Among the keenly watched contests are those involving former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav (Kannauj, UP) and Union ministers Giriraj Singh (Begusarai, Bihar), Nityanand Rai (Ujiarpur, Bihar) and Raosaheb Danve (Jalna, Maharashtra).
Amid signs of increasing bonhomie between her and her Telangana and Tamil Nadu counterparts Rao and Stalin, Banerjee had approached the two on Sunday to set up meetings of opposition chief ministers.
State Congress president and former chief minister Kamal Nath has been fielded from his home-turf Chhindwara, from where he is currently the legislator.
Besides Defence Minister Singh (Lucknow), Minister of Women and Child Development Irani (Amethi), those in the fray are Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs Kaushal Kishor (Mohanlalganj) and Minister of State of Consumer Affairs Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti (Fatehpur).
Slamming the Bharatiya Janata Party government in the state for the recent leak of a government competitive examination question paper and subsequent cancellation of the test, Chaudhary said because of such incidents youngsters are not getting appointments, and they have to migrate and work in other places.
For the first time, Akhilesh is leading the SP almost single-handed into a major election, but he is not the only one running the show Shikha Shalini reports.
It is a party whose growth in just four years has impressed many. It first came into notice in the 2009 Lok Sabha election, when it put up an impressive show in some seats in eastern UP, and in the Domariyaganj assembly by-election the next year it stunned everyone when its candidate polled more votes than the Congress and Samajwadi Party candidates.
It is a party whose growth in just four years has impressed many. It first came into notice in the 2009 Lok Sabha election, when it put up an impressive show in some seats in eastern UP, and in the Domariyaganj assembly by-election the next year it stunned everyone when its candidate polled more votes than the Congress and Samajwadi Party candidates.
It is a party whose growth in just four years has impressed many. It first came into notice in the 2009 Lok Sabha election, when it put up an impressive show in some seats in eastern UP, and in the Domariyaganj assembly by-election the next year it stunned everyone when its candidate polled more votes than the Congress and Samajwadi Party candidates.
Yadav, a former Uttar Pradesh chief minister, was slated to travel to Kannuaj, around 125 km from the Uttar Pradesh capital, for a tractor rally as part of the 'Kisan Yatra' in support of farmers protesting against the Centre's new agri laws and the 'Bharat Bandh' called by them on Tuesday.
Adityanath on the occasion praised the Centre's 'Agnipath' scheme and highlighted its benefits.
With the Yogi Adityanath government taking credit for cracking down on criminals and making it an election issue, political parties are now having a rethink on aligning with those who have a criminal background but also enjoy influence in their areas.
The visits come against the backdrop of complaints from the Khan camp that Akhilesh Yadav has been 'ignoring' the party veteran and the Muslim community, though it backed the SP in the recent assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh.
He slammed the Samajwadi Party for being sympathetic towards terrorists and claimed that the previous government headed by it had sought to withdraw cases against several terror accused as 'a return gift'.
Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav on Monday said that the country is witnessing 'politics of change' and called on the youth to make it successful.
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Friday said his party would pull off a spectacular victory in the state assembly elections, but evaded a direct reply to a question whether he would be the chief minister for the fifth time, as he just said 'Bharatiya Janata Party Zindabad'.
The BJP is far more prepared than the Congress as their pool of prospective candidates is much bigger, reports Prakash Bhandari.
High voter turnout was recorded in most of the seven assembly constituencies in six states where by-elections were held on Tuesday.
Seen by political watchers as the favourite to retain power for a third straight term, the Bharatiya Janata Party has set itself an ambitious target of winning 370 Lok Sabha seats, a goal aimed as much at projecting its strength as at diminishing the opposition in popular imagination.
In a major development in the ongoing Samajwadi Party feud, Mulayam Singh Yadav has postponed the national convention of party called by him on January 5.
This phase of voting was crucial for the state's ruling Samajwadi Party and main opposition Bahujan Samaj Party.
Polling on three graduates and two teachers constituencies of the council was held on January 30 and counting of votes by ballot began on Thursday evening and was completed on Friday.
'Besides Ayodhya, the BJP lost in nine other constituencies with a Ramayana imprint; it tasted success only in Thrissur.' 'In Rameswaram, K Navaskani of the Indian Union Muslim League won with a 44% voteshare in a 84% Hindu constituency.' 'In the 21 seats in the Ayodhya and Varanasi regions, both crucial to the Hindutva project, the BJP won just 7.' 'It won just 3 out of 12 seats around Modi's constituency,' points out Krishna Prasad.
A number of high-profile electoral battles, starring veterans and debutants, formidable opponents and unlikely contestants, feature in Tuesday's outcome.
The nodal officer for EVMs in Varanasi, a returning officer (RO) in Sonbhadra district and an additional election officer in Bareilly district have been pulled out from election duties, a day ahead of the counting of votes in UP.
Modi also accused previous government of neglecting the pilgrim city and said criminals had a free in the state.
In a series of tweets, she attacked the SP accusing it of being an expert in "narrow politics".
Atiq Ahmed is named in more than 100 criminal cases, including the recent Umesh Pal murder case
Mulayam's last rites will be performed with full state honours in Saifai near Etawah in Uttar Pradesh
Chief ministers and other senior leaders made last-minute appeals to voters for their support in Mokama and Gopalganj of Bihar, Adampur of Haryana, Manugoda of Telangana, Gola Gorakhnath of Uttar Pradesh and Dhamnagar of Odisha.
Rampur Sadar and Khatauli in Uttar Pradesh, Padampur in Odisha, Sardarshahar in Rajasthan, Kurhani in Bihar and Bhanupratappur in Chhattisgarh are the assembly seats where the bypolls are being held.
The notification will be issued on January 20, while January 27 will be the last date of filing nominations.
Jaya Prada and Azam Khan have a long-running feud.
A visibly upset Shivpal Yadav said, "I was never called to any meeting (of the SP) and no information was given to me."
Ahmad, a former Uttar Pradesh MLA and Lok Sabha MP, was brought back to the high-security jail in Gujarat in a UP police van after a nearly 24-hour-long road journey from Prayagraj.
The prisons department had on Thursday issued an order for the premature release of Amarmani Tripathi, citing the state's 2018 policy on remission, since they have completed 16 years of imprisonment.
Sources in various parties suggest that two lakh votes of the Patel community, locally known as OBC kurmi, for which mother-daughter led Apna Dal (S) and Apna Dal (K) are competing and over one lakh of OBC Rajbhars would be crucial in deciding the outcome of the assembly seats in Varanasi.
According to a senior Congress leader, the constituents of the opposition alliance intend to move forward with the theme "Main Nahin, Hum (We, Not Me)" at the meeting.
Besides the polarisation in favour of the BJP, there could be other reasons for the under-representation of Muslims too, says Shafeeq Rahman.
Uttar Pradesh minister Swami Prasad Maurya has said the state's next chief minister will be decided by the Bharatiya Janata Party's central leadership after the assembly polls, prompting the Samajwadi Party to suggest that the ruling party is divided on the leadership issue.
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