Lalmani Verma

Former SP MLCs Sarojini Agrawal, Bukkal Nawab and Yashwant Singh, and Thakur Jaiveer Singh, formerly a BSP MLC, joined the ruling party earlier.

Earlier this week, at an event in Lucknow, Adityanath had targeted the previous SP government, saying that those who called themselves Yaduvanshis had banned the celebration of Janmashtami at police stations and police lines.

Yogi Adityanath said those who work for strengthening the cultural unity of the country are called communal

If Adityanath had gone to Gorakhpur Monday, he had to return either the same night or early Tuesday as he had to attend the Independence Day event in the state capital.

Dr A K Srivastava, who was transferred as CMS of BRD Medical College on August 10, told The Indian Express that Mishra’s wife Dr Purnima Shukla interfered in all administrative decisions. Shukla is attached to BRD Medical College, but it was not clear in what capacity.

This will be Mulayam’s first public meeting after the elections. Mulayam’s decision to address the rally comes a few days after he removed four senior leaders from the Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Trust.

The Noida-based Prerna Jansanchar Evam Shodh Sansthan, under the aegis of the Prerna Trust of Meerut an institute run by RSS functionaries, produces the videos that are about a few minutes long.

The circular issued by UP Madarsa Shiksha Parishad to district minority welfare officers has also stated that along with photographs, videos be shot of the programmes. The officers would have to get the videos shot at all madrasas and keep with them.

Two more Samajwadi Party (SP) MLCs resigned from the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council on Wednesday, taking the number of members who have quit in recent days to six, five of them from the SP.

District units of the Pratisthan have been directed to organise programmes for school students as well, said Mishra. He added that if the response from students is satisfactory, another comic magazine on Shyama Prasad Mukherjee will be published.

Varanasi district administration will honour 16 men with smart phones and one with a tablet computer for the best constructed toilets for their sisters on Raksha Bandhan, and also the title of “Bhai No.1”

One such programme was organised in Kanpur District Jail on Saturday where BJP district president Surendra Maithani was invited to give a speech on the life and ideology of Upadhyay. Maithani also spoke of the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Letters in this regard, issued by UP Congress Committee state general secretary (administration) Pramod Singh, have been sent to all district presidents last week. He, however, denied that the letters are in any way connected to the Lucknow office ownership controversy.

“The atmosphere in SP has changed since Netaji (Mulayam Singh Yadav) is not party chief. I am an old Samajwadi, but was feeling uneasy in the current SP structure,” said Sarojini Agrawal, who joined the BJP soon after submitting her resignation.

Legislative Council chairman Ramesh Yadav accepted Agrawal’s resignation and notified that her seat had fallen vacant. With this, the BJP has secured four seats in the Legislative Council.

After BJP president Amit Shah had lunch along with CM Yogi Adityanath at the house of party booth president Sonu Yadav, district units have also started hosting lunches or dinners, preferably in the homes of Yadav workers, to mark Upadhyay’s birth centenary.

The state government later announced to forward around 200 complaints from aggrieved women, who had allegedly been harassed by their husbands following triple talaq practice, to the Supreme Court, where the case was being heard.

The exam, organised by the BJP, will be held on August 26 at various centres in UP to mark the birth centenary of party ideologue Deendayal Upadhyaya.

On Monday morning, Congress Minority Cell members sat on a dharna outside Haj House, demanding the building be opened for public use. Naseem Khan, from the Cell, attacked the state and central governments for “not being sensitive towards faith of 35 crore Muslims residing in the country”.

BJP chief Amit Shah also ruled out speculation that he would join the Narendra Modi government after he is elected to Rajya Sabha.

Sources further said he had also expressed dissatisfaction over the working of the departments of basic education, secondary education and irrigation.

On Sunday afternoon, BJP President Amit Shah and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, who also joined him for lunch at Sonu Yadav’s residence, drove through the narrow lanes of Badi Jugauli area to reach Yadav’s double-storey and well-furnished house.

Those without either, function on parivarwaad and casteism, says BJP president

BJP president Amit Shah met the leaders of Apna Dal and SBSP on Saturday to take their feedback on the working of the state government and also discuss steps needed to strengthen the alliance.

While Jatavs are a strong votebank of BSP, Yadavs are considered to be SP’s support base. At present, the BJP government in UP has only one Yadav minister.

Three members of the Legislative Council (MLCs) in Uttar Pradesh — Bukkal Nawab and Yashwant Singh from the Samajwadi Party (SP) and Thakur Jaiveer Singh from the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) — resigned on Saturday, making way for three ministers of the Yogi Adityanath Cabinet.

While SP chief Akhilesh Yadav and BSP chief Mayawati are expected to share the stage for the first time, many leaders said that without Nitish, the two are unlikely to accept each other in any kind of a formal arrangement.

During the 2017 UP polls, JD (U) appealed to voters to support secular parties. Party spokesperson K C Tyagi had then said, “We want a non-BJP government in UP to pave the way for removing BJP from power at the Centre in 2019. JD (U) is the mother organisation of anti-BJP politics.”

This was announced in a three-day regional meeting of the VHP attended by the outfit’s international president Pravin Togadia. The meeting, which took place in Aligarh, had concluded on July 18.

“The party national president will give his guidance to party workers on ongoing organisational activities and upcoming programmes,” Pathak said.

"They are threatening to put our entire family in jail. Members are being humiliated and we are not getting protection from the Speaker. I have never seen such a situation in the House in past 40 years. We all are walking out, now you run it (the House) as you want."

Acting on a judicial probe report, the government had earlier chargesheeted former chief secretary Deepak Singhal and issued a notice to another chief secretary Alok Ranjan, along with other officials. Singhal had been principal secretary (irrigation) when the project started.

Mulayam had recently praised the BJP top leadership for picking Kovind and he had also attended a dinner that Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had organised in honour of Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his Lucknow visit on June 20

A meeting of BJP MLAs of Kanpur-Bundelkhand region has been called on July 17 while those of Awadh region will be held on July 18.

Under PMAY, the Centre provides Rs 1.20 lakh in three installments to the beneficiary for the construction of a house, along with Rs 12,000 for building a toilet and Rs 15,750 as labour charge for 90 days. The village pradhan has no role in the selection of the beneficiaries.