The response was tepid in other parts of the country even as several INDIA bloc parties as well as other non-BJP outfits extended their support to the bandh.
'Besides Ayodhya, the BJP lost in nine other constituencies with a Ramayana imprint; it tasted success only in Thrissur.' 'In Rameswaram, K Navaskani of the Indian Union Muslim League won with a 44% voteshare in a 84% Hindu constituency.' 'In the 21 seats in the Ayodhya and Varanasi regions, both crucial to the Hindutva project, the BJP won just 7.' 'It won just 3 out of 12 seats around Modi's constituency,' points out Krishna Prasad.
The officer added the Saharanpur police has also reached out to its counterpart in adjoining districts to seek their support in the effort to nab the attackers.
While the 16 Congress legislators in the state favoured joining the Mulayam Singh government, a section of the central leadership strongly opposed any such move.
It was becoming difficult for him to continue working in the Samajwadi Party, he told reporters, without elaborating.
'They were very vocal on the defence of the Constitution, reservation, SC/ST Act and democratic rights.'
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi slammed the UP government over the incident 'Another proof of 'goondaraj' (hooliganism) in UP. When police is not safe how can people be?. My condolences are with family of martyrs and I wish speedy recovery of injured,' he said in a tweet.
In the wake of communal violence in West Bengal and Bihar, Sibal had on Sunday questioned the "silence" of Prime Minister Modi over the matter, and said "let not 2024 general elections be the reason" for the violence.
The petitioner had a Congress background and in the recorded conversation, deregatory references were said to have been made against apex court judges.
The visits come against the backdrop of complaints from the Khan camp that Akhilesh Yadav has been 'ignoring' the party veteran and the Muslim community, though it backed the SP in the recent assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh.
Terming the defection of four Samajwadi Party Members of Legislative Assembly as 'betrayal' on the part of the Congress, party general secretary Amar Singh has said that the party has broken his heart."Congress party has betrayed us by engineering the defection of four MLAs of our party. They have not only broken my party, but also my heart," Singh said while addressing a tribal convention ahead of assembly polls in Madhya Pradesh.
The Congress is hopeful of soon finalising the Lok Sabha poll seat-sharing arrangements with the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) allies Aam Aadmi Party and Trinamool Congress, sources said on Friday, days after the principal opposition party arrived at an understanding with the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh.
The film, which was released on May 5, has kicked up a political storm.
Those joining Prime Minister Narendra Modi's council of ministers for the first time include three former chief ministers -- Shivraj Singh Chouhan (Madhya Pradesh), Manohar Lal Khattar (Haryana) and H D Kumaraswamy (Karnataka).
Notwithstanding former Samajwadi Party general secretary Amar Singh's claims that his "illness" had forced to step down, party sources said it was a deliberate sideline by SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav's son Akhilesh Yadav that prompted Singh to withdraw in anger.
Samajwadi Party general secretary Amar Singh has blamed the party's loss in the Firozabad Lok Sabha bypoll on the overconfidence of its chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and said Yadav "behaved symbolically like Mayawati" while campaigning in the constituency.
Samajwadi Party general secretary Amar Singh and his party colleague Ram Gopal Yadav along with eight other new members of Parliament were administered oath by Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari on Wednesday.
Samajwadi Party general secretary Amar Singh, who was instrumental in his party's volte-face on supporting the United Progressive Alliance government and the India-United States nuclear deal, recently visited the United States to meet with the presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton who he says is a good friend. In this interview, he speaks about the nuclear deal and the post-poll scenario
Eighteen people were killed and 19 injured when a double-decker sleeper bus headed for Delhi hit a milk tanker on the Agra-Lucknow Expressway in Unnao on Wednesday, officials said.
The Vishwaguru who addressed the maximum rallies and boasted of being blessed with divine energy, who promised guarantees in his own name, turned out finally not invincible, points out Jyoti Punwani.
Leaders of several Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) parties met on Saturday to take stock of the opposition's preparations leading up to the June 4 counting of votes polled in the Lok Sabha elections, and claimed they will get more than 295 seats, enough for them to form the next government.
In a major development in the ongoing Samajwadi Party feud, Mulayam Singh Yadav has postponed the national convention of party called by him on January 5.
He spoke of the possibility of all non-Congress parties, including the BJP coming together under a common programme and asked the Left parties to lead such an alternative.\n
The Delhi high court on Friday sought a response from the Centre, Election Commission of India, and 26 political parties on a petition seeking to restrain opposition parties from using the acronym INDIA for their alliance.
Bhartiya Janata Party General Secretary Arun Jaitley, of who is leaving for a holiday after masterminding the party's victory in the Karnataka assembly election, is convinced that an alliance between the Congress and the Samajwadi Party is sure to make L K Advani prime minister of India.
Terming his one-time blue-eyed party general secretary Amar Singh as a part of history, Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav on Monday made it clear that the disgruntled leader's exit will have no bearing on his party.Reacting to a barrage of queries related to Amar's resignation at a press conference in Lucknow, a visibly relaxed Mulayam said, "Why do you talk about the past; I don't believe in looking back. Think about what is lying ahead and not history."
The meeting between Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and Amar Singh is a "good beginning" and if Singh gives any proposal to rejoin the party it will be considered, senior party leader Shivpal Yadav said on Tuesday.
The Enforcement Directorate will now, along with the Uttar Pradesh police' Economic Offences Wing, investigate the Rs 500-crore fraud alleged to have been played by Samajwadi Party general secretary Amar Singh.
Police said sensitive pockets, where trouble can erupt, are on high alert. Cinema theatres have also been provided security as one of the movie halls, showing a Bhojpuri film, was targeted on Saturday.
A first information report (FIR) was filed in Ghaziabad on Monday against Alt-News co-founder Mohammad Zubair for allegedly promoting enmity among religious groups and other offences following a complaint by an aide of controversial priest Yati Narsinghanand, according to police.
Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh on Wednesday said the Dehradun court sentencing party member Amarmani Tripathi to life in the Madhumita murder case was not the 'ultimate' decision as he can approach higher courts. "I am simply saying that this is not the ultimate decision. There are many courts left for clarifications as far as Tripathi is concerned and he should be given that opportunity," the party general secretary said.
The suspension of 49 Lok Sabha MPs came a day after, a total of 78 -- 33 from the Lower House and 45 from the Upper House -- lawmakers were suspended from Parliament for disrupting proceedings.
The Congress on Thursday virtually ruled out any grand alliance in poll bound Uttar Pradesh including with Samajwadi Party insisting that Rahul Gandhi wanted to set things right in the state which is in bad shape for past 27 years in non-Congress rule.
Jayalalithaa also said that in her letter to a newspaper on Saturday, she had pointed out that Left parties did not invite her party to take part in a protest rally in Delhi against India's joint naval exercises with other nations, including the US.
The best-case scenario is that the BJP will top out at around 50 seats in UP -- a drop of 12 from the 62 it had won in 2019. Taken in tandem with Maharashtra and Karnataka, this is what is likely to put paid to the BJP's ambitions of a third term for Modi, argues Prem Panicker.
The Congress said the rally by the INDIA will send a "strong message" to the Lok Kalyan Marg, where the prime minister's residence is located, that the BJP-led government's "time is up".
The BJP said that since the payment made by Amar Singh was in US dollars and was a substantial amount, RBI clearance should have been sought as per the legal guidelines.
Unlike traditional cybercriminals, Apple warned that State-sponsored attackers apply exceptional resources to target a very small number of specific individuals and their devices, which makes these attacks much harder to detect and prevent.
Abhishek and the Big B drop Ash home on the day of their engagement.
