The farmers lifted blockades on highways at Singhu, Tikri and Ghazipur borders and took out a 'Victory March' to celebrate the repeal of three contentious farm laws and the Centre's written assurance to fulfil their other demands, including constituting a committee for legal guarantee on minimum support price (MSP) for crops.
Extended rounds of negotiations having failed, farm leaders now reckon that their best chance to pressure the government lay in defeating the BJP in the coming assembly poll, particularly in UP, observes Virendra Kapoor.
Hansika Shukla from Ghaziabad and Karishma Arora from Muzaffarnagar scored 499 out of 500 marks to top the CBSE Class 12 results this year.
Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) supporters stayed put on the Delhi-Meerut Expressway on Friday as the crowd swelled there, notwithstanding the Ghaziabad administration's ultimatum to vacate the UP Gate protest site where security force in large numbers was re-deployed.
Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra asked the Bharatiya Janata Party why are they preventing peasants from coming to Delhi to raise their demands.
Till 5 pm, Agra recorded 56.61 per cent polling, Aligarh 57.25 per cent, Baghpat 61.35 per cent, Bulandshahr 60,52 per cent, Gautam Buddh Nagar 54.77 per cent, Ghaziabad 54.77 per cent, Hapur 60.50 per cent, Mathura 58.51 per cent, Meerut 58.52 cent, Muzaffarnagar 62.14 per cent and Shamli 61.78 per cent, an EC report said.
The 20 districts where there would be no relaxation yet are Meerut, Lucknow, Saharanpur, Varanasi, Ghaziabad, Gorakhpur, Muzaffarnagar, Bareilly, Gautam Buddh Nagar, Bulandshahr, Jhansi, Prayagraj, Lakhimpur-Khiri, Sonbhadra, Jaunpur, Baghpat, Moradabad, Ghazipur, Bijnor and Deoria.
The Uttar Pradesh government ordered a probe by a special investigation team after an IAS officer was seen in some video clips at a gathering at his home where religious conversion was being allegedly discussed.
Maulana Kaleem Siddiqui was arrested by the ATS, which is probing the racket, at around 9 pm on Tuesday from Meerut, Additional Director General (ADG), Law and Order, Prashant Kumar said.
The Centre on Wednesday made it clear that it has no input suggesting that Pakistan's intelligence agency Inter Services Intelligence had contacted victims of riots in Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh.
A government official in Lucknow said Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath expressed grief over the incident and announced an ex gratia of Rs 2 lakh each to the families of the deceased migrants and Rs 50,000 to the seriously injured.
In the dangal of UP politics, much as Muzaffarnagar wants to leave its past behind, the shadows are never be far behind.
In a special campaign from April 2017 till July 2021, 13,801 cases were lodged under the Gangster Act and 43,294 accused arrested, while the National Security Act was invoked against 630 people, Additional Director General of Police, Law and Order, Prashant Kumar said.
'There is no animosity among us. We are one family.'
Controversial Hindutva leader Sadhvi Prachi on Tuesday termed Shah Rukh Khan as a "Pakistani agent", who should be sent to that country.
'By calling names and using unparliamentary language, they are trying to divert people's attention from the issues of electricity, water, and income.'
The Congress accused Yogi Adityanath of withdrawing cases of heinous crimes such as rioting in Muzaffarnagar on religious lines.
Largest in area among the 75 UP districts, Lakhimpur Kheri, known for sugarcane cultivation, with nine sugar mills in the district, is home to three or four lakh Sikhs.
Scores of Bharatiya Janata Party workers and supporters of riot-accused Member of Legislative Assembly Sangit Som burnt effigy of party president Rajnath Singh Muzaffarnagar in protest against denial of Lok Sabha ticket to the legislator.
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.
An adverse outcome against the BJP in UP can well be taken into its stride by the ruling combine at the Centre, argues Virendra Kapoor.
Sahil, 26, a resident of north Gonda area, says his father, Parvez Alam, 50, ran a garage and was trying to pacify people from both communities to not engage in violence.
Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde on Wednesday warned that the country may witness more communal violence ahead of the 2014 general election as he indicated that some political parties could be behind the riots in Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh.
A large number of Muslims have been evacuated by security forces to a relief camp, while some have themselves moved out of their native villages fearing the onslaught of Hindu Jats in the riot-hit Muzaffarnagar district of Uttar Pradesh. Two days of unabated communal violence claimed 30 lives.
The broad patterns tell us that to sweep UP, the BJP has to retain its voteshares of the past three elections. But to merely win it, the party can do so while losing some voteshare, and perhaps up to as much as 10 per cent, observes Aakar Patel.
A day after Rashtriya Lok Dal chief Ajit Singh was detained for trying to enter Uttar Pradesh, his son Jayant Chaudhary managed to give police a slip and bypassed the tight security arrangements at the state border in Meerut.
The Bharatiya Kisan Union-led protest against the Centre's new farm laws in Ghaziabad looked like it was going slim on Thursday but more protesters have joined the stir, following a mahapanchayat of farmers on Saturday in Muzaffarnagar, while supporters also joined in from Haryana and Rajasthan districts.
Zakir Ali Tyagi was charged under the Indian Penal Code's Section 420 (cheating) and Section 66 of the Information Technology Act (computer related offences).
Bharatiya Janata Party Member of Legislative Assembly Sangeet Som, who was arrested for his alleged role in the Muzzafarnagar riots speeches, was on Tuesday detained under the stringent National Security Act.
Farmers flaunting colourful turbans, sunshades, long beards and twirling moustaches danced on tractors, distributed sweets and hugged each other to mark the occasion that seemed like a festival.
We have a team of youth activists to take action against such persons, he said.
It seems that in the 2019 general elections, people want Narendra Modi, but not necessarily the Bharatiya Janata Party candidate. Aditi Phadnis reports
The report, however, shows that Delhi's air quality improved by approximately 15 per cent from 2019 to 2020.
Charging that the Samajwadi Party government has completely failed in taking action against those responsible for the Muzaffarnagar violence, Bahuujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati today demanded imposition of President's Rule in UP.
Nearly a dozen first information reports have been lodged since the Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Ordinance, 2020, was notified on November 27.
Bir Singh Yadav, from Bahlolpur village in Noida, enacted the "symbolic suicide" at the Dalit Prerna Sthal where he has been camping along with scores of protestors belonging to the Bharatiya Kisan Union (Lok Shakti).
'I really wish I knew how to arouse love in the hearts of people, how to make them understand that religion comes later, first we are all humans.'
The Supreme Court on Friday said it will allow journalist Siddique Kappan, who was detained on October 5 while he was en route to Hathras in Uttar Pradesh, to talk to his ailing mother via video conferencing.
The announcement made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday to repeal the three contentious farm laws is expected to bring to an end the year-long confrontation between the government and the farmers, which has left more than 700 dead in its wake.