Uttar Pradesh

Major political parties in Uttar Pradesh are 'headless' and their organisations directionless. Most parties are apparently working out caste arithmetic for the next Lok Sabha elections before they appoint a state head. Some are even waiting for rival parties to announce their state presidents before they do so.

The SBSP has six MLAs in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly. The announcement by SBSP is a major jolt for the Samajwadi Party which is losing allies, one after another. Rajbhar said that he had taken the decision after talking to Union Home Minister Amit Shah. "I have informed Amit Shah and Chief Minister Yogi Aditynath about my decision," he added.

The expressway, which stretches between Chitrakoot and Etawah, has been completed eight months ahead of schedule. While laying the foundation stone in February 2020, Prime Minister Modi had said that the project "will create thousands of jobs and connect the common people with facilities available in bigger cities".

He said a population control programme must go ahead successfully but at the same time "population imbalance" should not be allowed to happen. The chief minister said, "On one scale, population is an achievement of the society, but this will remain an achievement only when the society remains healthy and disease-free."

Mehta, representing the Uttar Pradesh government, contended before a bench comprising Justices Indira Banerjee and J.K. Maheshwari, said that on Thursday Zubair's bail plea was rejected by trial court in UP and he was remanded to judicial custody. Mehta said the issue was not one tweet or another, rather whether he is part of a syndicate which puts out tweets to destabilise the society.

The UP Vidhan Parishad secretariat has derecognised Samajwadi Party's Lal Bihari Yadav as the leader of opposition in the council, as the party's strength in the council has now fallen short of ten -- the minimum for the largest opposition party to get the post.

"The people have reposed their faith in the double engine government and this got us an overwhelming majority for the second term which has happened after 37 years. We are working on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's concept of 'sabka saath, sabka vikas, sabka vishwas and sabka prayas', to make Uttar Pradesh self-reliant" he said.

Director-General of Police (DGP) D.S. Chauhan said security has been stepped up across the state and action would be taken against anyone making provocative remarks. Additional DG, law and order, Prashant Kumar, said that permission would be needed for any religious or political function on the issue.

Dinesh Lal Yadav Nirahua won many hearts when he won the Lok Sabha by-elections from Azamgarh on Sunday. "When he came, we thought he would be like other stars, but within no time he endeared himself to the party workers, and then the voters. He never threw any tantrums, and became one of us. This made every party worker work overtime to ensure his success in the elections," says Ram Prakash Yadav, a local BJP leader.

Lok Sabha bypolls were held in two seats of Uttar Pradesh -- Rampur and Azamgarh -- and one seat of Punjab. Initial trends show that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) was leading in Sangrur and the Samajwadi Party (SP) was ahead in Azamgarh and Rampur Lok Sabha seats at 10 a.m. The BJP was trailing in the Rajinder Nagar Assembly constituency in Delhi. The counting of votes stated at 8 a.m. under multi-layer security and postal ballots were counted first.