The Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday took a dig at Congress in the wake of its poor showing in the Bihar assembly elections saying 'Rahul factor' did not work in the polls.
Guidelines have been issued by the Commission for safe conduct of the electoral exercise in the midst of the raging COVID-19 pandemic. These guidelines include lowering the maximum number of voters for a polling booth from 1,600 to 1,000, staggering the polling hours and extending postal ballot facility to those above 80.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar asserted that the NDA government, led by him, put an end to frequent Hindu-Muslim clashes in the state by taking measures such as fencing graveyards and bringing to justice those involved in communal riots. He also criticized the opposition, particularly Tejashwi Yadav, accusing them of lacking understanding and experience. Kumar's claims were met with anger and walkout by the opposition members.
The Sena-UBT pointed out that the Congress only spoke about itself in the Ahmedabad meet, and INDIA or Bharat was nowhere in the discussion.
One man was shot dead for pointing a toy pistol at a BSF officer.
Bypolls are due in Bihar, Gujarat, Haryana, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Telangana, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu
The Bihar CM further recounted the work done by his government to boost social welfare in the state and the efforts to strengthen the law and order in the state.
Nearly 3,000 polling booths have been identified as sensitive, and special security arrangements, including drone surveillance, have been ensured at some of these locations.
A win for SP could provide some consolation for Akhilesh Yadav after the defeat in the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections early this year and the loss of Azamgarh and Rampur Lok Sabha seats to the BJP in June bypolls.
'During Eid Muslims get Eidi, but Opposition parties never gave that to them.' 'When PM Modi is giving Eidi to Muslims Opposition leaders are getting upset.'
'It is not a political issue but a matter close to my heart'
Polling began on Tuesday morning in 35 constituencies spread across eight districts in the fifth and penultimate phase of the assembly elections in Bihar under the shadow of a boycott call by Maoists. In the 17 constituencies that have been declared 'Maoist-hit', voting began at 7 am and will end at 3 pm. Polling in the remaining constituencies will end at 5 pm.
Notwithstanding reports from within the party that severing of ties with the Congress and joining hands with the Rashtriya Janata Dal resulted in Lok Janshakti Party drawing a blank in the Lok Sabha polls, party president Ramvilas Paswan on Monday said he would align again with Lalu Prasad to contest the 2010 assembly elections in Bihar.
A top BJP leader from Bihar told ANI that Fadnavis is going to play a crucial role in the Bihar assembly election and he is associated with the Bihar BJP on purpose
While the BJP went back to the drawing board to recraft its political and governance outreach and regained momentum by notching up surprisingly big wins in a string of assembly polls, the burst of fresh optimism in the main opposition Congress and other INDIA bloc parties fizzled out.
BJP president Amit Shah on Thursday said that fire-crackers will burst in Pakistan if the NDA did not form the next government in Bihar.
The speculations fuelled as August and September are times of floods in the state and this period will be followed by festivals like Bakri Id, Dushehra, Muharram, Diwali and Chhath slated for October and November.
There will also be filming at booths to monitor security.
Addressing his first rally during the Bihar assembly elections, Gandhi insisted the Chinese army had indeed intruded into Indian territory. "They have seized 1,200 km of our land. But when the Chinese army intruded, why did our prime minister insult our soldiers by saying that nobody entered into the Indian side?" he said.
Arora also said he is confident that the EC will be able to hold the next set of assembly polls on time and the internal exercise for those is already underway.
The Commission, under Justice (retd) Ritu Raj Awasthi, would recommend an amendment to the Constitution to add the "new chapter or part" on simultaneous elections, the sources said.
While Narendra Modi addresses rally after rally in Bihar, Shatrughan Sinha has been left out of the BJP's campaign.
Defying a poll boycott call, an estimated 49.84 per cent voters exercised their franchise on Tuesday in 35 assembly constituencies in the fifth phase of Bihar assembly elections amid stray incidents of violence.
Employees of the central government and those of its undertakings like banks and insurance companies have been engaged for counting of votes.
Seeking to ensure secrecy of votes, the Election Commission has issued a set of dos and don'ts to the Bihar poll machinery.
'The TMC can't go on forever taking advantage of the people's fright of the BJP.'
Pandey, a daring IPS officer known for his rustic mannerisms, had sought voluntary retirement in 2009 amid speculation that he wanted to contest the Lok Sabha election from Buxar.
Bihar will have five-phase assembly elections between October 12 and November 5 and counting of votes will take place on November 8.
Anyone can make tall promises and it is very easy to accept these promises if they guarantee even an iota of betterment for you, for your existence. Even if these new promises and assurances are accepted with a pinch of salt and discount the actual execution to 50%, even then the Bihari voter will be content, observes Asmita Bihari.
Jharkhand Mukti Morcha leader Hemant Soren on Sunday met Jharkhand Governor Santosh Kumar Gangwar and staked claim to form the government, soon after leaders of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) in the state unanimously elected him as the legislature party leader.
'The southern states will have no voice.' 'Political parties in future need to focus only on one region, the northern region, to win the general election.'
In a ghastly incident that has sent shock waves across Bihar, former state minister Mukesh Sahni's 70-year-old father was found stabbed to death at his native home in Darbhanga district, a top police officer said.
With 'go solo' being the mantra for Congress after its success in Lok Sabha polls in Uttar Pradesh, the party is now set to dump Lalu Prasad's Rashtriya Janata Dal in the Bihar assembly elections scheduled later this year. An indication to this effect came when All Indian Congress Committee in-charge of the state Jagdish Tytler and Pradesh Congress Committee president Anil Sharma recently met party president Sonia Gandhi.
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.
Twenty-three per cent or 244 candidates have declared serious criminal cases against themselves, it said. Serious criminal cases are non-bailable offences with over five years of imprisonment.
The last date of filing papers is November two while scrutiny of the same will be done the following day.
The final phase of polling on Saturday will cover 78 constituencies spread across 19 north Bihar districts.
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