Wary of the possibility of cross-voting during the polling for two Rajya Sabha seats, the Congress is likely to take its Haryana MLAs to the party-ruled Chhattisgarh to protect them from poaching.
Thursday was the day results from the Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh assembly elections and by-elections in Bihar, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh were out, so what were some of our leaders up to?
With the strategy working in its favour, the BJP could be encouraged to undertake similar steps in states, including Karnataka, where elections are due next year, to counter factors that might work against it.
These are the 25 seats to watch out for as Gujarat goes to the polls over two phases on December 1 and 5.
Yadav accused the K Chandrasekhar Rao government in the state of floating the gimmick of reservation for minorities while doing no good for any section of society.
'Religion has divided our country like it never had done.' 'I can't remember a time of such focused hatred.'
There were many people who wanted to seek favours from her by offering lakhs and crores of rupees even through her family members when she was Odisha's transport minister. She never allowed any kind of corrupt practices to touch her department officials, family members or the supporters who have stood by her.
He defeated sitting Congress MLA Kanti Sodha Parmar in Anand, the home of world famous Amul dairy brand.
Kharge also urged voters to take pride in the fact that he as a bhoomi putra of Karnataka had been made All India Congress Committee president, and sought a win for the Congress in that name.
Ahead of the crucial Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) House meeting on Friday, Aam Aadmi Party councillor Pawan Sehrawat joined the Bharatiya Janata Party alleging that he felt 'suffocated' due to 'corruption' in the party led by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
BJP candidate Akash Saxena defeated his Samajwadi Party rival Asim Raja by 33,702 votes.
The rift within former prime minister H D Deve Gowda's family over the Hassan ticket for the May 10 assembly polls widened on Tuesday, with Janata Dal-Secular leader H D Kumaraswamy invoking the battle of 'Kurukshetra' in the epic Mahabharata to allege that some 'Shakunis' were trying to brainwash his brother H D Revanna.
According to a senior Election Commission official in Chandigarh, Panwar got 36 votes, while Sharma got 23 first preference votes and six transferred from the BJP, taking his tally to 29.
Sunil Jakhar was among the front runners for the chief ministerial post after the exit of Amarinder Singh. But the party preferred Charanjit Singh Channi, who became the first chief minister of Punjab from the Scheduled Caste community.
'Modiji has a vision for the country, not just to fight the elections but about achieving certain goals for the country.' 'Congress does not even have a vision for 25 days.'
'They sent a message that I will not be given the ticket and ordered me to issue a statement -- Gujarat style -- that with immediate effect I was retiring from politics.' 'They were treating me like a political novice who would be pushed around on the order of vested interests.' 'This rude behaviour hurt a lot. It was then I spontaneously decided that I will challenge this dictatorial order and expose all those who want to hurt Lingayat pride in Karnataka.'
Challenging the rejection, the SIT had approached the high court with a criminal revision plea to quash the court's order.
The Supreme Court on Monday stayed the disqualification of Janata Dal-Secular MLA D C Gowrishankar Swamy from the Tumkur Rural constituency in Karnataka and allowed him to contest the upcoming assembly polls in the southern state.
A total of 788 candidates are in the fray in the first phase of the elections on 89 seats spread across 19 districts of South Gujarat and Kutch-Saurashtra regions.
Political analysts say the Congress appears on the backfoot this time after one of its senior tribal leaders from the region joined the BJP, which has a stronghold in urban areas where civic bodies, leaders and the network required to win the election are firmly with the saffron party.
Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav, whose Rashtriya Janata Dal on Sunday retained Mokama assembly seat but failed to wrest from the Bharatiya Janata Party Gopalganj constituency, losing it by a whisker, asserted that the outcome marked a success of their 'experiment'.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday released its first list of 189 candidates for the May 10 Karnataka assembly polls, fielding Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai from his traditional Shiggaon constituency.
Though the Patidar-dominated Morbi Assembly seat in Gujarat is considered a stronghold of the Bharatiya Janata Party, the poll equations this time may change due to many factors, including the recent bridge tragedy which claimed 135 lives, political observers say.
Sources stated that the move comes even as Trinamool Congress has attempted to stir a controversy over Dasgupta's candidature. BJP has fielded Swapan Dasgupta from Tarakeswar Assembly constituency in Hoogly district.
As per Joint Chief Electoral Officer Pratap Singh Shah, around 95 candidates from 70 assembly seats withdrew their names on the last date for withdrawal of nomination which was Monday.
Cyberabad Police Commissioner Stephen Raveendra told reporters that the TRS legislators provided information to them that the trio were trying to entice them with several offers.
The Erode East assembly by-poll suddenly turned the spotlight on Bharatiya Janata Party with the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam factions led by K Palaniswami and O Panneerselvam rushing to Kamalalayam -- BJP state headquarters in Chennai -- seeking the saffron party's support for their respective parties.
Political analysts say the Congress's approach of taking the marginalised sections together has helped it in winning tribal-dominated seats, while the BJP will have to do a rethinking to win in Vyara, considering the social dynamics in this aAssembly segment.
The Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena faction on Tuesday claimed the Bharatiya Jantea Party candidate Murji Patel withdrew from the Andheri East Assembly bypoll contest after realising that his defeat was imminent.
'Has any prime minister spent so much time in one state holding election rally after rally?'
'The central BJP leaders were determined to push Hindutva hard, and it failed.'
He attributed the construction of the temple, "a historic work" to the decisive and strong leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
'A pro-Modi wave and anti-incumbency will be incomplete without strong candidates.'
The top guns of all the major political parties were on a campaign blitz across the state in the past few days, even as the ruling BJP has been striving to break the 38-year-old pattern of alternating governments and retain its southern citadel.
'It's not that the Opposition has to search for common ground.' 'The government is handing the common ground to the Opposition.'
State BJP president Sukanta Majumdar claimed that they were prevented from campaigning on Harish Chatterjee Street that leads to the residence of Banerjee, who is also a candidate in the bypoll.
Bypolls in three assembly constituencies in as many states passed off peacefully on Monday with around over 70 per cent voter turnout, though some technical glitches in electronic voting machine were reported in Tamil Nadu and the ruling Trinamool Congress in West Bengal alleged that the Central Reserve Police Force was "influencing" voters.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday won four seats in Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Odisha, while the Rashtriya Janata Dal retained the Mokama assembly seat in the bypolls to seven assembly constituencies in six states.
A total 2.51 crore voters are eligible to exercise their franchise for the second phase of elections, including 1.29 crore men and 1.22 crore women.
Without naming Chirag Paswan, the legislators are reported to have recalled the actions of the former Lok Janshakti Party chief during the 2020 state assembly polls while warning the CM that if they were not alert, it would not be good for the party.
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