Criticising the handling of the COVID-19 crisis in Uttar Pradesh, a ruling party leader has claimed that at least 10 people died in every village during the second wave as no lessons were learnt from the first one.
While people voted in a fifth round that will set the tone as this election rounds into the straight, and while Modi on the stump chews the cud of personal grievances and hackneyed promises that have long since passed their use-by date, there is a rogue wave rising -- what damage it will do, we will know 16 days from today, observes Prem Panicker.
Land pooling refers to amassing small land parcels for infra development and returning approximately 60% of the redeveloped land to the original owners
The activists of Dr Ambedkar Vichar Samiti and Nav Srijan Samiti from Ahmedabad were taken into custody on Sunday night and sent back home, officials said.
Never before has the BJP faced such a crisis over the nomination of the Chief Minister as it is facing now, discovers Prakash Bhandari, veteran observer of Rajasthan politics.
The CM said his government has not deviated from its zero-tolerance policy on crime.
'It will be a grand alliance where they could get the Muslims, Dalits and Yadavs in one camp and pose a serious challenge to whatever the BJP might conjure up in the run-up to the 2019 election.'
'It is for the first time that Modi has chosen someone as CM who happens to be a mass leader, a polarising figure, a vote catcher, a powerful orator and a Hindu mascot all at once -- qualities usually associated with Modi,' points out Rajeev Sharma.
Police said the minister's cavalcade was passing Colonelganj area on Saturday. The boy was knocked down by one of the vehicles in the fleet and died on way to hospital.
Heavy overnight rains in Uttar Pradesh on Friday led to the deaths of at least 22 people, including nine labourers who were buried alive under the debris when an under-construction wall in the state capital collapsed on their huts.
According to insiders, their lack of enthusiasm is showing on the ground. There is nothing to suggest that their enthusiasm will return in the final four phases of polling, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
While the Congress has found success in scoring over the BJP on Twitter and Facebook, it has failed to match the Sangh Parivar's finesse at utilizing WhatsApp as its primary medium to send its message across to the Karnataka electorate, reports Archis Mohan.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Tuesday ordered 18-hour power supply in villages, 20-hour at tehsil level and in Bundelkhand region besides deciding to ink a pact with the Centre to ensure electricity in all UP villages by 2019.
The Hindutva poster boy has lost his sheen following the BJP's poll reverses in Hindi heartland states and his style of governance, reports Virendra Singh Rawat.
While the opposition alliance is putting up a united front in Ghosi constituency in Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand's Dumri, Dhanpur and Boxanagar in Tripura and Uttarakhand's Bageshwar, its constituents are contesting against each other in Dhupguri in West Bengal and Puthuppally in Kerala.
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.
The Congress accused Yogi Adityanath of withdrawing cases of heinous crimes such as rioting in Muzaffarnagar on religious lines.
'Jockeying for that position has possibly started at this time.'
Asked whether he will join the BJP, he said, "Why not? Whatever Maharaj ji tells me, I will do."
The Uttar Pradesh Defence corridor is estimated to attract Rs 20,000 crore investment and create 250,000 jobs.
'There have been more than 70 cases of extra-judicial killings in Assam.' 'In some cases, people have been taken away from their homes by the police and then shot.'
The TMC, fresh from its resounding victory in West Bengal, is renewing efforts to mark its presence in the country's most populous state as well as politically crucial elections before the Lok Sabha battle in 2024, reports Virendra Singh Rawat.
The nationwide ban comes into force at 6 am Tuesday, the poll panel said.
Former Indian Administrative Service officer A K Sharma was on Friday named a Bharatiya Janata Party candidate for the Uttar Pradesh legislative council polls a day after he joined the party, fuelling speculation that he will get a ministerial post.
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav lashed out at his one-time ally, the Congress, and said that in the state the BJP is nowhere.
What some of our leaders were up to on the weekend.
'Whenever Yogiji said something which was against the party line, we distanced ourselves from that.' 'He will not speak his personal opinion now.'
Electioneering ended in Madhya Pradesh at 6 pm except in Naxalites-hit districts of Balaghat, Mandla and Dindori, where campaigning drew to a close early at 3 pm.
A station house officer was arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl who was left outside his police station in Uttar Pradesh's Lalitpur by four men after they raped her for three days, officials said on Wednesday.
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.
There is nothing the young Purvanchali wants more desperately than to escape to a place with less hopelessness, and some opportunity, discovers Shekhar Gupta.
Yogi Adityanath has turned Lucknow's VVIP guest house into his seat of power.
The appointment of Yogi Adityanath as UP CM, the revival of the Ram Temple movement, the elevation of a ban on cow slaughter as a national priority, and the targeting of any social behaviour deemed contrary to a set of narrowly prescribed Indian values point to a social regression that contradicts the inclusive and forward-looking impulse that underlies Modi's vision of a modern India.
The pressure on Delhi mellowed Lucknow's ruling dispensation's initial enthusiasm to try and draw electoral mileage from the developments in Afghanistan.
No matter how much the likes of Modi brag about cleaning up politics, the goondas and the godfathers will flourish until India can deliver justice to its poor and the system can work to the benefit of ordinary Indians, says Vir Sanghvi.
The new UP CM also asked all his ministers to provide details of their income, moveable and immoveable assets within 15 days.
'I don't need to go out now. I don't have to buy votes. My workers are campaigning for me, visiting villages. I know people in every village and their issues,' says the 78-year-old leader.
Over 80 cattle lost their lives and over 600 houses were damaged in rain-related incidents.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Governor Anandiben Patel participated in the celebrations.
It was not a one-way ride up though for the man who now could potentially become the BJP's national president over time.
