The fate of 839 contestants, including that of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav who is fighting from Bhartana constituency, will be decided in Saturday's polling.
Trade and market players have already started factoring in at least 10 million tonnes drop in production in rice in the kharif season as compared to last year due to delayed sowing.
The heat wave is the result of an anti-cyclone over Pakistan and western Rajasthan, the impact of which is being felt across the northern plains.
The issue of division of Uttar Pradesh had been lying dormant till now with major political parties including the BSP preferring silence so far.
A joint sting operation by a private television channel and a Web site on Saturday claimed that policemen in Uttar Pradesh were found selling seized arms and ammunition stored at government storerooms for money.
The Ambedkar statue that was vandalised in Badaun's Dugraiyya village on April 8 was repainted saffron on April 9.
Uttar Pradesh deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma has said the issue of the state's next CM is already 'settled' with the BJP top brass making it clear that the coming assembly elections will be fought under the leadership of Yogi Adityanath.
The Congress accused Yogi Adityanath of withdrawing cases of heinous crimes such as rioting in Muzaffarnagar on religious lines.
A party source said most of the leaders, however, are hoping that Gandhi will continue to lead the party as the Nehru-Gandhi family acts as a "glue" that binds the party together.
'They want to win 45 out of 48 seats in Maharashtra in the 2024 general elections and joining hands with Ajit Pawar is in that direction.'
Notwithstanding the claims and counterclaims of different political parties about riding the crest of a populatiry wave in Uttar Pradesh, Tuesday's results of the three bypolls out of the 403 state assembly seats have sprung surprises for all key political players.
'Since 2017, the chief minister and the RSS seem to have come closer.' 'This relationship's warmth is more from the RSS's side.'
"Had there been no demolition, probably the courts too would have ordered status quo," he said then. And his last wish, he said, was to live till the temple comes up.
'The BJP should know that simple caste arithmetic may have ceased to follow the basic law of addition.' 'Adding up seemingly distinct vote banks can even cause overall reduction in numbers,' says Sudhir Bisht.
At least 11 people lost their lives in Uttar Pradesh as monsoon rains lashed most parts of north India, with several rivers in the region flowing above the danger mark.
Despite Babbar being the local parliamentarian, he has failed to set Yamuna on fire and leaders from Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party as also the Baharatiya Janata Party dubbed the party of the suspended SP leader as an 'also-ran.'
'A political party taking the law into its hands is objectionable, especially in the context of the 2002 incidents in Gujarat.'
Ministerial expansion: Focus on Purvanchal, Brahmin voters in UP.
When the temple issue predominated BJP's discourse, its victory margins have been narrow.
Robust procurement of paddy and wheat since 2017 and prompt payment to farmers have helped the UP government cultivate a positive and pro-farmer perception, defusing possible farm face-off situations.
The car was found abandoned in Ghaziabad.
A series of communal clashes rocked a few villages of Western Uttar Pradesh on Saturday, killing nine persons including one IBN-7 news channel journalist and a local photographer hired by the Muzaffarnagar police.
The security was jacked up after a website showed graphics of the Taj Mahal with a terrorist standing alongside holding what looked like a weapon.
Nepalese rescuers resumed their search on Monday for four persons still missing after a passenger plane with 72 people, including five Indians, crashed into a river gorge while landing at the newly-opened airport in the resort city of Pokhara, killing at least 68 people onboard.
The country's exports in December surged 37 per cent on an annual basis to $37.29 billion, the highest-ever monthly figure, government data showed on Monday.
Vast swathes of the country are reeling under scorching heat with the mercury soaring to above 40C mark in many areas.
The Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), which guards the Line of Actual Control with China, has posted its first officer to head the newly-created Guwahati-based eastern command that oversees deployment of border battalions in that region.
Muslims constitute 20% of UP's electorate. Currently, Muslim voters are divided between Akhilesh's SP and Mayawati's BSP. What will tilt the balance? Can Muslims back the winning party? Mohammad Sajjad explains the mysteries of UP's Muslim politics.
Any defeat for the BJP now would imply that anti-incumbency against Modi has set in, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Bharatiya Janata Party President Amit Shah on Tuesday rejected the Uttar Pradesh government panel report on Saharanpur riots which indicted its MP, saying that since committee members belonged to ruling SP, the result was pre-decided.
Six men are in the news, and in very different boats
'There is no democracy, and in fact, there is some kind of monarch ruling.' 'They are protecting themselves and they are scared.''
It was a mixed outing for super rich candidates as five of them emerged victorious and an equal number suffered defeat in the Lok Sabha polls.
With the farmers' protest against the three new laws and in support of legalising the minimum support price (MSP) going strong, state governments have announced a slew of measures in their annual Budgets to placate farmers. The Centre kicked things off in the Union Budget by assuring farmers that the MSP would continue and coming out with a report card to demonstrate its commitment. However, these efforts don't seem to have yielded tangible results. In their respective Budgets, states chose to go a step further by announcing a variety of measures.
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