'Don't be surprised if the Census forms come with a caste box.' 'I will be surprised if it doesn't. It will be a point conceded to Rahul Gandhi and his allies,' asserts Shekhar Gupta. The BJP machine could take all 3 in its stride, but this election has changed that, notes Shekhar Gupta.
Banda chief judicial magistrate Bhagwan Das Gupta appointed Garima Singh, additional chief judicial magistrate (MP-MLA Court Banda) as the investigating officer in the case, the official said.
'The people of Uttar Pradesh have already made up their mind to puncture the Samajwadi Party's cycle, kick away the Bahujan Samaj Party's elephant, and remove shadows of the already-vanished hand of the Congress.'
It was a case of so near yet so far for Uttar Pradesh as they failed to take the last two Karnataka wickets for an outright win, and had to eventually settle for three points after their Group B Ranji Trophy tie ended in a draw in Meerut on Tuesday. Uttar Pradesh earned more points on the basis of taking the first innings lead.
Apparently Mahatma Gandhi's goodwill with 'untouchables' of those days and All India Congress Committee General Secreatary Rahul Gandhi's attempts to reach out to dalits continues to bug Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati, to whom both seem absolutely unpalatable.
Holding that the Constitution of India envisages a secular nation, the Supreme Court Friday directed the Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand governments to come down hard on hate speeches, promptly registering criminal cases against the culprits without waiting for a complaint to be filed.
The protestors broke the security barricades, pelted stones at the house and set on fire the effigies of Pandher and Surinder as a handful of Uttar Pradesh policemen looked on.
The Uttar Pradesh police on Thursday arrested five people, including a man who they claimed to be the personal secretary of former minister Swami Prasad Maurya, for allegedly duping unemployed youth on the pretext of giving them government jobs.
These include key constituencies held by Opposition parties such as Uttar Pradesh's Rae Bareli (Sonia Gandhi, Congress) and Mainpuri (Mulayam Singh Yadav, SP); Maharashtra's Baramati (Supriya Sule, Nationalist Congress Party); West Bengal's Jadhavpur (Mimi Chakraborty, TMC); Telangana's Mahabubnagar (Srinivas Reddy, TRS) and Madhya Pradesh's Chhindwara (Nakul Nath, Congress).
Campaigning came to an end on Saturday for the single-day election in Uttarakhand and Goa, two states known for political volatility where the Bharatiya Janata Party is attempting to retain power, and for the second phase of assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh on February 14.
'Which is growing fast and where we are very strongly positioned.'
"Making a person belonging to Dalit caste as the chief minister of Punjab is nothing but an election stunt. I have come to know through the media today that assembly elections in Punjab will be fought under a non-Dalit leader and not under Channi," Mayawati told newspersons in Lucknow
Weighed down by anti-incumbency, the BJP heavily banked on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's personal appeal to enable it to sail through in the assembly elections but it was not to be.
"There are other senior leaders who also have not got a place in the executive committee. New people should also get an opportunity. I am aware of my duties and serving the people of my constituency is my first duty," she stressed.
Before pedalling down the streets of the state capital, Yadav told mediapersons at the party headquarters that the BJP government has "failed" in Covid management.
For now, Modi's government appears singularly focussed on demonstrating that it is not in any way inhibited by the BJP's loss of a majority, and will continue along its patented path of bulldozing all opposition and doing just as it likes, asserts Prem Panicker.
Union minister Tariq Anwar on Thursday said Nationalist Congress Party president Sharad Pawar has sent a "strong message" to those targeting migrants from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, by making him a Union minister.
Even as the government seeks to recruit one million people in 18 months, it is interesting that the record of its flagship skill development programme, which aims to enhance the employment potential of Indians, has been poor. To be sure, the progress was not great to begin with, and it inevitably deteriorated during the two years of the pandemic. When the government announced its first skill development initiative in 2015, it aimed to train as many people as possible and provide them with placements.
As per reports, Ali campaigned for Pathak, a BJP leader, during the assembly election and on the day of victory, he not only burst crackers but also distributed sweets.
