When the temple issue predominated BJP's discourse, its victory margins have been narrow.
In the Majnu Ka Tila area in New Delhi, Children carrying tricolour burst crackers and shouted 'Bharat Mata Ki Jai'.
While Ayodhya resembled a city under seige earlier during the day, the scene was no different elsewhere in the state with police and central forces keeping an eye over the security situation and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath personally monitoring it from a hi-tech control room in the state capital.
President Ram Nath Kovind presented Padma awards to 73 individuals, some posthumously, at a ceremony held in the Rashtrapati Bhavan here on Monday.
The colonies of Bhajanpura and Chand Bagh, which are divided by just a main road, are now standing divided on views of each other after the violence in northeast Delhi over the past three days that has claimed over 24 lives so far.
Veteran doctor and educationist from Karnataka Belle Monappa Hegde and archaeology legend B B Lal were also given the Padma Vibhushan awards.
The five-six men, wearing saffron T-shirts and kurta, started the sloganeering when the train was about to halt at the metro station, according to a PTI reporter who was at the spot.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday alleged that 'Bhatija (nephew) and company' had swindled central funds sent for Amphan relief and said that probe will be ordered into it and culprits will be booked after the Bharatiya Janata Party comes to power in West Bengal.
Hindu festivals are now becoming occasions when anti-Muslim hatred is expressed freely through slogans and songs that are full of abuse against Muslims or calls to either kill them or humiliate them, observes Apoorvanand.
Belying all expectations, the Trinamool Congress registreted a landslide victory in West Bengal assembly elections, overcoming the might of the Bharatiya Janata Party after a bitter campaign that had turned into a virtual duel between Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Gupta was demanding that a fact-finding committee report on an alleged water tanker scam during Sheila Dikshit's tenure be made public and a calling attention motion on the matter. Speaker Ram Niwas Goel rejected the demand.
'The power of love is the greatest power in the world.' 'Add a smile and you can conquer the world,' Bengali actor June Maliah, the Trinamool Congress's candidate for the Medinipur constituency, tells Swarupa Dutt/Rediff.com.
Every February 28th, Zakia Jafri relives the agony of witnessing the brutal massacre of her husband, former Congress MP Ahsan Jafri, along with scores of other women and children. Despite deteriorating health, her hope that those responsible will be brought to justice, remains strong, notes Najid Hussain.
Stunned by the sudden saffron surge, daggers seems to have been drawn in the Trinamool Congress camp with local leaders blaming those holding top party posts for their "lack of foresightedness" and "arrogant approach" as primary reasons behind the poor poll show.
'Between now and 2021, Bengal's politics could change irrevocably,' predicts Kanchan Gupta, Distinguished Fellow, Observer Research Foundation.
A blood-soaked Nandigram made Mamata Banerjee what she is today and underpins the hopes of the combustible West Bengal leader of clinching a third straight term in office.
'At this moment, the Trinamool has an edge.'
Vibhishan was a seeker of justice who risked it all to be on the side of truth, says Sudhir Bisht.
Minority conference organised by the JD-U turned out to be a poor show with few from the Muslim community attending it, exposing the falling credibility of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar as a secular leader, says M I Khan.
'What the BJP will have to ensure in order to score an ideological victory is to demonstrate not only its commitment to the rule of law -- which is the first prerequisite -- but to introduce a sense of compassion,' says Amulya Ganguli.
State party leaders admit that Hindu consolidation by itself was not good enough to unseat Didi.
'The BJP will take time to come to power in Andhra.'
'A hugely dangerous game which she thought she had mastered has now found a stronger opponent,' points out Payal Mohanka.
BJP candidate and former chief minister Bhajan Lal's grandson Bhavya Bishnoi on Sunday defeated his nearest rival and Congress nominee Jai Prakash in the Adampur assembly seat by-election, retaining the family bastion.
On Tuesday, 49 people, including award-winning filmmakers Aparna Sen and Mani Ratnam, and historian Ramachandra Guha, wrote to PM Modi, urging him to intervene in cases of hate crimes and atrocities against minority communities.
'Indian secularism doesn't deserve a tombstone. It needs a new shrine,' argues Shekhar Gupta.
He, however, asserted that all infiltrators will be thrown out of the country.
'The government must consider that Modiji's vision of India turning into a $5 trillion economy will happen only when there is rule of law in the country.' 'Investors will not invest if these lynchings keep happening.'
The movie presents a version of Modi that the bhakts wants the rest of us to see, feels Utkarsh Mishra.
'I bow to the 125 crore citizens of this great nation and promise to stay true to the trust they have bestowed on me.'
'The story of how Modi won a re-election in the face of severe agrarian crisis, mounting unemployment, looming economic crisis, is the story of how the power of the message can be put to devastating effect in the hands of a strong leader,' says Saisuresh Sivaswamy.
Two first information reports were registered by the police at Siyana police station in Bulandshahr -- one over cow slaughter and the other on the mob violence in which a village man was also killed.
On Tuesday, police in Suri in West Bengal's Birbhum district used batons to disperse a rally where 'Jai Shri Ram' slogans were raised.
The matter was brought into public domain by the BJP's West Bengal unit president Dilip Ghosh who took to Twitter to slam the government for its directive.
The man, who identified himself as 'Rambhakt Gopal', was subsequently overpowered by police and detained. The gunman went live on Facebook before the brandishing the gun.
Mahipal, who has worked with actresses like Madhubala and Meena Kumari, established himself as a hero in the mythological genre.
'Gods of different religions haven't warred, so we shouldn't either.'
Kapil Baisala and his father joined the AAP in early 2019, police said. DCP (Crime Branch) Rajesh Deo said his mobile phone has been seized and they have retrieved his WhatsApp data and photos of him and his father joining the party. Baisala's police custody has been extended by two days.
'One does not understand why you should launch your attack against the Constitution, against Gandhiji, against the Left and Congress regimes at a moment when the Hindutva regime needs such attacks against them.' 'By doing so, don't you think you are playing into the hands of Hindutva forces?', Mohammad Sajjad, who teaches history at Aligarh Muslim University, asks Sharjeel Imam who was arrested on charges of sedition on Tuesday, January 28.
