The Election Commission of India (ECI) directed the removal of West Bengal DGP Rajeev Kumar and mandated the appointment of Vivek Sahay, once suspended by the poll panel, as the new state police chief, with the TMC accusing the BJP of controlling the constitutional body.
The challenges authorities face in cleaning Ganga and other holy rivers in Varanasi.
Other prominent candidates among the 904 in the fray are Union minister Anurag Thakur, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's nephew Abhishek Banerjee, RJD supremo Lalu Prasad's daughter Misa Bharti.
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.
A Varanasi court on Thursday reserved till October 21 its order on a plea seeking inclusion of the Gyanvapi mosque's 'wazookhana' in the ongoing Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) survey of the mosque complex.
With the surge in tourist footfalls to Varanasi in 2022, it almost rivals the arrivals in Agra and puts it way ahead of Prayagraj and Ayodhya.
Satellite imagery showed a layer of dense fog extending from Punjab and north Rajasthan to the northeast. Patches of fog were also visible along the east coast.
A strategist and a quintessential political leader with grassroots connect, Rajnath Singh is credited with expanding the Bharatiya Janata Party's organisational network in the Hindi heartland state of Uttar Pradesh in the 1990s and the subsequent decades.
'You can focus on Vande Bharat but focus on the common man too.' 'You can have both. They are mutually exclusive.'
To a question on whether deciding against contesting in the constituency would send a wrong signal, she said, "No I don't think so... I had said from the start that I will do what my party says...my party decided this and I am happy to follow the instructions."
In a show strength, he was joined by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and other senior Bharatiya Janata Party leaders.
The Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) on Thursday quashed the markets regulator Sebi's order imposing a fine of Rs 7 crore on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) in the dark-fibre case. Additionally, the tribunal has set aside a fine of Rs 5 crore levied by Sebi on the exchange's former official Anand Subramanian. Further, it has partly set aside the regulator's order against former MD and CEO of NSE Chitra Ramkrishna, ex-official Ravi Varanasi and a few stock brokers, among others.
The weather office said intensity of heat wave/severe heat wave has slightly reduced over some parts of northwest and adjoining central India.
The Railway Board has reduced the speed of semi-high speed trains Gatimaan Express and Vande Bharat from 160 kmph to 130 kmph till the automatic train protection system gets operational.
Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashwi Yadav on Thursday asserted that 'something major' will take place, after Lok Sabha results are out, in Bihar where Chief Minister Nitish Kumar seemed to be 'not going along well' with ally Bharatiya Janata Party.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi reached out to the attendees of the Kashi Tamil Sangamam in Varanasi with his speech being translated for the audience in real-time using artificial intelligence.
'The Opposition will continue to be attacked through misuse of agencies, civil society will be force-marched towards extinction and India's plummeting on global indices will continue.' 'Minorities and especially Muslims will continue to have open season declared on them. Institutions will continue their decline,' predicts Aakar Patel.
The Centre is considering a proposal on increasing coverage under the Ayushman Bharat scheme to Rs 10 lakh from the current Rs 5 lakh.
'Election funding needs a little more transparency.'
'Episodes of targeted attacks on Muslims established that for a section of people and, sadly, even officials of the State, the election results conveyed no lessons.' 'Opposition parties must not be hesitant in speaking out whenever the mob with tacit State support targets Muslims,' asserts Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, author of Narendra Modi: The Man, The Times.
Aiming to retain power at the Centre for the third time in a row, the Bharatiya Janata Party while banking heavily on its sitting MPs on Saturday released the first list of 51 candidates from Uttar Pradesh for the Lok Sabha elections.
Ranveer Singh never said this, and he does not have any relation with any political party, his father said in the complaint.
The BJP, which romped to power in 2019 on the back of an unequivocal mandate from UP, winning 62 of its 80 seats, was cut to size this time and had to be content with only 33 seats.
The Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) gave a huge blow to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance by winning 43 seats out of total 80 Lok Sabha seats of Uttar Pradesh, as per the Election Commission.
"The way in which UP has controlled the second Covid wave and stopped its spread is unprecedented," the prime minister, who arrived at his parliamentary constituency earlier in the morning on Thursday, said while addressing a gathering.
It was a manic Monday in Varanasi. The voting day lived up to the hype created by the campaigning here. Vicky Nanjappa reports
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday exuded confidence that people have voted in record numbers to re-elect the National Democratic Alliance government and said the 'opportunistic INDI Alliance' failed to strike a chord with the voters who rejected their 'regressive politics'.
Delhi sweltered under intense heat as the Safdarjung observatory, considered the official marker of the national capital, noted a high of 43.8 degrees Celsius, four notches above the normal average.
The ASI, which was to submit the report of the survey by October 6, now has time till November 6 to do so.
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.
Modi can abandon the path of Hindutva only at risk to his position within his own fraternity. But if he pursues a hard line, he faces the risk of being hauled up by his coalition-partners. For the first time in a decade, Modi is not in enviable situation, observes Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
Was Ajay Rai put up just to hobble Kejriwal in Varanasi?
To counter PM Narendra Modi's aggression, Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav will hold a joint road show on March 4 in PM's constituency, reports Amit Agnihotri.
The Bharatiya Janata Party suffered stunning losses in three Hindi heartland states, partial poll results showed Tuesday, forcing the party to rely on allies to form the government after a bitter and divisive election that was projected as a referendum on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's popularity.
Advocate Madan Mohan Yadav, who is representing the Hindu petitioners, said, "The report in sealed cover was placed before the court by the ASI's standing counsel Amit Srivastava."
The Congress also fielded Madhusudan Tiwari from Gorakhpur against BJP's actor-turned politician Ravi Kishan.
Her calculation goes that Kejriwal, not Rai, can take on Modi better.
I think Sharad Pawar invited Ajit Pawar for the INDIA bloc meeting, Raut said.
Yadav said he wanted to contest the polls to eliminate corruption in the forces.
The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear an appeal of the Gyanvapi management committee against an Allahabad High Court order which held that lawsuits for "restoration" of a temple where the mosque stands in Varanasi are maintainable.
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