Protests broke out in some states on Friday, including Delhi's Jama Masjid and stone-petling at policemen in Uttar Pradesh's Prayagraj and Saharanpur, over the controversial remarks on Prophet Muhammad by two now-suspended Bharatiya Janata Party functionaries with demonstrators in Jharkhand injuring a few policemen while authorities in Jammu imposed a curfew in few areas and parts of Kashmir observed a shutdown.
UP Power Minister Shrikant Sharma stirred up a hornet's nest with his tweet terming the Congress president a 'coward and impotent'.
Amid the ongoing protest against the new farm laws, Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait on Sunday asked the farmers to keep their tractors ready stating that they may have to reach the national capital anytime.
Eleven deaths have been reported in Saharanpur followed by 10 in Meerut, six in Agra, four in Mainpuri, three each in Muzaffarnagar and Kasganj, two each in Amroha, Bareilly, Baghpat and Bulandshahr and one each in Kanpur Dehat, Mathura, Ghaziabad, Hapur, Rae Bareli, Jalaun, Jaunpur, Pratapgarh, Banda, Firozabad, Amethi, Kanpur and Pilibhit, they said.
"I can say with confidence that the BJP will form the government in the state," he reiterated.
'It is obvious that this is both illegal and unconstitutional.'
A farmers' protest against three farm laws of the Centre, which was continuing on a national highway in Uttar Pradesh's Baghpat district since December 19 last year, has come to an end with the protesters alleging use of force by police.
A government official in Lucknow said Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath expressed grief over the incident and announced an ex gratia of Rs 2 lakh each to the families of the deceased migrants and Rs 50,000 to the seriously injured.
The BSP, which fielded nearly 100 Muslim candidates, won only four out of the 77 assembly seats dominated by Muslim voters.
'It is only when those who are oppressed stand for themselves that society is forced to create space for them,' says Aakar Patel.
After a spell of relative calm, Jammu and Kashmir witnessed a spate of killings of innocent civilians last month, triggering apprehensions of an intense cycle of violence and turmoil in the region.
Of the total 166 names declared so far by the Congress, 119 candidates will be making their electoral debut.
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.
Adityanath has of late earned the nickname "bulldozer baba", which helped the party create a narrative of tough administration in the state polls.
The two parties named the seats distributed among them in a statement signed by SP president Akhilesh Yadav and BSP chief Mayawati.
The 20 districts where there would be no relaxation yet are Meerut, Lucknow, Saharanpur, Varanasi, Ghaziabad, Gorakhpur, Muzaffarnagar, Bareilly, Gautam Buddh Nagar, Bulandshahr, Jhansi, Prayagraj, Lakhimpur-Khiri, Sonbhadra, Jaunpur, Baghpat, Moradabad, Ghazipur, Bijnor and Deoria.
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.
"Darr to lagta hai par bhook say zyada darr lagta hai (I am scared but I fear hunger more than death)," he said as he pointed to his kids adding "back home we won't be able to find two square meals".
The elections are being seen as a semi-final to the 2022 assembly election.
975 people have been arrested in connection with the violence in Muzaffarnagar, in which 40 people lost their lives, police said on Tuesday.
He also rejected allegations of being a vote cutter and cleared the air about his fallout with the Akhilesh Yadav-led party.
The Congress wants the 28 seats it won in 2012 plus 20 seats where the party was runner-up plus 57 seats where it was ahead of the SP in 2012.
Three prisoners, including a member of Bahujan Samaj Party MLA Mukhtar Ansari's gang, were shot dead inside the Chitrakoot district jail on Friday after which the Uttar Pradesh government suspended two jail officials, police said.
However, the farmers are still protesting, demanding a law on MSP. Besides MSP, the farmers are also demanding a resolution for the livelihood of the families of the 700 farmers who died while protesting against the three farm laws.
According to BJP insiders, every Union minister has been given 3-4 seats to mentor and has been told to work hard on these constituencies in the next 20 months to ensure the party's victory.
Saharanpur Congress candidate Imran Masood has stirred up a controversy by threatening to "chop Narendra Modi into pieces", inviting sharp criticism from the Bharatiya Janata Party which termed the remark as "inflammatory" and sought strict action by the Election Commission.
Azad said the Bhim Army will run parallel to the party and continue to fight for Dalit rights and enrol new members.
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.
Seven other criminals were arrested in separate seven encounters in four districts
For the party's traditional vote bank -- traders -- demonetisation was a 'political betrayal.'
The sole intention of the opposition parties is to create roadblocks on the path of development, the prime minister said, as he termed their action "anti national".
UP has 14 mango belts in Lucknow (Lucknow, Malihabad, Bakshi-ka-Talaab), Saharanpur and Sambhal-Amroha-Muzaffarnagar districts. Apart from Dussehri, the other major varieties in UP comprise Langda, Chausa, Amprapali and Mallika.
'Politics is about caste in Eastern UP and religion in Western UP.' Rediff.com's Archana Masih gets a sense of the fault lines in this election's most volatile region -- that can make or break the future of political parties in UP.
The ED has attached seven sugar mills worth over Rs 1,097 crore in a money laundering case against former Uttar Pradesh BSP MLC Mohammed Iqbal and his family, officials said.
Mayawati has accused 'Ravan' of being a BJP agent who is dividing the scheduled castes.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has conceded for the first time that divisions within the ruling African National Congress prevented appropriate action against the influential Gupta family from India for their alleged involvement in massive state capture.
Uttar Pradesh government's love for saffron colour is no secret to anyone.
At least 28 people have so far lost their lives in rain related incidents in Uttar Pradesh whereas a population of five lakh in some 600 villages of the state has been affected because of it.
A 28-year-old man from Uttar Pradesh has claimed that his right hand was chopped off by some locals in Haryana's Panipat where he had gone in search of a job. However, a family has filed a complaint against the man, identified as Ikhlaq from Nanauta in Saharanpur district, that he allegedly sodomised a seven-year-old boy.
Licensed bars in major UP cities could earlier remain open up to 1 am, or 3 am if they were located in five-star hotels. Unlike before, hotels in small cities can also apply for a liquor licence.
