Priyanka Gandhi addressed 209 rallies and roadshows, the maximum by any top leader during the UP election campaign, followed closely by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath who spoke at 203 poll events.
'This is probably why the late General Bipin Rawat, who hails from the Garhwal Himalaya, said that the existing roads are fine with the army.'
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday conducted an aerial survey of rain-ravaged areas of Uttarakhand to asses the damage which the state government has pegged at Rs 7,000 crore.
The water level rose above the danger mark in Haridwar and Delhi and the level at Bhakra dam was a foot above the permissible mark.
'From environmental impact assessment to forest clearances, this has turned out to be an unscientific road-widening project with catastrophic consequences.'
This year's investment in equities would be one the highest
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat said saving lives and extending all help to the families of the deceased is the state government's priority.
If the party is unable to do well in Gujarat and Karnataka polls, it could lose this status in the subsequent binneial elections to the upper House.
The Centre on Tuesday told the Supreme Court that China has made a huge build-up in the Tibet region and the Army needs broader roads to move heavy vehicles up to the India-China border to avoid a 1962 war-like situation.
'Events like the one we saw on Sunday are complex geological processes which can be impacted by weather and climatic conditions.' 'It is difficult to attribute something like this to just one factor or to a particular time period, especially when we have still not understood the exact cause.'
Five people, including a minor girl, died and as many injured in separate incidents during heavy rains in Kullu, Kangra and Chamba districts of Himachal Pradesh.
Reacting to TMC's jibe, West Bengal Congress president Adhir Chowdhury said "agents of BJP" should not advise the party how to fight against the saffron camp.
'The present government swears by Hinduism. But we lost three of our sants during earlier BJP regimes.'
Counting of votes in assembly elections in five states will now be held on March 6, say Election Commission sources.
All educational institutions in Shimla and Kullu districts will remain closed on Monday as heavy to extremely heavy rains continue to lash the state, district officials said.
So far, 15 bodies have been recovered from the debris, while 12 persons are still missing.
The BJP's 2022 assembly election win may have further consolidated Adityanath's stock within the BJP. The saffron party is now set to win the UP state polls twice in a row, a feat achieved by no other party in three decades.
Twenty-three people were killed in rain-related incidents in Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh as heavy showers wreaked havoc in the hill states even as humid conditions prevailed in most parts of north India on Friday.
The Indian Army has launched one of the biggest human rescue operations in Uttarakhand. On Thursday it mobilised troops for rescue and relief efforts, as it simultaneously reached out to over 8,000 people on all four different axes, viz, Rishikesh-Uttarkashi-Harsil-Gangotri axis; Rudraprayag -Kedarnath axis, Joshimath-Badrinath axis and Dharchhula -Tawaghat axis in Pithoragarh district, a statement said.
The study suggests that climate change is contributing to such events happening more frequently, and highlights risks of increasing development projects in fragile environments.
The catastrophe in Uttarakhand may have been unprecedented, but it is not as if the state government wasn't unaware of the looming threat. Government reports had warned of the unchecked dangers of urbanisation, and from power projects, notes Shishir Prashant.
India cricketer Harbhajan Singh, who was stranded in Joshimath due to incessant rains while on a pilgrimage, was rescued and taken to safety by the Indian Air Force.
Rains continued to lash most parts of north India on Tuesday, affecting normal life in the region.
For the post of deputy chief minister, the names of Swatantra Dev Singh, Baby Rani Maurya, Brijesh Pathak and Keshav Prasad Maurya are in talks.
The BJP stormed back to power in the crucial state of Uttar Pradesh, trouncing its main rival SP, with Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath asserting that people have buried the politics of caste and religion.
Former Karnataka Minister Shobha Karandlaje, who returned to Bangalore after remaining stranded for four days at Rudraprayag in flood-ravaged Uttarakhand, on Friday said it was a harrowing experience as her group of 1,000 pilgrims had to spend sleepless nights sandwiched between high mountains and flooded Ganga river.
'The BJP while being in government in Gujarat continues to campaign like an Opposition party whereas the Opposition does the opposite.'
After impacting power generation and industries badly, it is now the turn of the tourism sector to bear the brunt of the heavy rains.
A team of six trekkers from New Delhi and Shimla is missing in Kinnaur district, officials said. A rescue operation will be launched.
'My belief that I could protect the Himalayas was shattered.'
'We need an early warning system in India.'
India's water future remains very bleak. The monsoon season, which once extended to 4 months, is now down to less than 30 days of heavy rain.
'Parties which supported me were all threatened. This could hardly have been called a fair election.' 'This is Modi's India.'
As CM, he took decisions that confirmed his image as a Hindutva mascot. Early in the first term, he banned illegal slaughterhouses and the state police cracked down on cow slaughter. But the menace of stray cattle created disquiet among farmers, presenting the Adityanath government with a new challenge.
After failing to trace her parents, who had gone to Kedarnath pilgrimage, a 35-year-old woman allegedly committed suicide in Gwalior, police said on Saturday.
'When a woman gets married, she leaves her village, her friends and family.' 'In her new home, she will make friends, but they can never replace those she left behind.'
The work of manually extricating the bodies from heaps of rubble in Uttarakhand's worst flood-hit Kedarnath area was stopped on Sunday as no more body was visible to the teams engaged in the operation.
Only traces of rainfall were recorded in a few areas of the national capital on Thursday which continued to experience sultry weather.
The experts said that climate change is not only raising temperatures and making India's heatwaves hotter, but also changing weather patterns that further drive dangerous weather extremes.
Extensive anthropogenic interference, as part of developmental activities, is a significant factor that increases this hazard manifold. As a result, the landscape in the Himalayan, north-eastern regions and many other regions of India are highly susceptible to reoccurrence of landslides, says Dr Nitish Priyadarshi.
