An FIR has been registered against a Samajwadi Party district secretary and three others in Hardoi district of Uttar Pradesh for allegedly sexually exploiting a girl, making a MMS and promising her a government job, police sources said.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party is headed for a big win in the Uttar Pradesh legislative council polls, bagging Barabanki and Ayodhya and leading in several other places. But it lost Varanasi to an Independent candidate.
In a major jolt to the ruling Bahujan Samaj Party, its national general secretary Naresh Agarwal and two sitting legislators from Hardoi joined the Samajwadi Party on Friday. "I am resigning from the Rajya Sabha and the post of BSP national general secretary," Agarwal said while addressing a gathering at a function at the SP headquarters in Lucknow. Besides Naresh, his son Nitin Agarwal and Rajeshwari -- both BSP MLAs from Hardoi -- also joined the SP.
The elections are being seen as a semi-final to the 2022 assembly election.
When asked about the incident, state home minister Narottam Mishra told reporters in Bhopal on Monday that the row erupted after the man sold bangles to women by posing as a Hindu even as he belonged to another community.
Nearly a dozen first information reports have been lodged since the Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Ordinance, 2020, was notified on November 27.
Krishna chants gained more currency when Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav invoked the deity.
There was heavy police deployment at most of the crossings in the district, around 150 km from Uttar Pradesh's capital city, Lucknow.
The party has left Mainpuri, described as its "safest" seat, for Mulayam Yadav, who is the MP from Azamgarh right now.
The home-grown revolver of Webley and Scott, the renowned British firearms company, is being manufactured in Hardoi town of Uttar Pradesh under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'Make in India' initiative.
The ED has attached seven sugar mills worth over Rs 1,097 crore in a money laundering case against former Uttar Pradesh BSP MLC Mohammed Iqbal and his family, officials said.
The chief minister has asked officials for the 'factual status' of the case.
Babbar was elected from Agra as its Lok Sabha MP twice -- in 1999 and 2004. However, following delimitation in 2008, the Lok Sabha seat became reserved for the scheduled castes.
In Uttar Pradesh, the death toll due to lightning strikes rose to 42.
The new candidates fielded from these constituencies by the BJP are: SP Singh Baghel (Agra), Parameshwar Lal Saini (Sambhal), Raj Kumar Chaher (Fatehpur Sikri), Jai Prakash Rawat (Hardoi-SC), Ashok Rawat (Misrikh-SC) and Arun Sagar (Shahjahanpur-SC).
When these villagers had no work, an NGO stepped in and transformed their lives, says Geetanjali Krishna.
'I am jobless and don't have savings to sustain. Better I go home and do farming. If I am lucky, I will survive'
Notification for the fourth phase of Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections was issued on Wednesday, setting in motion the process of filing nominations.
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Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday kick-started his three-day-long road show in Uttar Pradesh.
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.
They may not see eye to eye on a number of issues, but some sworn political rivals have converged in the same constituency in Uttar Pradesh on Valentine's Day. While Congress president Sonia Gandhi joined her daughter Priyanka to campaign in Rae Bareli, her parliamentary constituency, son Rahul will be criss-crossing neighbouring Hardoi before moving on to Agra to address more rallies there.
Congress' star campaigner Rahul Gandhi on Saturday pointedly blamed both Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav and Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati for "gross neglect" of Muslims in Uttar Pradesh. Sharat Pradhan reports.
Polling for the fourth phase of Uttar Pradesh assembly election covering 56 seats spread over 11 districts would be held on that would decide the fate of three ministers, 32 sitting MLAs and 12 former ministers.
Six persons drowned in flood-hit areas of Uttar Pradesh where major rivers continued to flow above the danger mark, official sources said on Tuesday. "Since Monday afternoon, six persons, including three children, an infant and a teenager died due to drowning in different parts of Hardoi, taking the toll in rain-related incidents in the district to 16," they said. The Army and administration were carrying out rescue and relief operations.
The mercury on Monday slid further in many parts of north India, claiming eight more lives in Uttar Pradesh, even as Delhiites got some respite from the bone-chilling cold with the day temperature rising by over four degrees.
The BJP, however, distanced itself from the comments, saying the statements could the personal view of Hardoi MLA Ashish Singh Ashu.
The BJP has distanced itself from the controversy.
Expelled Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh said on Saturday that party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav's claims of being anti-English education were just a facade meant to gain political mileage.
The country may be independent for the past 62 years but these Dalit families of Jajupur would not yet testify that they have had a chance to enjoy the fruits of freedom.
"I have only Rs 200 left with me. I have not even got the refund for the cancelled ticket. We don't have agricultural land back home. I know it will be hard there, but I will be with my family. I am happy having 'roti and chutney' with them," says Jitendra Mahto, a migrant.
Agarwal handed over his resignation from the state Assembly to UP Vidhan Sabha Speaker Sukhdev Rajbhar on Saturday morning. The resignation of Agarwal, who was also the chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, has been accepted, the Speaker told UNI in Lucknow.
Home to several Yadav family bastions, Phase III of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly Elections is especially crucial for the Samajwadi Party.
The BSP chief alleged that Modi and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party considered the Dalits as lowly.
Police Friday night detained eight persons, including two whose faces resemble the sketches of suspects behind the Varansi blasts, from a market in Hardoi, a top police official said.
A UNI correspondent, who visited Dal Lake on the first day of the Chilakalan, witnessed parts of the famed lake frozen.
Two-term Bahujan Samaj Party MP Brajesh Pathak on Monday joined the Bharatiya Janata Party expressing faith in its "developmental" agenda for poll-bound Uttar Pradesh, a day after attending Mayawati's rally in Agra.
The tragedy took a political hue with CM Yogi Adityanath suggesting the involvement of SP in 'such mischievous acts'.
"Krishna was born in Uttar Pradesh but made Gujarat his karma bhoomi. I was born in Gujarat but Uttar Pradesh has adopted me," the PM said in Hardoi.
'Expect very heavy rainfall at some places in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar along with sub-Himalayan West Bengal comprising of Alipurduar, Cooch Behar, Darjeeling, Kalimpong, Siliguri, Jalpaiguri, including Sikkim, parts of Arunachal Pradesh, and parts of lower Assam, Rangia downward like Barpeta, Goalpara, Dhubri along with parts of Meghalaya.'
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