In the 2017 assembly election, the voter turnout in the first phase covering the same 89 constituencies stood at 66.75 per cent.
An immediate solution to stem mounting dissidence within the Bharatiya Janata Party in Gujarat appeared unlikely as party chief Rajnath Singh held a key meeting with a senior state leader opposed to Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
There is also talk on the chances of Bhupendrasinh Chudasama, R C Faldu and Kaushik Patel, senior ministers in the Rupani cabinet, being retained.
He will be around for another crack at the elections, and a clear majority, predicts Saisuresh Sivaswamy.
Gujarat Patidar leader Hardik Patel, who recently quit the Congress, on Tuesday confirmed that he will join the Bharatiya Janata Party.
On the other hand, Congress' vote share has risen to about 41.4 per cent this time
Stalin said one cannot and should not decide the mood of the entire country based on the results of one state elections.
While people voted in a fifth round that will set the tone as this election rounds into the straight, and while Modi on the stump chews the cud of personal grievances and hackneyed promises that have long since passed their use-by date, there is a rogue wave rising -- what damage it will do, we will know 16 days from today, observes Prem Panicker.
The court of Justice SH Vora granted temporary relief to Patel, who had filed the bail modification petition on November 7 on the ground that he wanted to offer prayers at the temple of his kuldevi (local deity).
Vasava is the president of Gujarat BJP's Scheduled Tribe Morcha and represented the erstwhile Rajpipla seat between 2002 and 2007 and from 2007 to 2012.
The coming weeks are sure to have a lot of drama unfolding in Maharashtra, predicts N Sathiya Moorthy.
Along with Modi, senior BJP leaders including Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah, Nitin Gadkari, Nirmala Sitharaman and S Jaishankar, all ministers in Modi 2.0 Cabinet, took oath as cabinet ministers at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. In all, 71 ministers were sworn-in along with Modi, taking the strength of the Union council to 72.
BJP leaders and Union ministers Dharmendra Pradhan and Anurag Thakur had accused Gandhi of insulting OBCs.
The BJP sharpened its attack on the AAP after its Gujarat chief Gopal Italia was heard purportedly mocking the prime minister's mother in a video, and said people of the state will make it pay for 'abusing' her.
Prashant Kishor expressed the view that the recent 'chintan shivir' could not achieve "anything meaningful".
The accident, which comes days after similar incidents in Delhi and Jabalpur, gave the opposition Congress an opportunity to target the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.
Modi brought up the emotive issue of the gurdwara in Kartarpur Sahib, a place sacred to Sikhs as Guru Nanak Dev spent the last years of his life there, and blamed the Congress for country's partition, saying they did it for sake of power.
The Congress on Saturday made a stunning comeback in Karnataka ousting the Bharatiya Janata Party from its lone southern citadel with a comfortable majority in a morale booster win that will be key for reviving its electoral fortunes ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
The priority in ticket distribution will be given to youth, women, and those with a clean image, he said.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday said its prominent leaders from Bihar will campaign in poll-bound Gujarat, rejecting reports that Chief Minister Narendra Modi had asked party leaders from the eastern state to stay away from electioneering there.
Legislative assembly elections in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state are due next year.
Gujarat BJP in-charge Dinesh Sharma and national joint general secretary (organisation) V Satish, are scheduled to arrive in Ahmedabad to hold talks with local leaders
The party's CM choice came as a surprise for many as the low-profile, first-time legislator was not seen to be among the top contenders for the post.
The BJP has changed five chief ministers since 2019, including in Gujarat and Karnataka.
Party spokesperson says it was weak organisation and local issues that did the NDA in
Addressing a press conference in New Delhi, the AAP's Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha alleged that the BJP is offering two options to his party MLAs -- they should either join the saffron party or the CBI-ED will put them in jail.
Thackeray said people should be aware of how religious issues are raked up to distract their attention from core issues.
Independence Day was celebrated across states and Union territories on Thursday, as several chief ministers announced job schemes while some others vowed their support for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of a Viksit Bharat by 2047.
In a letter to Ramesh, the poll panel has asked him to share details regarding his claim by 7 pm on Sunday.
The states and union territories where the elections are being held in this phase are Assam (4), Bihar (5), Chhattisgarh (7), Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu (2), Goa (2), Gujarat (25), Karnataka (14), Maharashtra (11), Madhya Pradesh (8), Uttar Pradesh (10) and West Bengal (4). The BJP has bagged the Surat seat unopposed.
According to insiders, their lack of enthusiasm is showing on the ground. There is nothing to suggest that their enthusiasm will return in the final four phases of polling, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Modi has proven to be a past master in the art of political survival. This means that learning to navigate the choppy waters of coalition government will be an art he will not take long to master, argues Shyam Parekh.
Patel's elevation to the coveted post is being attributed to his closeness to former Gujarat chief minister and current Uttar Pradesh Governor Anandiben Patel. Both have residences in the same locality in the city.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which is contesting 88 seats out of the total 89, tops this list among major political parties in the fray with 36 per cent of its candidates having criminal cases. Thirty per cent of its candidates are facing serious cases such as murder, rape, assault, kidnapping, among others, the ADR said in its report. The number of candidates having criminal cases fielded by the AAP is 32.
'The same thing takes place in the Congress and we have to call it democracy'
Sacked Gujarat-cadre IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt on Wednesday withdrew his plea in the Supreme Court seeking suspension of his life sentence in a 30-year-old custodial death case.
Soon after Hardik Patel quit the Congress on Wednesday, the opposition party alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party has 'lured' the Patidar leader by promising to get cases against him withdrawn and has 'scripted' his resignation letter.
Few in Varanasi expect the result to be different from 2014 and 2019. The only point of interest is whether Narendra Modi will increase his winning margin against his rivals.
The BJP is ahead in Ahmedabad, Surat, Rajkot, Vadodara, Jamnagar and Bhavnagar for which voting was held on Sunday.
The rising pitch of road shows and long rallies with hectoring pitches seem to have exhausted and numbed the audiences, rather than motivating them to vote for the party, observes Shreekant Sambrani.
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