A cold wave has intensified in most parts of north India, with temperatures in the Kashmir Valley dipping below freezing point. The national capital saw a brief respite from the bitter cold during the day, but cold conditions persisted in parts of Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh. The weather department has issued a yellow warning for cold wave, ground frost and dense fog for some places in Himachal Pradesh. There is a possibility of rain and snowfall in parts of northwest India later in the week.
A cold wave has gripped many parts of north and east India, with Srinagar recording a minimum temperature of minus 5.3 degrees Celsius. Other areas experiencing below-freezing temperatures include Gulmarg, Pahalgam, Konibal, Qazigund, Kupwara, and Kokernag in Kashmir. Himachal Pradesh has issued an orange warning for severe cold wave conditions in several districts. Delhi recorded a minimum temperature of 5.9 degrees Celsius, while Faridkot in Punjab was the coldest in the region at 0 degrees Celsius. Extreme cold conditions also continued in parts of Rajasthan and Jharkhand. The Met office has forecast mainly dry weather until December 26, with the possibility of light snowfall in the higher reaches of Kashmir on the intervening night of December 21-22.
Several families continue their desperate search for their loved ones.
Former Himachal Pradesh chief minister and Bharatiya Janata Party leader Prem Kumar Dhumal on Tuesday won Hamirpur Lok Sabha by-election defeating Congress candidate Ram Lal Thakur by over 80,000 votes.
The Congress maintained that the state government had not ordered any such inquiry and it could be an internal matter of the CID. A top CID official has also said that no formal inquiry was ordered into the incident.
The Congress said on Sunday that the name of former cricketer Madan Lal is under consideration for the presitigious seat to take on Bharatiya Janata Party's Anurag Thakur, son of Himachal Pradesh chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal
The Maha Kumbh Mela, a major Hindu pilgrimage, commenced in Prayagraj, India on Monday, with over 40 lakh people taking the first holy dip in the Sangam, the confluence of the Ganga, Yamuna, and Saraswati rivers. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said the event, which runs until February 26, will elevate India's ancient cultural and religious traditions to global prominence.
Voting for the bypolls in Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Tamil Nadu were held on Wednesday.
The top court granted the relief to the accused noting that he was in custody since May 21, 2023, and the charge sheet has been submitted on July 19, 2023.
The Maha Kumbh, the world's largest religious gathering, began in Prayagraj, India, with millions taking a dip in the Sangam, the confluence of the Ganges, Yamuna, and Saraswati rivers. Devotees from across India and the world converged for the 45-day event, which is considered to be a particularly auspicious one this year due to celestial alignments. The event is a major logistical challenge for the government, which has implemented several crowd-control measures and security measures to ensure the safety of the millions of pilgrims.
Pakistani troops fired on forward Indian posts along the Line of Control in Mendhar and Hamirpur areas of Poonch district late on Friday night in yet another instance of ceasefire violation, drawing retaliation from India.
The electoral exercise, the first since the Lok Sabha elections, will decide the fate of many veterans and some debutantes including Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu's wife Kamlesh Thakur.
The Himachal Pradesh Bharatiya Janata Party Sunday filed a complaint against the Congress and the Hamirpur Youth Congress Club for allegedly portraying actor and BJP Lok Sabha candidate from Mandi, Kangana Ranaut, in a negative light by using pictures from her films.
Of the 695 candidates in the fray, 88.2 per cent or 613 candidates are male candidates.
Himachal Pradesh experienced its second snowfall of the season, leading to the closure of 15 roads, including two national highways. A tourist from New Delhi died in an accident on an icy road in the Lahaul Spiti district, while three others sustained injuries.
The SP said Chopra is the kingpin of drugs in Hamirpur and added that this is the seventh case registered against him under the NDPS Act.
The BJP leader said the Congress wants to divide the country on the basis of religion and region.
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.
Rajeev Chandrasekhar said in a post on X that his 18-year-long stint in public service has come to an end.
'The Congress in the past backed the demand, but will not support it now since the SP opposes any division of UP.'
Hemant V Shivsaran/Rediff.com does a deep dive and lists the winners with the highest and lowest margins in the recent Lok Sabha elections.
The Bharatiya Janata Party leadership in Himachal Pradesh is making efforts to mollify party leaders who are disgruntled over distribution of tickets to six Congress rebels for the assembly bypolls, former chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal said on Tuesday.
Justice Rohit Rajan Agarwal made the observation while rejecting the bail application of one Kailash, who is accused of being involved in the religious conversion of several people from a village here.
Moderate to high turnout was recorded in 13 assembly constituencies across seven states where bypolls were held on Wednesday amid sporadic incidents of violence in Uttarakhand, Bihar and West Bengal.
'Modi and his guarantees stand alone when it comes to national trust'
Arti Gupta went to the police when she learnt about the 'wedding' through social media as her husband Ashish Kumar Gupta -- a naib tehsildar posted in Maudaha tehsil of Hamirpur -- had not come home for almost four months.
The case pertains to the issuance of mining leases in alleged violation of e-tendering process. The Allahabad High Court had ordered the probe.
Questioning the Congress's stand on caste census, the BJP leader made certain remarks on Gandhi's caste that triggered the uproar and had Congress members trooping into the well of the Lok Sabha. "Anurag Thakur insulted me and I don't want any apology from him. Abuse or insult me as hard as you can but don't forget we will pass the caste census in this Parliament for sure," the Leader of the Opposition said.
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.
There is also speculation within the BJP that its national president J P Nadda, whose extended tenure will end by this month and who was among the leaders meeting Modi, may also be brought back in the government.
Many people are feared trapped following two landslides at Shiv temple in the Summer Hill area and the Fagli area of Shimla city.
Coincidentally, the two first-term members got seats adjacent to each other in the House.
As many as 37 ministers have been dropped from the government in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's third term and these include seven with cabinet rank -- prominent among them being Smriti Irani, Anurag Thakur and Narayan Rane.
"Time will also take account of those registering cases and those getting them registered. Stopping the business of MLAs and allowing friends to loot, is this a change in the system?" he posed.
Five people were killed and about 50 missing following several incidents of cloudburst in Himachal Pradesh where rains washed away many houses, bridges and roads, officials said on Thursday.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday named its candidates for assembly bypolls in several states, fielding six disqualified MLAs of the Himachal Pradesh assembly in the state days after they joined the party after leaving the Congress.
The Bharatiya Janata Party, which won 25 seats in the Himachal Pradesh elections, suffered a setback in the assembly segments falling under Shimla, Hamirpur and Kangra parliamentary constituencies in the hill state.
FHe is the only one among 17 ministers from the outgoing council of ministers who lost the Lok Sabha polls to be reappointed minister.
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.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday named 72 more candidates for the Lok Sabha elections, including Union ministers Nitin Gadkari, Piyush Goyal and Anurag Singh Thakur, and former chief ministers Manohar Lal Khattar, Trivendra Singh Rawat and Basavaraj Bommai.
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