varanasi expect the result to be different from 2014 and 2019. The only point of interest is whether Narendra Modi will increase his winning margin against his rivals.
The Nishad Party is headed by Sanjay Nishad, the father of Pravin Nishad who had won the Gorakhpur parliamentary seat on an SP ticket in the 2018 by-polls.
Former district panchayat member Prem Yadav, 50, was attacked with sharp edged weapons and killed by his rival Satyaprakash Dubey and his family when he went to the latter's house. In retaliation, Yadav's supporters from Abhaipur attacked Dubey's house and killed Dubey and four of his family.
Khushi Dubey, Hari Shankar Tiwari and Mata Prasad Pandey represent the resentment among Brahmins towards the Adityanath government. Radhika Ramaseshan reports.
Yogi Adityanath has turned Lucknow's VVIP guest house into his seat of power.
He also rejected allegations of being a vote cutter and cleared the air about his fallout with the Akhilesh Yadav-led party.
Amid the surge in coronavirus cases, the Uttar Pradesh government is providing oximeters and thermal scanners for cows housed in the state's 'gaushalas'.
'I was feeling so suffocated under Yogiji's rule.'
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party is headed for a big win in the Uttar Pradesh legislative council polls, bagging Barabanki and Ayodhya and leading in several other places. But it lost Varanasi to an Independent candidate.
Overall, since January 1, as many as 144 encephalitis-related deaths have taken place in the hospital, they said.
The CM added the BJP has learnt its "lessons" and exuded confidence it will perform better in future polls.
The statement by ADGP (Law and Order) Prashant Kumar has come at a time when six policemen have been booked on the murder charge and CM Yogi Adityanath has said the guilty won't be spared.
On the other hand, the Yogi Adityanath government has 'completed nine lakh houses under the scheme and 14 lakh are under construction', Modi said, reeling out comparative figures.
Two passengers were killed and 34 injured when eight coaches of the Chandigarh-Dibrugarh Express derailed near Gonda in Uttar Pradesh on Thursday, an official said.
Addressing a virtual rally for three western UP districts -- Bijnor, Moradabad and Amroha -- PM Modi urged farmers to ask those trying to 'mislead' them how much electricity was given to the villages in their area when they were in power.
The first of the two-phase urban local body polls in Uttar Pradesh will take place on Thursday, a major poll battle in the politically crucial state ahead of the 2024 parliamentary elections.
The BJP stormed back to power in the crucial state of Uttar Pradesh, trouncing its main rival SP, with Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath asserting that people have buried the politics of caste and religion.
The Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terror Squad on Wednesday reached its headquarters in Lucknow with the accused in the Gorakhnath temple attack case, Ahmed Murtaza Abbasi, for further inquiries in the case.
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