Several BJP-backed state governments have unveiled schemes targeting the poor, women, farmers and students, following the party's setback in the Lok Sabha polls.
Bypolls will be held on Wednesday in 15 assembly seats spread across Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Kerala and Uttarakhand. The bypolls, however, will not have any direct impact on the respective legislative assemblies. The results will be declared on November 23. In Uttar Pradesh, polling will be held in Katehari, Karhal, Meerapur, Ghaziabad, Majhawan, Sisamau, Khair, Phulpur and Kundarki. Ninety candidates are in the fray in these seats with the maximum of 14 in Ghaziabad. This will be the first electoral test of the INDIA bloc as well as the NDA in the politically-crucial state after the Lok Sabha elections. In Punjab, bypolls will be held in four assembly seats - Gidderbaha, Dera Baba Nanak, Chabbewal (SC) and Barnala. The bypolls were necessitated after MLAs representing them were elected to the Lok Sabha. Polling will also be held for the Palakkad seat in Kerala and Kedarnath in Uttarakhand.
Samajwadi Party MP R K Chaudhary's demand to replace the Sengol installed next to the Lok Sabha Speaker's chair with a copy of the Constitution triggered a war of words on Thursday, with opposition leaders backing him, and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party castigating him for 'disrespecting' Indian and Tamil culture.
Swamy on Wednesday extended support to his party MP Yogi Adityanath, who accused Mother Teresa of being part of a 'conspiracy to Christianise India', saying the views are not isolated, as there have been books published in this regard.
Samajwadi Party MLA Abu Asim Azmi, suspended from the Maharashtra assembly over his remarks praising Mughal emperor Aurangzeb, will be '100 per cent' put in jail, Chief Minister Minister Devendra Fadnavis said in the legislative council.
'The opposition wants the country to run on the basis of Shariat but this cannot happen'
Jitin Prasada was once considered as among Rahul Gandhi's 'young Turks' and was a minister in successive Manmohan Singh governments but defected from the Congress to the BJP in 2021, where he has again established himself as a prominent Brahmin face of Uttar Pradesh.
The UP CM's remarks come after the recent death of 28-year-old Rakbar Khan, who was lynched by a group of men in Rajasthan's Alwar district on suspicion of cattle smuggling.
Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Ministers Keshav Prasad Maurya and Brajesh Pathak said on Tuesday night that all the eight candidates of the Bharatiya Janata Party have won in the Rajya Sabha elections from the state.
'BSP will remain a player, but only a marginal player, as long as the BJP is extremely dominant in North India politics.'
Maharashtra NCP's chief spokesperson Mahesh Tapase also accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of following the use-and-throw policy and added that Raj Thackeray "will have to pay for his own karma".
Rita Bahuguna Joshi had fought the 2017 elections and defeated Aparna Yadav, the then SP candidate from Lucknow Cantonment.
The notable names in the BJP's first list include Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Varanasi, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh from Lucknow, Hema Malini from Mathura, Ajay Mishra Teni from Kheri, Smriti Irani from Amethi, Lallu Singh from Faizabad (Ayodhya) and Mahendra Nath Pandey from Chandauli among others.
The BJP keeps taking dips till it appears good on the camera, he said.
Kangana Ranaut, who is the BJP candidate from her hometown Mandi, Himachal Pradesh, feels Prime Minister Narendra Modi is an 'ansh' (part) of Lord Ram and Lord Vishnu.
Electioneering ended in Madhya Pradesh at 6 pm except in Naxalites-hit districts of Balaghat, Mandla and Dindori, where campaigning drew to a close early at 3 pm.
Some have been cherry-picked to assert the BJP's supremacy over its allies or, significantly, its leaders who charted an independent course in the recent past.
