The VHP yatra could influence Assembly polls in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Delhi scheduled for later this year. They will see a straight battle between the BJP and the Congress ruling in two states each.

The Uttar Pradesh government has made it clear that those VHP leaders and activists who have been detained or arrested on Sunday will remain in custody until the yatra is called off.

Union minister Beni Prasad Varma said on Sunday that the “much-hyped VHP yatra and the even more hyped ban by the Samajwadi government” would not have any impact on either Hindus or Muslims since both the communities could see through their gameplan.

The Sangh Parivar has set the tone for the coming electoral battle, compelling its affiliate BJP’s adversaries to react on the VHP’s “84- kosi yatra” for the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya. While BJP claims that development and good governance are its poll planks, reviving Hindutva, it was learnt, is also part of the Parivar’s poll strategy.

Senior VHP leader Ashok Singhal said on Sunday that the 84-kosi parikrama could not be stopped at this stage and asked the UP government to reconsider its decision to ban the yatra.

Even though VHP’s controversial 84 Kosi Parikrama Yatra may have turned out to be a damp squib, there is a “considerable threat’’ that Uttar Pradesh might face communal unrest in the months to come as “certain elements’’ are trying to foment trouble in the State.

Slamming Mr Narendra Modi for making rhetorical speeches on every given occasion, Union minister Sachin Pilot says that the Gujarat chief minister is intoxicated with prime ministerial ambitions and is too self-obsessed to see “right from wrong”.

Developments in Kerala over the solar panel scam are giving sleepless nights to Congress managers as this could mar the party’s prospects in the coming Lok Sabha elections.

The two arrested accused in the gangrape of the 22-year-old photojournalist were produced before the magistrate court by officers of the Mumbai police crime branch on Sunday.

The police has managed to arrest all the five men involved in the gangrape of the photojournalist. However, despite their photographs already having been circulated in the media, the police didn’t remove the hoods of the two “accused” produced before the magistrate court on Sunday.