Amidst people queuing up to cast their votes, there were some famous faces too at different polling stations.
In Punjab, farmers sat on railway tracks at many locations in 22 districts, including Amritsar, Ludhiana, Tarn Taran, Hoshiarpur, Firozpur, Fazilka, Sangrur, Mansa, Moga and Bathinda. Because of the disruption of train services, passengers experienced inconvenience.
A group of 101 farmers resumed their foot march to Delhi on Sunday to press the Centre for various demands, including a legal guarantee for Minimum Support Price (MSP). However, they were stopped at the barricading by Haryana Police who cited a prohibitory order clamped by the Ambala administration. The farmers have been pressing for various demands, including a legal guarantee for MSP, a farm debt waiver, pension for farmers and farm labourers, no hike in electricity tariff, withdrawal of police cases (against farmers), and "justice" for the victims of the 2021 Lakhimpur Kheri violence. Reinstatement of the Land Acquisition Act, 2013 and compensation to the families of farmers who died during the previous agitation in 2020-21 are also part of their demands.
In the North Western Railway (NWR) zone, rail traffic was affected in some sections in Rajasthan and Haryana with 18 trains cancelled, 10 partially cancelled and one diverted due to the protest.
It has also been decided to suspend the interstate bus services till March 31, the officials said. The decisions have been taken at a high-level meeting attended by chief secretaries of all states and the cabinet secretary and the principal secretary to the prime minister.
A bench headed by Chief justice N V Ramana asked the Uttar Pradesh government, represented by senior advocates Harish Salve and Garima Prasad, to record the statements of other relevant witnesses before judicial magistrates under section 164 of the CrPC.
There is "dictatorship" in India now with politicians not being allowed to visit Uttar Pradesh to meet the families of the victims of the Lakhimpur Kheri incident, Rahul said.
From the Republic Day violence to Lakhimpur Kheri incident and terms such as 'toolkit' and andolanjeevi entering the Indian political lexicon, it was controversies galore during the year-long farmers' movement against the contentious agri laws.
Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra sat on a hunger strike on Monday after being detained in Uttar Pradesh's Sitapur district while she was en route to Lakhimpur Kheri, her party said.
Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday lashed out at the Centre over the death of farmers during violence in Lakhimpur Kheri, and asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to ensure justice for the families of the victims.
Hundreds of farmers and their leaders, including Rakesh Tikait, took out a procession of urns containing the ashes from the Azad Maidan in south Mumbai to the Gateway of India, a distance of nearly 3 km.
Nineteen people have been killed in rain-related incidents in Uttar Pradesh in the past 24 hours, the state relief commissioner's office said Monday evening.
OBC leader Dharam Singh Saini on Thursday became the third minister to resign from the Uttar Pradesh cabinet this week, giving yet another jolt to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in the run-up to the assembly polls.
A team of three Union ministers will hold talks on Monday with a delegation of farmer leaders, who are planning to march towards Delhi to press for their demands.
Farmers will march towards Delhi on Tuesday after a meeting with two Union ministers over their demands, including legal guarantee to minimum support price (MSP) for crops, remained inconclusive.
The Uttar Pradesh Police is mulling over slapping the stringent National Security Act (NSA) against the six people arrested for the rape and murder of two Dalit sisters in the state's Lakhimpur Kheri.
Chaudhary also announced that if his party is voted into power in Uttar Pradesh, high court benches will be set up in western Uttar Pradesh, Bundelkhand and Purvanchal areas of the state.
Farmer leader Sarwan Singh Pandher on Thursday demanded registration of a murder case against those responsible for the death of a protesting farmer at the Khanauri border point of Punjab-Haryana.
Instructions have been given by the government to take necessary action immediately in districts where confirmed cases are found.
"The UP government has not yet given permission for Rahul Gandhi's visit to Lakhimpur and has asked him not to come," Lucknow Police Commissioner D K Thakur told PTI.
Opposition parties on Monday lashed out at the Bharatiya Janata Party government in Uttar Pradesh for not allowing their leaders to visit Lakhimpur Kheri after eight people died in violence there during an anti farm law protest, alleging it was an attempt to cover up and demanding the sacking of Union Minister Ajay Mishra and the arrest of his son, who have been named in an FIR.
The death toll from the Uttarakhand glacier disaster rose to 31 with five more bodies being recovered, officials said on Tuesday as multiple agencies raced against time to reach about 30 workers trapped inside a tunnel in a power project site and 175 people remained missing.
The Sikhs, especially in Punjab, are already angry and frustrated, cautions Shekhar Gupta.
The Bharti Kisan Union (Ekta Ugrahan) will on Saturday hold dharnas outside the residences of three senior Bharatiya Janata Party leaders in Punjab on the fifth day of the farmers' protest over their various demands, including a legal guarantee for a minimum support price (MSP).
The minister then visited the residence of Shah where he closeted for about half an hour.
The Congress has alleged that she was arrested on Monday while she was on her way to Lakhimpur Kheri.
Thirteen FIRs have also been registered in nine districts in this connection.
'When in both post-mortems, doctors say that he was not shot, we had not option left but to cremated him'
The mother of the two girls alleged that they were murdered and accused three youths from the neighbouring village in Nighasan police station limits of abducting and killing them.
Farmers from across the states arrived at Delhi's Jantar Mantar on Monday early morning protesting over unemployment.
While the TN Government Railway Police sleuths are questioning five passengers, the commissioner of railway safety commenced inquiry over the mishap in Madurai.
The protests against farm laws saw a fair share of controversies as well with climate activist Greta Thunberg and pop sensation Rihanna making their way to India's prime time debates and terms such as 'toolkit' and 'andolanjeevi' entering the Indian political lexicon.
Among the keenly watched contests are those involving former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav (Kannauj, UP) and Union ministers Giriraj Singh (Begusarai, Bihar), Nityanand Rai (Ujiarpur, Bihar) and Raosaheb Danve (Jalna, Maharashtra).
The farmers also marched along the ambulance and demanded action against those who are responsible for his death.
The Uttar Pradesh police on Tuesday constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) for a "transparent" and expeditious probe into cases lodged against Alt News co-founder Mohammad Zubair in various districts of the state, a senior official said.
Uttar Pradesh shares a 599.3 km long open border with Nepal touching seven districts - Pilibhit, Lakhimpur Kheri, Bahraich, Sravasti, Balrampur, Sidhharthnagar and Maharajganj.
A police outpost in-charge has also been suspended for not heeding to the family's complaint, in which they had alleged that the woman was sexually assaulted.
A 21-year-old farmer was killed and a few others injured following a clash between security personnel and protesting farmers at Khanauri on the Punjab-Haryana border.
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday accused Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath of getting his telephones tapped and listening to the conversation every evening.
Campaigning for May 13 elections in 96 Lok Sabha constituencies across 10 states and Union territories including all seats in Andhra Pradesh, where assembly elections are also being held concurrently, and Telangana concluded on Saturday evening.
