 "UP in 2014: Law & order was a major problem")
The Akhilesh Yadav government had some sleepless nights be it for the Badaun sisters case or communal clashes. The death of two teenaged cousins in Badaun who were found hanging from a tree still remains a mystery with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filing a closure report ruling out murder and rape as was suggested earlier and concluding that it was a case of suicide.
The enormity of corruption in the state was highlighted in the massive wealth recovered during income tax raids on controversial Noida Chief Engineer Yadav Singh and also indicated a nexus among politicians, bureaucrats and technocrats.
More From This Section
Reiterating once again its political importance, the state saw BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi winning with a thumping victory from Varanasi besides electing country's home minister Rajnath Singh (Lucknow) among its 73 MPs from here along with its allies.
Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, who was the Goa chief minister, was elected from the state in the biennial Rajya Sabha election in the later part of the year.
The biggest causality in the Lok Sabha elections were the regional players, such as the BSP, which drew a blank, and the SP, which won only five seats.
Congress, too, fared poorly with only party chief Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi making it to Lok Sabha from the state.
The SP, however, regained some pride in the Assembly by-elections winning nine of the 12 seats earlier held by BJP (11) and its ally Apna Dal. This saw an opening for SP President Mulayam Singh Yadav at the national level with Janata Parivar leaders coming together for a bigger role.
The closing of ranks of socialist leaders were given some strength by two of them - Mulayam Singh Yadav and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad - forging a new alliance through their children.
The wedding celebrations of Lalu's youngest daughter Raj Laxmi with Mulayam's grandnephew Tej Pratap Singh, elected MP from Mainpuri after his granduncle relinquished it, have already got underway and the big day has been fixed for February.
Uttar Pradesh government's senior Minister Azam Khan attracted one controversy after other all through the year.
Khan, whose wife Tanzim Fatima was sent to the Rajya Sabha by the party, threw a grand birthday party for his boss Mulayam in his hometown Rampur, extending a royal treatment to him and a ride on a buggy brought specially from London for the occasion.
He also courted controversy through his remark on expenditure incurred on the birthday functions saying it was funded by the Taliban.
After BJP took over reins at the Centre, many Hindutva activists raised issues like love jihad and conversions time and again.
The Raj Bhawan saw a new entrant in BJP veteran Ram Naik, who undeterred by criticisms, kept on publicly underlining the need for improving the law and order situation.
The state government launched some ambitious schemes for the people with the use of modern technology like extending the facilities of the women power line 1090, ambulance service under the Samajwadi Swasthaya sewa among others.
The year, however, drew curtains on the long pending paternity dispute between Rohit Shekhar and veteran Congress leader Narain Dutt Tewari (85) who also married Shekhar's mother Ujjwala Sharma in Lucknow.