The Bharatiya Janata Party's bypoll win in four of the six seats it contested has invigorated the party ahead of assembly polls in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh.
Nine of the turncoats were fielded by the BJP and 10 by the Samajwadi Party.
Voting will be held on Thursday in bypolls to seven assembly seats in six states -- a contest symbolic of the fierce turf war between the Bharatiya Janata Party and regional parties.
Only three seats, which were among 12 constituencies where Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath addressed rallies, were bagged by the BJP.
'Whoever thought that building toilets and providing free rations to the poorest of poor Indians would give Modi a halo other political leaders would envy?' asks Sheela Bhatt.
The SP chief said no MLAs or ministers quitting the BJP will be taken into his party anymore.
On Wednesday, the ministry had sent a terse reminder to the West Bengal government to submit a detailed report on the post-poll violence and to take necessary measures to stop such incidents "without any loss of time".
'The sixth seat was a risk for the MVA, but Uddhav Thackeray took the risk,' Pawar said. 'In politics, one has to take risks.'
A myth was nurtured for nearly three decades that any chief minister of Uttar Pradesh who visited Noida in Gautam Buddh Nagar district was doomed to go out of power.
In some Bihar constituencies, candidates named Ram are fighting each other.
He had a contingent of about 22-24 armed CRPF commandos who used to move with him every time he travelled in West Bengal.
Counting began at 8 am under multi-tier security cover. At first, postal ballots will be counted and then EVMs opened.
So worried is Shiv Sena rebel leader Eknath Shinde of desertions that he is asking rebel MLAs in Guwahati to sign affidavits affirming that they won't go back on supporting the 'cause of Hindutva' after reaching Mumbai.
According to sources, the Election Commission is mulling over taking strong action against BJP candidate Kapil Mishra. Mishra had on January 23 tweeted, "On 8th February there will be a contest between India and Pakistan on the streets of Delhi."
With discussions on the UCC taking centrestage, he said the BJP government in the state will move towards implementing one law for all, "only after talking to all the parties".
'The BJP is using its money and muscle power to break the MVA government.'
Two candidates each of the ruling coalition allies Congress, Nationalist Congress Party and the Shiv Sena and four nominees of the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday night won elections to the Maharashtra legislative council, an official said.
A Trinamool Congress delegation met the Election Commission (EC) on Friday and demanded a high-level probe into an alleged attack on West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in Nandigram and claimed it was not an 'unfortunate incident', but a conspiracy.
Soon after meeting, Raut hinted at a pre-poll alliance with the Congress in UP and Goa, stating that the parties are thinking of working together in both the states that are scheduled to go to assembly polls early next year.
Deviya Rane said it is historic that no legislator (in Goa) has won consecutively so many times from the same seat.
Several legislators in states on Monday said they have cross-voted in favour of National Democratic Alliance nominee Droupadi Murmu by not following their respective party lines in the presidential election.
Banerjee had moved the high court claiming she apprehended that she may not get justice from the judge due to his alleged BJP links.
The BJP announced names of 107 candidates for the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls.
The NDA's combined parliamentary and state-level committed Presidential votes number around 12,000 fewer than a majority.
The BJP-led alliance in Assam is all set to form the government for the second successive term winning 72 of the 102 seats declared so far and is leading in three others.
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Congress' chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala and senior leader Jairam Ramesh were among the 10 candidates elected to the Rajya Sabha on Friday from Karnataka, Rajasthan and Haryana, while counting was underway in Maharashtra after an eight-hour delay due to wrangling by rival parties over alleged breach of voting rules.
Offering to trade second preference votes with the Congress, Janata Dal-Secular leader H D Kumaraswamy on Tuesday said his main agenda is to defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party in the contest for fourth seat, during the June 10 Rajya Sabha polls from Karnataka.
Shiromani Akali Dal-Amritsar's Simranjit Singh Mann on Sunday won the Sangrur Lok Sabha seat after defeating his nearest rival, Aam Aadmi Party's Gurmail Singh, by a margin of 5,822 votes.
'The margin of victory or loss would make both camps rethink their strategies for the 2024 assembly election in Maharashtra.'
'Economic issues do not matter during elections; it is the emotional connect that helps swing votes.'
>The BJP's star campaigner could not help even half the number of candidates for whom he campaigned in his aggressive 'Didi-o-Didi' style in Bengal
On Monday, Thakur egged on participants of an election rally to raise an incendiary slogan that 'traitors should be shot', after he lashed out at anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protesters.
As many as 28 out of 41 sitting women MPs, including Sonia Gandhi, Hema Malini and Kirron Kher, retained their seats in Lok Sabha.
With the entry of the Aam Aadmi Party and the Trinamool Congress in the poll arena, the election is expected to be a multi-cornered one this time.
The fifth phase of the Lok Sabha election witnesses several high-stake battles between the Bharatiya Janata Party and opposition parties, with people from 51 Lok Sabha constituencies across seven states casting their votes today to form the next government. Here's a look at who were among the early voters!
In a setback to the main opposition Samajwadi Party, the BJP wrested both Rampur and Azamgarh Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh.
'Badle ki bhavna (revengeful politics) was never seen in Maharashtra and Indian politics, but now we are witnessing all that today.'
Sunil Gatade and Venkatesh Kesari reveal that Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar's name is now doing the rounds as President Kovind's likely successor.
B Y Vijayendra said power and position itself are not the ultimate objectives in politics.
'Since we defeated their evil designs on July 10, their poaching approach became more aggressive with using blackmail and money power as tools to finish off the political opposition in Goa.'
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