A win for SP could provide some consolation for Akhilesh Yadav after the defeat in the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections early this year and the loss of Azamgarh and Rampur Lok Sabha seats to the BJP in June bypolls.
The Delhi government has approved the withdrawal of 17 cases registered during the anti-farm law stir, including one involving last year's Republic Day violence, a senior official said on Tuesday.
Glimpses from all the action from the campaign trail.
The Uttar Pradesh Police has filed the FIR against Twitter Inc, Twitter Communications India, news portal The Wire, scribes Mohammed Zubair and Rana Ayyub, and senior journalist and author Saba Naqvi, besides Congress leaders Salman Nizami, Masqoor Usmani and Sama Mohammad for sharing the video clip on the social media.
The farmers have said the weather will not dampen their spirit and they will continue the protest till their demands are met.
A poultry farmer from Maharashtra's Pune district has approached the police claiming that hens at his farm have stopped laying eggs after consuming the feed manufactured by a particular firm, an official said on Wednesday.
Speaker refused to let Loni MLA Nand Kishor Gurjar discuss the alleged high-handedness of an official. Even after the Speaker called it a day, some members from both sides kept occupying their seats.
Streets were waterlogged near the Civic Centre at Minto Road and also in Civil Lines area where various cars were seen half-submerged in water.
The Karnataka high court on Friday quashed the notice issued to Twitter India Managing Director Manish Maheshwari by the Uttar Pradesh police, seeking his personal appearance as part of its probe into a communally sensitive video uploaded by a user on Twitter platform, saying it was issued by mala fide.
Security remained tight at the Delhi borders with hundreds of personnel deployed at Singhu, Ghazipur and Tikri where the farmers have been camping.
Vehicles piled up and many people were seen reasoning with the police as they were not allowed to enter Delhi from Uttar Pradesh and Haryana.
The Uttar Pradesh government on Wednesday sought urgent listing of its plea against the Karnataka high court's decision to quash a notice issued to the then Twitter India Managing Director Manish Maheshwari seeking his personal appearance as part of the probe into a communally sensitive video uploaded by a user on the microblogging site.
The FIR was registered at the Loni Border police station at Ghaziabad in UP on June 15 under IPC Sections 153 (giving provocation with intent to cause riot), 153A (promoting enmity between groups on ground of religion, class etc), 295A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feels of any class by insulting its religion or religious belief) and 120B (criminal conspiracy).
Manish Maheshwari has been asked to appear at the Loni Border police station here within seven days to get his statement recorded in the case in which an FIR was lodged against the social media giant also, a police official said.
The Supreme Court on Friday sought response from former Twitter managing director Manish Maheshwari on an appeal of the Uttar Pradesh government against the Karnataka high court's decision to quash a notice seeking his personal appearance as part of the probe into a communally sensitive video uploaded by a user on the microblogging site.
According to the police, Delhi-Ghazipur border remains closed for traffic due to the farmers' protests. The commuters are suggested to take alternate routes via Anad Vihar, Chilla, DND, Apsara, bhopra and Loni borders, it added.
The single bench of Justice G Narender said the police can examine Maheshwari through virtual mode.
Managing Director Manish Maheshwari, who lives in Bengaluru in Karnataka, was issued notice by the Ghaziabad police on June 17 and asked to report at its Loni Border police station within seven days to get his statement recorded in the case, the officials added.
Lashing out at the micro-blogging platform over non-compliance, Prasad said that it is "astounding" that Twitter that portrays itself as the flag bearer of free speech, chooses the path of deliberate defiance when it comes to the intermediary guidelines.
'God knows what kind of charges were framed against him and Kallu Gujjar, as both of them came out of jail the very same evening of their arrest.'
'The BJP's real pain lies in the fact that all their skullduggery and chicanery has failed to cow down the Shiv Sena. They just cannot digest this fact.'
The protesting farmers, mainly from Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh, have been at the border points of the national capital for almost 40 days now, braving the bone-chilling cold weather in the region.
Former Union Minister and Congress leader Eknathrao alias 'Balasaheb' Vikhe Patil passed away at his residence in Loni village in Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra on Friday evening following prolonged illness, his family said. He was 84.
The India Meteorological Department said Delhi recorded 139 mm of rainfall, the highest one-day rain for August in at least 13 years.
'I was feeling so suffocated under Yogiji's rule.'
The Ghaziabad police on Monday warned the Twitter India managing director that his failure to report to it and join its investigation on June 24 in the case of the circulation of a communally sensitive video on its platform would amount to a hindrance in its probe, entailing legal consequences.
Police in Ghaziabad have booked Twitter, a news portal and six people for circulating a video in which an elderly Muslim man says he was thrashed and asked to chant 'Jai Shri Ram'.
The deadlock continues as the seventh round of talks with the Centre remained inconclusive, with the farmer groups sticking to their demand for the repeal of the three new laws, and the government listing out various benefits of the new Acts.
The government and farm unions had reached some common ground on Wednesday to resolve protesting farmers' concerns over rise in power tariff and penalties for stubble burning.
Security remained tight at the Delhi borders with hundreds of personnel deployed at Singhu, Ghazipur and Tikri as thousands of farmers have been staging their protests at the borders for nearly a month now. This has also led to traffic congestion forcing police to divert vehicular movement.
With the protesting farmers staying put at the border point of the national capital for over six weeks now, a number of small business have sprung up at the site, the newest being sale of pro-protest badges and stickers.
Pandurang Kolhe from Loni was apparently frustrated by crop failure and non-availability of any government assistance, the Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti claimed in Nagpur.
According to them, these marches were a "rehearsal" for their proposed January 26 "Kisan Parade" to the national capital from different parts of Haryana, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh.
The agriculture ministry also reiterated it is ready to find a "logical solution" to the issues raised by protesting farmer unions.
"People forgot about income for farmers. But for the first time, this thinking has been changed," he said and listed steps the Centre has taken for the welfare of farmers.
The government and the farm unions had reached some common ground on Wednesday to resolve the protesting farmers' concerns over rise in power tariff and penalties for stubble burning, but the two sides remained deadlocked over the main contentious issues of the repeal of three farm laws and a legal guarantee for MSP.
Her great grandfather began sugar co-operatives in Maharashtra. Her grandfather was an eight time MP. Her uncle is currently leader of the Opposition in the Maharashtra assembly. Her cousin joined the BJP on Tuesday, March 12. Nila Vikhe Patil, who could one day become prime minister of Sweden, unravels her India connections in an e-mail interaction with Rediff.com's Vaihayasi Pande Daniel.
At least 13 people, including a police head constable, have died and over 200 were injured since Monday as mobs went on a rampage in Maujpur, Jaffrabad, Babarpur, Bhajanpura, Yamuna Vihar, Chandbagh areas in northeast Delhi.
Even media persons covering the agitation manage to reach the protest sites with difficulty as they first have to pass through checking and then cross multiple layers of barricading. A Bharatiya Kisan Union office-bearer at Ghazipur border, which now resembles a highly-secured fortress, said despite the odds, supporters from far-off places are reaching the site to express solidarity with farmers.
A suspected Pakistani spy, who was arrested in the national capital, worked as a technician in a mobile phone repair shop in north-east Delhi for the past three years, police sources said on Monday. Jabbar alias Syed Amir Ali, who was caught by Immigration officials at Delhi airport last Saturday, lived in Shahdara area. "He was working in a mobile repair shop on Loni Road in Mansarovar Park for the past three years as a technician," the official said.