Mukhtar Ansari's Quami Ekta Dal's merger with the Samajwadi Party last year had triggered turmoil in that party.
Various Maratha organisations had held massive 'silent marches' across the state last year for various demands, including reservation.
As the government came under attack from the Opposition during the debate on the recent communal riots in the national capital that have claimed over 50 lives, the BJP members alleged that the violence was a pre-planned conspiracy and the home minister and authorities took pro-active steps to control the situation.
Taking note of a Hindu outfit's assertion that a large number of people will be converted on December 25, district authorities on Friday issued a warning to those trying to disturb communal amity while asking citizens not to get provoked.
In the dangal of UP politics, much as Muzaffarnagar wants to leave its past behind, the shadows are never be far behind.
In the caste-based politics of Uttar Pradesh, Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav felt it necessary to bring in a strong leader to retrieve the party's eroding Thakur support base. Sharat Pradhan reports
The 'secularists'are more adept at the politics of intense and alarmingly exaggerated fear-mongering, as this kind of politics provides easy votes of Muslims without making them answerable for the concrete issues of poverty, unemployment, lawlessness, and of basic needs like roads, electricity, etc, which is exactly how Nitish Kumar was defeated in the elections, says Mohammad Sajjad.
Amid a raging row over alleged forced reconversions in Agra, a Hindu organisation has announced its plan to "convert a large number of people" on December 25, which was welcomed by a local Bharatiya Janata Party MP who said people are within their rights to choose their religion.
Advocating for Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, yoga guru Ramdev on Monday accused the Congress of creating economic and social anarchy, and said only Modi can save the country from corruption.
'From the evidently pre-selected questions to the promotional slides on a screen redolent of the official audio-visual department, the choreography was palpably intended to present the prime minister in as good a light as possible in a 'safe' environment insulated from uncomfortable questions,' says Amulya Ganguli.
This time, Bajrang Dal 'activists' object to lady students traveling on a study trip.
Bhim denotes Dalit icon Bhimrao Ambedkar, while Mim denotes the letter 'M' in the Urdu alphabet; the party used the slogan effectively in the 2014 Maharashtra assembly elections
Sandeep Mawa is a Kashmiri Pandit married to a Kashmiri Muslim, intent upon spreading the message of love and Kashmiriyat through his campaign. He wants to hug Assaduddin Owaisi, Arvind Kejriwal, Rahul Gandhi, Narendra Modi and do a pau lago to Sonia and Priyanka Gandhi.
'Teaching lessons is the objective behind every school.' 'For the moment, a state seems intent to teach a lesson -- that students of Classes 4, 5 and 6 can wage war against the mighty Indian nation,' says Krishna Prasad.
Bharatiya Janata Party is making hectic preparations ahead of the visit by BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, who will undertake a "grand road show" before filing his nomination on Thursday for the mega battle in this holy city where he is challenged by AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal and others.
Adityanath says there is no scope for political violence in democracy.
"I don't care if someone doesn't like my visits to Madhya Pradesh. I will continue to talk about farmers, employment to the youth and good education," said the Patidar agitation leader.
Given the controversy over Uttar Pradesh's population control moves, Hemant Shivsaran/Rediff.com digs deep to find out how many children BJP MLAs in UP have.
The apex court issued notices to the Centre, the Delhi government and the police on pleas seeking removal of protesters from Shaheen Bagh.
With Maharashtra and Haryana assembly elections, results for 51 assembly and two Lok Sabha bypolls spread across 18 states were declared on Thursday. Here are state-wise results of the bypolls.
The students were booked under sedition charges after a complaint was filed by BJYM member Mukesh Lodhi.
The Samajwadi Party is headed for yet another father-son showdown.
Amid escalating protest against the lynching of a rape accused by a mob in Nagaland's Dimapur, Internet and text messaging services have been blocked across the state till Monday evening.
Nandi had defeated, by a margin of more than 14,000 votes, Keshri Nath Tripathi who was a five-time MLA, and had served thrice as the Uttar Pradesh assembly speaker and was the BJP's state unit president at that time.
'The Congress should have accepted our demands.' 'Gone are the days when it could decide how many crumbs to throw at us.' 'Now, we make the demands.'
'No one, Mr Kohli, holds any kind of a franchise on nationalism and patriotism.' 'And there is no 'our' that owns India,' says Suhit Sen.
There was no report of devotees facing any inconvenience even as shops and eateries downed their shutters and vehicles remained off roads.
Jamiat Ulema-i-Hind president expresses concern at the "atmosphere of fear" following violence by 'gau rakshaks'.
'Jignesh Mevani has many strengths: Youth, articulation, fearlessness, proficiency with social media, political and ideological flexibility.' 'Also focus, as in targeting the BJP as the one and only enemy for now and using that justification to align with the rest,' says Shekhar Gupta.
A report filed by the police with the district magistrate of Gautam Budh Nagar district recommended filing of first information report against the two leaders and also against Bahujan Samaj Party leader and former Minister Naseemuddin Siddiqui.
Articulate segments of Muzaffarpur have been at the the forefront of all anti-establishment mobilisation, which makes their silence over the atrocities in a shelter home in the town puzzling. Could it be that if those accused of horrific crimes belong to dominant castes and if the victims belong to the vulnerable groups, then the middle classes become mute, asks Mohammad Sajjad.
The Congress general secretary was joined by leaders like Ahmed Patel, A K Antony, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Randeep Singh Surjewala, besides hundreds of party workers at the India Gate on Monday in a show of solidarity with the students from Jamia Millia Islamia and several other universities across the country protesting the contentious amended citizenship law.
More than 3,000 squads under health and local self-government departments have started the process of cleaning houses and public places, official sources said.
Singh was among the many MPs who attended a breakfast meeting hosted by President Ram Nath Kovind on March 18 as well as a Parliamentary panel meeting on transport, tourism and culture attended by around 20 MPs on Wednesday. Trinamool Congress MP Derek O'Brien said in a tweet, 'This government is putting us all at risk. The PM says self-isolate yourself but Parliament is on.'
Four days after a scuffle between intoxicated young men on Diwali night in Trilokpuri's Block 20 spiralled into a diffused communal riot that resulted in scores of injuries, dozens of arrests, and the incineration of at least one Muslim-owned shop, the violence appears to have abated but tension and suspicion persist.
Almost everyone in Gorakhpur has a story about an Adityanath intervention that helped push through a piece of work that would've been otherwise impossible.
Saisuresh Sivaswamy tells us what we must know from the election news in the print and television media.
With Thursday's win, the Congress's strength in the Lok Sabha has gone up to 48.
Pon Radhakrishnan is also a Union minister of state. His opponent is the richest candidate in Tamil Nadu.
'Even if Akhilesh Yadav opens up the entire state treasury for us we will not vote for the Samajwadi Party... ''...I don't want to return to my village, my head will be chopped off. They want me to press the button on the lotus.' Caught between an aggressive BSP cornering Dalit votes and the BJP cornering other Hindu votes, the Muslims of Muzaffarnagar have nowhere to go, no one to turn to. Rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt presents the grim situation on the ground in western Uttar Pradesh.
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