The founder of KIIT, Achyuta Samanta, and other top officials of the private engineering college were questioned by a government committee about the alleged suicide of a Nepalese girl in her hostel and the assault on students of her country. The incident sparked outrage in the Odisha Assembly, with opposition members demanding a judicial inquiry. Samanta was questioned for two hours, along with the institute's Vice-Chancellor, Registrar, Dean, and two suspended women officials. The committee is investigating the circumstances surrounding the student's suicide, the alleged high-handedness of the institute's administration, and the decision to suspend specific students and shut down the institute for them. The Odisha government has assured Nepalese students that it will cover their travel expenses, arrange remedial classes, and reschedule their mid-semester examinations if necessary.
Already in the eye of a raging controversy over the 'Ghar Wapsi' programme, fiery Hindutva mascot and Bharatiya Janata Party MP Yogi Adityanath has now launched a campaign for declaring cow as 'Rashtra Mata', claiming his demand "embodies the sentiment of every Indian".
Never before has the BJP faced such a crisis over the nomination of the Chief Minister as it is facing now, discovers Prakash Bhandari, veteran observer of Rajasthan politics.
The prime minister has announced an ex gratia of Rs 2 lakh from PMNRF (PM's National Relief Fund) for the next of kin of each deceased in the road accident in Mirzapur, UP. The injured would be given Rs 50,000, the Prime Minister's Office posted on X.
BJP MP Yogi Adityanath shares his views on conversions, re-conversions and the proposed anti-conversion law with Rediff.com's Sharat Pradhan.
The PM said the Congress and its allies should not encourage the "Pakistan agenda" and speak the language of separatists.
SP supremo Akhilesh Yadav termed it as a 'ghaatey ka sauda' (loss-making deal) for the saffron party.
'The Congress in the past backed the demand, but will not support it now since the SP opposes any division of UP.'
Is the Bharatiya Janata Party back to its hackneyed Hindutva agenda? The question is being raised following the party's decision to entrust the leadership of the party's campaign for the forthcoming state bye-election in Uttar Pradesh to the saffron clad rabble-rouser Mahant Adityanath.
The BJP's losses in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, where the UP CM had addressed nearly 75 rallies, has put a big question mark on his ability to deliver in high-octane contests, reports Virendra Singh Rawat.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday met ministers from the state at his residence in Lucknow to discuss the upcoming assembly bypolls in 10 constituencies.
Adityanath on the occasion praised the Centre's 'Agnipath' scheme and highlighted its benefits.
However, in 950 booths, voting will end at 4 pm, though people standing in the queue at that time will be able to exercise their franchise.
Ehsan Jaffry was killed by a mob in the Gulbarg Society massacre on February 28, 2002, following the Godhra incident.
Notwithstanding controversy over the conversion issue, Bharatiya Janata Party MP Yogi Adityanath on Tuesday justified such programmes saying it is an ongoing process and will continue to happen.
The third phase of polling will take place on May 7, 2024.
While Chouhan has emerged as a favourite to remain at the helm in MP despite the presence of some challengers, the leadership race is wide open in Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, two states where the BJP has snatched power from the Congress.
Eight railway stations in the Lucknow division of Northern Railways were officially renamed after saints and freedom fighters on Tuesday, officials said.
Kharge also hit back at the BJP for criticising his party colleague Rahul Gandhi over a copy of the Constitution with a red cover. He showed a picture of PM Modi gifting a similar copy to former president Ramnath Kovind.
The party also declared sitting MP Praveen Nishad as its candidate from Sant Kabir Nagar
On Tuesday, November 29, 2022, the final day of campaigning before Thursday's first phase of the Gujarat assembly election, the Bharatiya Janata Party fielded an array of leaders to canvass votes for the party that has ruled the state since 1995.
Campaigning for May 13 elections in 96 Lok Sabha constituencies across 10 states and Union territories including all seats in Andhra Pradesh, where assembly elections are also being held concurrently, and Telangana concluded on Saturday evening.
'It was a disaster on his part to give an oral remark which allowed ascertainment of the religious character of places of worship.' 'This disrupted the social harmony of the country.'
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