Many in the party believe that as was the cases in Rajasthan, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and Chhattisgarh, the BJP leadership might put its bets on a "dark horse" among the newly-elected MLAs.
The development is being seen as a blow to the opposition Congress which was planning to forge a grand alliance in Chhattisgrah to unseat the ruling BJP.
The party's decision to announce the first list of candidates so early underlines the significance it has attached to five state elections, the last round of assembly contest before the all-important Lok Sabha polls.
Gangster Aman Sahu was killed in an encounter when members of his gang tried to free him from police custody in Jharkhand's Palamu district.
Uppal, 43, was detained last week in that country and the ED authorities are in touch with the Dubai authorities to get him deported to India, they said.
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan gave Modi's aggressive campaign ahead of the assembly election for the party's performance.
A former MP from Janjgir Lok Sabha constituency, Shukla left the Bharatiya Janata Party ahead of assembly polls in 2013 and joined the Congress next year, alleging that she was sidelined by the state BJP leadership.
'There is some deep rot that has set in the Congress party. This requires an organisational surgery.'
Modi also virtually flagged off a new train between Antagarh in Kanker district and Raipur and kickstarted the distribution of cards of the Centre's Ayushman Bharat scheme to beneficiaries in the state.
Chief Minister Ajit Jogi said she will visit the tribal dominated Bastar and Sarguja districts on the first day and address two party rallies in their district headquarters Jagdalpur and Ambikapur.
He also predicted the Congress was likely to bag another resounding mandate in the 90-member assembly, saying some are projecting 75-plus seats for his party but his estimate is anywhere between 60 to 75-plus.
Polling in 70 constituencies began at 8 am and will conclude at 5 pm, except in nine polling booths in the Maoist-affected Bindranawagarh seat in Gariaband district, where voting began at 7 for security reasons, a poll official said.
Surprisingly, the BJP's nearest rival in ad spend was not the Congress, but the Bharat Rashtra Samithi.
The Congress alleged that the claims made by the ED against Baghel are part of a "conspiracy" hatched by the BJP to tarnish the Chhattisgarh chief minister's image and asserted that the people of the state would give a befitting reply to such tactics in the upcoming Assembly poll.
Gandhi also said the idea of 'One Nation, One Election' was aimed at distracting from real issues of the people.
Baghel along with some supporters was in Noida for a door-to-door campaign in support of Congress' Pankhuri Pathak when the alleged violations took place.
The counting of votes for the bypolls to 46 assembly seats in 13 states and in the Lok Sabha segments of Nanded in Maharashtra and Wayanad in Kerala, a crucial electoral exercise since the parliamentary polls in April-May, will begin at 8 am on Saturday.
Talking to reporters in Bilaspur town of the state, he also accused the saffron party of trying to take political advantage of last week's communal violence in Biranpur village of Bemetara district.
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.
The total number of voters in the 20 constituencies are 40,78,681, comprising 19,93,937 male, 20,84,675 female and 69 third-gender persons, they pointed out.
Police have so far arrested 11 people on charges of rioting and murder in connection with the clash.
The MLAs of the ruling United Progressive Alliance coalition in Jharkhand on Tuesday arrived in Raipur by a chartered flight in a bid to thwart the Bharatiya Janata Party's possible attempt to poach them, and moved into a nearby luxurious resort.
As many as 22 teams of C-60 commandos and two squads of the Central Reserve Police Force under the supervision of senior officials launched an anti-Naxal operation from two different points in the forest area, said the release.
Chhattisgarh minister T S Singh Deo on Sunday didn't attend the Congress legislature party meeting being held at the official residence of Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel in Raipur.
Mayawati said it became necessary for her to make the announcement as the Congress and some other parties, as part of a "conspiracy", are allegedly trying to create an impression that they would be forging an alliance with the BSP.
A total of 10 women candidates, one less than last time, have emerged victorious in Chhattisgarh Assembly polls where the saffron party is back in power for the third time.
Amid speculation about a possible change of guard in the Congress-ruled Chhattisgarh, chief minister Bhupesh Baghel on Saturday asserted that his state can never become Punjab, and said the two states bear only one similarity -- that of having numbers in their names.
The Enforcement Directorate may also file a fresh chargesheet in this multi-crore money laundering case soon, they said.
Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel reached the national capital on Saturday and is likely to raise with the Congress leadership the issue of his differences with state minister T S Singh Deo, sources said.
Ahead of the state assembly elections due this year-end, Baghel made as many as 15 announcements in his address during the state-level Independence Day function at the Police Parade ground in Raipur.
According to the police, these villages have never seen unfurling or hoisting of the national flag since 1947, but that will change when its residents will join the rest of the country in celebrating Republic Day, which commemorates the day when the Constitution came into effect in 1950.
The Election Commission on Saturday announced the dates for the Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Telangana and Mizoram assembly polls.
The BJP is faced with the crucial question of who will lead the party in the four impending state polls this year: In Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Telangana.
Upset over the defeat of several of Congress's sitting Members of Legislative Assembly in the Chhattisgarh assembly elections, state Congress chief Charandas Mahant blamed it on "internal sabotage" on Sunday evening.
In Maharashtra's 288-member assembly, the share of legislators with college degrees increased over the past decade.
The opinion poll has said that if the assembly polls are held now, the Congress is likely to win 142 seats in Rajasthan against the BJP's 56.
The no-confidence motion moved by the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party against the Congress government in Chhattisgarh where assembly polls are due next year, was defeated by voice vote in the state Legislative Assembly on Thursday.
Ruling parties held sway in most of the 13 states in the assembly byelection results declared on Saturday, with the Bharatiya Janata Party and its allies wresting seats in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Rajasthan and the Trinamool Congress sweeping West Bengal.
The counting began at 8 am to decide the fate of the candidates contesting the polls, among whom all eyes will be on Dimple Yadav, Mulayam Singh Yadav's elder daughter-in-law and the wife of Akhilesh Yadav, who is contesting from the Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat, necessitated by the demise of Samajwadi Party veteran Mulayam Singh Yadav in October.
'There will be no change of seats for Delhi, Assam and Maharashtra.' 'Andhra, J&K, Kerala, Punjab, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Odisha, West Bengal and Telangana will lose seats while there will be an increase for MP, UP, Bihar, Haryana, Gujarat and Chhattisgarh.' 'It is a big mistake if you make it a north-south issue.'
