Rajbhar asking for too much?
Is SBSP chief OP Rajbhar biting more than he can chew? During his recent meeting with Union home minister Amit Shah, he reportedly sought nine seats to contest — five in UP and four in Bihar. While his demand for five seats in his areas of infleunce in east UP is understandable what surprised observers is his claim to four seats in the neighbouring state. While leaders of other NDA constituents — Jitan Ram Manjhi, Pashupati Paras and Chirag Paswan — would be happy to get between one-to-three seats to contest, Rajbhar’s demand seems outlandish to political analysts.
Rare honour for state capital
In a major first for the state, Lucknow Cantonment would be hosting its Army Day Parade on January 15. As a precursor to the D-day, the Central Command hosted a three-day ‘Know Your Army’ event starting Friday. Praising the Indian army after inaugurating the event, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said that only a strong army can realise the vision of a secure and sovereign nation. Thanking the Prime Minister and the Defence Minister for the festival and annual parade being organised outside the national capital for the first time, the Chief Minister said.
Pran Pratishtha live in UP jails
Inmates of Uttar Pradesh prisons would be second to none when it comes to January 22 consecration ceremony of Ram temple. According to UP prisons minister Dharmveer Prajapati, over 50,000 copies each of religious books — Hanuman Chalisa and Sundar Kand — will be distributed among prisoners in all 72 district jails, sub-jails and central prisons across the state before the ‘Pran Pratishtha’ ceremony led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on January 22. All the jails will have the live streaming of the event for their inmates. “It is one of the rarest events that everybody, including the prisoners, should witness,” he said.
Namita bajpai
Our correspondent in Uttar Pradesh
namita.bajpai@ newindianexpress.com