Varanasi Municipal Corporation's decision to relocate all meat, fish, and poultry shops outside city limits before the holy month of Sawan has ignited a debate among residents, traders, and political leaders, with supporters citing religious sentiments and critics raising concerns about convenience and livelihoods.
During this Ramzan, another religious practice was turned into an offence: Breaking the fast, or iftar.
The Congress party is intensifying its efforts to strengthen its organizational base in Uttar Pradesh, with plans to contest all 403 seats in the 2027 Assembly elections. Senior leaders emphasize grassroots preparations, voter outreach, and public meetings to regain political ground in the state.
Once a quiet riverside ritual, Dev Deepawali has evolved into UP's largest soft-power spectacle -- merging faith, art, enterprise into a global cultural brand that reflects state's growing confidence.
The Cabinet meeting and the holy dip comes on a day that marks the first anniversary of the consecration ceremony of the Ram temple in Ayodhya.
The Varanasi mayor has issued orders making it mandatory for every municipal corporation member to sing 'Vande Mataram' and 'Jana Gana Mana' after a Bharatiya Janata Party corporator's proposal for singing the songs triggered protests by Congress and Samajwadi Party members.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party won the mayoral elections in 10 of the 17 municipal corporations in Uttar Pradesh, results for which were announced on Saturday, virtually adding a third engine to its "double-engine" government.
The Uttar Pradesh government on Thursday issued a provisional list of reserved seats for mayors of municipal corporations, and chairpersons of municipal councils and nagar panchayats for the three-tier urban elections.
To seek approval for about 2,084 political advertisements in the city, the BJP submitted nearly 517 applications to the poll body from March 13 till May 8, data accessed by PTI showed.
As vote-counting was in progress, the party led with a good margin in Varanasi, Kanpur and Ghaziabad whereas the state's ruling Samajwadi Party-backed candidate I S Tomar won the Mayoral election of Bareilly municipal corporation.
The Bharatiya Janata Party swept urban local body elections in Uttar Pradesh winning 10 of 12 mayoral posts in municipal corporations with Congress failing to open its account.
What some of our leaders were up to on the weekend.
Over 6,000 loudspeakers were removed from religious places and the volume of another 30,000 was set to permissible limits across Uttar Pradesh following a government order, a senior police official said on Wednesday.
Stinking politics will only sink the party which practices it, feels Vikas Khanna
All the parties fielded women candidates after the Lucknow mayoral seat was reserved for women.
Taking forward his Swachh Bharat campaign, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday revisited his constituency and lauded people for helping rid the Assi Ghat of mounds of soil and garbage to restore the historical site to its old glory.
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday accused the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party of attempting to "steal" votes and said exit polls were meant to create a perception that the saffron party will emerge victorious in the Uttar Pradesh election.
The Bharatiya Janata Party's Ranjan Ben Bhatta will be pitted against Congress's Narendra Rawat for the Vadodara Lok Sabha seat vacated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
A bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and justices PS Narasimha and JB Pardiwala passed the order after hearing an application of Uttar Pradesh government seeking more time to install and operationalise 100 per cent STP coverage in the state.
The second and third positions in the category were grabbed by Surat and Navi Mumbai respectively.
Amid signs of increasing bonhomie between her and her Telangana and Tamil Nadu counterparts Rao and Stalin, Banerjee had approached the two on Sunday to set up meetings of opposition chief ministers.
The civic authorities have moved to clear roads which have become slushy and strewn with garbage, and are also gearing up to tackle rush of patients in municipal hospitals.
Enters joint venture with Pune-based Unique Delta Force Security
Six decades and more later, we are now captives of our identities. Every poll is based on elaborate calculations of electability of candidates on the basis of their castes and other narrow definers. That, along with voter promiscuity, is what defines our political culture, which remains stubbornly resistant to any change, asserts Shreekant Sambrani.
Upset over removal of 'UP Rising' posters at Pravasi Bhartiya Divas in Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh government has planned to organise a Diaspora conclave of its own for the first time next month to woo investors and associate NRIs in development of the state.
Political analysts say the Congress appears on the backfoot this time after one of its senior tribal leaders from the region joined the BJP, which has a stronghold in urban areas where civic bodies, leaders and the network required to win the election are firmly with the saffron party.
Atique Ahmed is one of the most feared dons of Uttar Pradesh today. There was another don who preceded Atique and had he survived, Atique wouldn't have been around today, recalls Sudhir Bisht.
Here's a recap of events that occurred in India in the past 24 hours.
Udayanidhi has handed over to the BJP one real issue to draw the line between it and the INDIA alliance, predicts N Sathiya Moorthy.
Earning the coveted UNESCO tag would not only have ramped up revenues through enhanced tourism but also helped in keeping monuments and heritage buildings in Delhi free of encroachment, say experts.
President Ram Nath Kovind appointed Kejriwal as the CM of Delhi. The President has also appointed six MLAs -- Manish Sisodia, Satyendar Jain, Gopal Rai, Kailash Gehlot, Imran Hussain and Rajendra Gautam -- as ministers of the Delhi government following the advice of the CM.
I believe that UP has been doing this consistently -- of grossly under-reporting the Covid-positive cases. Nothing else explains the glaring differences in UP's positivity rates versus other badly affected states, says Omkar Goswami.
Private hospitals, especially smaller standalone ones, are staring at a crisis that they were not prepared for. Analysts say larger corporate chains have to brace up for at least six months for business to return to normal.
With relaxations in the COVID-19 lockdown, temples across the country are all set to reopen from Monday in accordance with the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) issued by Union home ministry to prevent coronavirus spread.
Porbandar, the birthplace of Mahatma Gandhi, and nearly 170 towns in Gujarat were declared Open Defection Free on the birth anniversary of the 'Father of the Nation'.
Every morning, Basanti leaves with a bunch of roses for door-to-door campaigning to cash on the pervasive sympathy for her son.
'It doesn't help to transpose the Hindi heartland model on Bengal. Bengalis don't understand its dynamics. They won't comprehend the impact of Modi's dip in the Ganga because Bengal's political culture is different. Even in the Ramakrishna Mission Ashrams, Christ is worshipped on Christmas. It's difficult to polarise Bengal religiously'
'...of the non-availability of doctor expertise or appropriate treatment.' 'That's because of the nature of the disease at this point of time, it is very difficult to contain.'
'Will Modi succeed with the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan? He will not, because cultural change does not come purely from legislation and never overnight. It comes internally and this is something Gandhi understood,' says Aakar Patel.
Almost all states and Union Territories have extended the curbs which they first started imposing in mid-April as the second COVID wave hit the country.