'The 2024 election results will lead to much intense targeting of Modi, more intense debates, many more breakdowns in Parliament and many more movements on the streets.' 'The results have hit Modi's standing, and the politics of the Opposition parties will be sharply focused to ensure that Modi doesn't get back his charisma of being 'invincible' with help of State power.' Sheela Bhatt looks at the political situation through the prism of 2024 Lok Sabha election results.
Cheteshwar Pujara's presence did not help Saurashtra as a gritty Tripura humbled the defending champions
The BJP's 2022 assembly election win may have further consolidated Adityanath's stock within the BJP. The saffron party is now set to win the UP state polls twice in a row, a feat achieved by no other party in three decades.
Meanwhile, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on Thursday sent a notice to the Uttar Pradesh government and the state's police chief over the incident.
A CBI official in New Delhi said the team was waiting for the judgment copy and would take a call on next steps after studying it.
After a stellar run on the bourses that saw tractor stocks rise up to 52 per cent, analysts are turning cautious on the sector as muted demand trends may weigh in the near-term. Total volumes in the tractor segment for the last three quarters of the current financial year (9MFY24) have remained weak with VST Tillers, Escorts Kubota, and M&M seeing declines of 21 per cent, 5 per cent, and 3 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y), respectively, during the period, amid patchy rainfall, delayed crop harvest, and lower reservoir level. Across industry, total domestic sales volume so far in the current financial year (April '23 to January '24) has declined 5 per cent Y-o-Y, as per Tractor Manufacturers Association (TMA).
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.
Referring to Modi, Adityanath and Union Home Minister Amit Shah as 'outsiders', the farmer leader said he has no objection if they become prime ministers after winning polls from Uttarakhand or Gujarat.
Pacers Anand Rajan and Ishwar Pandey shared six wickets between them as Madhya Pradesh registered a comfortable five-wicket win over Uttar Pradesh in their limited-overs Vijay Hazare Trophy Central Zone match, in Indore on Friday.
Addressing a virtual rally directed at western UP constituencies, he urged people to keep 'history-sheeters' out, and instead create a 'new history'.
Nearly 1,500 akansha petis (boxes of aspirations) have been placed in colleges for students to reveal what they expect from a BJP government. While demonetisation figured high in villages, BJP strategist Siddharth Sikka says city youth were "more concerned" about law and order and sanitation.
After attacking migrants from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena leader Raj Thackeray has now trained his guns at a growing number of North Indian students coming to Pune for higher education. "Pune, with its large number of reputed universities and institutions imparting higher education is attracting students from these states who are being given admissions on massive donations leaving in the lurch the deserving Marathi aspirants," he said.
'Unlike in the sporting arena, where sports federations moved from partisan to impartial referees, in Indian democracy's biggest festival, it appears we are moving backward from unbiased and objective to one-sided and partisan,' observes Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
If Indira Gandhi hadn't targeted the RSS, Narendra Modi wouldn't be sitting pretty with his second majority and looking at a third, asserts Shekhar Gupta.
If the Congress reached 90, it would have a pretty good chance of holding the BJP below the 272 mark. A hundred seats will rock national politics, argues Shekhar Gupta.
Targeting the Congress, the PM said those who ruled Madhya Pradesh for a long time did nothing else other than corruption and crime.
Putting personal liberty at the highest pedestal, the top court observed that if it does not 'interfere' in the case relating to arrest of journalist Arnab Goswami in an abetment of suicide case then it would amount to walking on the 'path of destruction'.
'The first two years of the Jal Jeevan Mission were wasted in UP.' 'But after a push from the Centre, work has picked up pace in the state.'
The last few years have been uncharacteristically good for the Indian sugar sector for a variety of reasons. While on the one hand, the weather supported good crop production; on the other hand, the programme to blend ethanol with petrol took off in a big way. The long-pending problem of burgeoning sugarcane arrears almost came down to nil and exports boomed to record highs.
'Resigning as president of Wrestling Federation of India is not a big deal for me, but I will not resign as a criminal.'
