The electoral exercise, the first since the Lok Sabha elections, will decide the fate of many veterans and some debutantes including Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu's wife Kamlesh Thakur.
The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the proposal for 'one nation, one Election' as recommended by the Kovind panel, Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Wednesday.
Aam Aadmi Party national convener Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday said his party will be asking the general public as to who should be the party's chief ministerial face in the Punjab Assembly polls, even as he indicated that his own preference for the post was state unit president Bhagwant Mann.
The Aam Aadmi Party has sought the setting aside of Tuesday's election, alleging tampering of ballot papers, and fresh elections under the supervision of a retired high court judge.
The Zoram People's Movement (ZPM) stormed to power in Mizoram by dethroning the Mizo National Front (MNF) bagging 27 seats in the 40-member House on Monday.
The senior AAP leader played the audio tape at a press conference and claimed the BJP "dalal" (broker) heard in the clip was one of the three people arrested in Telangana over an alleged bid to poach that state's ruling party Telangana Rashtra Samithi MLAs.
Voters include 8.4 crore men, 8.23 crore women and 11,371 from third gender. There are as many as 35.67 lakh first time voters, besides 3.51 crore young voters in the age group of 20-29 years.
"He is lodged in the prison in connection with a rape case and sections of the Pocso Act. Rinku is not a physiotherapist," the sources said.
The police on Saturday detained the Aam Aadmi Party Member of Parliament Bhagwant Mann and several party workers ahead of a farmers' meeting at Doliya in Bhavnagar district of Gujarat.
'My feeling is that these parties will not learn their lesson despite their electoral drubbing. They cannot put forward a leader. They have no record of improving their constituents' lives by providing basic services. All they offer is their "'secularism",' says T V R Shenoy.
Apart from Chamkaur Sahib assembly seat which comes in Maajha region of Punjab, Congress is all set to field CM Channi from Adampur assembly constituency which falls in the Doaba Region.
Calling Prime Minister Narendra Modi "Saheb" during a discussion on the government's resolution on good works in the Delhi assembly's special session, Kejriwal said the nation is not with him in his "theatrics".
Kejriwal, who was arrested on March 21 by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the same case and later by the CBI which was probing corruption charges, stepped out after spending 155 days in Tihar jail. The AAP supremo, who was earlier granted three-week interim bail in the ED case, was given a resounding welcome by his party leaders and supporters who were drenched in heavy rain. Addressing party workers from the top of an SUV, Kejriwal, sporting a half-sleeve blue shirt, raised 'Inquilab Zindabad' and 'Vande Mataram' slogans.
The Delhi mayor election was stalled on Tuesday for the second time this month as the House was adjourned indefinitely by the LG-appointed presiding officer following a ruckus by some councillors.
What the INDIA alliance needs is neither a counter to Modi's tall personality and undiminished charisma nor a counter-narrative to his Hindutva agenda, now centred on the Ayodhya temple consecration on January 22, argues N Sathiya Moorthy.
Kejriwal said that it has been alleged that a bribe of Rs 100 crore was taken, but he asked where was the money.
While the Aam Aadmi Party is contesting on four seats, the Congress has fielded candidates for the remaining three seats.
He argued that if inflation is low, stable and moving towards the 4 per cent target, why has the RBI not revised downward the bank rate fixed in June 2023?
At least four Opposition leaders on Tuesday claimed to have received messages from Apple warning them of "State-sponsored attackers trying to remotely compromise" their iPhones and posted the purported screenshots on their X handles.
What was the "locus standi" of Sonia Gandhi when she along with the then prime minister Manhoman Singh inaugurated legislative buildings in Manipur and Tamil Nadu, the Bharatiya Janata Party asked on Wednesday while countering the Congress's criticism over the inauguration of the new Parliament building by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Sitting MP Pawan Kumar Bansal faces two dimpled beauties. Which one will the city choose?
A show cause notice has been issued to him asking him to explain his "anti-party conduct", the party said, adding that further action will depend on his reply.
With this kind of coinage, the Opposition seems to be readily conceding the point that Modi is taller than all of them put together. So they need something bigger than themselves, collectively or not, to capture the voter imagination when it is about taking on Modi and the BJP in 2024, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
Notwithstanding his confrontation with the Lt Governor over a number of contentious issues, Kejriwal said Jung's removal will not help as the "real solution" lies in the Prime Minister's Office stopping "interference" in Delhi's affairs.
His assertion came after BJP general secretary Ramlal called him earlier in the day for a meeting, apparently to persuade him against attacking Jaitley.
Without naming anyone, Mann, who is an MP from Sangrur, claimed that a senior BJP leader contacted him four days ago and asked him, "What would you take to join the BJP?"
Singh alleged that the BJP was attempting to "defame" Delhi CM, claiming that all attempts to bring a bad name to Kejriwal and his party will fail.
If only the Congress could rebuild on its strengths and develop a modern enough ideology, we could again be moving towards a clearer two-party political landscape, asserts Shekhar Gupta.
Kejriwal (55) has been issued the summons under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act and according to the sources, the agency will record his statement once he deposes before the investigating officer of the case in Delhi.
The AAP has been batting for tie up with Congress citing the need to defeat the BJP and replace the Modi government in the national interest.
'The BJP will not win a single seat in Punjab.'
The two leaders also discussed the special category status promised to the southern state.
Officials said most of the preparations are complete and the counting will start at 8 am on Saturday.
Ahead of the Punjab assembly polls, former Army chief Gen Joginder Jaswant Singh on Tuesday joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in Chandigarh in the presence of the party leadership, including Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat.
Kejriwal urged AAP members to strengthen the party at grassroots level.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday claimed that the Congress and Samajwadi Party will run a bulldozer over the Ram temple if elected to power, and asked them to take 'tuition' from Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath 'where to run bulldozers'.
Navjot Singh Sidhu on Friday skipped a meeting held by newly-appointed Punjab Congress chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring with several party leaders from Amritsar.
The proceedings began at around 11:20 am and nominated members were first administered the oath by presiding officer Satya Sharma, followed by elected councillors.
The Bharatiya Janata Party, for whom the temple town sharpened its Hindutva plank, is facing a challenge particularly from the Samajwadi Party in the ongoing state polls.
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