The suspense over whether Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will contest the polls from Amethi and Raebareli respectively continued.
The chief minister stressed that faith of every sect and religion should be respected.
Polling for the third phase of the Lok Sabha elections for 94 seats will take place today, covering 11 States and Union Territory.
Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav's daughter-in-law Aparna Yadav joined the Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday.
The BJP, which has allied with a few smaller parties, has sought to upend the state's conventional politics, which has so far been indifferent to Hindutva politics, by taking the ruling DMK head-on for its alleged insult of Sanatan Dharma besides involvement in corruption.
A 15-member delegation from the Samajwadi Party (SP) will travel to Sambhal, Uttar Pradesh, on Saturday to investigate violence that occurred following a court-ordered survey of the Shahi Jama Masjid complex. The visit comes after tensions escalated in Sambhal due to the survey, which was ordered by a local court based on a petition claiming the mosque was built on the site of a demolished temple. The violence on November 24 resulted in four deaths and numerous injuries, prompting the SP to postpone its initial visit. The delegation, led by SP state president Shyam Lal Pal, includes prominent party figures, including the Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Assembly and the Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Council. The district administration has imposed prohibitory orders, barring outsiders from entering Sambhal until Saturday. However, the SP delegation is expected to proceed with its visit, aiming to gather information about the violence and submit a report to party chief Akhilesh Yadav.
Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera called the order "state-sponsored bigotry".
The Rajya Sabha member was not keeping well for the past few days and was admitted to a private hospital in Lucknow, where he died around 7 pm.
Police said they had received a complaint from one Ravindra Singh, a pilot with SAR Aviation Service Private Limited, who alleged that his firm's helicopter was stolen. Singh claimed that the chopper was taken away in parts in a truck by some people in May. He claimed that he was assaulted when he confronted those people.
Ahead of the 2022 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, former Indian Police Service officer Amitabh Thakur on Friday said he will float a new political party soon.
A building under construction at the Kannauj railway station in Uttar Pradesh collapsed on Saturday, trapping around two dozen workers under the rubble. Six workers have been rescued and rushed to hospital. Rescue efforts are ongoing with teams from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) deployed at the site. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has directed officials to ensure the safe recovery of those trapped and their proper medical treatment.
Shivpal Yadav on Wednesday held a meeting with party workers and exhorted them to ensure the victory of the SP candidate in the bypoll.
The TMC also announced it would hold talks with other regional parties in their bid to take on the BJP in the crucial 2024 elections but at the same time denied that it was planning a third front, separate from the Congress-led front.
Ahsan Ullah Khan, the additional district and session judge of the MP-MLA court in Sonbhadra, also imposed a fine of Rs 10 lakh on Gond which would be used in the rape survivor's rehabilitation.
His remarks come amid BJP ministers and legislators quitting the party in UP ahead of the crucial Assembly polls in the state.
In the backdrop of the Muzaffarnagar police's order asking eateries on the Kanwar yatra route to display their owners' names, senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader and former Union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi on Thursday said it may spread the 'disease of untouchability'.
An average voter turnout of 20 per cent was recorded in the first four hours of voting in the bypolls to 15 assembly seats spread across Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Kerala and Uttarakhand on Wednesday amid an incident of stone pelting in a village in UP's Meerapur and allegations of police personnel deterring voters from casting their ballot.
This negated the gain of more than a dozen seats in Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and Kerala.
Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav on Monday said that the country is witnessing 'politics of change' and called on the youth to make it successful.
The Congress, meanwhile, alleged that both the Samajwadi Party and the BJP are hand-in-glove with the criminals and were two sides of the same coin.
The Uttar Pradesh government has withdrawn the 'Y-category' security cover provided to Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan, saying it was not needed, even as his party decried the move as "unfortunate."
The government and opposition parties on Monday reached an agreement to break the impasse in Parliament with dates announced for discussions on the Constitution in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha.
This has invited sharp reaction from the Opposition, with the Samajwadi Party saying that the BJP was afraid of its defeat in Milkipur due to which it moved the court for "stalling" polls on the assembly seat.
The ruling Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh on Friday expelled its three leaders in Etah, including a former member of Legislative Assembly, for their involvement in anti-party activities.
The BJP is leaning on Yogi's 'batenge to katenge' theme to weave a unifying narrative that transcends caste and communal lines.
'People tell us openly that in 2024 we will vote for Modi.'
Spread over 10 districts, polling in these constituencies will be held from 7 am till 6 pm on Thursday.
The move triggered sharp reaction from the opposition, which has accused the state's BJP government of trying to stifle freedom of expression.
"Ramgopal Yadav was expelled from the party for six years on 30 December, 2016. Therefore the party's national convention called by him on 1 January, 2017 was illegal," he asserted.
Congress, the main Opposition party in the BJP-ruled state, had left the Khajuraho seat for SP as per the seat-sharing arrangement within the INDIA bloc.
Yogi Adityanath was on Thursday unanimously chosen the leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party legislature party in Uttar Pradesh in the presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
'Do not conspire against us, don't betray us. They should tell us straight that they don't need Samajwadis'
The seized properties include a hospital building at Bhavani Nagar in Nauchandi and two luxury cars that Qureshi had allegedly purchased in the name of his family members and employees, they said.
With the Yogi Adityanath government taking credit for cracking down on criminals and making it an election issue, political parties are now having a rethink on aligning with those who have a criminal background but also enjoy influence in their areas.
An Uttar Pradesh government spokesperson said a formal order for all eateries along the Kanwar Yatra route in the state was likely to be issued soon.
Ansari's brother Afzal said they do not trust either the postmortem or the viscera reports.
Despite this setback, Pandey emphasised that discussions regarding ticket distribution are ongoing and solutions will be found through timely communication.
A visibly upset Shivpal Yadav said, "I was never called to any meeting (of the SP) and no information was given to me."
Leaders from 26 opposition parties, in power individually or in alliance in Delhi and 10 states, are meeting in Bengaluru to discuss strategy to take on the Narendra Modi-led NDA in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
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.
