Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi came face to face with the bitter reality of the deep chasm between communities after the communal riots in the sugar belt of Muzaffarnagar and Shamli as he made an unannounced visit to the relief camps and villages in the twin districts on Sunday.
Voting is being held in the politically sensitive Kairana in Uttar Pradesh, Palghar and Bhandara-Gondiya and Nagaland Lok Sabha seats.
As the united opposition routed the BJP in bypolls, here are some of the political reactions.
Besides Singh, who makes his electoral debut from Noida, Rita Bahuguna Joshi's name also featured in the list.
Police said the jailbreak in all likelihood was plotted at their hideout in Dehradun.
Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com gives the lowdown on the constituencies going to polls in the first phase on April 11.
Though there was no official word from both the parties, the sources claimed that two Uttar Pradesh-based political outfits will contest 37 Lok Sabha seats each.
He also dismissed as 'a mere eye wash' the house arrest of Lashkar-e-Tayyaba chief Hafiz Saeed.
Referring to attempts made by Azad to forge the relationship of 'bua' with her, Mayawati said she cannot have any respectable relationship with such people.
Flash floods and landslips triggered by the monsoon fury left eight more persons dead, taking the number of people killed in calamity-hit Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh to 138 even as 2700 pilgrims and locals were rescued from Rudraprayag and Chamoli districts.
Nearly 2.6 crore people in 73 constituencies of western Uttar Pradesh are voting on Saturday in the first of the seven phases of high-stake assembly elections
In 2018, the BJP's rare successes in north-east India aside, everything that could go wrong, did go wrong for the party.
However, the BJP is sceptical about the SP-BSP alliance as they believe Mayawati and Akhilesh will "finish off after fighting among themselves."
'Every family in UP has been deeply affected in this second wave.' 'It has only been denial, denial, and denial by the incumbent CM.'
Chandrashekhar also known as Ravan, 30, was arrested in June 2017 in connection with the May 5 clashes in which one person was killed and 16 others were injured at Shabbirpur village in Saharanpur.
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A man and an infant, uprooted from their native places after last year's riots, on Saturday died due to cold in Malakpur camp of Shamli district, where Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi had paid a visit, taking death toll in a week to four.
Using the Jinnah portrait as an issue, and by demonising AMU and consequently Indian Muslims, the politics of communal polarisation is sought to be played out ahead of the Kairana Lok Sabha by-poll and to sustain it till the next Lok Sabha election, says Mohammad Sajjad.
Meanwhile, the Congress said that that it is ready to go it alone in Uttar Pradesh in the Lok Sabha election.
The new candidates fielded from these constituencies by the BJP are: SP Singh Baghel (Agra), Parameshwar Lal Saini (Sambhal), Raj Kumar Chaher (Fatehpur Sikri), Jai Prakash Rawat (Hardoi-SC), Ashok Rawat (Misrikh-SC) and Arun Sagar (Shahjahanpur-SC).
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath attributed the impressive show by his party to the "alert voters" who he said rejected the 'mahagathbandhan' (grand alliance) of opposition parties.
These decisions are aimed at helping mills in clearing part of over Rs 22,000-crore arrears to cane farmers.
He, however, expressed confidence that a series of state-specific alliances, where like-minded parties would come together on an anti-BJP platform, was likely for the 2019 general election.
'Yogiji has neither been successful in reducing crime in the state nor has he been able to make the people feel that they are safe,' says one UP minister.
Mayawati said that the BSP and the SP would not ally with the Congress party in the upcoming elections.
Congress hopes to field upper caste candidates to eat into BJP voter base while SP-BSP focuses on consolidating Dalit-OBC votes in their favour.
'2019 now looks like a real contest.' 'It will not be a repeat of 2014 if the BJP has to deal with erosion of its already low vote share of 31 per cent, and also faces a united Opposition,' says T N Ninan.
As round one of the seven-phase Lok Sabha election began in 91 constituencies across the length and breadth of India, from the hills of Kashmir to the islands of Andaman and Nicobar, reports of unrest and irregularities cast shadows over the world's biggest poll process.
Polling in Phase II of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections consists of 67 constituencies spread across 11 districts.
Delivering his concluding address to the party's National Executive, which saw its president Amit Shah raising concerns over "migration" of Hindus from a communally-sensitive western Uttar Pradesh town, Modi made no reference to the controversial issues and instead asked leaders to use power for the benefit of society.
Akhilesh Yadav confirmed in a television interview that the press conference is on the alliance in Uttar Pradesh, while parrying questions on the Congress.
The Congress's share has almost halved, down from 12 in 2014 to six now.
Khan said that investigative agencies should explore the possibility of the opposition parties involvement in the shocking gang rape case.
'It promises to get much, much darker before the dawn.' 'But at least dawn has a fighting chance,' says Mitali Saran.
The first phase of UP polls in 73 assembly constituencies on Saturday witnessed an "exemplary" 64.22 per cent voter turnout.
Surjewala made the case for state-specific alliances while arguing for a larger coalition with like-minded parties in 'national interest'.
'They (BJP) can claim of winning even 82 seats, despite the fact that Uttar Pradesh has only 80 seats'
Its allies Apna Dal (S) and Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party bagged nine seats and four seats, respectively, taking the total tally of the combine to 325.
Congress candidate Gabriel Denwang Wangsu won the Kanubari Assembly seat in Arunachal Pradesh in a close contest defeating his lone rival Rongnai Maham of BJP by 885 votes in the October 15 by-poll.
Gleaning lessons from Amit Shah's compendium of Chanakya-isms, the Samajwadi Party is keeping its operations low-key and working on an inclusive strategy.
The victim, Sami, who was passing by Kairana area in a rickshaw, was hit during the firing by SP workers on Sunday.
