An estimated 57.03 per cent voters cast their ballots on Saturday in the sixth phase of the Uttar Pradesh elections covering 49 Assembly seats, including Mau, where gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari is in the fray.
A day after OBC leader Swami Prasad Maurya resigned from the Uttar Pradesh cabinet citing apathy towards the backward classes, Dara Singh Chauhan too resigned as minister in the Yogi Adityanath government.
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.
Several states of the country are battling grim flood situations that have affected lakhs of people and have also resulted in loss of life and property.
613 candidates are in the fray on 54 seats, including those falling in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's parliamentary segment Varanasi.
A court in Varanasi on Monday convicted gangster-politician Mukhtar Ansari in the murder of Congress leader Awadhesh Rai more than 30 years ago.
Voting for the seventh and final phase of the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections covering 54 seats, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi's parliamentary constituency Varanasi, will be held on Monday to decide the phase of 613 candidates.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has also issued instructions to book those found involved in facilitating cheating during examinations under the National Security Act, the statement said.
Curfew was relaxed for two hours, to allow people to buy essential commodities.
Former Indian Administrative Service officer A K Sharma was on Friday named a Bharatiya Janata Party candidate for the Uttar Pradesh legislative council polls a day after he joined the party, fuelling speculation that he will get a ministerial post.
Over 56 per cent turnout was recorded on Monday in 54 assembly seats, including in Varanasi, in the seventh and last phase of Uttar Pradesh polls, marking the end of the voting process spread over two months in the crucial state.
The Uttar Pradesh government is ramping up the inventory of an industrial land bank of an estimated 1,500 acres in the state ahead of the global investors' summit early next year. The state aims to garner private investments of Rs 10 trillion at the January 2023 event. The state government will showcase a proverbial 'ready to allot' menu of industrial land to woo domestic and global corporations.
The curtain came down on rumbustious electioneering over the last two months when assembly polls were also held in four other states - Goa, Uttarakhand, Punjab and Manipur.
The Uttar Pradesh Police had said on Saturday that it would invoke the stringent National Security Act and Gangster Act against those accused in the killing of the 46-year-old man.
This classification of districts is to be followed by states and union terrotories till a week post May 3, when the second phase of lockdown will end, for containment operations.
There has been relaxation in curfew for women and children on Friday to help them collect essential commodities being distributed in the area.
Officials said protests took place at 17 places across the state, including Ballia, Aligarh, Gautam Buddh Nagar and Varanasi.
Nearly a dozen first information reports have been lodged since the Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Ordinance, 2020, was notified on November 27.
From June 6 to 8, the party will reach out to minorities under the programme-- 'Interacting with Minorities'.
On the eve of the sixth and penultimate phase of the marathon Uttar Pradesh elections, Rediff.com's Aslam Hunani reports on what's at stake.
Heavy overnight rains in Uttar Pradesh on Friday led to the deaths of at least 22 people, including nine labourers who were buried alive under the debris when an under-construction wall in the state capital collapsed on their huts.
A truck carrying a group of 54 migrant labourers and their families from Ahmedabad in Gujarat to Balrampur in Uttar Pradesh rammed into a stationary truck near Lalpur police post on Kanpur-Jhansi highway, killing three people and injuring 43 others.
The Bharatiya Janata Party's Uttar Pradesh vice president Arvind Kumar Sharma will be reaching out to residents of western UP with public meetings in Noida, Greater Noida and Bulandshahr from Friday.
'Children need milk. If there is no money, how can one buy it'
The Uttar Pradesh Police on Tuesday took custody of jailed gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari at Punjab's Rupnagar jail to transfer him to Banda prison.
The panchayat polls or those for district panchayat chiefs are not held on a party symbol but candidates enjoy the tacit support of various parties.
Additional District Judge of SC/ST court Ajay Kumar granted bail to Singh on two surety bonds of Rs 50,000 each, government counsel Chedi Lal Gupta said.
Voting for the seventh and final round will be held on March 7 for Varanasi and its eight adjoining districts.
The Supreme Court on Friday directed the Punjab government to hand over the custody of gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari, who is lodged in Rupnagar jail there, to Uttar Pradesh Police.
The water level of major rivers, including the Ganga and the Yamuna, in Uttar Pradesh has crossed the danger mark at several places.
In a sudden late Wednesday night development, the Election Commission gave marching orders to 22 district magistrates, 19 district police chiefs and three DIGs of police in Uttar Pradesh.
UP: Senior BJP leaders detained while proceeding, violence claims 7
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.
After walking free from jail, expelled Bharatiya Janata Party leader Dayashankar Singh on Sunday fired a fresh salvo at Mayawati claiming she "auctioned" tickets and dared her to fight against his wife on any unreserved seat in the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections next year.
Unusual means of connecting with the electorate are also being adopted by ministers in the Yogi Adityanath government, who are doing their bit to reach out to the voters.
After Maggi, the sample of macroni pasta was taken from Mau and sent to National Food Analysis Laboratory.
Sources in various parties suggest that two lakh votes of the Patel community, locally known as OBC kurmi, for which mother-daughter led Apna Dal (S) and Apna Dal (K) are competing and over one lakh of OBC Rajbhars would be crucial in deciding the outcome of the assembly seats in Varanasi.
'By calling names and using unparliamentary language, they are trying to divert people's attention from the issues of electricity, water, and income.'
After spending over two years in a Punjab prison, gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari was brought back to Banda jail early on Wednesday morning.
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