Lucknow gets busy with celebrations
Painted in saffron, the BJP office in Lucknow was busy celebrating its landslide victory. Jubilation had no limit as party workers, with marigold garlands around their necks, held lotus cut-outs to mark the occasion. The celebrations did not remain limited to the party office but spilled on to the streets as soon as the trends started trickling in. There was hardly any wait for official confirmation as the supporters were already exchanging sweets and bursting crackers. The celebrations grew bigger after Rajnath Singh, the candidate from Lucknow, took a massive lead over his nearest rival, Poonam Sinha of the alliance.
Heat wave likely to prevail in east UP
The MeT department has issued a warning that the heat wave is likely to prevail at isolated places across eastern UP while dust storm/thunderstorm accompanied with gusty winds and lightning is forecast at isolated places over western parts of the state. UP plains are in the grip of dry weather and reeling under sweltering heat. Prayagraj being the hottest hovering around 46 degrees Celsius, five notches above normal, followed by Banda 45.2 degrees in parched Bundelkhand, Churk 44.4, Varanasi 43.8, Basti 42.5 and Ballia 42.5. Lucknow recorded a maximum temperature of 42.1°C, which was two degrees above normal. The minimum was 30.0°C, five degrees above normal. Heatwave conditions are likely over western, northern, central, eastern and southern India for the next five days.
Ravi Kishan tweaks his trademark line
After his victory in the land of Gorakhshnath, BJP candidate Ravi Kishan tweaked his famous dialogue to describe Thursday’s blockbuster moment in his life in his inimitable style: “Jindagi jhand baa… aur aaj se gathbandhan ka mooh hamesha ke liye band baa (The Opposition has been silenced forever).” The Bhojpuri actor defeated his nearest rival Ram Bhuwal Nishad of alliance by a huge margin of over 3 lakh votes. “Yeh to kamal ki nagri hai (Here, only the lotus blooms),” said a rickshaw puller outside the counting centre. Ravi Kishan, who wants to set up an institute for those budding actors in Gorakhpur, had contested from Jaunpur in 2014 on a Congress ticket, but got only 45,000-odd votes and lost.
Rozedars feed devotees of Lord Hanuman
In the holy month of Ramzan, the fasting Rozedars set the precedence of Ganga-Jamni tehzeeb of Lucknow by coming forward to hold bhandaras (community feast) for the devotees of Lord Hanuman during ‘Bada Mangal’ celebrations that began last Tuesday. If Muslims organised bhandaras during Ramzan, Mahant Divya Giri of the famous Mankameshwar temple organised Iftar gatherings in the backyard of the Shiv Mandir. The devout Muslims have been contributing to this essence of Luckow for decades now.